Tag Archives: Blogosphere

The Best (or Worst) or 2009

Again, I have to begin the year apologizing for not getting this results posted for our end-of-year polling.  The results have been tallied and here they are:

Scandal of the Year:

The Christina School District’s Camping Untensil/Pocketknife Debacle

The Post of the Year:

Jason330’s post introducing is to Crazy Eileen

Biggest Delaware Policy Screw-up:

Sports Gambling

Comment of the Year:

I am humbled to have won this one with my new rule that DelawareDem had to re-edit all posts until everyone lived.

Rookie of the Year:

The Wage Slave

Blog of the Year:

Delaware Liberal

Biggest Loss of a Blog:

Down With Absolutes

That’s the whole enchilada.  Thanks to everyone that voted, and we’ll do it again in December.  Until then, keep you eyes peeled for the best of 2010.

Time Names The Best Blogs

Time magazine names its 25 best blogs and the 5 most overrated blogs. Once again, Delaware Liberal was sadly overlooked. What do you think of the list?

TOP BLOGS
Talking Points Memo
The Huffington Post
Lifehacker
Metafilter
The Daily Dish by Andrew Sullivan
Freakonomics
BoingBoing
Got2BeGreen
Zen Habits
The Conscience of a Liberal: Paul Krugman
Crooks and Liars
Generación Y
Mashable
Slashfood
Official Google Blog
synthesis
bleat
/Film
Seth Godin’s Blog
Deadspin: Sports News without Access, Favor, or Discretion
Dooce
Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
Said the Gramophone
Detention Slip
Bad Astronomy

MOST OVERRATED BLOGS
TechCrunch
Gawker
Jim Cramer’s Blog
PerezHilton.com
Daily Kos: State of the Nation

I have to admit I haven’t read a lot of these blogs (though maybe I should). I agree that Talking Points Memo is the best news organization in the blogosphere, and the blog part is good. I still find it annoying that you can’t comment on the Editor’s Blog. I find Andrew Sullivan wildly inconsistent and you can’t comment there either. (Do you think it’s any that blogs a lot like the MSM are on the top of the list?) But, seriously Time – the Huffington Post? They do some reporting which is good, but it’s also full of anti-vaccine conspiracists and other purveyors of woo along with gratuitous pictures of women in skimpy clothes. I’m happy a blog by a scientist also makes the top list. As far as Daily Kos, I’m a big fan, it’s what brought me to the blogosphere. It’s gotten so big now, though, that it’s a lot harder to navigate but I find it a good place to find political information and a clearinghouse for activism. It’s really the place to go to find out what the grassroots are thinking and saying.

So, what do you think? What belongs on the list that isn’t listed? Which ones on the top or bottom do you think don’t belong there?

Netroots Nation

So Netroots Nation starts today in Pittsburgh (lucky UI!), and apparently the wingnuts have theirs going on at the same time in the same city:

Even though conservatives are holding their own convention of online activists in Pittsburgh this week, they are not trying to directly compete with the giant Netroots Nation. If they did, they would be squashed.

The RightOnline conference starting tomorrow morning at the Sheraton Station Square will have about a quarter of the 2,000 attendees at the liberal conference in the convention center, and only about 20 speakers to the 400 at Netroots. Liberals are throwing multiple parties at the Warhol and a gay-lesbian kiss-in. Conservatives end Friday night with a film criticizing Al Gore.

The liberals are enjoying themselves and the conservatives are still stewing in their resentments against Al Gore. There’s something telling in that juxtaposition. The rest of the article notes how the wingnuts are working to catch up — which is especially hard for them since their base is older (not so internet friendly) and way fluent in operating radios rather than computers.

But it is still odd though that they would want to shadow Netroots Nation rather than work out their own deal. On the other hand, the conservative blogosphere has always shadowed the progressive one, so perhaps there is some symmetry in that.

