To: Marketing departments at Gibson Guitars, Saab, Hecker & Koch, Schechter, Apple, Fender Guitars, Lenovo, Springfield Armory, The Saint Paul Hotel, Amazon.com, Mesa Amplifiers, NoodleCo, Cannondale Bikes, Fabrique Nationale, Best Buy, 1-800-FLOWERS, Sony, Guitar Center, Rainbow Foods, Schweize Industrie Gesellschaft, Jeep, Chipotle, Marshall Electronics, General NanoSysterms, Taqueria Pineda, Bentley, Marriott, ParaOrdinance, Kowalski’s Market, The Park South Hotel in Manhattan, Hamer Guitars, DOD Electronics, Colt Firearms, Line Six Amplifiers, Shure, Kelloggs, Kimber Firearms, Guild Guitars.

From: Mitch Berg

Re: Solving that pesky FTC issue.

All,

I’m not sure who did what to whom to get the FTC all up in your grille, but it musta been a doozy of a lie!

As part of its review of its advertising guidelines, the FTC is proposing that word-of-mouth marketers and bloggers, as well as people on social-media sites such as Facebook, be held liable for any false statements they make about a product they’re promoting, along with the product’s marketer. This could present a significant issue for marketers, including the likes of Microsoft, Ford and Pepsi, who spend billions on word-of-mouth and social media. PQ Media projects that marketers will spend $3.7 billion on word-of-mouth marketing in 2011.

At any rate – just to be safe (and protect your shareholders), feel perfectly free to dump whatever social networkers you’re working with now, and send products to me to review.  I guarantee absolute, fiercely-honest lawsuit-proof reviews of your products and services.
All of them.

It’s your fiduciary duty!

That is all.

I’m told that my post last week on the WaPo’s survey of “Best Political Blogs” pointed to last years’  poll, and that this years’ was still underway.

Well, no more!  The WaPo has released “The Fix” for 2009, and…

…well, let’s take a look: It’s time for “American Blog Idol, 2009!”  The people (who still read the WaPo) have spoken, and the winners are…:

MinnesotaMNPublius: Predictable, I suppose.
Minnesota Democrats Exposed: This only makes sense; it was by far the most influential blog in Minnesota this past year.
Minnesota Progressive Project: How’s the recovery from your stroke going, Mr. Cilizza?
Centrisity: Congrats to my friend and neighbor Flash.  I have to ask – is “Centrisity” a better, more influential blog than, say, “Powerline”?  Which doesn’t turn up on this list at all?
Dusty Trice: The “Cleversponge” of 2009.  Or maybe the Kevin McKay.  (“Clever Mc-Who?”  Exactly).
True North: Wow.  No idea how that leaked in there, but cool!
Politics in Minnesota: I guess this makes sense, although PIM’s influence isn’t mainly from the blog.  Still, they are a go-to source, even with Steve Perry on board.
The Uptake: Well, they’ve certainly accreted themselves a lot of airtime and mindshare over the past year.  I’ll give ’em that.

No Powerline.  No Ed Morrissey (although Hot Air isn’t based in Minnesota).  No TvM (itself a better, more influential blog than four of Cilizza’s “winners”).

Cilizza’s voters remind me of Franken voters in more ways than one…

“Ollie Ox” at “A Bluestem Prairie” – what is it with leftybloggers and anonymity? – has apparently realized that liberalism is a vapid mind-suck, and that her fellow liberal bloggers range from talentless ninniesm comically depraved hacks, and wannabee Frank Riches, and has decided to shutter her blog:

After posting at this blog for 2 years, 8 months, we’re feeling the need to spruce up the joint. Bluestem will be shuttered after today until June 1, when the blog will return as a venue for nonfiction essays about rural topics.Thanks for reading

OK, I made up the rationale. It seems to be in vogue.

Oh, all kidding aside, I’ve mixed it up with Bluestem Prairie in the past, but “Ollie” was one of very few anonymous leftybloggers who seemed not to abuse her anonymity as a cover for gutless, abusive hackery.  Why, it’s almost like she wrote stuff a normal person could attach a name to.

Hm. Radical concept.

Anyway, all the best.

(Two years and eight months?  Sheesh.  I can do that standing on my head).

