OK guys, I am about as partisan as partisan gets for my fellow D's but I am also a humanitarian at heart and have an affinity for bloggers of any political stripe in general. Even if the blogger on the other side of an issue is wrong, I give them deference simply for participating in the conversation online to begin with and for being politically aware.
Josh Gillespie of Hoosier Access is one of the classier guys in the red zone or Cardinalsphere as I call it. Josh had a blog post to draw attention to my illness when I was hospitalized back in December and it made a lasting impression on me. I've actually had conversations with the man since then and have found him to be a really cool guy and he proves it once again today with a blog entry I felt needed sharing over here.
This is Lauryn Walls a local four year old girl who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia in January. In our heavy discussions about the AG's race, we can't lose site of some of the really important matters out there, such as the fight against Leukemia and Lymphoma.
Earlier this month I wrote about fellow blogger Mark Warner who is raising money to run in the Chicago Marathon in October. The money he raises will go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) as a participant in their Team In Training program. Mark has written an update to his progress and I ask that you check out Mark's training page and consider helping Mark out. Below is a portion of a recent letter he sent out.
Go read the rest of the piece for links and to help out anyway that you can. I know we love to beat each other up on here, but when bloggers care enough to share stories like this I think we can put the swords down long enough to row an oar with the frienemies like Josh.
Holy crap! The great speculation about the fate of The Nastiest Woman In Indiana Politics, Jen Wagner, everybody's favorite Bloosier blogger, is now over with the announcement that she will be joining Norm Cox and Abdul Hakim Shabazz at the CapitolWatch blog on rtv6blogs.com, a relatively newish domain for the online politics coverage offered by WRTV 6 News. What a smart, smart move by the management at WRTV 6 which has recently been positioning itself for enhancing their political coverage. This is a great move on their part.
Allow me to be the first blogger to say kudos to Norm and Abdul for making this move and congratulations Jen on landing a plum gig. I look forward to the fireworks which I know will fly soon enough, and like I said in my comment left at the CapitolWatch blog, if I were Norm I would keep a mop and bucket near the comments section there. Its gonna get bloody over there with Jen and Abdul fans mixing it up.
On behalf of the Dr. Woody Myers campaign I would like to take this opportunity to extend an apology to the bloggers involved in the threatened legal action at the end of last week initiated by our attorney Justin Leverton. There was a miscommunication between the campaign and our attorney relating to the television ad run by David Orentlicher which he was authorized to threaten legal action against the David O campaign for running.
Mr. Leverton chose to pursue the course of action against the bloggers involved on his own. When we discovered what had happened we immediately asked him to drop the matter, but by then the damage had been done with letters issued to Bil Browning, Tyrion and Sheila Kennedy. We regret this took place and would like to extend a personal apology to each of those bloggers.
I would also like to extend my own apology to any members of the Blue Indiana community who may feel slighted in any way by my recent comments here. Emotionalism got the best of me a few times and I may have said some things recently which reflected poorly on me and my candidate. For that I am very sorry and can only offer that I am guilty of zealous partisanship on behalf of my candidate, which I would hope each and every one of you who clashed with me in comments here would be honest enough to agree we are all guilty of from this cycle. I had no ill intentions going into this campaign and harbor no ill will towards any members of the Blue Indiana community at this time either.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to John Good as the official campaign blogger for the Barry Welsh For Congress campaign. John is best known for his work at his own blog, Left In Aboite, as well as at Fort Wayne Left and Blue Indiana. John has agreed to join the campaign as lead blogger and blog team coordinator, or "coach" as we are calling him.
John is a great fit for our team ideologically and is a fantastic writer whose style is both thought provoking and entertaining to read. He lives with his family in the Ft. Wayne suburb of Aboite where he operates a small business logistics operation. He has worked on several Democratic campaigns as a volunteer and recently worked on the Tom Hayhurst for Congress campaign, so he does bring Congressional campaign experience to the table as well.
I look forward to his postings which will appear on our main blog at http://blog.barrywelsh.org, but he will also be posting to other group blogs such as Blue Indiana, DailyKos, MyDD, Open Left and Booman Tribune regularly as well. Be sure to check out his first post on the official campaign blog, and please take time to leave a comment to welcome John to the Barry Welsh For Congress campaign!
Join us for another edition of Meet the Bloggers as we discuss the 2008 Presidential candidates, their views on the war and other current topics. I'll be interviewing Robert Rouse, an antiwar activist member of Camp Casey and blogger from Left of Centrist about the war policies of the various Democratic and Republican candidates for President. We'll also be joined by Melissa Ryan of the Connecticut Local Politics and MyDD blogs as well as David "thereisnospoon" from Political Nexus.
We'll also have the 50 State Blog Roundup segment, anchored by Texas Kaos blogger Boadicea. Sponsored by Blue Indiana and Texas Kaos, the 50 State Blog Roundup is a podcast version of the news shared from the members of the 50 State Blog Project every week on participating blogs.
