Since today, for some reason :), I'm getting far more readers than usual, I'm gonna take this opportunity to plug a new blog, The Virginia Democrat, which is written by my friend Aznew. He has been one of the most civil and intelligent of posters on Raising Kaine and Blue Commonwealth and he's now launched his own blog. It's great and you ought to check it out for intelligent analysis of Democratic politics in the Charlottesville area.
It's going to be on my blogroll just a soon as I finish this post and get over to fiddle with the blogroll.
Showing posts with label Blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogs. Show all posts
Monday, March 30, 2009
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Announcing Netroots for Virginia
Eileen, from VB Dems, is calling all Democratic bloggers to send her posts for a great new campaign Website Netroots for Virginia. You may have noticed the logo on my sidebar. If you click on it, you'll be redirected to the new site.
The logo originally was linked to a post on Raising Kaine and this new site grew out of a discussion that started there. Check out the new site for a compendium of articles and posts on your favorite candidates. And please contribute your own blog posts as well.
Here's what Eileen is asking for:
The logo originally was linked to a post on Raising Kaine and this new site grew out of a discussion that started there. Check out the new site for a compendium of articles and posts on your favorite candidates. And please contribute your own blog posts as well.
Here's what Eileen is asking for:
Send us the post that best trumpets your candidate! Also send in posts that best illustrate why your candidate's Republican opponent just doesn't get Virginia. Send links to live blogs you have conducted with our candidates as well.So, please contribute and help us turn Virginia blue!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Richmond Democrat Sets the Record Straight Again
JC Wilmore, over at Richmond Democrat, answered a comment that David Mastio posted on my blog earlier today.
While I respect David and think he had some good points about both sides of the blogosphere calling out our own for examples of harassment and intimidation, I also answered that it’s not realistic to expect each and every blogger to attempt to act as an ombudsman for the entire blogosphere. It would be impossible for anybody to keep track of everything out there on a daily basis. But there’s something to be said for removing the beam from our own eyes before looking for the speck in our neighbor’s.
But one of the examples that David Mastio gave was the incident a while ago where JC Wilmore indeed originally unmasked somebody named Alex Davis. But, as Wilmore points out, it was hardly an act of harassment or intimidation.
Alex had misrepresented himself, even to the ODBA, who kicked him out because, as Kat from Cathouse Chat said at the time, he had embarrassed them by his deception and his actions. Apparently Alex tried to pass himself off as a lawyer and threatened somebody else with lawsuits among other shenanigans.
I’d say that was an example of cleaning up after their own. But without JC’s help, they couldn’t have done it.
While I respect David and think he had some good points about both sides of the blogosphere calling out our own for examples of harassment and intimidation, I also answered that it’s not realistic to expect each and every blogger to attempt to act as an ombudsman for the entire blogosphere. It would be impossible for anybody to keep track of everything out there on a daily basis. But there’s something to be said for removing the beam from our own eyes before looking for the speck in our neighbor’s.
But one of the examples that David Mastio gave was the incident a while ago where JC Wilmore indeed originally unmasked somebody named Alex Davis. But, as Wilmore points out, it was hardly an act of harassment or intimidation.
Alex had misrepresented himself, even to the ODBA, who kicked him out because, as Kat from Cathouse Chat said at the time, he had embarrassed them by his deception and his actions. Apparently Alex tried to pass himself off as a lawyer and threatened somebody else with lawsuits among other shenanigans.
The blogger in question, Alex Davis, was "unmasked" because he himself was hiding behind a false identity, pretended to be a licensed attorney, and was anonymously harassing another blogger, Waldo Jaquith. As part of his masquerade as an attorney, Mr. Davis falsely accused Waldo Jaquith of multiple violations of the law--then the truth was revealed: Davis was a fake.You can read the rest of the account over at Richmond Democrat. The only thing I want to add is that context is everything. While I would be the first to condemn exposing anonymous bloggers or commenters in most situation, people should not be allowed to use the cover of anonymity, which the Net seems to provide, to threaten or harrass others. In this instance, the ODBA themselves reacted by expelling the culprit.