Books about the ways, virtues and style of French women – French Women Don’t Get Fat, French Women Don’t Sleep Alone and so on are more or less the vogue (hah!) these days.

MOB blogger Space Beagel:is taking aim at the trend:

So that got me wondering about books regarding French Women. A search on Amazon.com produces 154 results but perhaps the inevitable next book was missing which I call:

“French Women Don’t Age or Die”

Such a title would help bring this genre to a close I believe!!

Aim true, buddy.  Aim true.

Just a couple of random points, given without any real reason.

Really.

1. I don’t control who writes at True North.  I am part of the eight-member ruling Junta that makes those calls.  I have never made a unilateral decision of any kind – over content, design, direction, naming – at True North, much less one over removing a post or a writer.  Not once.  Ever.
2. If there’s a person anywhere who has less power at True North, it’s my friend and former NARN colleague Michael Brodkorb from Minnesota Democrats Exposed.  Michael has never been involved with the inner workings at True North. Never.

So anyone who says that “Michael Brodkorb and Mitch Berg teamed up…” to do anything at True North is – I’ll be diplomatic, since that’s what I do – mistaken the first time they say it.  I’m willing to set ’em straight.

A second time?  That’s just making stuff up.

Again, I’m just speaking hypothetically.  It came to me in a dream.

That’s is all.

UPDATE:  Since Politics In Minnesota opted to feature the post that I’m answering with this article, I might as well say it; I’m responding to an inaccurate contention by Col. Joe Repya over at Eagle’s Nest.  It’s related to a flap that happened last winter, which I fully and accurately explained in this posting on True North.

I’m also disappointed that Col. Repya felt the need to resort to name-calling – especially inasmuch as calling me an apologist for the MNGOP establishment is just plain absurd.

Michael Brodkorb’s a friend of mine; but it’s also a matter of record that we’ve disagreed strenuously over quite a few things. But facts are facts; Brodkorb makes no editorial decisions at True North, and never has.

One is entitled to his own opinion, not one’s own facts. 

First things first; congrats to the MinnPost’s David Brauer on having his first ambulance ride end fairly benignly.

And yes – it is certainly a small world. Brauer called an ambulance after experiencing shortness of breath and chest pains:

The Minneapolis fire guys were there immediately; their quick read of my vitals didn’t scream heart attack. A minute or so later, the ambulance crew was on the scene. After being appraised of my non-demise, the crew’s paramedic asked me a question I wasn’t expecting:

“Hey David, do you recognize me?”

He did look vaguely familiar.

“Duke Powell.”

I laughed even though it hurt.

Although we’ve never met face-to-face, Duke and I are Twitter friends. Via @dbrauer, I follow him at @dukepowell.

The saga, to an extent, did play out on Twitter over the weekend.  Duke is a longtime friend of this blog, a former GOP representative from the Burnsville area who lost a heartbreaker of a race in 2006.

Burnsville’s loss is the first-responder profession’s gain, of course, as Brauer found:

Of course, politics doesn’t matter much when you’re strapped to a gurney and wheeled through the snow. But it was definitely reassuring to have a member of my social network be part of my survival network…Duke expertly threaded my IV (the nurses would later marvel at the precision), gave me the short course on nitroglycerin (a precaution; headaches approaching) and kept it light but not unprofessional. In short, his actions buttressed the trust we’d already established.

Brauer waxes just a tad philosophical:

Our politics are as different as can be (Duke was a conservative Republican legislator from Burnsville), but we’re both Coleman-Franken junkies. For some reason, Twitter has been a place where lefties and righties can actually talk to each other; perhaps it’s because the medium is young, or you pick who you follow.

There’s something to that – although Minnesota is blessed with many forums where people can talk across the aisle:  the Northern Alliance Radio Network earned kudos from Mayor Rybak for our interview with him; the MDE/MNPublius Happy Hour last summer was a lot of fun.  And this Saturday’s MOB party should be like all previous ones; a fun, utterly civil time for everyone involved.

Oh, yeah – there’s more good news; Duke’s finally blogging:

If you want to read Duke’s version, check out his new Ambulance Driver blog. I’m Patient #5 on Feb. 27. Don’t worry; Duke doesn’t violate patient confidentiality here — I’m the one outing myself.

Hope both Brauer and Powell can show up on Saturday, and re-enact the scene – substituting Guinness for the nitro, natch.

