Blogging

Several months ago, at the urging of some friends, I applied for media/blogging credentials to cover the Republican National Convention in my birth city of Minneapolis later this summer.  They were specifically seeking applications from bloggers centering on state politics, and while I mostly write about local stuff here, I figured it wouldn't hurt to apply.

On Monday, I received an email which said, in part:

Thank you for your interest in covering the 2008 Republican National Convention and applying for Special Press Credentials.

This letter is to inform you that IlliniPundit has been approved to receive one (1) Special Press Credential for the purpose of covering the convention.

The assigned credential is to be used only by the person(s) for whom it was requested. Those persons include the following:

•     Gordy Hulten

This credential allows access to the 200 Level of the Xcel Energy Center as well as access to the Media Center, Press Conference Room and Filing Center.  This credential does not provide access to any broadcast position, camera stand or writing press stand, nor does it provide access to the delegate floor.

I was surprised when I first read it, and I'm still surprised.  Our readership keeps growing, but in now way did I think our audience was large enough to justify credentialing me, especially being from deepest-blue Illinois.  And I felt a bit overwhelmed - covering the RNC is more than a bit out of my league, and I've never been to a national convention before.

But mostly I felt grateful - this opportunity would never have presented itself if not for you  - the readers, posters and commenters on IP.com. 

As it turns out, I will not be able to attend the Convention, and so the invitation is a bit bittersweet for me - I'm honored and disappointed at the same time. 

But mostly I just want to say, "Thank you."  This place is only worthwhile, and worthy of such recognition, because of you, and when things like this happen, it's a stark reminder of that.

From James Joyner, linking to Aaron Brazell:

While political blogs are blogging in terms of media coverage of the phenomenon, they’re actually a relatively small part of the story. It’s not just that, as we all know, personal diary blogs far outnumber others in sheer volume but that political blogs make up a relatively small segment of the blogs people actually read and link to.

I know, for myself, that I've been writing here about politics almost every weekday now for three-and-a-half years.  The two-week break I took in late May is the longest break (and the only significant break) I've taken from blogging since January 2005.  After that break, I've had a hard time getting my blogging "mojo" back, so to speak.  There are a number of reasons: 

• A new house and lots of offline projects
• A real job which keeps getting more hectic
• Campaigns to work on the side
• An eight-month-old son who is an absolute joy

As I used to write, "Real Life" has intervened, but that's just a part of the story for me.  I wonder how much of it is just that people are tired of reading and writing about politics, especially at the national level?  The issues are the same, the arguments are the same, the actors are pretty much the same, and there is precious little discussion and persuasion and a tiring abundance of shouting over opposing viewpoints.  The primary, as much as I enjoyed the theater, lasted forever.  There's a small part of me that's just tired of writing and reading and discussing (to the extent that discussion is possible) national politics, and we're in the early-summer doldrums for local campaigns, where there is lots of activity but little worth discussing. 

As an example:  I've got a major upgrade of IP.com that is 90 percent complete, but I keep putting off the last step: developing a theme or themes for the upgraded site.  Normally, I would have tackled the task with zest, but now I'm having difficulty finding the motivation.

And this will shock some of you, but I really miss anonymous commenters.  They were too often abusive, and detracted from constructive discussion, but they were often interesting and educating.  I'd love to figure out a way to enable them again.

Anyway, this post has really evolved into a long-winded excuse for why I've not been blogging as much for the past few weeks, and that's not really how I intended it.  If there's anything here worth discussing, then, uh, discuss!  Otherwise, feel free to ignore my tired ramblings...

http://thecapitolfaxblog.com/2008/04/01/question-of-the-day-494/#comments

For those of you who somehow missed it last night (or who couldn't get the live feed working), you can listen to an archived version of my appearance on the Illinois GOP Network / Blog Talk Radio show last night.  The appearance lasted about an hour, and I rambled aimlessly and pointlessly for most of it, discussing New Hampshire, Illinois, and blogs.  Illinois GOP Chairman Andy McKenna joined us for the last few minutes of the program, and I mostly (wisely) shut up and let him talk, so that's probably the best part of the show.

I really enjoyed myself last night, and I'd love to do something like that on here (maybe a 30 minute discussion with guest once per week or so), if I can figure out how to make it work.

