On Blogging, Mountains and Molehills, and No Sense of Humor

To listen to some whiners around here, you would think they had never heard of blogging before or just what that entails. Political bloggers are generally a partisan and snarky lot and blog commenters often get very satirical or downright vicious with their words.

For example, a few years ago, former Whitman County Democratic State Committeeman Dave Gibney wrote the following comment on the liberal Washblog:

ALways thought the rapture would be a good thing. All the stuck up assholes would be gone. :)

Gibney's comment was in response to a Washblog contributor who was "disturbed" that Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers attended a "fundamentalist Christian college," writing:

As another layer is peeled away from that American girl facade, instead of a garden variety Reagan conservative Christian, I see another hypocritical fundamentalist.

Now, did anyone make an issue of this comment when Dave threw his hat in the ring for a Pullman City Council appointment? Did anyone demand that the Whitman County Democrats apologize to all Palouse evangelicals because of Gibney's comment. No, of course not. Dave was making a joke. Hence the smiley face. Some might have been offended, but there is no right in the Constitution to not be offended.

Current Whitman County Democratic State Committeeman and former candidate for Whitman County Auditor Nathan Horter has been a diarist at Daily Kos.

Another diarist at Daily Kos, A. Whitney Brown, wrote last year:

Do I still support the individual men and women who have given so much to serve their country? No. I think they’re a bunch of idiots. I also think they’re morally retarded.

Wow. Once again, has anyone demanded an apology from the Whitman County Democrats, assuming Horter must feel the same way about our troops because he "countenances" posts like that by blogging at Daily Kos. No, of course not. That would be guilt by association a la McCarthyism. Theoretically, American political parties have moved beyond that kind of chilling of free speech.

Or have they? Could a local party be so desperate for a victory that they would say or do anything, no matter how exaggerated, how ridiculous or how base to try to win? I think we now know the answer to that question.

The Whitman County Democrats have bigger problems than me right now, and this little campaign of distraction, distortion, and dirt is not going to help.

Chances Are 'Cause I Wear a Silly Grin...

I must be blogging. Newsweek reports:

Why do people write confessional blogs? It's a creative outlet. It's a forum to vent. It's an exercise in exhibitionism. To mental-health experts, though, it's more than that: a blog is medicine. Psychiatrists are starting to tout the therapeutic power of blogging, and many have begun incorporating it into patient treatment. A forthcoming study in the journal CyberPsychology & Behavior even suggests that bloggers might be happier than nonbloggers.

Of course, I've known this all along.

Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Anyone can blog, anyone can be a "journalist" in today's over-bloated information age - no matter their training or agenda. Readers beware - sort fact from fiction.

- Vicki Rishling, "Local newspapers are linked to the community," Moscow-Pullman Daily News, June 25, 2008

I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican. But I was surprised at just how pronounced the distinctions are.

- Tim Groseclose, UCLA political scientist and lead author of a study that found most media outlets have a liberal bias

Anyone who still believes that bloggers are one breed and journalists are another has been living in a cave since roughly 2002.

- Mark Glaser, "Distinction Between Bloggers, Journalists Blurring More Than Ever," PBS, February 28, 2008

In the Third Year of the Palousitics Revolution

Three years ago today when I started this blog, I wanted two things: Dino Rossi in the Governor's Mansion in Olympia and a Wal-Mart Supercenter under construction in Pullman.

God willing, I'll see both of those things happen by next January.

From its humble beginning, I'd like to think Palousitics' now nearly two dozen contributors have played an important role in recent events on the Palouse, such as:

Taking the WSU College Republicans' fight to promote free speech and expose racism, intolerance, and lack of academic diversity at WSU to a local, regional, and national audience. Ed Weber,the director of WSU's Foley Institute recently apologized to conservatives for kow-towing to the "hegemony of the left-leaning liberal viewpoint" and promised more conservative speakers on campus.

Arguably the most pro-growth Pullman City Council and Whitman County Board of Commissioners in recent times.

According to PARD's latest screed in the Daily News "unfairly and personally attacking" the millions of Wal-Mart haters in Pullman and forcing them into anonymity and silence. In actuality, many of the silent majority of Wal-Mart supporters have found the courage to speak out, prompting Wal-Mart officials to comment that, other than the PARDners, they have been overwhelmed with the positive response they have received in Pullman.

Since I started Palousitics, I have been interviewed by the New York Times, been a guest on a Seattle radio talk show, co-hosted a Pullman talk radio show, met Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, rubbed elbows with members of the international mainstream media, seen Palousitics ranked as one of Washington's most influential political blogs, and most importantly of all, spoken at a troop support rally for our local National Guard troops deploying to Iraq. I always tell people that I never know from day-to-day what new thing blogging will bring.

But April pointed something out to me recently that made me the proudest I have been yet of this blog. It was a long, rambling, self-pitying, paranoid history of the Hawkins development in the corridor written from Queen Nancy's perspective.

In it, she blames the foiling of her efforts to stop Hawkins, in part, on:

political will and the public’s patience waned in the face of a publicity campaign that unfairly and inaccurately depicted Moscow as meddlesome, unreasonable, anti-business, greedy, and mean-spirited.

As I am not aware of any other "publicity campaign" that depicted Moscow as "meddlesome, unreasonable, anti-business, greedy, and mean-spirited" other than what we waged here at Palousitics, I'm more than happy to take credit for it.

The little blog that took on an out-of-control city government to bring millions of sales tax dollars to Whitman County.

An Army of Davids indeed.....Happy Third Blogiversary to all you Palousitics contributors and readers.

"Neighborhood blogs: the mom-and-pop news business"

Seeing how Pullman is now just a "drop location" to the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, the time may be ripe for something advocated by commenters here and reported on by Peggy Sturdivant at Crosscut:

News blogs about Seattle neighborhoods are sprouting like weeds. Their territory can be as small as the blocks immediately surrounding a park or as vast as West Seattle, created to rally against outside forces or in response to a certain event. They can vary from providing news straight-up to being heavily dosed with humor. Still other news blogs are product tests. Some have advertisements, others don't. Neighborhood blogs can even be "killed" and then reborn with advertising and multiuser capability.

The time is coming my friends....

Moscow-Pullman Daily News to Start Blog Sites

Dale Courtney over at Right Mind noticed that Dave Oliveria posted this at Huckleberries Online:

Editor Steve McClure of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News called this morning to ask about newspaper blogs. Seems the Moscow-based paper is going to dip its toe into the blogosphere and Steve was interested re: what we're doing up here. He blurks at Huckleberries Online occasionally. Good guy.

Here is the comment I left on Dale's blog:

Agreed. The Trib blogs are really bad, unless you're an American Idol fan. Total fluff. It has its place, but let's have some hard news too.

The Spokesman does it up right. Dave is a good guy. I urged Nathan Alford to pursue blogs at Dnews.com two years ago as a way for the reporters to provide more coverage and insight on local issues.

It is interesting to note that the Spokesman does NOT allow comments on its online version, only through the blogs. And HBO DOES moderate offensive/spam comments and bans users after being warned (as do you and I, Dale).

I'm guessing based on the open sewer the Dnews.com online comments section has become (which I also warned Nathan about), Steve is looking at better (and perhaps more legally defensible) alternatives to remain competitive with us in the New Media.

Good luck with the blogs, Steve. But unless you get the trolls under control, you'll still have the same problems.