Charlie Quimby notes that Athis blog is blocked on the wifi system at Denver international:

Not sure if it’s the headline, the post or the general content of Shot in the Dark. Or just general prudery.

Hm.  How to approach this?

I’ll let each of the voices in my head have a say:

• Marketer Mitch: [Wockawocka bow bow] “The ladies’ve been talking…”
• Kos Diarist Mitch: ACTION ALERT!  PRESIDENT JUGHEAD IS REPRESSING TEH OPPOSITION!
• Aaron Landry Mitch: “It’s Norm Coleman’s fault.  I hate him more every day.”
• Joe Mitch Bodell: “Open a new socket, Chloe!”
• Bulgarian Mitch: “Вие не виждате, че всеки ден…”

Charlie eventually chalks it up to the material in the comment thread.

I knew it; Angryclown and Swiftee are FCC plants.

Happy Birthday to The Night Writer, the first family of the MOB and and one of the best blogs that came out of the “Class of 2005”!

Here’s to four more years.  Or, y’know, more, if it pans out.  Y’know.

Joe “Chloe” Bodell at Minnesota Short Bus – a “blog” that hosts 9/11 truther Grace Kelly, the always indignant-to-the-point-of-incontinence anonyblogger “Two Putt Tommy” [blogging motto: “Rage is evidence!”] and Eric “Big” Pusey,  “writes”:

The political media establishment in Washington D.C. is increasingly disconnected from reality.

The sky turned blue tomorrow.

…that claims to be led by, and composed of, “smart” people, you have to admire the Liberal movement for making room for so many of the not-so-bright-American community.

Before I forget – today’s my BlogBirthday. 

I’ve related the story a time or two; it was seven years ago today, whilst working at a rapidly-failing dotcom, that I read an article at Time Magazine about Andrew Sullivan and (here’s a time-capsule piece for you) the new breed of young conservative intellectuals…

…which featured a bit about Sullivan’s blog.  Which I read…

…and, after the kids were in bed, I hurried out to Blogger.com, set up the original Shot In The Dark, and scrambled to write my first post.

Anyway – thanks for keeping me company all this time!

Joel Rosenberg remembers things that I just don’t.

Tiger Lily at Night Writer’s “Anerex(st)ics Inaneymous” is, along with Swiftee’s “Life In The Dumpster” and Joe Tucci’s “Fleen”, a member of the least exclusive club in the world, “Cartoons that are better than Kein Weiner can draw”.

It’s all stick figures.  It’s all in what’s left out, obviously.

And I loved this one:

Can’t hardly wait until the movie rights get optioned.

Joe “Learned Foot” Tucci at KAR despatches the latest leftyblog blood libel group seizure – in this case, last week’s Eva-Young-like outburst on MNPublius over Norm Coleman’s recount site crashing:

Landry’s lying (or, alternatively he’s just another dumbass political hack) (or both, actually). Here’s why:

Crashing tends to happen to websites not designed to handle 100,000 visitors at once, when Drudge sends 100,000 visitors at them.

Aaron Landry: lying liar telling lies. Liar.

And when one leftyblog writes something?  They all do, natch:

UPDATE: Well of course SorosNet would copy and paste the Franken version of the story without asking questions. That’s what they get paid for. Because, you know, crashing has never ever happened to a website before now.

Leftyblogs:  Distrust but verify.  And then distrust some more.

…don’t try this…

He bought about $20 worth of bacon and Italian sausage from a local meat market. As it lay on the counter, he thought of weaving strips of raw bacon into a mat. The two spackled the bacon mat with a layer of sausage, covered that with a crunchy layer of cooked bacon, and rolled it up tight.

They then stuck the roll — containing at least 5,000 calories and 500 grams of fat — in the Good-One Open Range backyard smoker that they use for practice. (In competitions, they use a custom-built smoker designed by the third member of the team, Bryant Gish, who was not present at the creation of the Bacon Explosion.)

Mr. Day said his wife laughed the whole time. “She’s very supportive of my hobby,” he said.

…then I sure can’t.

My intestines are rebelling just looking at it.

Although my taste buds are ready to go all Jack Bauer on my lower digestive tract…

I smell Patriot party!

