A Blog-Mas Miracle For The Sampson Family

During the holiday (and really any day during the year), hearing about warm and fuzzy stories are always a nice way to fill in the relatively slow news cycle. Plenty of Americans like to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Miracle on 34th Street" for that cheerful feeling. While those are works of old Hollywood fiction, there are great stories out in the real world. For the Sampson family in Aberdeen, MD their holiday miracle was fueled by an entity not around just a few years ago, the blogosphere.

See, the family was over-run by injuries, an unexpected pregnancy, being out of work, having cars repossessed and nearly losing their home. Right before they were about to be booted from their homes in this terrible economic environment, a friend of theirs, Jaki Grier was jokingly asked for $10,000 to stave off the bank from foreclosing on them. Well, Jaki didn't donate much, but the blogging she did brought in even more.

From CNN:

At the most, Jaki thought she could raise enough money to help the Sampsons pay a security deposit on an apartment after their home was auctioned.

But donations started pouring in. Within 24 hours, Grier's blog had raised $1,000, far exceeding her expectations. People started linking to Grier's blog from sites across the Internet and around the country.[...]

"Everybody wants to give to a charity, but so many times when you give to a charity you don't really see where your money goes," Grier said. "At least with this, you saw the little [donations] ticker go. I think that made people excited."

Four days after Grier's blog post, she had raised $3,400 -- enough to repair the Sampsons' car. That night, Grier went to bed ecstatic. The next morning she checked her PayPal account and was stunned to find the balance had ballooned to $10,900.

And it got even better from there. With over $11,000 taken in, the local traditional media station got word and things got even better. Someone watching the local station gave Mr. Sampson a job. Charitable outpourings from the community have happened plenty of times before, but in no way has it been this easy to post a story and get such an immediate reaction. A project can spread by word of mouth, but on the blogs it goes like wildfire. Cheers to the power of the net and to everyone that helped the Sampson's keep their home.

Lessons In Hating, How To Make Excuses For The Success Of The Progressive Blogosphere

New media is huge for anyone in politics, whether you are on the right or left. This media is an incredible way to reach new people and connect to them in a way that television never can. Despite the ability of both sides to reach out to everyone, only the left is doing it best. The traffic on this side of the fence blows the Republicans out of the water. Now when your party relies on fear and manipulation to make itself strong, how will the conservative blogosphere defend its lag?

From Ars Technica:

Erick Erickson, editor of the popular conservative megablog RedState, conceded that progressives currently enjoy an advantage over conservatives online—though he attributed it to an asymmetry in free time, since conservatives "have families because we don't abort our kids, and we have jobs because we believe in capitalism." Erickson offered three means of reversing the trend. First, he argued, conservatives must place less emphasis on punditry ("everyone wants to be the next online Rush Limbaugh") and begin to emulate the left's use of the Internet to facilitate organization and activism. Second, they should focus to a greater extent on local- and state-level politics, and in particular on the 2010 race, which Erickson regards as more important than the upcoming presidential race, as it will determine which party controls the redrawing of congressional district lines. Third, they must "transcend old tech" in order to enjoy the same kind of advantage over e-mail that the Republican Party currently enjoys with respect to direct mail marketing. Bloggers, for instance, might seek to collect reader e-mail addresses as a first step toward turning casual commentary consumers into donors or full-blown activists.

So which is it Erick, do you want to emulate us or spout your bullshit punditry-like antics? Talking about how we are lazy and abort kids is not only childish, it shows why the conservative side is far behind the Netroots. Even you want to be the next Rush Limbaugh, and anyone that aspires to be the second-coming of a piece of lying pill-popping garbage is bound to fail miserably. Be happy that you have RedState, its the best thing going for the online conservative "movement."

In the end, as long as the conservatives follow a top down method, listening to party elders for information, they are doomed to fail. The beauty of the Netroots is the way ideas come from the bottom up and coalesce into passionate activism that gets things done, like Donna Edwards' impressive win last night in Maryland's fourth Congressional district.

Who Are These Nerds Anyway?

These blogger-types, with laptops in hand, swarmed the ridiculously large McCormick convention center in Chicago this past August. The traditional media is afraid of them and many more are trying to get a handle on what the hell is going on here. Well I count myself as one of those swarmers....and Nerdcore Rising tries to document it here, all within ten minutes.



