blogging

One of the things they tell you when you have any kind of activist training is how to do "the ask".  That is, explain why your cause is worth contributing to, and asking for money.  It's time to do that.

Tonight I'm going to ask you for money for two things.  One is for the Wisconsin senators who have had the nerve to stand up to Scott Walker, and have gone so far as to leave the state to delay the fast-track voting on this bill. We need to keep good senators in place in Wisconsin, and it would be great if you could make a contribution to them on behalf of the Wisconsin bloggers who have been bringing you coverage of the events in Madison for the last three days (It feels like weeks to me, but it's only been three days). Go to the block on the right to make a secure contribution through ActBlue to the Wisconsin Senate Caucus.  Or click here to go directly to our Wisconsin Blogger ActBlue Page.

Second - about those bloggers.  There are a lot of blog sites in the state that have been working very hard this week to keep you up-to-date.  The people at Uppity Wisconsin are part of that system.  Our bandwidth has gone through the roof recently, and we really could use a little money to stay on-line.  If you'd like to help support this sort of independent blogging, please make a small contribution.  Think what we could do if we could afford things like a real video camera.  Or gas. We try here to be supportive of progressive causes around the state, and a little cash would make it much easier to do that.  Please click on the donate link at the top of the page, or just go here.  We'd appreciate it, and it will help us stay Open For Business.  Just like Scott Walker wants.

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.

Many of you may have noticed the widget that has been displaying around this site for the last few weeks from RootsWire.org.  RootsWire is an exciting project that we've been working on in conjunction with many of the bloggers who are covering the Democratic Convention.  We are pulling together content from many of the best bloggers in the country in a single site, covering the convention from many angles, both in different parts of the planet and from different political viewpoints. This has been a great experience, and we're thrilled that so many well-known bloggers from around the world are participating. 

This has been (and continues to be) a lot of work, but it has also been a great experience.  We've been having weekly conference calls for the last few weeks and are getting to know each other, and share information (we're mostly still befuddled about what will happen once we get to Denver and are breathlessly awaiting more info from the Democratic Party).  

This is the first article in the Uppity Wisconsin Democratic Convention Coverage.

I'll be reporting from the Democratic Convention in Denver this August. I will be sending back reports, pictures, and video to Wisconsin. In return though, I'd like your help, dear readers. Help can take a lot of different forms:

Two recent decisions by the FEC have made it clear that bloggers are exempt from reporting regulations because we are media.

This clarifies several legal issues, and in the interests of bloggers and political web sites. The law suits in question suggested that bloggers need to be subject to FEC reporting regulations as if we were campaigners. The new FEC rulings make it clear that this is not the case, and the bloggers are exempt as are other forms of media.  See the link below.