I’d say that was an example of cleaning up after their own. But without JC’s help, they couldn’t have done it.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Rushing to Judgment and Intimidating Opponents
There are three excellent posts I want to bring to your attention. The first is this one by Bwana, at Renaissance Ruminations. Bwana gives an excellent analysis of a post done back in April by Alton Foley of I’m Not Emeril on the Virginia Tech Tragedy.
Foley, who read an inflammatory opinion by radio host Neil Boortz, questioned why the Virginia Tech students and faculty just lined up like sheep to be executed by Seung Lee Cho. Like Boortz, he asked if it was because they had been so indoctrinated by liberal political correctness they could no longer take simple self-defense measures in a deadly situation with an armed gunman.
As Bwana points out, Boortz was wrong. And therefore so was Foley. Boortz ran with sheer speculation before anybody had the facts. But it suited the “liberals are to blame for every ill in the world” meme and so Foley never bothered to check his source or to check any of the other facts. He simply took it uncritically at face value because it confirmed his own prejudices and he printed it.
But worse, as Bwana also shows, when the facts emerged and proved both Boortz and Foley and all the others who wrote in a similar “blame the victim” mode wrong, nobody retracted. Nobody took down their posts. Nobody admitted they had been mistaken. That’s’ what Bwana faults Foley for.
The whole argument given by those like Foley and Boortz was built on a fragile house of cards: liberal indoctrination rendered the students and faculty unable to defend themselves against a deadly assault.
But when the truth came out that both students and faculty had, in fact, done just that, often sacrificing their own lives so their students or classmates might live, that house of cards collapsed. And the Foleys of the blogosphere never said a simple, “hey, I was wrong.”
Real journalists correct errors and retract false stories all the time. Every newspaper has a page where those retractions are printed routinely. To err is human. To retract is to be a professional reporter.
Then, in this post, on the Richmond Democrat, J.C. Wilmore lays to rest once and for all the myth that students and faculty members were cowards. Indeed, he shows, with numerous instances, that many were in fact genuine heroes, not only fighting back, but also often giving their own lives so that others would survive. It’s a must read because he cites specific examples.
Finally, Wilmore has another great piece on the tactics of some members of the ODBA and how they hounded not just Joe Stanley but also fellow Republicans. He contends that their actions amounted to cyber-stalking. A small cabal of ODBAers (and I’m convinced it’s not all their members either) used tactics of intimidation to slander the campaign manager for Emmett Hanger, Andrew Clem, in his race with Scott Sayer. This particular crew does seem to use scorch the earth tactics even against other members of their own party.
We should all be afraid of that mentality. When intimidating campaign staff and volunteers becomes standard operating procedure, it’s an attack on democracy itself. It’s un-American to create an atmosphere where ordinary citizens fear participating in the election process because they are afraid their good names will be slandered on blogs and they will be stalked by crazy extremists. This is behavior that has its roots in a darker period of human history and must not be tolerated in a modern representative democratic republic. When anybody, Democrat or Republican, is intimidated and threatened, we all become less free.
Foley, who read an inflammatory opinion by radio host Neil Boortz, questioned why the Virginia Tech students and faculty just lined up like sheep to be executed by Seung Lee Cho. Like Boortz, he asked if it was because they had been so indoctrinated by liberal political correctness they could no longer take simple self-defense measures in a deadly situation with an armed gunman.
As Bwana points out, Boortz was wrong. And therefore so was Foley. Boortz ran with sheer speculation before anybody had the facts. But it suited the “liberals are to blame for every ill in the world” meme and so Foley never bothered to check his source or to check any of the other facts. He simply took it uncritically at face value because it confirmed his own prejudices and he printed it.
But worse, as Bwana also shows, when the facts emerged and proved both Boortz and Foley and all the others who wrote in a similar “blame the victim” mode wrong, nobody retracted. Nobody took down their posts. Nobody admitted they had been mistaken. That’s’ what Bwana faults Foley for.
The whole argument given by those like Foley and Boortz was built on a fragile house of cards: liberal indoctrination rendered the students and faculty unable to defend themselves against a deadly assault.