Great job nerds!

Gregory Blames Blogs For Hyper-Partisanship, But Does He Even Know What "New Media" Is?

Traditional media icons like David Gregory jump at the chance to blame anyone but themselves for the ridiculous amount of partisanship in our society. They'll hardly ever look at themselves and instead, go for who they think looks weak. For Gregory, that would be the internet and the blogosphere in particular.

Gregory must wear some crazy-ass prescription on those eyes of his. Many around the blogosphere are easily pointing out instances of the hostile rhetoric started by Republicans during the Clinton years. Did we advocate for Clinton's impeachment, talk up the alleged murder of Vince Foster or cause the ballot counting process to stop in 2000 down in Florida? Of course not, only an idiot would think that. Oh wait, my apologies to Gregory on that.

So what is the problem here, why all the hatred towards these lil' ole blogs? Sites like DailyKos, Huffington Post and FireDogLake are seeing their traffic increase while the traditional media stays flat or in some cases falling. It must be fear of the blogosphere's gaining influence, but really, there is nothing to fear, if only they would take a look at what blogs and new media are all about.

So it is funny that I saw Gregory mentioned in Crooks and Liars this morning, because I attended a forum a few hours ago at Baruch College here in New York talking about this exact subject. The Peter Vallone forum series had four new media "experts" to talk to the crowd of about 50-100. I think that the free breakfast brought many of those out at the early hour of 8am, but regardless, the discussion was an interesting one.

What Keith Okrosy, Maya Enista, Jon Auerbach and Andrew Rasiej covered was wide in scope, but definitely answered the question Gregory and his buddies need to ask. Enista, who runs mobilize.org told the crowd that this new media is a way for the younger generation (and the rest of the active community) to interact with the government in a way that top-down traditional media cannot. The spin of TV is wiped away by vigorous discussion on the blogs. Sites like facebook help people to identify with candidates whereas on TV those same politicians talk AT those watching the tube.

Andrew Rasiej, who ran unsuccessfully for Public Advocate here in NYC in 2005 also talked up new media. He says if he ran again he would definitely have a Facebook page as a starter, especially with more than 60 million now on the social networking site. Having a forum where supporters can have access to the campaign and voters can ask crucial questions is a ground-up approach to campaigning where the old traditional model provoked the apathy we see running so rampant in the country today.

Keith Orosky and Jon Auerbach added in their two bits as well. Keith talked about how politics and music can blend together, such as the case of the new Nine Inch Nails album and how fans quickly communicate amongst themselves about social action. Auerbach described himself as being on the cusp of old and new media, as he runs the free daily Metro NY paper that is handed out by hawkers by subway entrances. He calls the paper an "internet read transformed into print." He thinks that people on the net want quick soundbites and be able to read about their world in a 20 minute subway ride commute. Perhaps Jon might want to check out how TV news works, but then again, he did say he was on the cusp of old and new media, not embracing it.

So David Gregory could start there if he truly wanted to inform himself, but I suspect that he'll continue to act out of fear. Bashing the blogs is much easier than dealing with the new media landscape.

What The Hell Is A Dipnote?

In the jargon of the State Department, a dipnote is basically a Diplomatic Note for short. Nothing too shocking there. What is a shocker is that it is also the name of their brand spanking new blog. Yes folks, the State Department has joined the blogosphere. What does that mean exactly? Well perhaps it means we regular people can have discussions with actual representatives of the people who work in the "foggy bottom."

The Department of State has been in the news lately due to its enabling of Blackwater USA and helping them to cover up the atrocities committed by the mercenary group headed by war profiteer Erik Prince. But the DOS isn't all bad. There are plenty of good people that work there that are committed to working with countries across the globe. The problem is mainly at the top and particularly due to Bushophile named Condoleezza Rice.

So what is the Dipnote up to so far? Lately they have discussed the Burmese situation, goings on in Budapesht and exactly what the blog is all about. There was supposed to be something about Blackwater, but that 2nd post never materialized evidently. The blog is nice, but if the DOS thinks this is going to solve their problems, they might want to be more forthcoming with Congress and the American people besides having a comment section.