If you are interested in the goings on at Netroots Nation this year, they are streaming alot of events and panels, including the opening remarks today from President Bill Clinton at 5PM. You can also follow here:

Facebook
CSPAN and CSPAN-2 is covering some panels and events.
Twitter or at the #nn09stream.

And there’s even a Second Life options for those of you into that.

Liberal Blogger Gets Big-Time Gig

Congrats to Ezra Klein, whose ‘Tapped’ blog over at The American Prospect  has been ‘bulo must-reading for some time now.

He will now write for the Washington Post.

The Beast Who Slumbers wants to share these inspirational words from Klein’s farewell post. Because it demonstrates the potential and power of the blogosphere:

But we’ve also learned to pay attention to adult things. The Prospect has been doing that for almost two decades now, and they provided me with a home to do the same. And the Prospect was right. Turns out that you can build an audience with charts and graphs and hearings and budget commentary. The words “reconciliation,” “nationalization,” and “community rating” do not scare readers away. Scatterplots do not harm your traffic. Indeed, the Washington Post is asking me to cover the same topics in the same way at their site. But I would never have had this opportunity, or been able to build this model, without TAP — both the space it gave me and the guidance it provided me. I’ll be forever grateful to it.

Which is why, even though I’m leaving, I urge you to stay. That’s not to say you shouldn’timmediately bookmark my new blog and check it obsessively every day. It’ll have that same great Ezra taste, but with more resources around to make my charts look pretty. 

A Personal Note…

One year ago today I joined Delaware Liberal.  It’s been a fantastic year and I’ve learned a lot while having a blast.  I’d like to take this time to thank all my fellow contributors for their support and friendship.  I’m not sure how other blogs work, but the bond here, at DL, extends far beyond the written word – which is pretty amazing when you consider all the different personality types.  I am proud to be part of Delaware Liberal, no matter what Hube thinks!

[End of sappy moment.]

Hube’s Racism Is Showing Again

Hube spews his racist venom on the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committe’s report, Report on Hate Crimes and Discrimination Against Arab Americans. First off, Hube’s little racist rant is hat-tipped to News Busters which is basically run by Brent Bozell, one of the infamous smear-taticians of the Radical Right. The Times of India photo above was included in the hat-tipped story. Oh yeah, News Busters captioned the photo, Islamic Rage Boy. But I digress.

Hube quotes a Reuters story which he uses to back up his lame rants about the liberal media but, more importantly, tries to  back up his falsifiability that the Radical Right is not racist. Hube writes:

Got that? Even though “many incidents did not begin with a clear motivation of bias,” since eventually a racial or ethnic slur was uttered, voilà —instant hate crime, according to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Utilizing this “definition,” my example from above has to be a “hate crime”: The initial motivation may be economic, but if a racial epithet is spewed in the process of the mugging, it’s now [also] a “hate crime.”

But as usual the Radical Right bloggers only tell you part of the story. Let me quote from the report which Hube has not read, since Hube was too lazy to do so.

First, the hate crimes did not always begin with a clear motivation of bias. Rather, they would develop in that direction as the altercation intensified. In numerous instances, racial, religious or ethnic slurs would be employed not at the outset but after a dispute leading to violence or threats of violence had already begun.

Hube instead of blogging about what your other Radical Right bloggers post about, you could have glanced at the report and actually read what the ADC wrote. They are saying, and I am typing very slowly for Hube right now, the ADC is saying that the crimes might not begin as a hate crime, but they would end that way. I am under no allusion illusion that Hube will understand the subtleties of their point.

Some Lazy Radical Right Blogging

Sharon, over at Common Sense Political Thought, asks whether Democrats are being hypocritical since we did not criticize Sen. Feinstein about an interview she did with The New York Times? In the interview regarding torture, Feinstein said the following, “I think that you have to use the noncoercive standard to the greatest extent possible.” Yes, that’s not what I would agree to. Torture is torture is torture. You happy now Sharon?

