August 10, 2005

8/10: Infinite Justice

Note for web readers: To go directly to the SCOTUS coverage (or what there is of it) click here.

In today's edition, we also have a new installment of our Political Money Blog report. Click on the link to skip to that.

As we reported yesterday, the Family Research Council approached media blogger Jeff Jarvis about attending and writing about the Justice Sunday II in Nashville this weekend and paying his travel expenses. Amused that they would ask someone so often critical of the religious right and concerned that FRC was trying to buy publicity, he declined.

We wondered if he wasn't alone in receiving the offer, and what the story behind the financial assistance was, and so we talked with Charmaine Yoest, a part-time fellow with the FRC who has spearheaded the blogger outreach, and who blogs herself at Reasoned Audacity. Yoest explained the inspiration for the invitations stemmed from her experience as one of several U.S. bloggers flown to Edinburgh by billionaire Richard Branson to meet with Bob Geldof and blog the events surrounding the Live8 concert. She found it a "fantastic model" for starting a blogosphere-wide discussion on Live8's goals, and FRC agreed to duplicate it for their 2nd Justice Sunday event.

Among the bloggers headed to Nashville are Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters, Beth Woodson of Yeah Right Whatever Atlanta-based Trey Jackson, Joe Carter of Evangelical Outpost. Some are driving in, and others live in the area, such as Bill Hobbs. When we talked to her last p.m., there were a total of 9 signed up, with a few others unconfirmed. As of early this a.m. Yoest has a new post up, explaining some of these details which were not in her initial mention of it.

Yoest disagreed particularly with Jarvis' description of the trip as a "junket," pointing out that this was the only way that most bloggers could attend and stressing the fact that they are paying only for coach fare, a hotel across the street from the church, plus snacks and wireless access. What about the issue of paying for publicity? Yoest endorses the idea that disclosure is the best way to keep it honest. In fact, "Captain Ed" already has a post about the controversy, disclosing the airfare he will be accepting.

Back at Jarvis' blog, some commenters encourage him to go ahead and take the trip. And Hobbs wrote there as well: "I'm going to live-blog the event partly because, well, I'm a political conservative, but also as an exercise in instant online journalism. There is supposed to be a counter-protest with Barry Lynn, etc., and if it materializes outside the church, I plan to report on it as well, via photographs, audio interviews and of course text on the blog."

The fact that the bloggers listed above are all conservatives was something she was "disappointed about." Yoest told us she approached several bloggers of a secular or liberal bent, including Barbara O'Brien of The Mahablog, Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft and Univ. of Madison-WI prof Ann Althouse. The bloggers mentioned showed interest, but ultimately had to decline due to scheduling conflicts. FRC's outreach is similar to a recent move by the camp of VA GOV candidate Tim Kaine (D) to invite conservative bloggers to participate in its conf. calls. If information on the Internet wants to be free, perhaps access in the blogosphere wants to be bipartisan.

9/11: Enemy Mine

Doug Jehl reports in the 8/9 New York Times that, according to Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) and an unnamed official, the CIA used data mining to identify 4 of the eventual 9/11 hijackers living in Brooklyn in 2000. Reactions reached critical mass last p.m., and so we address it here today. Slate's Eric Umansky approaches it skeptically: "So, what we have in the NYT are allegations by a congressman known to make wildly dubious claims, and one former defense official who backs up the congressman but for some reason declines to put his good name to the ... facts."

Captain's Quarters' Ed Morrissey notes that nothing was done with the info: "The reason for the inability to share information with the FBI, information that might have led them to 'connect the dots', in the parlance of the 9/11 Commission, was the wall between intelligence and law-enforcement operations constructed in large part by the Clinton Administration."

JustOneMinute's Tom Maguire senses "robust skepticism leaking though the ink," adding: "Dare I guess as to what is going on? Well, the Times had to know this was pretty weak soup, but they front-paged it anyway. Maybe they figure they will go with what they have, and see if they can shake something loose."

Mickey Kaus is amused by the fact that the New York Times' ed. board opposes data-mining, such as the library book access made possible via the PATRIOT Act. He adds: "It's been obvious for a while that we're going to match the terrorists in the cyberspace race we'll have to give up some of our privacy. Letting a government supercomputer scan my credit card receipts and Amazon searches seems a relatively inoffensive place to start." Intel Dump's Phil Carter agrees that the "potential promise outweighs the risk," but expresses more skepticism about the article.