Ten Years Of Blogging

I am a relative newcomer when it comes to blogs. I started checking them out during the last Presidential election in 2004 and became more of an active participant the following year. This little piece of internet tubing I have been writing in has only been in existence since this past December. To see that the blog has now been around ten years is impressive. The Wall Street Journal took a look at the blogs on this tenth anniversary. Below is a snip from an interview with FireDogLake's Jame Hamsher.

From The Wall Street Journal:

During the '90s, railing at the TV set was the isometric sport of the silent majority. Progressive political junkies watched in isolation as the Washington Post prominently printed one Whitewater story after another as if they originated on tablets of stone rather than the fax machines of Arkansas political operatives. Many people felt like they were the only ones who scratched their heads in wonder that it all made no sense, recoiling in horror as a slick PR operation rapidly escalated from the realm of lazy, spoon-fed journalism to the constitutional mockery of the Clinton impeachment.

That isolation ended with the advent of the progressive blogosphere, which acts as a virtual water cooler for those who not only want to rail at the TV set, they want the TV set to listen. Probably nothing better contrasts the pre- and postblogospheric worlds than the Whitewater and CIA leak stories. In one, the endless repetition of meaningless gibberish was allowed to take root and become conventional wisdom. In the other, despite the constant reiteration of abject fantasies like "no underlying crime was committed," the public seemed to realize that it's not okay to perjure yourself in front of a grand jury and obstruct justice on behalf of your boss. Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald was allowed to try his case in court before GOP spinmeisters could try it in the press, and a recent Gallup poll shows that 66% of the country thinks Bush should've left Scooter alone to do his time.

In only a few short years, the blogosphere has influenced society in so many different realms. Whether it is about cooking, sports, art or politics here, blogs become more relevant and make a bigger impact almost every day. People are getting around old, conventional media and creating their own. It is a democratic medium that anyone can use to say whatever it is they want others to hear. The blogosphere in my opinion is a dream come true for those that want to fight back against a lazy press that covers an omnipresent government. It's also good to get a good recipe while duking it out via keyboard.

GOP To Republican Candidates: Don't Act Like Yourself In Public

The Republicans were destroyed last year on the internet front of the campaign wars. The blogosphere overwhelmingly tilts for the left and two of the most defining victories of that fight are Senators Webb and Tester. The "Macaca moment" showed the power of the internet and the Democratic side of the blogosphere. A digital camera helped bring down an incumbent George Allen who was looking towards the Presidency next year. Now its hard to recall his name.

So as the Republicans gear up for next year, they are trying to learn from their brutal experience of 2006. John Ensign, the new chairman of the NRSC has put together a guidebook for all candidates on what to do and what not to do when campaigning for office. One such directive is to remember to assume you are always on camera, no matter what. It seems like common sense for a candidate but you never know what will come out of people's mouths.

From The Politico:

It's right there, on pages 18 and 22 of an Internet guide from the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee that its chairman, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), hopes will become scripture for the 2008 candidates.

Always assume you're being recorded, and always record your opponent. The blogs -- oh, scratch that -- the Republican blogs are your friends, so use them for rapid response in good times and bad.

"The paradigmatic example of failure to do so is the 'macaca' moment," reads the guidebook (excerpted here), referring to a remark last year by former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) that was captured on video and sunk his reelection campaign.

Not only are the Republican hopefuls told to watch themselves, they are also commanded to reach out more to the internet community. Well, not the whole community, just the right-wing blogs. The idea is to use them to disseminate information and create media buzz. The only problem with this is that the size of the right side is nothing compared to the blogosphere over here on the left.

As DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller said, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," but there is no way that the Republicans can copy the success that the left had last year. Besides, the way the NRSC strategy is devised, it actually hurts them. It is more of their top-down campaigning, the same old thing in new packaging. But that isn't how the blogosphere works. It is the community that bolsters Democrats and the lack of which that will continue to haunt the Republicans.

The Daily Show Takes A Look At Bloggers

'Right wing' Stephen Colbert joins Jon Stewart to analyze the blogosphere. Stephen has some interesting 'surprises' of his own as well.