Now, let’s get to the lazy Radical Right Blogging part of this post. Sharon points to a post from Brothers Judd as being her inspiration. Part one of the lazy part is the Sharon quotes the same exact passages as Brothers Judd did — paragraph for paragraph, word for word. Part two of the lazy part is that Sharon did not even read the freaking article, because if she did, she would have read the following paragraph:

Afterward, however, Mrs. Feinstein issued a statement saying: “The law must reflect a single clear standard across the government, and right now, the best choice appears to be the Army Field Manual. I recognize that there are other views, and I am willing to work with the new administration to consider them.”

I’ve always knew that Radical Right bloggers lie, I just didn’t know they were lazy about it.

DEwind: The Week That Changed History

There is no reason for me to do an election recap, because it has already been done along with the best headline of the week, More Analysis on Pamela Thonrburg’s “Snatch”. Damn you kavips, damn you! While I’m reading kavips, one would have to be blind regarding the Paradee-Thornburg “re-count” fiasco, However I’m with Al Mascitti on this one, “Has anyone done a story that deals with the claims from both sides in a tick-tock fashion?” Delawonk has a good technical post on recounts.

And now that the election is over, we can start guessing on who Gov. Minner will pick to take Vice President-Elect Biden’s Senate seat. DelawareDem writes:

I think the new CW at work is that John Carney is owed this appointment by Minner, and that Carney is more than capable in serving as Senator.

Kilroy has some other ideas and since his Copeland prediction didn’t pan out so well, my money is on Carney. Mr. Kilroy, let me leave you with these words from Robert Burton.

A good conscience is a continual feast.

While the national media speculates over how President-Elect Obama will fill his Administration, we in the First State begin our speculation. Top of the list is the rumor that Governor-Elect Markell has picked Dennis Rochford for his Chief of Staff. Delaware Watch says that “selecting him will not probably not sit well with many Democratic Party insiders. But at least we can guess about Markell’s cabinet, can’t we?

Great pictures from Return Day courtesy of your friendly neighborhood Libertarian who also finds results from Tuesday’s election encouraging for the future. Mike Mahaffie has a Return Day post with photos as well.

Brian Shields is showing himself to be an upstanding blogger as he looks back at the Insurance Commissioner contest; however he wrongly thinks open government is dead. 😉

The one fan of Jason Scott should check our Mike Matthew’s mid-day election post and scroll to the bottom. New on the endangered blog list, daveburris.com.

From The Archives:

With our fearless leader being wrong so often, it is always nice to be reminded that he can be right sometimes as he was in What Is Wrong With The Republican Party?.

. . . .
I show up at the Odessa Fire Hall and take my seat next to my Republican counterpart. A virulent racists “movement conservative” who claims that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian who was “uniformly despised by the secret service” who she regularly berated. He knew all of this because he “read it in a book.”
. . .

The photo of President-Elect Obama from Election Night is courtesy of Obama for America.

DEwind: The Week That Was October 27th

Make sure you put in your picks for our Election Contest.

The biggest news is in the Delaware blogosphere is quite simply the Insurance Commissioner contest between Karen Weldin Stewart, John Brady and Tom Savage. As Kavips wrote:

Anyone who remembers Donna Lee Williams, must understand what an improvement these last four years have been.

For those of you (myself included) take a look at the candidates at make an educated decision on who you will vote for. Brian Shields over at The Mourning Constitution makes it easy for us with his Five Questions series. There is also The Community News’ 2008 General Election Guide with self-written profiles of Karen Weldin Stewart, John Brady and Tom Savage. Then comes the news about other news. So, now what to do? My tact is to stick to the issues. The choice is yours, but one you should make.

This past Saturday morning, John Clatworthy was in front of me buying  donuts and coffee for his minions. I wanted to ask him what he thought about Kavips’ list of why he hates Clatworthy or the slap down Project Vote gave him, but one of his daughters was with him and, alas, I am no DV or Jason, so I let him pass unscathed. After all, I was unsure of the answer to the question.

Continue reading

The Election Year According to Wingnuts

Via Balloon Juice, Jon Swift inventories the election year “reporting” of the conservative (make that wingnut) blogosphere.

Put down all drinks before reading.

Swift runs through the Greatest Hits (so far) of the right, including the mysterious Columbia University terrorist cell; the Great Birth Certificate forgery; the ephemeral Michelle Obama interview with a non-existent news service; whatever it is tat Larry Sinclair is claiming from his jail cell; and Obama getting answers in the debate via a secret device. My absolute favorite, I think is the legendary Michele Obama “Whitey” tape, hyped like the next Dancing with the Stars episode by the No Quarter crew.

Once I stopped laughing, I started to understand why John Cole keeps talking about John McCain’s campaign as being run by right-wing bloggers. With the exception of the celebrity thing — it is all there. I hope somebody sneaks into their blogger conference to document the atrocities….

DEwind: The Week That Was October 20th

Wherever Kavips is getting his amphetamines it is fine with me, because right now he is Delaware’s Most Prolific blogger. But today, I’ll only focus on his Workforce Housing post from earlier in the week.

But with little contention worth mentioning, here is the scoop from the meeting… Work force housing is a done deal. Stays can be executed but we can never go back and undo the bids that were placed before and between the first and last meeting… However, legislation can be passed in the General Assembly and signed by Jack Markell which can be retroactive before the bids were placed, and that can undo the damage… An arduous process to be sure. But a lawsuit in Chancery Court can stop it cold…

This is probably Delaware’s next big battle: citizens against the developers.. affecting Sussex and Kent Counties, as well as New Castle County… It is time everyone begin to acquaint themselves with just how bad work force housing will affect them personally, and then “get themselves a program…” 

Again the best start would be with Stay Out Of My Pocket.

As the election heats up, so does people’s stupidity as morons are destroying political signs. Elbert reports on the destruction of one Elaine’s campaign signs down south. I know this post was from today and not last week, but my readers (all five of you) will just have to deal with it.

It’s really nothing new but the practice of tearing up campaign signs continues. I would like to think that we’ve moved beyond that, on the “moral” right and the “tolerant” left as well. Christine O’Donnell’s campaign reports in an email:

One of [Christine O’Donnell’s] photo campaign signs was maliciously destroyed with a spear driven through her mouth and her heart was cut out. This was no simple act of vandalism. This was a deliberate attack on her faith and strong positions.

For a moment, I thought Elbert was complaining about this. Well, at least the DL and Elbert can agree on one thing, The News Journal sucks, but for different reasons obviously, his and ours.

The Mourning Constitution wrote about how not to get things done, politically that is.

Just a word of advise[sic] to whoever wanted to help Mr. Semper, run things like this by his campaign first, because you are trying to help his cause. Flyers like this may help, but the bad grammar and the bill number typo defeat the purpose.

I wonder if it is Jason that’s writing this stuff.

More importantly, Brian has a thoughtful piece on Matt Denn. I imagine later this week, Brian will do an in depth probe on Charlie Copeland.

We mentioned earlier last week of Tommywonk’s filleting of Charlie Copeland and Tom Noyes added some sense into the John Clatworthy’s negative campaign. Also Tommywonk looks at the financial crisis and how it may affect wind power in Delaware:

While it appears that B&B’s overall corporate structure is under pressure, the B&B wind fund, which is separately listed on the Australian stock exchange, is profitable. Also, the PPA between Bluewater and Delmarva Power, with its contractual revenue stream, is in itself an asset. Whatever happens to B&B, I expect Bluewater to find the financing to build the wind farm.

Well that about wraps it up, because I too freaking tired. I’m not going to write about the wonderful articles we posted here about Delaware, you can read them all at our Local Page. But please take special note of our constant blasting of John “The Clat” Clatworthy.