Captain's Quarters contributor Dafydd Ab Hugh lists the assumptions and conclusions Umansky follows to discredit Weldon's claims in favor of the CIA version. Hugh adds: "But then again, I'm not a member of an intelligence organization that is desperately trying to convince the world that it's not utterly incompetent."

DELAY/ABRAMOFF: Is This Bubbling Back Up?

Yesterday MT GOPers object to the MT Dems' anti-Sen. Conrad Burns (R) ads on the ground that they claim disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave money to Burns' re-election campaign, but at TNR's &c., Michael Crowley points out that Abramoff did in fact contribute to Burns' PAC, and he argues that "Abramoff gave his tribal clients highly specific instructions about how to distribute their political dollars, and that he watched over these donations carefully. ... In other words, these donations were obviously Abramoff's handiwork."

At TPM Cafe, Yale Daily News' Josh Eidelson writes: "It can get confusing keeping track of the colorful cast of characters connecting" House Maj. Leader Tom Delay with Abramoff. "So here are my nominations for Jack Abramoff's top six associates of questionable repute": ex-DeLay CoS Edwin Buckham, ex-ARMPAC dir. Karl Gallant, ATR's Grover Norquist, GOP operative Ralph Reed, ex-DeLay General Counsel Tony Rudy and ex-DeLay spokesperson Michael Scanlon.

DEMOCRATS: Wannabe Like Paul

Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum lists 10 possible explanations for "what the hell is wrong with Democrats these days," and asks readers to vote. There are 150+ responses in the comments.

Swing State Project catches OH 02 Dem nominee Paul Hackett on a radio show calling Rush Limbaugh a "fatass drug addict," and is most pleased: "Dayumn!" AMERICAblog: "One reason people love Paul Hackett is because he is fearless. He should give lessons to other Democrats on how to have a spine and how to fight back." Audio available at MyDD.

ROVE-PLAME-MILLER: Proof That This One Is Dead And Buried?

For some strange reason, the phrase "Bush Indictment" has been one of the top searches at the blog search engine Technorati, and when we last looked it was indeed the #1 hit. Follow it long enough, and you'll end up at a left-wing website called Arctic Beacon, and to this page in particular, alleging that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has already handed down indictments in his CIA leak investigation. Some suspect a "Google bomb" -- efforts to deceive Google's ranking algorithm -- aimed at Technorati was initially responsible for artificially increasing its popularity. Whatever the reason, by now it has snowballed and many of the top posts mention first that they saw it on Technorati. Suffice to say the story is false, and the more reputable, highly-trafficked blogs the Blogometer tends to follow have made little or no mention of the story. However, a number of left-of-center bloggers, such as low-traffic blogs Food for the Brain and Blanton's and Ashton's simply like having the phrase out there, so they pass it along.

IRAQ: We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Arrested Without Our Families

Later this p.m. anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, mother of a G.I. killed in Iraq, will appear on a "BlogCall" -- i.e., conf. call -- organized by Dem consultant Joe Trippi, Democrats.com's Bob Fertik and CodePink activist Jodie Evans. At his blog, Trippi writes: "I just got off of the phone with Jodie Evans, who is with Cindy in Crawford right now. They had 3 and a half inches of rain last night. The camp is flooded, all of their supplies are soaked. Even worse, Cindy is running a fever and has a sore throat." Righty Michelle Malkin promotes the term "grief pimps" to describe those pushing Sheehan's story in the media, and collects conservative reaction. There is considerable sympathy for Sheehan, but more than one imagines that her son would not approve of his mother's activism. For Malkin's commentary on the case, lefty Duncan Black deems her "quite possibly ... America's Worst American."

Liberal Middle East scholar Juan Cole comes under fire once again for suggesting that slain journalist Steven Vincent is largely responsible for his own death on account of his reported romantic relationship with his Iraqi translator. Cole: "Vincent did not know anything serious about Middle Eastern culture and was aggressive about criticizing what he could see of it on the surface, and ... he was acting in an extremely dangerous manner." Critic Martin Kramer responds: "What reeks of bad taste is Cole's superior dismissal of Vincent, as if his death somehow proves his ignorance. Point of fact: you can know everything "serious" about Middle Eastern culture and never criticize it even in the mildest way, and still get yourself killed by fanatics." Jeff Jarvis piles on: "Well, how about his murderers didn't know anything serious about civilized culture and they were behaving in a way that should bring your condemnation?"

