Blogosphere Been Very Very Good

Hi KerryCrats,

As you know, I love blogging. I blog here, I blog at my blog, I blog at JREG, I blog at DK sometimes, and sometimes, I blog on rudely worded blogs too who have been unfair about JK and JRE. I feel strongly that we are the "fifth estate" and that technology has changed the process of political engagement. We are the Netrooters.

In the past month, I've been very fortunate at the OAC Blog. Last month, my question about immigration policies was one of the 3 or 4 questions the Edwards' answered on their podcast.

Sandsea knows the next thing. Last weekend, OAC installed a live chat service. It has been embraced by the bloggers at OAC as you can guess. Elizabeth got on for few and we chatted for a few minutes. You can find the transcript of the conversation at http://bennycat.blogspot.com.

Today was the icing on the cake. Senator Kennedy was invited to be a guest blogger at the OAC blog and Jenni, one of the mods, asked bloggers to submit questions if we had them about the mimimum wage issue. As you know, he and JRE did a rally back in early April to raise awareness about raising the federal wage to $7.25. There were quite a few questions submitted.

This afternoon, the diary was posted and I discovered my question was one of 4 selected and answered. I was thrilled, considering I had lived in the Bay State for 8 years and had never met him even though he was my senator along with Senator Kerry.

Here's the diary at OAC: http://blog.oneamericacommittee.com/story/2006/5/18/155027/067
My question is the second one.

Maybe some day I will get to meet Senator Kerry through the Net. That would be really neat.

I really appreciate the Net. It has brought in touch with leaders that I would not get to engage otherwise. And I get to meet cool people like you.

Benny

And I liked his answer. Uncle Ted is always watching out for the little guy. He is the "lion that roars" as you called him.

Why settle for meeting Senator Kerry online? He's even better in person and he'll be traveling around the country more and more to help the Democrats running in the midterm elections in November.

Sen Kerry has not announced helping my guy, David Gill, in a smaller place where I live, which means I still hope to engage him online, and not in smaller towns where I live.

I get Gill campaign emails, and I've noticed that Gill has tried to get DFA backing, as well as Feingold's PAC. It doesn't seem like he's even asked Kerry or Edwards to help him out. He should.

I hope Gill wins but as long as his campaign remains Champaign-Urbana based, he won't. My hometown is in the 15th district, too, and no one here even knows who he is. He really needs to get out of Champaign county and come south to the more rural counties in the district, because that's who he needs to beat Tim Johnson. Places like Mattoon, Charleston, Danville, Tuscola, Arcola, Sullivan, etc.

It's just kind of frustrating for me, because while I have a great fondness for C-U, I live in a more conservative rural part of the district and see absolutely zero outreach being made by Gill to my home county. He won't get more than 40% of the vote if he keeps doing what he's doing. Argh. It's just frustrating.

I agree with your post, btw - I've met so many great people through the blogosphere, and because of my internet activism, I got to meet my hero. It's a really wonderful tool.

and JRE..JRE does not contribute money directly to any candidate.

In terms of Kerry, I suspect, as many of the heavy hitters have of late, he and other are going to back the open seats and ones have a chance to win around the larger cities.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/18/221533/764

Pretty funny, the "outrage" from the Right, saying "Can't Edwards shut up his wife?", all for a few mild blog entries.

It was first posted on OAC, then morphed to Kos. I posted a comment about 20 minutes ago on that diary (you can find it with my same handle as here if you wish to look for it). My favorite comment though was "Elizabeth Edwards: Cancer Survivor, Elephant Slayer"; tongue in cheek at its best.

I love these men who are so threatened by the smartest women like Elizabeth and Teresa (in alpha order--I'm a librarian, lol). Mr. Bluey and his ilk are desperate, aren't they? And they don't understand neither John nor John for loving their wives AND families wholistically. I think Cate is going to grad school or law school in the Boston area this fall.