But when the truth came out that both students and faculty had, in fact, done just that, often sacrificing their own lives so their students or classmates might live, that house of cards collapsed. And the Foleys of the blogosphere never said a simple, “hey, I was wrong.”
Real journalists correct errors and retract false stories all the time. Every newspaper has a page where those retractions are printed routinely. To err is human. To retract is to be a professional reporter.
Then, in this post, on the Richmond Democrat, J.C. Wilmore lays to rest once and for all the myth that students and faculty members were cowards. Indeed, he shows, with numerous instances, that many were in fact genuine heroes, not only fighting back, but also often giving their own lives so that others would survive. It’s a must read because he cites specific examples.
Finally, Wilmore has another great piece on the tactics of some members of the ODBA and how they hounded not just Joe Stanley but also fellow Republicans. He contends that their actions amounted to cyber-stalking. A small cabal of ODBAers (and I’m convinced it’s not all their members either) used tactics of intimidation to slander the campaign manager for Emmett Hanger, Andrew Clem, in his race with Scott Sayer. This particular crew does seem to use scorch the earth tactics even against other members of their own party.
We should all be afraid of that mentality. When intimidating campaign staff and volunteers becomes standard operating procedure, it’s an attack on democracy itself. It’s un-American to create an atmosphere where ordinary citizens fear participating in the election process because they are afraid their good names will be slandered on blogs and they will be stalked by crazy extremists. This is behavior that has its roots in a darker period of human history and must not be tolerated in a modern representative democratic republic. When anybody, Democrat or Republican, is intimidated and threatened, we all become less free.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Daily Whackjob Whacked by AIAW
Sorry, I was channeling my inner Tony Soprano. No doubt given the litigious nature of the blogosphere, somebody will be threatening to sue me for bad puns or poor word usage. I especially enjoy when it’s rethuglicans who normally hate lawyers and support tort reform, except when it affects them personally. (Another first, by the way, I’ve never referred to a Republican as a rethuglican before, and I don’t think most of them are. But with this small group of ODBAers, it fits)
Anyway, I’m damn mad because this was the week I wasn’t going to write. I said I was on vacation. Ok, so I’m an addict and I had to read. My mistake there. Because I was surfing the blogs, hoping to just scan so I wouldn’t fall completely behind. My bad because I was horrified to find this.
Now my first reaction was that it was just a spoof of Ben Tribbett’s provocative writing style on NLS. But when I actually clicked on the link I was shocked to discover that DWJ had published not just Ben’s home address but also that of my friend Terry Hartnett. God damned it, man, don’t you know about redacting and privacy laws!
The first thing you should know is that Terry has never been a blogger. Nor was she within a few hundred miles of this whole recent ODBA-Joe Stanley controversy. She’s currently a private citizen who no longer even lives in Virginia. However, somebody lives in the house she sold. Which means, in an age of stalkers and crazies, somebody now has an address they might think is Terry’s. Terry used to be the president of the Million Mom March as well as a Democratic activist. So, oh, I don’t know what crackpots out there might want to harm her or her family now that they think they have her address. And no, I’m not talking about the many sane people I know in gun rights groups. I mean the people that we don’t even know who are reading blogs and don’t belong to organizations but who are simply crackpot loners who hate activists of all stripes. And now they have an address of a totally innocent family in Burke they think is Terry Hartnett’s address. Way to go Greg!
This was truly the most irresponsible behavior I’ve seen yet. I now believe the DWJ crew is simply reckless. I was more than willing to give Whackette the benefit of the doubt when she first linked to the NAMBLA site. Of course, she had to know what the organization was. And she admitted she thought it was “ironic.” She showed incredibly poor judgment, especially in not also putting up a disclaimer. But she corrected that. She also apologized to readers who clicked on the NAMBLA site. Then, DWJ jumped in to expose the person who originally bought the ODBA domain and linked it to NAMBLA. At the time I thought Greg did it as an act of genuine remorse for his site’s role in this. I even praised all of them for their responsible behavior in correcting an error in judgment. After all, we’ve all made them.