Illinois blogger par excellence ArchPundit has assembled a BlogAds "hive" called "Blogginois" to collectively market advertising services.  You can see a new ad on the right for that hive.

The other bloggers in the hive are:

• Chicagoist
• Peoria Pundit
• Prairie State Blue
• Chicago Reader
• Methods Reporter
• Faithfully Liberal

To advertise, click on the ad on the right, or go here.

Thanks!

IlliniPundit.com now has 191 registered users.

Daily Kos has more than 130,000 registered users. 

I don't think anyone will be naming a convention after this blog any time soon.

(Again - 130,000 registered users.  Wow.  Daily Kos, though I don't agree with their politics, is just an awesome online political world unto itself, and I certainly admire the community they've built.)

My blogfather, Bill Dennis of Peoria Pundits, has an interesting story about a judge tossing a blogger out of a hearing:

My two cents: Lest the judge alone come under criticism for his decision, it must be noted that the lone representative for Peoria County SA Kevin Lyons’ also opposed letting Elaine Hopkins do her job.

One wonders what Judge Purham would have done were he a judge decades ago when the first radio journalists began doing their jobs. Most early broadcast reporters were, like Elaine, veterans of the print world who were trying their hand at a new exciting way to distribute the news. Would Purham have turned away young Walter Cronkite, a United Press reporter before he became Uncle Walter?

What makes a person a journalist isn’t the particular media he or she uses to disseminate the news. It’s the fact that they are disseminating the news to a mass audience.

I'd argue that the definition of journalist doesn't depend on the audience - mass audience or not, reporting events is reporting events.  But I'll be watching this story to see how it develops, that's for sure.

Local blogger, former school board candidate, and contributor to IlliniPundit IlliniPundit.com John Bambenek has been named 'Wanker of the Year' by dailykos.com, a highly-trafficked liberal blog.  Apparently Bambenek has filed an FEC complaint against the blog alleging they are a political committee and should be regulated as such.

Not only has this issue already been decided in the courts, but even the conservative blogs find this a troubling, bad idea that threatens the first ammendment of the constitution.

UPDATE:  Edited by IP to clarify that Bambenek doesn't contribute to IlliniPundit (me, the blogger) but rather to IlliniPundit.com (the blog site).  He "contributes" in the same way that curious and Rex Bradfield and Queen and dozens of others "contribute." 

I only make this clarification because I know, at some point, there's going to be a story about "IlliniPundit blogger files FEC complaint against Kos" or some such thing.  And nothing could be further from the truth.  I don't support this complaint, I think it's invalid under current FEC rules, I think the current FEC rules under which this complaint was filed are unconstitutional, I think the FEC should be abolished and I think political speech should be as free and unregulated as possible.

Thanks for your indulgence.

You know...just in case you were wondering.

I used to read the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center's website frequently.  I would participate in discussion via their comments, and in fact have even written a few stories that got posted to their front page over the years.  I also donated money to their capital campaign and have paid membership dues in multiple years.  But I just no longer see any point to it.  This is because the debate on ucimc.org is not open (such as the way it is here), but is instead heavily censored.

Case in point.  See the latest story on ucimc.org reporting about someone being held in the jail without seeing an attorney for unpaid debts.  The article, by Brian Dolinar, chronicles the difficulties for a current county jail inmate who has been stuck there for six months due to money owed, and is critical of the State's Attorney for her handling of these types of cases.

I found the article interesting and generally agree that putting debtors in jail isn't a great solution, as you take away their primary method of paying back the debt---working.  That said, when I first read the article, I saw one comment that hadn't yet been hidden, and it said this:

"Trolling" pretty much just means "disagreeing" at this point, right? Is there more to it than that? If so, I'd love to hear you explain it.

This was my first clue to check the 'hidden comments,' as there was nothing visible above this comment that would have led to it.  If you aren't familiar, the IMC software has the ability to hide comments (as does most blog software I presume), and the IMC uses it extensively.  So I checked the hidden comments, which you can also do here.  What did I find?  A couple of comments discussing the article and the merits of putting people in jail for unpaid debt. 

