The Great Blog Circle Jerk, part III
I have neglected to write about the Socialist Party’s National Convention, which I attended a month ago. There was much to be frustrated by, but also some reason to be optimistic. I’m not going analyze it too much. I’m just going to focus on publishing the best damn bi-monthly 16-page socialist magazine that I can, and continuing to build a network with the good guys.
Speaking of good guys, I finally met Wayne Rossi at the convention. Wayne was a voice of reason in committee and on the floor, an efficient timekeeper and a pretty astute political observer. His blog has switched servers and now has a new name and address: Beneath the Red Flag.
It was also good to meet and party with the comrades from Michigan, with whom the SP of NYC was previously engaged in a ridiculous grudge match. Ben Burgis, from Kalamazoo, publishes a very witty and accessible blog, the Debsian, on Red TV.
Steve Sears was not at the convention, although he managed to win election to the party’s National Committee by virtue of his rational and pragmatic e-mail posts. His blog, Sun – Surf – Socialism, is rarely updated and probably needs a new title now that he left Florida to organize nurses in Wisconsin.
I’ve noticed that MySpace “blogs” and LiveJournals abound among the comrades in YPSL. They tend to be much more personal in nature and are awash in the “OMG WTF LOL” internet shorthand that’s destroying this generation’s adult literacy rates. Amusingly, one comrade broke up the monotony of her totally emo dating drama angst with the occasional blistering ad hominem political attack. Unfortunately, nobody explained to her the importance of those cutesy internet monikers (like, say, “the red-bearded bastard from queens”) in maintaining a degree of anonymity. Full legal names turn up in Google searches, y’see. The diary has since been mercifully made private.
If you are one of those LiveJournal kids, this Blarg is syndicated on the service. Help expand my media empire.
The Great Blog Circle Jerk, part II
Richard Winger, the stalwart defender of independent and third party ballot access rights, and the man who has kept the Coalition for Free and Open Elections going, has put the Ballot Access News online as a blog. It is a tremendous resource for news and information about legal challenges to this country’s various draconian ballot access laws, as well as occasional success stories from third parties.
The Drum Major Institute, the non-partisan, non-profit progressive think tank, has launched a new blog. My friends Elana Levin and Amy Traub work for DMI and are among the contributers.
The Great Blog Circle Jerk
I have updated my Links page to include some lefty blogs that I read.
Tom-A-Thon.com is the website of my comrade in Staten Island, Tommy Miles. It’s all Tom, all the time, with lots of space for socialism and futbol. Former Socialist Party Chairman, and eternal anti-spam crusader, Don Doumakes writes Another Socialist Blog, while New Jersey’s Wayne Rossi presents minitrue, another good source for socialist information and commentary. The Great Plains heretic Jim Hurd (he left the Socialist Party for the Communist Party so that he could run for office as a Democratic Party candidate – yes, the left is funny that way) hosts the Wizard of Laughery Creek, which keeps the tone light and entertaining. Finally, there’s a blog whose author I don’t know in at least some superficial way: former National Writers Union President Jonathan Tasini presents the always-informative Working Life. He gets a lot of Deep Throat action on 16th street…er, which is to say that his blog is a great source of labor movement gossip.
If you’re a reader of my humble budding media empire and have linked to me, please let me know, and I’ll add a link to your website (if it doesn’t suck).
While I was updating my site, I added a few new songs to the Rock! section of the site. Download and enjoy, or crawl into a hole and die.
Expanding My Media Empire
In my continuing effort to expand my media empire, the Blarg is now syndicated on LiveJournal. If you have an LJ account, you can add my Blarg to your “friends” list by going here.
I’m trying to solve the mystery of why all posts are given the same date and time as the last article posted. I’m running Blosxom. If you can provide any help, I’d greatly appreciate it. Otherwise, I’m going to keep tinkering with plug-ins until this fucking thing works the way I want.