It’s not a race thing, it’s a heart thing

Daily Kos, a liberal internet opinion site, posted a rant by a young man (or woman, couldn’t tell) who had been successful in the past, moving from poverty to middle class (through luck, he says) and is now going to have to sell his car and apply for food stamps. Everyone else seems to be to blame for his situation, He’s angry and depressed. At a conservative discussion group on Facebook, this woman responded to his frustration with hope.

"I was on food stamps for about 6 mos. I did not have a car. I rode the bus. I did not have the internet or cable. I was living in a $300 a month apartment. (all bills paid). I ate a lot of mac and cheese (home made) and beans w/rice (dried). I ate baked chicken (cheapest meat at the time) in soups and sandwiches. I registered for classes and ended up getting a job at the school. It was hard. One night I had to stand in the rain to catch a bus to go to work. And I wept with the struggle. That day, I decided that it was up to me to change my situation. That was in 1997, I am now an instructor at the school. I have BA, an MA, and 48 hrs on my PhD. I am 65 and I am telling anyone who wants to that you can change your own life. I now teach students black, brown, and white who struggle the same way I did and I tell them all. They are they only one that can change their situation. I have witnessed students change their lives and their circumstances. It is not a race thing it is a heart thing. I have seen it happen."

Kos Kids turning on Obama

Call in Jimmy Carter to wag his finger (index) at them! The far left wing of blogdom has turned on the President of the United States! Read their comments.

More smears, but who’s counting?

I take most of my blog entries and links from journalists writing for real newspapers (or their blogs), even the ones I don't like (NYT, WaPo, LA Times) but increasingly the MSM is going to the hyperbologs for their sources. Crazy, innit? I'm just an elderblogger and I find better sources than trained, whipper-snapper journalists. Soledad of CNN has 4 children, I've heard (possibly gossip). I wonder why she isn’t at home with the kids? She’s obviously a bit addled by the responsibilities of a 24 hour news channel.

“I just watched CNN's Soledad O'Brien sandbag former White House Communications Director Nicole Wallace by asking her how Sarah Palin can claim to be a defender of special needs children when she cut the budget for that Alaska office by 62 percent. Wallace wasn't familiar with the charge -- which isn't surprising, since it's only being made on DailyKos and another liberal site. (Tip for Ms. O'Brien: DailyKos is not a reliable news site.)

This charge is based on looking at the budget for Alaska's Special Education Service Agency for 2007-2009. In fact, the December 2006 budget document that they cite would have been prepared by the outgoing administration -- that of Republican Frank Murkowski, whom Palin defeated.

What's gone unmentioned is that Palin signed into law a dramatic reform of the state's education financing system that equalizes aid to rural and urban districts, while significantly increasing funding for special needs students." More details at Weekly Standard Blog

4045

Ellen Goodman is just reporting what I said three years ago

There is a dearth of women bloggers who discuss politics, economics, academe, etc. That's one of the reasons I started setting up group links for women in my left hand column. But then women began running away with the stats--gossip, children, decorating, kitchens, memes, book reviews, crafts, religion and so forth. Now about half of all blogs are written by women. They are great blogs, but the men are trampling us when it comes to having any influence in the blogsphere.

The New Republic's Jonathan Chait recently called the netroots "the most significant mass movement in US politics since the rise of the Christian right." In fact, they've amplified the antiwar, anti-Bush views, become an alternative fund-raising operation, and linked cyberliberals across the country. . . Nevertheless, there is another, less flattering way in which broadband has followed broadcast and the liberal political bloggers mimic the conservative talk-show hosts. The chief messengers are overwhelmingly men -- white men, even angry white men. . . Only 7% of the influential blogs are written by women.

Ellen, if you'd been reading me instead of the Daily Kook, you could have sounded this alarm much sooner.

You could have started by reading the writing credits and articles about start-ups in Wired where all things e- appear. WSJ reported in June "all things digital" featuring five movers and shakers. One was a woman--she has a gossip site (actually she's an executive of Time, Inc., but still, gossip?). Brad and Angelina can pull in 17.5 million page views, and I'm betting on the gender of the readers.

The digital network world is about 99% mortared with testosterone, and that includes influential blogs--you must have really stretched it to find 7%. But you probably weren't reading blogs by women, and especially not a conservative blog. And we all started on level ground this time. Women could have written about topics other than "my mean boss," diaper brands, American Idol and shoes, but they write about what they talk about after work and when the kids have gone to bed, and that ain't politics. Some of the "mommy blogs" (are there really 11 million?) have the best writing you'll ever read--great recipes, too--but other than American Daughter, Amy Ridenour, Baldilocks, Neo-Neocon or women who already were writing professionally like Joanne Jacobs, Michelle Malkin and Jane Galt, no candidate will even give them a glance.

Read Ellen Goodman in the Boston Globe leftist to her tippy toes, but right about this--there is no diversity in the progressive/leftist blogosphere.