I didn't agree with the comments that were hidden, but I can't see any reason for hiding them.  They are asking real questions and reflect one point of view.  They invite debate of the issues.  That someone doesn't agree with them doesn't make them a 'troll.'  So, having read that comment, then going on to read the hidden comments, I posted my own comment:

I can't disagree with Anonymous 10:36. Click on the 'hidden comments' link below and see what you think of the comments that were already hidden. It seems to me that the IMC site just plain doesn't support the idea of discussion on controversial issues here.

I'm sure you can guess what happened next.  Yes, my comment was also hidden as a 'troll.'  As far as I'm concerned, that's it.  The end of debate.  If one can't discuss the issues on that site, then the site has no purpose other than to be a PR vehicle.  That's ok if it's what the IMC wants, but it's not what I thought they were about. 

If you look at their mission statement, you'll find the following:

We will empower people to "become the media" by providing democratic access to available technologies and information.

Once most every comment by anyone who disagrees with the posted articles are getting hidden as 'trolling,' I no longer see the site as "providing democratic access to available technologies and information." 

As a previous member of the UCIMC, a previous contributor of it's front page stories, and one who has donated many hours of time to the organization over the years, I can no longer support an organization that censors real debate.  Further, I  find it ironic that  one of my best options for sharing my point of view is the right-slanted illinpundit website.  However, on illinipundit I have the option of writing a blog post, others have the option of promoting it to the front page if they like it, and anyone can say whatever they want in the comments.  That, my friends, is 'democratic access to available technologies and information.' 

IThe IMC should turn off commenting altogether if they don't support it, and they should update their mission statement to reflect the change in attitude.

I have been a registered poster for a couple of months, it's not that hard to do. I'm more than tired of these "hit & run" posters. Hiding behind anonymity when making personal attacks on anyone that is on here or doing the same to public officials. If you have something to share please do but get a screen name and act like an adult. I would like to see the site require registering and using some kind of screen name, I use my own name, I post nothing here that I would not say to someones face. Let's grow up!!!

gct13.com is a local photoblog by Dan O'Brien.

I've blogrolled him - go check it out.

Who else am I missing?

The other presidential candidates not so much.  Powerline, arguably the most influential of all conservative blogs, has started a forum for presidential candidates to allow candidates to communicate with voters. As teased by powerline:

We wanted to create a space where the Republican presidential candidates can interact with some of the most passionate and knowledgeable conservatives anywhere

Unfortunately, every candidate in the forum except Romney took the forum as an opportunity for some guy from their campaign to paste an item from their own website, or something of that nature.  Only Romney decided to use the forum to actually communicate something in a way that was different than the typical campaign.  I throw Thompson into the mix of the candidates who "get it" because he's been using the internet for the last two months to create a buzz around himself and to communicate directly to voters.

The internet is not the end all to campaign by any means.  But it is becoming increasingly important.  In the primary campaign, it's importance will be magnified.  Candidates who take wonderful opportunities like that provided by Powerline and squander them leave me shaking my head.  I've got a lot of problems with Romney (which I will detail at some point) but he scored first on this one.

Here is last night's WCIA-TV report on blogging.  They recorded it live during the 5 PM broadcast.  We were on about two minutes, and Anchor Jennifer Roscoe and I talked briefly about blogging, how to do it, why it's becoming so popular, and some do's and don't's.

I was glad to see the images used for the report focused briefly on the blogroll, and some screenshots from two excellent local blogs, American Farmer and Cat People.

I was incredibly nervous, and I look (am!) incredibly fat, but it was a lot of fun.  As much as I criticize television news, watching them from in the studio, they clearly work very hard at what they do.  And, of course, being asked to appear is very flattering, and I've got an ego just as big as anyone's.

WCIA-TV has had a new website for a while, with videos from their local stories and more user-driven features, like classifieds. 

And, of course, Jennifer Roscoe now has "Roscoe Unscripted," which was the hook for doing last night's interview.  I've blogrolled the site, and I'll be checking back often.  Her first post is excellent:

There's more I want to say or share that we just don't have time for during the news. So this blog will be just that....but more. I don't want this to just be about me (you can almost hear my husband saying thank goodness!) I picture this space to be an opportunity for us to talk or you to ask questions, about anything on your mind. I want this to be a place to rant or rave on topics from serious to silly and all things in between. Some days it could be a news story that everyone's talking about or maybe you're just looking for something to do on the weekend with the kids. But I can't do this without your help. A conversation with one person...isn’t much fun. So how about it? Are you in?

