Sunday, July 13, 2003

Fledgling blogger watch New Salon bloggers are like baby birds: They need TLC and worms if they're going to survive. If they even manage to make the top 100 Salon bloggers list, they can easily fall off of it like a baby bird falling out of its nest and splatting on the sidewalk. Nature is cruel. With this in mind, each week I'm going to bring to your attention a fledgling Salon blogger whose blog I find noteworthy and urge you to check out his or her blog. He or she will be toward the bottom of the top 100 list or not on it at all. This week's victim is Dr. Omed's Tent Show Revival. "Dr. Omed" is the pseudonym for poet Dana Pattillo, who began his Salon blog on April 2. I googled Mr. Pattillo and learned that he is in his mid-40s and resides in Tulsa, Okla., although his residence is clear from his blog. (If I am wrong about any of this, I'm sure that the good doctor will set me straight, so to speak.) Dr. Omed's Tent Show Revival is an interesting mix of poems, short pieces and liberal use of graphics. (The graphic of the nun alone is worth the visit.) As I write this, Dr. Omed hangs precariously at No. 100 on the top 100 Salon blogs list! Won't you please help by visiting Dr. Omed? (If you would like to nominate your own or someone else's fledgling Salon blog for a future Fledgling blogger watch, you can e-mail the name and URL of the Salon blog to me by clicking on the envelope icon:   ) 10:06:04 AM    Comments []

Are bloggers beginning to see the light? Blogger Woody of The Homeless Leftists, "swimming against the liberal-blogger tide," recently added Howard Dean to his list of "unelectables," which also includes Al Sharpton, Carol Moseley Braun and Dennis Kucinich. (Too bad about Kucinich -- I like that guy -- but I wholeheartedly agree that all four are unelectable.) "This leaves John Edwards and John Kerry," Woody concludes. "Kerry is the stronger of the two. Unless I learn something horrible about Kerry, I think I am going to end up in his column." Are Woody and I anomalies or is it possible that bloggers are starting to fall off of the Dean bandwagon? I'd like to know, so I've been e-mailing Salon bloggers this quick and dirty poll:   Hi there! I’m Robert of Robert’s Virtual Soapbox (http://blogs.salon.com/0001517/). I’m polling Salon bloggers to see where they stand on the 2004 presidential election. My poll has only two questions: 1. Please tell me which presidential candidate you lean toward (pick only one response): In alphabetical order: ___ George W. Bush ___ Howard Dean ___ John Edwards ___ Richard Gephardt ___ Bob Graham ___ John Kerry ___ Dennis Kucinich ___ Joseph Lieberman ___ Carol Moseley Braun ___ Al Sharpton ___ I don’t know yet. It’s a little, um, early. ___ I don’t want to participate in your stupid little poll. 2. May I tell my readers your response to No. 1? (I plan to report the numbers, of course, but I won’t mention any bloggers by name unless it’s OK with them.) ___ Yes ___ Hell no Thank you in advance for your participation. Poll closes at 12:00 a.m. July 20. I plan to post the results sometime after 12:00 a.m. on July 20.   I'm e-mailing this poll to the authors of the top 100 Salon blogs who have a way to e-mail them on their blogs (most do) and to other Salon bloggers who aren't in the top 100. If you are a Salon blogger and want to participate but haven't received an e-mail from me, you can cut and paste the above poll, mark your two responses with an "X," and e-mail it to me by clicking on this icon:    Be sure to identify yourself by your name, the name of your weblog and your weblog's URL. One Salon blogger, one vote, now! This isn't Florida! My guess is that Dean, Kerry and Kucinich will be the top three choices of the Salon bloggers, as they were the top three choices in moveon.org's recent online pre-Democratic presidential primary. 1:14:56 AM    Comments []