Steve “Mister Furious” Perry, who spent many years as one of the Twin Cities’ better journalist while the editor of the City Pages, several months as a lone crank at The Daily Mole, and about a year editing a bald-faced propaganda mill at the Minnesoros “Independent”, has not only gigged up, but done it in some style, landing both at the MinnPost  and at Sarah Janecek’s Politics in Minnesota.

Congrats, Steve Perry. Let’s hope you can get back to form.
David Brauer reflects (dimes will get you dollars) the mainstream view among the Twin Cities’ landed punditry in this MinnPost bit that proves that Brauer is from Planet Dinkytown:

It’s great news on several fronts. Perry is a polemicist of the best sort, equally at home excoriating ideological Republicans and hypocritical Democrats.

I suppose when your perspective is from as far to the left as Brauer’s it’s possible to say that with a straight face.   And as I’ve noted probably more than any other Twin Cities pundit (certainly more than any on the right), Perry has had his moments; indeed, a 1994 City Pages piece on concealed carry (which, if memory serves, Perry wrote) was just about the first genuinely balanced look at the subject in the Twin Cities mainstream media.
But let’s quit blowing sunshine; Perry would never have gotten a job at a George Soros propaganda mill like the “Independent” if his record had been anywhere close to genuinely balanced from the point of view of someone closer to the mythical center than Brauer.
“But Mitch – how far is Brauer from that mythical center?”  Read on:

(Indeed, his willingness to do the latter is a big reason he separated from his last bosses at the harm-no-progressive Minnesota Independent.) With an ideological governor, a so-far-cautious DFL legislature and a gaping budget deficit, Perry’s insights have never been more timely.

Pawlenty is ideological?

Never mind…

Not to be underestimated is the entertainment factor. PIM publisher Sarah Janecek’s last pairing with a true lefty — her KTLK radio show with Brian Lambert — ended in Aykroyd-Curtin bickering that was epic and horrifying to watch.

The show was kind of a mess – I wrote about it a few years ago –  but not because of the ideologies involved; while Lambert makes Brauer and Perry look like Scoop Jackson and Sam Nunn, Janecek – a good friend of this blog and the NARN, by the way – is no hard-line conservative.  A great writer, a force of nature, one of Minnesota’s great political personalities, yes, but she’s no Ann Coulter (whom I’d pay to  hear co-hosting a show with, and flensing, Lambert).

Like matter and antimatter, this latest strong-willed combo could end up annihilating the universe, but would be a clickfest before the world explodes.

“Annihilating the universe?”  Wow – y’all are hard-up for ratings!

Have no fear; the online world is a lot more controllable than radio.

Anyway, best of luck to Sarah and Steve and the whole PIM crew.

“Casual Sundays with Mr. Curry” by “MLP” is a great blog.

But it’s always been missing…something.  I didn’t even notice, for years…

…and now, it’s fixed!

My friend Fran just taught me how to link.  Turns out it was slightly easier than learning how to use a spoon.

I am unstoppable now.

So we hope!

Note to Twin Cities’ Leftybloggers:  Please, please try to get your facts straight when you want to try to noodle about with issues I genuinely care about.  You might get Haugenned.

Fair warning.

Liberal in the Land of Conservative writes:

HOLY CRAP, the Democratic leadership in Congress is pushing the Fairness Doctrine. Who are the magical creatures that can pass a doctrine without nary a bill in existence?

Dear LITLOC:  Congresspeople, thanks to the miracle of “voices”, the “First Amendment” and “the Media”, can say things outside the context of “bills”.  For example, they can tell a reporter “It’s time to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine. I have this old-fashioned attitude that when Americans hear both sides of the story, they’re in a better position to make a decision.”  That’d be Dick “Turban” Durbin.  Bear in mind, he said that without authoring a bill on the subject.

Yet.

And – just so’s you learn something, LITLOC – let’s be clear; Congress needn’t pass a single bill to reinstate the “Fairness” Doctrine.  If Obama puts three pro-Doctrine members on the FCC Board, the “Doctrine” can become fact again by executive fiat; no legislation will be needed, beyond confirmation hearings.  This, indeed, is the most dangerous scenario for supporters of free speech; Obama (and the smarter Dems) don’t want to pee on the third rail by legislating censorship – but how much political capital do you think Obama will burn getting in the way of an allied bureaucracy doing it for them?

Seriously, I thought Mitch Berg was supposed to be the smart one.

Among conservative bloggers?  No. I’m the cute one.

Compared to Twin Cities’ leftybloggers?  In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

Do your homework, kids.  You’re gonna need to.

One of the reasons I always liked being a solo blogger (until Johnny Roosh joined the staff last summer) was that miscommunications among contributors were pretty rare.

Of course, with bigger blogs, it’s not always quite so easy.

Over at True North, I comment on a flap between two of my favorite regional bloggers; my friend and NARN colleague (for the rest of the week, anyway) Michael Brodkorb, and Col. Joe Repya.  The flap grew into a few questions about how True North does business – partly with the prodding of some Twin Cities leftybloggers who, like addled kittens who see a shiny bit of foil, are trying to romp and cavort about the “story”.

I try to answer them.

It hardly seems like it’s been three years since the staff of this blog issued the first-ever “Shot In The Dark Academy Of Blogging Art, Science and Engineering Awards For MetaJournalistic AntiExcellence” – known and loved as the “Shooties”. During those three years, the online metajournalistic world has expanded – and, like a Peter-Principled fog, opportunities for really bad metajournalism have expanded anon.

And so, last night at a gala at Northrop Auditorium, the staff of Shot In The Dark and an assembled audience of 3,000 of the creme de la creme of the elite of the elite gathered to bestow these awards, and to look ahead to next year. It was a dazzling display of fashion and blogging star power (marred only slightly by JB Doubtless’ tipsy recitation of his favorite slam poetry of 2006) highlighted by appearances by Marisa Tomei, Metallica and beer expert Michael Jackson.

(Technical awards were given the previous week at the Minneapolis Grayhound station, and were all won by Joe Bodell).

And so without further ado – a tradition unlike many others: The Shootie Awards for 2008!

The Andy Dick Whiny B**ch Award For B***hy Whinyness: Need I say more?

The Daniel Pearl Profiles in Journalistic Courage Award: This one goes to Molly “Is It White In Here” Priesmeyer of the Minnesoros “Independent”. Last March, she wrote:

…it’s at least refreshing to see McCain’s teeth get a razzing (though, unfortunately, not a cleaning). It gets a little tiring listening to the same sexist cries that Hillary Clinton is just too ugly to be president. Hatin’ on the looks of all the candidates? Now that’s equality!

The next day, she noted to MDE that, schwoops, she wasn’t aware that McCain’s teeth had been beaten out of his face while a POW in Vietnam:

I was not aware of the fact. I simply was linking to a post that revealed “his teeth” had become a topic of discussion on the blogosphere. Buzzfeed.com is an aggregator site that collects trends of the day.

The “Mindy” – all the news that’s fit for rich liberals to pay you to link to!

The Leona Helmsley “Accountability For Ye, but Not For We” Award: Last March, the Minnesoros Monitor “Independent”‘s Andy Birkey chided Rep. Michele Bachmann for eschewing appearances on the local tanning-bed media, preferring to stick to conservative and Christian news outlets (an approach that was pretty roundly vindicated closer to election time). I asked Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senate Candiate Al Franken, Representatives Keith Eillson and Betty McCollum, and mayors R.T Rybak and Chris Coleman for interviews on the NARN or, if their schedules didn’t permit, on my blog.

Mayor Rybak earned my respect by accepting the invitation.

None of the others responded to repeated inquiries.

The Cliff Clavin Award For Unintentional Comedic Self-Glamorization: Grace Kelly at MNBlue MnProgressiveProject some wackjob commieblog knows who the real heroes are.

DFL volunteers.

The Mao Zhedong “We Are Identically Diverse” Award: Lori Sturdevant has given so much to this award ceremony every year; she’s a serious contender for a lifetime achievement award. This years’ paeon to “feminist unity” (behind left-leaning women only, naturally) was just one of dozens of potential choices from her oeuvre this past year.

The Baghdad Bob “We’re Not Laughing With You, We’re Laughing At You” Award: Mere weeks after the Minnesoros “Independent” laid off much of its staff at the behest of the “Center for “Independent” Media” (causing editor Steve Perry to realize that he’d been running a bald-faced propaganda rag roughly two years after every other person in the Twin Cities had twigged to the fact), Chris Steller complained unironically that the Coleman campaign was tossing the utterly dependent Steller from press conferences. (The NARN is still waiting on press credentials from Keith Ellison).

Post Title Of The Year: While there were the usual avalanche of contenders, I found nothing better than Mr. Dilettante’s “Jesus Christ Oberstar“.

The Martin Luther King/Sermon On The Mount Award For Political Civility: Aaron Landry – MNPublius’ designated wind-up Frankenblogger – brought political discourse to a higher level.

The “Dewey Wins” Award For Gate-Keeping and Fact-Checking – This years’ award goes to the Minnsoros “Independent” (nee Monitor), for Dan Haugen’s “It Could Be Worse“. Background: during the spring legislative session, Rep. Tony Cornish (R – Good Thunder) sponsored a bill that would have clarified Minnesota’s rules for armed self-defense. While the rest of the Minnesota Sorosphere turned to actively lying about Cornish’s bill (see “Government Figure As Mushroom Farmer”, below), Haugen tried to wax humorous, snickering that at least Minnesotans weren’t proposing allowing guns in bars, like a bill in Tennessee proposed.

Unfortunately, being a highly trained “independent” “citizen journalist”, Haugen couldn’t be bothered to have found out that legal, unintoxicated (blood alcohol below .04%) permit holders are allowed to carry guns in bars in Minnesota.

The “C’mon, Thomas Jefferson – Work With King George!” Award: To the entire Twin Cities media and leftymedia (pardon the redundancy), for their nonstop pressure on the GOP to not just forgive and forget the Override Six for stabbing their party and constituents in the back, but to pretty much become DFLers anyway. As usual.

Government Official As Mushroom Farmer Award: This one goes to Dakota County Attorney Jim Backstrom, in his response to Rep. Cornish’s bill. Backstrom demonstrates the old adage – if you can’t dazzle ’em with brilliance, just lie, since the media will back you up anyway.

And finally, the big kahuna – the one we’ve been waiting for all year:

The Charles Townsend Award – In 1765, British parliamentarian Charles Townsend, in noting the Colonies’ protests against the Stamp Act, said:

“And now will these Americans, Children planted by our Care, nourished up by our Indulgence until they are grown to a Degree of Strength & Opulence, and protected by our Arms, will they grudge to contribute their mite to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden which we lie under?”

And this year’s winner is…

(Drum Roll)

Larry Pogemiller, “I think it’s simplistic and naive to say people can spend their money better than the government.”

That’s it for this year, folks! But stay tuned – 2009 promises to be a doozy!

ALSO:  Swiftee is giving out awards, too – and unlike the autocratic Shooties, you have a say!

 It’s just an innocuous column about blogging, people…: 

In the last few weeks, I’ve scoured the Minnesota blogsophere, finding more than 500 blogs with some kind of tie to the state.

What I’ve discovered is that just beneath the surface of our media consciousness is an incredible community of mothers, athletes, comedians, professionals, farmers, mayors, teachers and many more who are putting the stories of their lives online for the world to read about.

Who is this person who’s just discovered Minnesota’s huge, vital blog scene?   My parents?  Someone who’s been in an underwater lab since before Matt Drudge first put finger to keyboard?

No.  It’s Justin Piehowski, who “was most recently Web Manager at KSTP-TV for four years where he won five Regional Emmy Awards, including one for Best News Web site in the Midwest for 2007.”  

Those Hubbards must have kept him busy.

Anyway, now he’s with the MinnPost, the regional web news outlet that, unlike the Minnesoros “Independent”, wasn’t started purely to be a propaganda outlet – but it’s published by former Strib editor Joel Kramer, who is affiliated with all sorts of “progressive” groups.  

And part of his mission is to watch blogs.  And dang – it seems he’s noticed this newfangled “blog” thing:

Americans are creating blogs at a scorching pace. Technorati.com estimates that there are nearly 23 million bloggers in the United States and nearly three-quarters of all active Internet users read at least one blog regularly. The number of blogs worldwide is believed to be approaching 200 million, according to Universal McCann.

While the definition of a blog — short for web-log — is still very unclear…

 Really?

…there’s no question that they are having a profound impact on communication in the United States and the world.

Every day, the seeds of dozens of major mainstream media stories are planted in blogs. Gov. Sarah Palin even called the blogger at Draft Sarah Palin after her selection as Sen. John McCain’s running mate to thank him for his support.