But as the Richmond Democrat pointed out, the so-called remorse for this came only after the comments started rolling in and the DWJ crew realized they were in some deep shit with other bloggers and readers alike. It’s now looking more like they were not sorry they did it, but sorry they got caught. And so they gave up Joe Stanley and even tried to push the blame for their own irresponsibility entirely onto Ben to make themselves look like the good guys and fellow victims of the ODBA in this. Richmond Democrat is right. They saw the damned site and thought it was funny. Victims my ass!
You know how I know their tears of regret are crocodile tears? Here's how:
Because immediately after you do something so stupid and harmful, if you genuinely are remorseful, you also become more careful and consider the consequences more thoroughly before you make another error in judgment that could hurt innocent people.
The folks at DWJ did not do that. In fact, they did just the opposite. It didn’t even take them a week before they did something even more stupid and harmful. They printed two addresses of people who had family, one of whom is not a blogger and is no way connected with any of this. And when Cory Chandler pointed it out to Greg that he had put up an address, Greg's response was a flippant, I'll correct it when I get home."
Well it's 8:40 pm. I can't imagine he's not home from class yet.
This is not baseball. You only get two strikes in this case. So, they’re off my blogroll. And that’s quite a dubious distinction. In the entire two years I’ve been blogging, I’ve never removed somebody from my blogroll before unless they’ve quit blogging.
Oh, and I respectfully request that you remove me from your site too. Mission accomplished Greg!
Anyway, I’m damn mad because this was the week I wasn’t going to write. I said I was on vacation. Ok, so I’m an addict and I had to read. My mistake there. Because I was surfing the blogs, hoping to just scan so I wouldn’t fall completely behind. My bad because I was horrified to find this.
Now my first reaction was that it was just a spoof of Ben Tribbett’s provocative writing style on NLS. But when I actually clicked on the link I was shocked to discover that DWJ had published not just Ben’s home address but also that of my friend Terry Hartnett. God damned it, man, don’t you know about redacting and privacy laws!
The first thing you should know is that Terry has never been a blogger. Nor was she within a few hundred miles of this whole recent ODBA-Joe Stanley controversy. She’s currently a private citizen who no longer even lives in Virginia. However, somebody lives in the house she sold. Which means, in an age of stalkers and crazies, somebody now has an address they might think is Terry’s. Terry used to be the president of the Million Mom March as well as a Democratic activist. So, oh, I don’t know what crackpots out there might want to harm her or her family now that they think they have her address. And no, I’m not talking about the many sane people I know in gun rights groups. I mean the people that we don’t even know who are reading blogs and don’t belong to organizations but who are simply crackpot loners who hate activists of all stripes. And now they have an address of a totally innocent family in Burke they think is Terry Hartnett’s address. Way to go Greg!
This was truly the most irresponsible behavior I’ve seen yet. I now believe the DWJ crew is simply reckless. I was more than willing to give Whackette the benefit of the doubt when she first linked to the NAMBLA site. Of course, she had to know what the organization was. And she admitted she thought it was “ironic.” She showed incredibly poor judgment, especially in not also putting up a disclaimer. But she corrected that. She also apologized to readers who clicked on the NAMBLA site. Then, DWJ jumped in to expose the person who originally bought the ODBA domain and linked it to NAMBLA. At the time I thought Greg did it as an act of genuine remorse for his site’s role in this. I even praised all of them for their responsible behavior in correcting an error in judgment. After all, we’ve all made them.
But as the Richmond Democrat pointed out, the so-called remorse for this came only after the comments started rolling in and the DWJ crew realized they were in some deep shit with other bloggers and readers alike. It’s now looking more like they were not sorry they did it, but sorry they got caught. And so they gave up Joe Stanley and even tried to push the blame for their own irresponsibility entirely onto Ben to make themselves look like the good guys and fellow victims of the ODBA in this. Richmond Democrat is right. They saw the damned site and thought it was funny. Victims my ass!
You know how I know their tears of regret are crocodile tears? Here's how:
Because immediately after you do something so stupid and harmful, if you genuinely are remorseful, you also become more careful and consider the consequences more thoroughly before you make another error in judgment that could hurt innocent people.
