blogging

I need some help here, folks, in a few areas.

First, a question. What is the community view of allowing right-wing attack posts from people like Randy Right? My current position is to grudgingly permit them, unless they are intolerably obnoxious. That said, I routinely change headlines to suit my preferences, as would any managing editor.

Second, a request. If the site is running slow, which it does sometimes, please don't click "Save" for your post multiple times. When that happens, somebody has to fix it (usually me) by deleting your multiple posts or comments. Any help you can provide in cleaning up after yourself will be appreciated.

Third, if you are a serial anonymous troll, please go away. We will put up with a lot, but one thing we will not tolerate is intentional deception by people who have been previously blocked. We are currently looking into whether such behavior constitutes online stalking, which is illegal in North Carolina.

A bit more discussion below the fold.

Our favorite irascible media tyrant is in the news once again, and once again it’s time for me to bring you a story of doing one thing while wishing for another.

In a November 6th interview, Sky News Australia’s David Speers spent about 35 minutes with the CEO of NewsCorp, Rupert Murdoch; the conversation covering topics as diverse as software piracy, world economics, the role of Fox News (and Fox NewsPinion©) in American politics, a strange defense of Glenn Beck, and, not very long afterwards, an even stranger defense of immigration.

We have heard a lot about the…how can I put this politely…challenges Murdoch seems to face associating factual reality with his reality, and we could have lots of fun going through his factual misstatements—but instead, I want to take on one specific issue today:

Rupert Murdoch says he hates it when people steal his content from the Internet to draw readers to their sites…which is funny, if you think about it, because he has no problem at all stealing my content (and lots of yours, as well) for his sites.

(To be

It has been an amazing week in Iran, and you are no doubt seeing images that would have been unimaginable just a few weeks ago.

For most of us, Iran has been a country about which we know very little…which, obviously, makes it tough to put the limited news we’re getting into a proper context.

The goal of today’s conversation is to give you a bit more of an “insider look” at today’s news; and to do that we’ll describe some of the risks Iranian bloggers face as they go about their business, we’ll meet a blogging Iranian cleric, we’ll address the issue of what tools the Iranians use for Internet censorship and the companies that could potentially be helping it along, and then we’ll examine Internet traffic patterns into and out of Iran.

Finally, a few words about, of all things, how certain computer games might be useful as tools of revolution.

The for-profit blogging network, Politicker has closed most of its sites. In this article at Politico, the bloggers are referred to as "reporters." The same is true at Talking Points Memo.

It doesn't matter what we call ourselves, running an operation like this for profit is next to impossible. When Pajamas Media started up, Roger Simon lured a large number of conservative bloggers from BlogAds with the promise of a stream of advertising dollars and apparently some subsidizing. That doesn't appear to have worked out too well for them. Wolcott had some fun with the demise of the PJM blog network. The B-Listers weren't happy.

I'm going out on a limb here and just say it. If you're an elected official and you aren't blogging already just skip it. No disrespect to bloggers. I consider myself one. I love them. I love BlueNC. But times are changing and the tempo is speeding up!

A new site called Tweet Congress lists all the Congresspeople who tweet. This is a serious case of you waited too long and technology lapped ya. Don't feel bad. Tech is fast.

So you may ask, "What the hell is Twitter?" This video can explain it.

Governor Bev Perdue set out to change the way many things are done in North Carolina and she's changing the way we will communicate with the Governor's office. Bev started a blog.

Most of you here probably received the email from the Governor's office yesterday. If not, here's the juicy part outlining what she did on her first day as Governor:

1. Set up a Governor’s Task Force for the Development of an Endowment for Positive Gubernatorial Campaigns

Pam's House Blend makes the WRAL local news website.

I thought some of y'all would be interested in this revival of the Tarheel Tavern: