Blogs and Virginia politics

Today's Richmond Times Dispatch (hat tip to VB Dems) surveyed the growing impact of various Internet on political races in Virginia. From issue monitoring to constituent feedback to fundraising, the possibilities are multiplying continually, and so are the dangers. When word of George Allen's "macaca" gaffe spread like wildfire thanks to YouTube last August, he didn't seem to know what hit him. As Shaun Kenney, former blogger and newly appointed communications director for the Republican Party of Virginia, said: "Ignore the blogs at your own peril." Being old-fashioned and quite pressed for time as it is, I steer clear of trendy networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube, but who knows, maybe I'll cave in some day.

It's nice that Republicans in the Old Dominion are finally getting up to speed with the blogosphere, just as I am setting aside trepidations and getting up to speed with the blogosphere in Virginia. I spent a good two years or more trying to push local Republicans into grasping the potential for blogs (e.g., Ra^thergate, in 2004) and Internet technology (e.g., swacgop.org, and last year the message finally started to spread. Better late than never. Of course, many older folks (and even some young ones) still think the Internet is an amusing novelty or trivial diversion, but the smart ones know otherwise. The big question for the future is how will the blogosphere "police" itself so that disreputable or slanderous blogs don't get as much exposure as the ones with higher standards.

Plug for Sen. Hanger

A letter from Bea Morris in today's News Leader expressed appreciation to State Sen. Emmett Hanger for his support for retired teachers in Virginia. He sponsored a bill that raised the health insurance credit for retired teachers, bringing them up to par with retired state employees. Most people will never know the sacrifices in life that teachers have to endure so that the next generation will receive a good education. Fortunately, some of our legislators do know.

Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 14 Mar 2007, 9: 36 PM .

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My blog practices

My general practice is to make no more than one blog post per day on any one category. For this reason, some blog posts may address more than one specific issue, as indicated by separate headings. If something important happens during the day after I make a blog post, I may add an updated paragraph or section to it, using the word "UPDATE" and sometimes a horizontal rule to distinguish the new material from the original material. For each successive day, blog posts are listed on the central blog page (which brings together all topics) from top to bottom in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the order in which the posts were originally made:

Wild birds (LAST)
War
Science & Technology *
Politics
Latin America
Culture & Travel *
Canaries ("Home birds")
Baseball (FIRST)

* part of "Macintosh & Miscellanous" until Feb. 2007

The date of each blog post refers to when the bulk of it was written, in the Eastern Time Zone. For each blog post, the time and date of the original posting (or the last update or comment thereupon) is displayed on the individual archival blog post page that appears (just before the comments section) when you click the [LINK / comments] link next to the date. Non-trivial corrections and clarifications to original blog entries are indicated by the use of [brackets] and/or ~~strikethroughs~~, as appropriate so as to accurately convey both the factual truth and my original representation of it. Nobody's perfect, but I strive for continual improvement. That is also why some of the nature photos that appear on the archive pages may differ from the (inferior) ones that were originally posted.

The current "home made" blog organization system that I created, featuring real permalinks, was instituted on November 1, 2004. Prior to that date, blog posts were handled inconsistently, and for that reason the pre-2005 archives pages are something of a mess. Furthermore, my blogging prior to June 1, 2004 was often sporadic in terms of frequency.

Blog errata
(preliminary)

April 4, 2008: "Andy Ashby" should be "Andy Jones"

April 3, 2010: "Mike Morgan" should be "Nyjer Morgan"

: "" should be ""

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