Head on over there, share your comments, and encourage the dialogue.

Thanks to Jennifer and WCIA for asking me to appear.  Thanks for each of you for making this site as popular as it is, and for indulging this little "project of vanity."

Democratic County Board Member Matt Gladney, who blogs at It's Matt's World, and I are the subjects of this week's WDWS Newsmakers Podcast.  Patrick Pfingsten spent a few minutes last week talking to Matt and I about blogging and politics.

You can find the Podcast here.  You can also subscribe to the weekly Podcasts in iTunes.

Thanks to Patrick for giving us the opportunity, and to Matt for another interesting conversation.

Thanks to an emailed reqest, I've added both the Daily Illini (Media) and Daily Illini Opinions Blog (Local Blogs) to the blogroll.

I can't believe I didn't already have them on there.  Who else am I missing?

UPDATE:  I added Gamera, who is fantastic.

ANOTHER UPDATE:  All the great local bloggers that I met at the blogger bash and thought I had added last week have been re-added, as somehow I failed to save the updated list.

So, please be sure to visit and subscribe to these great local blogs:

• Analog Periphery
• CatPeople
• Frogs and Crowbars
• Maladjusted
• Me First!
• My Pet Goat - written by frequent IP.com commenter "wayward"
• Out of the Forest
• Reports from the Edge
• This Just In - one of my personal favorites.  Just go the home page and start scrolling.

OK, so now who am I missing?

(and sorry to those that I thought I'd added two weeks ago...)

If everything works out OK, I'll be at Brookens tonight, live-blogging the Champaign City Council Primary election results.  (Hopefully the site cooperates and doesn't strain too badly under the traffic. I may have to take some drastic measures for the evening, but I promise I'm working on a long-term solution.)

You'll also be able to find results, sometimes faster than we get them at Brookens, on County Clerk Mark Shelden's website.

And, of course, the good people who run the County don't see fit to allow measly taxpayers to use the wireless Internet access at Brookens, even though we're the ones paying for it, so my access will be Treo-based, and thus unreliable.

UPDATE:  I won't be at Brookens tonight, as Real Life has intervened.  But I'll still try to blog the results if I can get Internet access.

UPDATE - 7:55 PM:  I'm looking here for results, but there aren't any yet.  Anybody know what happened with the Unit 4 Petition objections hearing this evening?

UPDATE - 8:25 PM:  No results online yet.

UPDATE - 8:45 PM:  With 10 of 40 precincts reporting:

1. Deborah Frank Feinen.  .  .  .  .  .  .       354   16.75
2. Patricia A. Avery.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       319   15.09
3. Thomas A. "Tom" Bruno  .  .  .  .  .  .       311   14.71
4. Giraldo Rosales  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       293   13.86
5. Karen B. Foster  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       285   13.48
6. Annette B. Williams .  .  .  .  .  .  .       190    8.99
7. Bill Glithero .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       155    7.33
8. Michael Henley.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       150    7.10
9. Freddie Gordon.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .        55    2.60

UPDATE - 9:00 PM: Looking at that initial batch of precincts (Champaign 2, CC 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 19 & 21) - I think most people would say that batch of precincts, as a whole, leans clearly Democratic.  None of those are south of Kirby, for example.  In those precincts in 2006, Tim Johnson got 2,206 votes and David Gill got 2,846 votes.  Gill won those precincts 58 to 42 percent.

UPDATE - 9:11 PM:  Another 12 precincts are in, and now:

1. Deborah Frank Feinen.  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,027   18.40
2. Thomas A. "Tom" Bruno  .  .  .  .  .  .       908   16.27
3. Karen B. Foster  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       834   14.94
4. Patricia A. Avery.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       713   12.78
5. Giraldo Rosales  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       696   12.47
6. Annette B. Williams .  .  .  .  .  .  .       469    8.40
7. Michael Henley.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       414    7.42
8. Bill Glithero .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       408    7.31
9. Freddie Gordon.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       103    1.85

The additional precincts include more Republican precincts, so that explains the big increases for Foster and Henley.  Still not reporting are Champaign 4 and CC 2, 7, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 23, 25, 26, 30, 33, 35, 36 & 38.  Off the top of my head, it looks like there are more votes still to be counted in Republican precincts than in Democratic precincts.