At TPM Cafe, Hoover fellow Larry Diamond wants to know why the MSM has not "challenged" the Bush admin. on the subject of keeping permanent bases in Iraq.

BLOGGERS VS. BLOGGERS: For The Record, That Is Not The Correct Usage Of The Word "Taxonomy"

Over the past weekend, and previously missed by the Blogometer, Right Wing Nut House assembled its own "Moonbat Blog Taxonomy," ranking the blogs by their "Reality Quotient." Political Animal's Kevin Drum and TalkLeft's Jeralyn Merritt fare the best; Daily Kos and Democratic Underground message board fare the worst. Continuing the same left-right "taxonomy" scuffle, Fables of the Reconstruction decides the conservative blogosphere is lacking humor.

Since the weekend, NRO contributors have been debating issues surrounding when life begins at The Corner. We didn't go back to he beginning, but starthere with a post by Robert P. George, and scroll up -- look for comments by John Podhoretz, John Hood, Peter Robinson, Iain Murray and Ramesh Ponnuru. As one might expect, someone eventually mentions Star Trek.

MISCELLANY: You Get What You Pay For

• Weblogs, Inc. owner Jason Calacanis doesn't believe the just-released ComScore (PDF) study on blog traffic (see 8/9 Blogometer). Among other survey claims he doesn't buy, Gawker and Fleshbot (not safe for work), 2 blogs owned by Calacanis rival Nick Denton get more traffic than long-running techie message board Slashdot, but Calacanis shows this doesn't match up with traffic results as measured by Amazon's Alexa. Young Manhattanite, like Calacanis in a subsequent post, wants to know more about how ComScore does business.
• Syndicated advice columnist/The Stranger editor Dan Savage is guest-blogging for Andrew Sullivan this week.
• Liberals and a few secular conservatives are hostile to an 8/9 USA Today op-ed criticizing the theory of evolution. Crooks and Liars has a round-up.
• At TAPPED, Robert Kuttner points out that some of the data for John Zogby's 8/9 Wall Street Journal op-ed criticizing the labor movement was funded by the conservative Bradley foundation. He writes, they "certainly got their money's worth -- not just a poll emphasizing the negative, but an impartial-sounding op-ed with a market value of several tens of thousands of dollars if it were sold as ad space."

POLITICAL MONEY BLOG: The Balance Of The Force

On 8/8 the BlogAds company, which sells vertically oriented advertising on many of the top weblogs, debuted its conservative blog advertising network, identified by the button icon displayed on member sites, sometimes as Buy the Right Ads. The network finally joins its liberal counterpart, launched in early may, known by its equivalent button, Advertise Liberally.

The networks make it easier for advertisers to know what it is getting from its ad buy. Would they know AMERICAblog is run by a staunch liberal? What on earth do you make of something calling itself BeldarBlog? These networks save advertisers the trouble of extensive research into a particular blog's topical focus and readership. BlogAds founder/president Henry Copeland has already done this for them.

These are only two among thirtysomething other "MiniNetworks" that BlogAds provides to readers. Other politically-relevant ones include Republican Women, Evangelical Bloggers, and a non-partisan Political Insider network). However, they are also among the largest. The liberal network currently includes 72 participating blogs with a total readership of 12.4M readers -- or impressions, in adspeak -- per week, making it the biggest by far. Likewise, the conservative network is still in its first week but is already number three overall with 35 blogs and 2.4M readers per week. The difference in overall traffic is reflected in the pricing, as you can see in the tables below, which compare the top 5 trafficked blogs for each side:

Buy The Right Ads:
Blog                        Ad Spaces   Cost     Traffic/Week
Michelle Malkin                 9       $205        624,215
PoliPundit                      1        $50        253,158
Hugh Hewitt                     6       $300        213,534
Wizbang                         2        $75        149,042
The Political Teen              8        $30        100,737


Advertise Liberally:
Blog                        Ad Spaces   Cost     Traffic/Week
Daily Kos                       8       $750      3,767,891	        
Democratic Underground          4       $300      1,478,988
Raw Story                       1       $350      1,022,737
Eschaton                        4       $400        856,536
Crooks and Liars                3       $250        576,554

The model for each network is identical. Earlier this year, Copeland approached Philly-based MyDD contributor Chris Bowers about setting up the network. Last month, Copeland approached NC's John Hawkins, founder of the blog Right Wing News and news board Conservative Grapevine message board.

