Hello from Austin, TX!

I'm still having a little bit of a hard time believing that I'm actually in frakkin' Texas. Talk about a state I never expected to visit. Anyway I'm here at Netroots Nation, THE epicenter of new progressive movement created, fueled and expanded by the liberal bloggers.

So, anyway here's a couple pics I've taken:
Lobby at the Hilton


Checkin


Convention Center sign #1


Convention Center sign #2


Darcy Burner checking in.


Our fearless leader of the DNC, Howard Dean


The pic that is not here is of Markos Moulitsas (founder of DailyKos, one of the founding fathers/mothers of the liberal blogosphere). I was walking along when he came up the escalator right beside me, but he was with his wife (I think) and carrying his child, didn't seem appropriate to take a picture. I would make a lousy paparrazi.

More to come, I'm hungry.

OH NOES!!!

Two of my favorite blogs, Wonkette and Gridskipper have been sold from the Gawker media empire. Hopefully the new owners don't change too much. Although they could change the tags of Gridskipper, apparently DC posts are tagged, Washington, Washington-d.c. and Washington-dc.

Hope, people!

After Obama crushes McCain in the general it can be said that the netroots (internet based grassroots blogging activists) have arrived. And the traditional media and the political consultants will become second tier. What makes me say this? Oh, only that Obama has now passed the 1,000,000 individual donor mark. We, the people, own this.

Peace Takes Courage

Indeed it does Ava and you've got it. A 16 year old with an anti-war message in the deep south. That takes huge cajones.

Peace Takes Courage blog
Mother Jones' article about Ava and the site.

Ava's most recent video:
California Dreaming?


And a "comments" video. These are comments she has received on her site, unreal.

New Media vs. Old Media, Post 0

A couple nights ago I went out to dinner with my parents to celebrate my birthday and my Dad's. During the conversation I mentioned how much I enjoyed this blogging thing which led to a more general discussion of blogging and its effect. Ok, in reality it led to one of my usual rants about my disdain for the mainstream media (henceforth MSM). Mom objected to this rant for two reasons: first, on general grounds MSM is better than blogs; second, on a personal level I am depressingly negative.

This series, "New Media vs. Old Media" is my response to the first claim. Like the "Language Lessons" series this is a subject which I think about a lot and so hopefully will have a new post at least on a weekly basis. Some of the topics I plan to address are the "liberal media" myth, fact-checking, journalistic integrity, opinion vs. reporting, money and journalism, "civility", the importance of MSM, why MSM needs to survive, how MSM can survive, right wing blogs vs. left wing blogs, the mainstreaming of blogs, and more.

As to the second claim, well, I'll address it in a post that I am currently writing but haven't yet finished entitled "Negativity: the new Positivity".

Cheers.