UPDATE - 9:50 PM:  Thirty-two of 40 precincts reporting:

1. Deborah Frank Feinen.  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,564   18.39
2. Thomas A. "Tom" Bruno  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,416   16.65
3. Karen B. Foster  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,266   14.89
4. Giraldo Rosales  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,082   12.72
5. Patricia A. Avery.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,052   12.37
6. Annette B. Williams .  .  .  .  .  .  .       703    8.27
7. Michael Henley.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       638    7.50
8. Bill Glithero .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       628    7.39
9. Freddie Gordon.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       135    1.59

Still remaining: CC 2, 3, 7, 17, 18, 26, 30 & 35.  I don't think the top three or top six will change.

FINAL UPDATE - 10:10 PM:  Unofficial final results, with all 40 precincts reporting:

1. Annette B. Williams .  .  .  .  .  .  .       815    8.15
2. Deborah Frank Feinen.  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,857   18.57
3. Thomas A. "Tom" Bruno  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,642   16.42
4. Karen B. Foster  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,510   15.10
5. Giraldo Rosales  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,252   12.52
6. Patricia A. Avery.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     1,241   12.41
7. Michael Henley.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       774    7.74
8. Bill Glithero .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       728    7.28
9. Freddie Gordon.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .       157    1.57

Top six advance to the April 17 General Election, and will be listed on the ballot in the order in which they finished here.  Henley, Glithero and Gordon do not advance.

This post is now un-stickied.

Last night's Blogger Bash was a great time.  It was nice to finally meet so many people of whom I've heard so much, and to discover so many new local blogs.

The list of attendees, many of whom I need to add to my feedreader and the blogroll.

• Matthew Gladney
• Ashley
• prairiebiker
• Gamera
• Maladjusted
• Gnightgirl
• jonathan
• Momo
• woof
• moon_grrl
• wayward/mrscake

From IP.com, we had myself, John Farney and Jason Barickman.

I know I'm missing some, but I had a lot of help in just getting this list - many of these blogs are new to me, so please forgive any omissions, and correct me in the comments.

It was an entertaining and informed group, and the discussion wasn't nearly as geeky as I had expected (although it's a little wierd to introduce yourself with a screenname.)  The conversations and stories were simply hilarious.  I hope you'll check out their blogs, subscribe to them, and I hope you'll join us next time we get together.

And, with that in mind, Gamera is asking for input about these things - should we do them more often? Location?  Other thoughts?  Please go tell her what you think.

Man, I had a great time.

UPDATE: Gnightgirl has pictures here.

I went to the blogger get two-gether. All the hotties were taken. There was no smoking so it didn't stink.

It was very enjoyable. Momo said she had bats in her attic. No kidding? I almost had that figured out before she blew the secret.

Gordy pressed his shirt. I bet he's always uptight like that.

Barickman showed up. I think Gordy was afraid to be in Urbana alone. I was happy Jason didn't charge me to talk to him this time. At least I don't think he did. I'll have to check the mail now for the rest of the week.

The lonetree feller has a potty mouth. He's a jerk too. He went home by himself but that's no surprise.

Don't sit next to Farney. He'll eat all your fries.

All in all it was a good time. I learned a lot about local politics that I didn't know before. Basically, if you don't have a cool moustache, you might as well stay home.

I'm looking forward to the next one. Gordy promised it would be warmer then. Secretly, I think he and Al Gore are tight like that.

In the Shameless Plugs Department, I have the honor of speaking at the February meeting of the Champaign County Acitive Senior Republicans.  I'll be doing a short presentation on "Elections, Campaigns, and the Internet," with a focus on IlliniPundit.com, blogs, and how technology is impacting local, state and national politics.

The meeting is Monday, February 5, 2007 at 9 AM in Lincoln Square Mall in Urbana.  Everyone is welcome to attend - you need to be neither Republican nor a Senior to participate.

While I'm not a very good speaker, I'm looking forward to this excitedly, as the topic is something about which I'm somewhat passionate. 

I hope I can see you there!