The folks at DWJ did not do that. In fact, they did just the opposite. It didn’t even take them a week before they did something even more stupid and harmful. They printed two addresses of people who had family, one of whom is not a blogger and is no way connected with any of this. And when Cory Chandler pointed it out to Greg that he had put up an address, Greg's response was a flippant, I'll correct it when I get home."
Well it's 8:40 pm. I can't imagine he's not home from class yet.
This is not baseball. You only get two strikes in this case. So, they’re off my blogroll. And that’s quite a dubious distinction. In the entire two years I’ve been blogging, I’ve never removed somebody from my blogroll before unless they’ve quit blogging.
Oh, and I respectfully request that you remove me from your site too. Mission accomplished Greg!
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Blogroll Addition
I think the recent kerfuffle between the ODBA and Joe Stanley and Ben Tribbett has spiraled way out of control. And I contributed my fair share to the controversy because I was offended by some members of the ODBA for reviving the charges of anti-semitism pertaining to a cartoon spoofing Harris Miller during last June's primary between Miller and Webb.
But members of the ODBA were horrified to see their site redirected to a Website supporting pedophilia. I don't blame them one bit for that.
The truth is nobody looks good in this. I've more than explained the reasons for my ire on this site and two others. I'm done.
But on Daily Whackjob I received a gracious response from Kat of CatHouse Chat, whose site really is lovely. She seems like one of the most gracious people in the blogosphere. I think we all got hot under the collar. It's time to pull back and reassess the damage done by the hot heads (I fear I was one because the issue of anti-semitism is so painful to me that, yes, I overreact).
Anyway, as a gesture of good will, I'm putting Kat's blog up on my site. Diversity of opinion is important to me. So, even if I'm temporarily angry at somebody, I won't remove that person's site. But if somebody is kind to me and convinces me that they are a person of goodwill, no matter how much I disagree with them on political issues, they will be added.
So, Kat, welcome to my blogroll.
But members of the ODBA were horrified to see their site redirected to a Website supporting pedophilia. I don't blame them one bit for that.
The truth is nobody looks good in this. I've more than explained the reasons for my ire on this site and two others. I'm done.
But on Daily Whackjob I received a gracious response from Kat of CatHouse Chat, whose site really is lovely. She seems like one of the most gracious people in the blogosphere. I think we all got hot under the collar. It's time to pull back and reassess the damage done by the hot heads (I fear I was one because the issue of anti-semitism is so painful to me that, yes, I overreact).
Anyway, as a gesture of good will, I'm putting Kat's blog up on my site. Diversity of opinion is important to me. So, even if I'm temporarily angry at somebody, I won't remove that person's site. But if somebody is kind to me and convinces me that they are a person of goodwill, no matter how much I disagree with them on political issues, they will be added.
So, Kat, welcome to my blogroll.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
If It's Summer Silly Season, It's Gotta Be Another Blog War
I have spent more time, energy and emotion than common sense would dictate arguing about a prank that Joe Stanley pulled off against the Old Dominion Bloggers Alliance. I've been on Not Larry Sabato and Daily Whackjob posting replies all day, not in defense of Stanley's actions, which were tackless and tacky, but criticizing the ODBA's actions, which led to Stanley's retaliation. Because it was what they did first that led to his action of redirecting their Website to a site that encourages pedophilia.
Stanley's prank is an embarrassment. It showed poor judgment. He could have redirected to something dumb and embarrassing but not so fraught with baggage and certainly not something X-rated. It's the nature of the site - pedophilia, for God's sake - that demands a condemnation. So here it is.
Joe Stanley doesn't represent me. I've never even met the man. But I would never, never put up a link to a site like that. Too many children have been hurt by monsters like those on the site, called North America Man Boy Alliance. Icck, just it's name makes my skin crawl.
But nothing raises my hackles as much as false charges of anti-semitism. And basically the members of ODBA made a concerted effort to revive an ugly charge of anti-semitism against Joe Stanley for a cartoon he did last summer, parodying Harris Miller for his work as a lobbyist in support of outsourcing and guest worker visas for the high tech industry. That all occurred during Miller's primary with Jim Webb.