In each case Copeland turned the organization and administration over to each administrator. Bowers and Hawkins each compiled lists of bloggers with a potential interest in each network. So far Hawkins has done this on his own, whereas Bowers has relied upon informal advice from BlogPAC, an org. involving some of the best-known liberal bloggers.

Both serve on an unpaid basis, although each were granted the privilege of sponsoring new BlogAds members -- currently the only to participate is by invitation. They also stand to make a percentage of the revenue from their recruited bloggers, although the figure is monetarily insignificant.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: If You Don't Do This, You're Officially A Bad Person

Sisu is just one of several right-leaning blogs that posts today's Day by Day cartoon, which is an appeal for readers to simply click this link to support the cancer clinic treating cartoonist Chris Muir's sister. The cartoon characters explain: "Why? To raise the Yahoo rating ... a high listing is vital to the clinic's visibility with a timed ad on a local CNN cancer special August 14th and 20th."

LEST WE FORGET: Hey, Hey, You, You Get Off Of My Topic

WuzzaDem imagines the Rolling Stones getting political on their next record. Sample lyrics: "Chuck Schumer! / You legislate so good... / Chuck Schumer! / Just like a Senator should."

NOTES AND ERRATA: Haven't Been There, Haven't Done That

Yesterday's edition left the impression that National Review correspondent Byron York was in Crawford, TX, and that he had taken the photo featuring NSA Stephen Hadley and WH dep. CoS Joe Hagin sitting with Cindy Sheehan. In fact York is in DC this week, and the photo came from Daily Kos. We promise this is the last time we will make this mistake about this particular post.

SCOTUS: SPECIAL: Just The FactCheck, Ma'am

What the blogs are saying about Pres. Bush's pick of John Roberts for the SCOTUS:

FactCheck.org's highly critical take on NARAL ad associating Roberts with violent anti-abortion groups is approvingly cited by conservatives and some moderates, including Daly Thoughts, Donklephant and Eugene Volokh. A RedState contributor calls it "the most uncompromising slam-down I have ever seen."

More than a few bloggers are upset that CNN and FNC have agreed to run the spot. Captain's Quarters expects a backlash, and predicts the networks could change their mind before it even runs. Another RedStater adds, the irony is that "CNN has has repeatedly used" FactCheck to "ridicule and malign false and misleading campaign advertising and statistics. ... How sad for CNN to reject its own fact checking tradition and willinging allow itself to be used as a propaganda machine of the left to smear a man with lies."

NARAL: Can't Catch A Break

ON 8/1, NARAL's Bush V. Choice blog issued a call to action, asking them to spread the word about Roberts: "We've listed five of the some of the most well-known progressive blogs below -- go to them and make your voice heard. Use their comments sections to make sure that choice is being discussed as something that affects women, not just politics." The blogs targeted were Daily Kos, Eschaton, MyDD, The Left Coaster and Swing State Project. Last p.m. Markos Moulitsas, often a critic of the single-issue groups, noticed and responded: "Problem is, politics can't be divorced from the issue. So NARAL goes around endorsing Republicans like [GOP RI Sen. Lincoln] Chafee because they talk a good game about choice. But then, Republicans like Chafee vote for people like Trent Lott and Bill Frist as majority leaders. And then they vote to confirm reactionary anti-privacy, anti-choice judges like Janice Brown."

DOCUMENTS: Better Shred Than Read?

Liberal Crooks and Liars, on the delayed release of many Roberts-related documents: "The purge begins of Roberts papers. Even the conservatives are starting to have reservations. [James] Dobson on [FNC] Monday was not too thrilled with his work on gay rights and he wouldn't acknowledge NARAL's new ad." AMERICAblog reads into the same report that Roberts opposes a constitutional right to privacy: "If Roberts opposes the right to privacy, we have to know. After all the missteps, the right-wingers will want to know that he is on their side on this one."

Posted by at August 10, 2005 12:40 PM