Last Push for Spirit of America
The blogsphere has managed to raise $36,000 for Spirit of America. However, our goal is to raise $50,000.
The contest has been conceded, and our Victory Alliance came in second. Too bad for us, but very good for Spirit of America. Now, we are extending the “contest” one more day to raise the last $14,000 or so.
Please make a donation by clicking HERE.
If you make a donation over $10 or so, you can also claim a prize. See THIS PAGE for the list of current offers. There are also offers at THIS PAGE.
Give! We can make the $50,000 goal!
An Evening at the Command Post
Last night, I participated in the Command Post chat during the President’s press conference.
This posting will discuss the chat itself – not opinions related to President Bush’s statements or related issues. If I post those, I’ll do it separately.
I was surprised at the number of participants, and I think the Command Post folks (Michele and Alan) were surprised as well. Within 5 minutes of opening the room, there were 50 people participating. I think the total peaked at about 95 during the press conference and stayed there until the conference ended.
I was also surprised at the good manners displayed by ALL participants. There were NO personal attacks against chatters by other chatters. In fact, there were very few perjorative attacks against political figures by the chat participants. I’ve participated in other chatroom settings and it’s very rare to have such well-behaved folks.
Personally, I tend to be a social liberal and fiscal conservative. I supported the Iraq war based on what I was told at the time the war started, and I feel that we need to see it through – though I am concerned at how truthful the justification was. I am a registered Democrat. I list all of that because I want to compare myself to the majority of the chat participants.
Most of the chat participants seemed to be very pro-Bush. This was displayed through opinions that the press was attacking Bush and generally positive interpretations of his responses. I did interject occasional comments that were less supportive of the President, and the responses I got ranged from “that’s a good point” to “what do you mean by that”. Very cordial, no personal attacks, but I clearly felt that my opinions (as middle-of-the-road as they are on these issues) put me in the minority. It’s not that I felt unwelcome – rather that I felt out of place.
It was also fun to joke about the side issues in the press conference. There was a strong consensus that somebody should have camera-tested the President’s tie – it caused rainbow moire effects on my high-end HDTV with DirecTV on CNN. Others likened it to the seizure-causing Japanese cartoon from a few years back. My favorite comment had to be that it was a “mind control tie”. Other “fun” subjects included the President’s hair, the wardrobe of the press corps, and which reporters are never gonna be called on again by this President.
To sum up – it was fun, but I felt sufficiently politically out of place that I’m not likely to do it again. I was encouraged by Michele to provide a counter-point to the “usual crowd”. I really think that the Command Post’s chats (and website in general) have a right-side political bias and deserve the right to feel at home in their web home.
Command Post Chat Tonight
Tonight, the folks at Command Post will be opening their chat room at 8:15pm to coincide with the press conference by President Bush at 8:30pm EDT.
I think I’m going to participate tonight. It should be interesting! Click the link above to get the address.
Memespread
I’m just helping out a project on how memes spread on the web.
Here’s the original meme site.
A Monkey’s First Banana
Chief Wiggles posts a new story of his visit to a US elementary school to receive toys for kids in Iraq.
My favorite quote:
At one point, as I tried to help the students understand what it might feel like for the Iraqi children to get their very first toy, I asked the question, and the following response caused me to laugh with astonishment. In the Kindergarten class, Colonel Long’s own son responded by saying, “I am sure it would be like a monkey getting his very first banana?” How true.
If you haven’t ever checked out his site, or Operation Give, you really should. The Chief is an Army National Guard officer from Utah who started a charity while in Iraq to give toys and school supplies to Iraqi children.
The World as a Blog
Just found this really neat site. The World as a Blog shows real-time blog entries on a map of the world. They pop up as their entry gets pinged on Weblogs.com.
With any luck, I’ll see this one pop up in a minute …..
Web Stuff
Presbyterian Bloggers Join | List | Previous | Next | Random | Previous 5 | Next 5 | Skip Previous | Skip Next