The truth is the ODBA crew were in collusion to smear candidate Roscoe Reynolds by linking him to Stanley, who is doing some consulting for Reynolds. It was an attempt at guilt by association. They wanted to revive the anti-semitism charge to discredit Reynolds. This is a campaign race where racisim and anti-semitism are not issues. Or weren't until this miserable, exploitative group decided to insert it as an issue. Jew baiting for fun and games. That's all it is.
But the real heart of the matter is the ODBA still blames both Joe Stanley and Ben Tribbett for George Allen's maccaca moment. They hate both Tribett and Stanley because their own candidate displayed racism and his bullying nature and it was caught on videotape. And Tribbett and Stanley were key players in that embarrassing tape getting distributed as widely as it did on the blogosphere. So to turn the tables, they want to portray Stanley as an anti-semite.
The best write up from a disinterested source, who doesn't even like NLS, comes from Terry at Slantblog. So, I'm going to urge you to go to the link, and let him have the final word.
Stanley's prank is an embarrassment. It showed poor judgment. He could have redirected to something dumb and embarrassing but not so fraught with baggage and certainly not something X-rated. It's the nature of the site - pedophilia, for God's sake - that demands a condemnation. So here it is.
Joe Stanley doesn't represent me. I've never even met the man. But I would never, never put up a link to a site like that. Too many children have been hurt by monsters like those on the site, called North America Man Boy Alliance. Icck, just it's name makes my skin crawl.
But nothing raises my hackles as much as false charges of anti-semitism. And basically the members of ODBA made a concerted effort to revive an ugly charge of anti-semitism against Joe Stanley for a cartoon he did last summer, parodying Harris Miller for his work as a lobbyist in support of outsourcing and guest worker visas for the high tech industry. That all occurred during Miller's primary with Jim Webb.
The truth is the ODBA crew were in collusion to smear candidate Roscoe Reynolds by linking him to Stanley, who is doing some consulting for Reynolds. It was an attempt at guilt by association. They wanted to revive the anti-semitism charge to discredit Reynolds. This is a campaign race where racisim and anti-semitism are not issues. Or weren't until this miserable, exploitative group decided to insert it as an issue. Jew baiting for fun and games. That's all it is.
But the real heart of the matter is the ODBA still blames both Joe Stanley and Ben Tribbett for George Allen's maccaca moment. They hate both Tribett and Stanley because their own candidate displayed racism and his bullying nature and it was caught on videotape. And Tribbett and Stanley were key players in that embarrassing tape getting distributed as widely as it did on the blogosphere. So to turn the tables, they want to portray Stanley as an anti-semite.
The best write up from a disinterested source, who doesn't even like NLS, comes from Terry at Slantblog. So, I'm going to urge you to go to the link, and let him have the final word.
Friday, July 27, 2007
WeeWaw News Is Back Up at a New Site
Just updating the link. It's a great site that focuses on bringing positive stories to the blogosphere.
To be honest, it's usually the last site I visit, especially at night. I don't like to shut my computer down and go to bed mad. What happens is my mind churns with all the snappy comebacks and snarky posts I could put up to answer whomever I disagree with. I'd rather have the last thought in my mind be some piece of good news that inspires me.
William listens to his better angels in searching for the stories he puts on his blog. Thank you, William, for reminding us that they exist.
To be honest, it's usually the last site I visit, especially at night. I don't like to shut my computer down and go to bed mad. What happens is my mind churns with all the snappy comebacks and snarky posts I could put up to answer whomever I disagree with. I'd rather have the last thought in my mind be some piece of good news that inspires me.
William listens to his better angels in searching for the stories he puts on his blog. Thank you, William, for reminding us that they exist.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
New To the Blog Roll
I've been meaning to do this for some time but fiddling around with the blog, as opposed to writing and spouting my own opinions, is not always my favorite thing. But Blogger has made it much easier to add new links to the sidebar.
I'd like to welcome a really great progressive Democratic blog to my site, although they are far from new and most of you probably already read them. They should have been here long ago.
I'm proud to have the VB Dems listed on my blogroll.