The hell you say!

Are you saying that bloggers – even Minnesota bloggers – might just be starting to have an impact on things in Minnesota, or nationwide, or even around the world?

Let me make a note of that.

Now, to be fair(ish), Justin’s mission seems to be largely to call attention to blogs a little off the beaten path – because you might not have known this, but people do occasionally write about things other than politics. That could be a good thing.

Still, Piehowski  seems to have taken  on a little more than “tour guide” to his brief:

So, who’s calling out bloggers when they misstep? Conversely, who is lauding the good moves that bloggers make?

Er…our audiences?  Other bloggers?  Everyone who gives a rip about the subject that happens by the blog?

Here’s the part that I – and not a few other readers – found interesting: 

Let me first point out a few things that you won’t find much of in the Minnesota Blog Cabin.

Harsh political blogs: Left or right, if you’re more interested in bashing those you disagree with than producing thoughtful, original content, I am not interested.

“Harsh” is one of those things like “balance”; nobody can define it, but everyone knows it when they see it; and most people see it most easily when it’s their ox being gored.  Most Twin Cities leftybloggers think – indeed, seem to chant – that Michael Brodkorb is “harsh”; that he goes beyond merely exposing the (myriad) misdeeds of Minnesota Democrats and gets into personal attacks.  These same bloggers will think that, say, PZ Meyers is funny.  It goes both ways, of course; conservatives tolerate Ann Coulter, while liberals think she’s worse than Pol Pot.

So while I have no idea what trips Justin Piehowski’s definition of “harsh”, the fact that he  works for the MinnPost might in itself be a tell.

That, and the fact that he admits in the comments that he “Love[s] the Blog House”, the Strib’s misbegotten, relentlessly-DFL-leaning, and seemingly-identical column about blogs.

Anyway, Justin – welcome to this newfangled world.  While you’re here, you’ll notice that we have some weird neighbors.

For example, Andy Birkey, formerly and currently with the Minnesoros “Independent” (note to Justin; they are not “independent” in the least.  You will find that a bit of a paradox), who reviews Piehowski’s column and notices:

 Its name bears a striking resemblance to another political blog:  Blog Cabin, the blog of national gay group, the Log Cabin Republicans.

Oooh!  A conspiracy!

That’s harsh!

Birkey links to “Bluestem Prairie”, where “Ollie Ox” writes:

It’s just so messy; these bloggers who have been known to call other writers wankers and worse. You’d think that we didn’t care about Minnesota when we do that.

Fortunately, relief is on its way from the menace of reckless blogging. MinnPost has hired a blog nanny to watch over those of us who presumed to set up blogs without asking permission.

 Justin:  you’ll find some of the local leftybloggers are a tad overdramatic.

Anyway, welcome to this crazy wacky world, Justin.   Oh, and I’m not “harsh”. I’m “gleeful”. There’s a difference

Red, writing about her nephew:

Cashel and the three kids were playing down the hall and we could hear some ruckus going on. Justin went to check, came back and said, “It’s fine. They’re just playing Somali Pirates.”

A few years back, I had a conversation with a friend of mine, a psychologist by trade. 

He was talking about a client of his who’d spent twenty or so years in US Army Special Forces – a “Green Beret”, specializing in “unconventional warfare” around the world.  This client had spent most of his career in Latin America – and while the closest he’d come to fighting an actual “war” was in Panama, he’d apparently spent a long time in a lot of pseudo-war situations.  My friend didn’t go into many details, but Latin America from the late seventies through the mid-nineties was full of brushfire wars and counterinsurgencies where the USSF was involved to one level or another, training local troops and working with local communities.  While they weren’t “at war”, per se, there was apparently enough danger involved that the client spent a good chunk of his twenties and thirties operating on some sort of war footing. 

The problems – for the client – started when he got out of the service.  He’d spent the best years of his life, literally and figuratively, in one Latin-American insurgency zone or slum or another, looking over his back and watching for threats around every corner as he did his job, training local soldiers and building things and giving vaccinations and whatever else Green Berets did when they were on the job in the Third World toward the end of the Cold War.  He’d spent so much time doing that that it became normal for him; when he got out of the Army, he missed it. 

