The Atlantic - Latest Comments in A point about the beauty of blogging

Re: A point about the beauty of blogging

tcole — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:23:22 -0000

I enjoy your blog for a pair of reasons that continue to shine brighter than all others:

Your remarkable ability to link the premise of a post with a single hip-hop verse.

And through your posts, you're able to push that fragile balance between job, woman, home, kid, errands, emergencies, and passions onto your audience.

Re: A point about the beauty of blogging

James — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:08:55 -0000

Are you going for 'anecdote equals equivalence' him JimS?

Both parties do it. One does it far, far more than the other, and (perhaps more importantly) is also much better at it.

Re: A point about the beauty of blogging

benj — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 14:08:11 -0000

Mr Coates, Your blog is excellent. Cover what you want to cover, when you want to cover it, at the pace that seems right to you. Most people read blogs because of the continual updates, the "fresh" perspectives on what's happening, and the particular slant that the blogger brings. Your blog is refreshing, often hilarious, and now my favorite of all the Atlantic blogs (I bounced over to you from Sullivan's, who I've been reading for years).

Sometimes when I hit refresh and you haven't updated since my last read, I get irritated! Keep up the good work!

Re: A point about the beauty of blogging

JimS — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:53:05 -0000

"There is clearly one party that is getting out the vote, and another that is working on keeping it in."

Unfortunately, this is simply not true. See the link below about the democratic Ohio Secretary of State attempting to disqualify republican ballots. http://blog.cleveland.com/openers/2008/10/court_to_secretary_accept_mcca.html

Also, it's vry important in getting out the not to commit fraud. I suggest you look up articles in the Seattle PI about the 2004 Washington governor's election. Hundreds of voters all turned out to live in the same Seattle self storage complex.

There is plenty of BS from both parties.

Re: A point about the beauty of blogging

donovong — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:45:13 -0000

In TNC's defense, there is no possible way for an individual blogger to keep track of all this shit for us. It is our responsibility to HELP. And, by god, he is right about starting your own blog if you don't see your message out there. Christ - it takes all of about five minutes, and

For what it is worth, there has been tons of discussion on voter suppression on DailyKos, where I also check in at least ten times a day. And where the hell was 538 six months ago? Posting as "poblano" on Kos.

And, it is showing up in the MSM all over the place, as of yesterday and today.

Re: A point about the beauty of blogging

rikyrah — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:09:10 -0000

Here is a Voter Suppression Wiki that was started about a month ago, trying to keep track of all this. Sad to say, the articles have been coming in so fast, I don't know if everything is there.

http://votersuppressionwiki.wetpaint.com/?t=anon

Here is the Incident Tracker

http://votersuppressionwiki.wetpaint.com/page/Incident+Tracker

The only positive news I've heard on this front is from Montana from all places. The GOP tried AGAIN to throw voters off the rolls, but, they were bitchslapped and had to back down.

Re: A point about the beauty of blogging

Tessa — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:37:02 -0000

2nd post. This news From AlterNet will blow your mind:

"AlterNet found that some states facing Justice Department pressure to purge voters have long been targeted by GOP "vote fraud" activists, especially where concentrations of minority voters have historically elected Democrats -- such as St. Louis, Philadelphia and South Dakota's Indian reservations. One of those Republican activists who is now a Federal Election Commission member, Hans Von Spakovsky, started the department's purge effort in January 2005 when he was a political appointee overseeing the Voting Section's legal agenda, according to former Voting Section attorneys who worked with him then."

More here: http://www.alternet.org/rights/62133/

Re: A point about the beauty of blogging

Outsider — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:31:37 -0000

Much, much respect for acknowledging my criticism straight-forwardly. I'm very impressed.

James is right, too, though. I don't have an audience.

Seems like by the time you gain a blog on The Atlantic, you have some responsibility to give coverage to this stuff. But then, you're not the NY Times, so it's not the same type of responsibility.

The thing is, it wasn't just you that didn't cover this. I read Matt, Huffington Post, 538, and either I missed it or I rarely saw anything posted anywhere when the voter caging in Michigan story broke. I want to know why no one has paid this much attention.

Anyway, you got my respect with that post.

Re: A point about the beauty of blogging

James — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:06:05 -0000

Fair point but - and this isn't meant sarcastically - the election is pretty near. By the time the guy gets the audience, it's 2010.