I'd like to welcome a really great progressive Democratic blog to my site, although they are far from new and most of you probably already read them. They should have been here long ago.
I'm proud to have the VB Dems listed on my blogroll.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Welcome to the Blogosphere, WeeWaw!
H/t to Vivian, Lowell, and Jim for finding this first.
William Saxman, who is eleven years old, just started a blog, WeeWaw. Yup, they are getting younger all the time. If the last name sounds familiar, his dad is Chris Saxman, one of the classiest people in politics, and William already appears to be taking the high road in blogging. He’s dedicating his blog to reporting on all the positive news. Here's the money quote:
William Saxman, who is eleven years old, just started a blog, WeeWaw. Yup, they are getting younger all the time. If the last name sounds familiar, his dad is Chris Saxman, one of the classiest people in politics, and William already appears to be taking the high road in blogging. He’s dedicating his blog to reporting on all the positive news. Here's the money quote:
Today I started a blog because I was sick and tired of seeing al the negative news on TV, the newspaper and the internet.Welcome to the blogosphere, William. I’m also putting you on my blogroll!
I think all the negative and bad news really makes people unhappy.
So, I will focus on all the good things that are going on because I believe that many good things are going on out there but we never get to see them because that is not what makes headlines.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Some Things Are Universally True
Don Worthington, a reporter with the Fayetteville Observer, just kicked off a new blog for his newspaper. It’s called Inside Politics. Worthington has reported on politics, among other topics, for newspapers as far flung as Rhode Island, Alexandria, Louisiana, and the Fairfax Connection papers. He’s also an Annandale native. In the spirit of full disclosure, he’s also my husband’s college roommate and was a groomsman at my wedding.
Besides all that, his first post has this piece of universally good advice for candidates.
We’re all in favor of mom and apple pie. But tell me specifically what ingredients are you putting in that pie before I buy it from you.
Besides all that, his first post has this piece of universally good advice for candidates.
As the time to file for Fayetteville City Council races nears, I'm reminded of a young Boston College student who ran for the Cambridge City Council. He campaigned hard, but lost by 160 votes. He started asking his neighbors if they had voted him. He had cut their grass, shoveled their snow. Surely, they had voted him. "No," said neighbor Elizabeth O'Brien, "People like to be asked." Thomas Phillip O'Neill, Jr. -- nicknamed Tip after a popular baseball player -- never forgot that lesson. He never lost another election. People like to be asked.And he has even better advice for voters.
Go read the rest of his first post and let’s begin setting the bar higher in Virginia too. We need more specifics and less platitudes. Sure we want better schools, smart growth, and less road congestion, but how are we really going to get it? And how much money is it really going to cost us? And how much will it cost us not to do it?Candidates will proclaim they are running to give something back to Fayetteville. That they want to improve the area's quality of life, that they want to make things better. It's time to demand more substance from those who want to lead.
I've never met a candidate who wasn't for good schools, a crime-free neighborhood and good jobs. We need to ask them how they want to achieve those goals.
We’re all in favor of mom and apple pie. But tell me specifically what ingredients are you putting in that pie before I buy it from you.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
The Political Pork Barrel
Ok, I couldn't resist the awful pun. This is just some housekeeping info. I've added some blogs to my blogroll.
First is Bacon's Rebellion, which should have been there for a while. Jim Bacon has one of the most intelligent righty blogs around, especially for in depth analysis of transportation, land use, and zoning issues - you know, the things that actually affect our daily lives rather than simply wedge issues and inflammatory gossip.
I also wanted to put on a couple of new blogs because I've liked the writings from these bloggers on other sites. They are The Daily Ham (hence my silly pun) and Power Concedes.
First is Bacon's Rebellion, which should have been there for a while. Jim Bacon has one of the most intelligent righty blogs around, especially for in depth analysis of transportation, land use, and zoning issues - you know, the things that actually affect our daily lives rather than simply wedge issues and inflammatory gossip.
I also wanted to put on a couple of new blogs because I've liked the writings from these bloggers on other sites. They are The Daily Ham (hence my silly pun) and Power Concedes.
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