Late post I know but the show is starting in ten minutes as of this writing and we're gonna be talking about social networking and the impact it is having on political campaigns. My guests will be Dan Niswander a social networking maven from Indianapolis with an article coming out soon in NUVO on YouTube and the Art of Social Networking. My bloggers today will be Adam "clammy c" Lambert of Political Nexus and KPaul Mallasch of the Muncie Free Press. Tune in at our host page at 12 noon!
Join us for this week's edition of Meet the Bloggers as we discuss the importance of early fundraising to a campaign. We'll talk with Stuart O'Neill, a political consultant and podcaster at Politicalinterviews.com. Joining us for the panel discussion segment will be Sheri Welsh, aka Congressional Candidate's Wife at DailyKos and John Laesch, candidate for the nomination in IL14 where former GOP Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert has just announced his retirement from Congress.
We'll also have the 50 State Blog Roundup segment, anchored by Texas Kaos blogger Boadicea. Sponsored by Blue Indiana and Texas Kaos, the 50 State Blog Roundup is a podcast version of the news shared from the members of the 50 State Blog Project every week on participating blogs. Featured blogs from the Roundup this week include:
I've got a very special interview this week on Meet the Bloggers with Ted Johnson, the Managing Editor for the Daily and Weekly Variety entertainment industry newspaper.
Ted also blogs at WilshireandWashington.com, a Variety blog on the intersection of entertainment and politics. I'll also be hosting my fellow bloggers Sam Hasler from the Trifles in Anderson, IN blog and Matt Browner Hamlin, official blogger and video podcaster of the Chris Dodd for President campaign.
Ted and I had a wonderful conversation and I wanted to share with you all a sneek preview of what you'll hear this Sunday live on Meet the Bloggers at 12 noon EDT/9 am PDT, and podcast immediately following on iTunes and at our host page on Blog Talk Radio and here on Blue Indiana. Click the play button below to hear the preview.
We are now officially one week away from the launch on Blue Indiana and Blog Talk Radio of Meet the Bloggers, a new Sunday political round table talk show featuring guest panelists that are bloggers. The show will stream live every Sunday at 12 noon Eastern from Blog Talk Radio's servers which can be listened to using Windows Media Player. Mac users can download a converter that will allow them to listen using Quicktime.
The first show is entitled The Real Agenda and will feature an interview with Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend blog which will center around the GOP's use of sex and gender issues to divide and distract the voting public. We'll also get into GLBT and human rights issues, feminism in the 21st century and other topics.
Joining me for a live discussion will be guest panelists Blue Indiana's own Bil Browning of Bilerico and Melissa McEwen of Shakesville. Audience members are invited to call in to join our guest panelists and I for discussion of the topics on our show. For more information visit the Meet the Bloggers page on Blog Talk Radio.
We're now ten days out from the debut of the first ever Meet the Bloggers show on Blue Indiana. The format is similar to Meet the Press but instead of journalists as the round table discussion panelists, we will feature national and regional bloggers.
Today I am pleased to announce that Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend will be our first interview guest on Meet the Bloggers. Pam and I will be discussing a variety of topics and I look forward to a wonderful conversation with her. You should put this one on your calendars so you can catch this streaming audio talk show as it airs LIVE! from Blue Indiana at 12 noon EDT, on Sunday June 3rd.
Since this show will air live, we will be able to take calls from the audience during the panel discussion portion of the show. Get your dialing fingers warmed up and join us for the show one week from this Sunday.
In a press roundtable at the National Press Club tonight, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow led a discussion with White House correspondents about the impact of the internet on their respective jobs. Their conclusion? They don't like being challenged by blogs.
NBC News' David Gregory bemoaned how political coverage has "become so polarized in this country...because it's the internet and the blogs that have really used this White House press conferences to somehow support positions out in America, political views." Tony Snow admitted he sometimes reads blogs ("I'll occasionally punch it up") only to find "wonderful, imaginative hateful stuff that comes flying out."
[snip]
From the Transcript:
David Gregory, White House correspondent for NBC News:
"I think politics and political coverage has become so polarized in this country...because it's the internet and the blogs that have really used this White House press conferences to somehow support positions out in America, political views. And they will clip and digitize portions of these briefings to fit into their particular argument."
Richard Wolffe, White House correspondent for Newsweek:
"They want us to play a role that isn't really our role. Our role is to ask questions and get information. ... It's not a chance for the opposition to take on the government and grill them to a point where they throw their hands up and surrender. ... It's not a political exercise, it's a journalistic exercise. And I think often the blogs are looking for us to be political advocates more than journalistic ones."
SIGH. How dare we bloggers use official statements made by the White House during Press Conferences to, you know, "support positions out in America, political views." Wha-huh? As if what the WHITE HOUSE has to say on a subject isn't a political position with a political view!
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Late post I know but the show is starting in ten minutes as of this writing and we're gonna be talking about social networking and the impact it is having on political campaigns. My guests will be Dan Niswander a social networking maven from Indianapolis with an article coming out soon in NUVO on YouTube and the Art of Social Networking. My bloggers today will be Adam "clammy c" Lambert of Political Nexus and KPaul Mallasch of the Muncie Free Press. Tune in at our 
We are now officially one week away from the launch on Blue Indiana and 