So the client had spent several  years of his post-service life, my friend said, putting himself into situations where he felt that little stab of danger, where he got to exercise his self-preserving habits; he lived in the worst possible neighborhoods; he hung out at the worst bars; he did whatever it took to keep himself on that “war footing”. 

To do anything else just didn’t feel normal.

The post-election hangover on a blog is sort of like that.  Win (’02, ’04) or lose (’06 and ’08), there’s a huge letdown and readjustment, as the fever-pitch of excitement fades into the post-election waiting for the new regime (or the new take on the current regime) to take hold. 

This past election was the fourth election cycle this blog has been through.  Every year, a number of new political blogs fade out after the election; without an election, what do you write about?  Not me, of course – I’ve been doing this long enough to know the pattern, so it doesn’t especially faze me.  But there’s always a period of readjustment, as one switches from the always-on mental scrum of writing about politics-as-current events, and switches to politics-as-daily-routine, along with writing about all of life’s other routines.  Or, y’know, not writing about them; there are bloggers for whom politics is the only subject.

The readjustment is particularly jarring this time around.  This electoral season was so intense, so fraught with consequence on both sides, and just-plain more-engrossing than the last couple of turns.  We’ve spent most of the last year writing about what has been was supposed to be an epochal generational and social shift in American politics; going from that epic clash to two years of talking about congressional maneuvering is a jarring shift.

The readjustment is coming along, though. 

Although I can hardly wait for 2010…

There is so much stuff I’m thankful for, honestly

One of them is that my world isn’t so utterly, pathetically, hatefully small that I get off on the kinds of things Steve “Spotty” Timmer seems to. Steve is upset because, after years of being able to slime people (including his neighbors) from the cover of his precious anonymity, my friend Swiftee outed him in the comment section of this blog last week. 

As a part of his job (about which more below), Mr. Timmer has the ability to find, and misuse, all sorts of information.  And he’s pretty sure he has a bunch of it.

Oh all right. Tings like criminal operation of a motor vehicle, and za probation violation. And ja judgments for unpaid bills! Tings like multiple drunken driving convictions. Tings like driving mit out za license. Za blogging on company time; za trash house chronicles and za failure to support za pups.

Timmer refers to “glass houses” in his piece, apparently oblivious to the cheap irony; I’ve always used my real name, with all that that’s entailed in terms of “public risk”. He’s the one who’s always felt he had stuff to hide.  (More cheap irony; I met him earlier this year at Flash’s place.  We actually hit it off pretty well.  As I noted at the time, when I meet bloggers I disagree with, it’s usually much easier for me to treat them as humans rather than cheap stereotypes; Timmer apparently didn’t feel that way, taking some really cheap shots at me shortly thereafter.  I made noises about “outing” “him” at the time – and got a panicky-sounding email from him, all but begging me not to “out” his precious identity; he  really really preferred to remain anonyous.  The cheapest irony of all?  I hadn’t actually heard his name at Flash’s, and had at that point no idea who he was).

Since I’ve always blogged under my real name, every wart on my public record is pretty much available for the asking – so kudos to Steve’s awesome investigative chops!  And yep – I’ve had a wart or two.  Maybe we’ll touch on a couple of ’em in the next day or two, if Timmer really is as nekulturnii as he says “he’ll” be.

But I can say I’m proud about a couple of things, and do it with a straight face.

Here’s a big one – while I’ve mixed it up the “opposition” pretty gleefully (and for the most part they, like Timmer, deserve the “irony quotes”), I’ve upheld one standard; I’ve left other peoples’ families and livelihoods out of my blog.  Nobody – nobody, even gutless trolls like Timmer or Diane “Minnesota Observer” Gerth, deserves to have their families or their livelihoods attacked over what is, at the end of the day, a hobby.  I’ve upheld the Golden Rule, treating others the way I’d hope to be treated; I have no problem with people mixing it up with my politics, my choice in guitars, my taste in baseball – I am more than a match for anyone on any of those topics.  And on the other hand, I’ve kept my hands off of other peoples’ families, private lives, jobs and outside-of-blogging lives pretty religiously.

And I’ll continue to.

Because I am better than that.

And by “that”, I mean “I’m a better writer and a better man than Steve “Spotty” Timmer”.

 And that’ll be true no matter what Timmer and his little pack of gutless anonymous trolls think they can pull out.