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...In fall 2006, political scientists, including us, representing about 30 universities conducted a survey of 16,000 Americans, the Cooperative Congressional Election Study. The survey asked respondents whether they read blogs and, if so, which ones. We analyzed the answers, and the result is the first detailed portrait of political blog readers. About 34% of the respondents said they read blogs, but only 14% named at least one blog that focuses on politics. Who are these political blog readers? Compared with those who don't read political blogs, they are more likely to have a college degree and, obviously, are more interested...

Daytona Beach is dying a slow death due to widespread corruption and abuses in City Hall. When will this stop? The State Attorney, who shares a lot of the same campaign contributors that have caused many of the abuses, refuses to instigate an investigation in spite of the overwhelming evidence and multiple criminal complaints from citizens. The Daytona Post

Two white people walk into a bar, a badly lit Culver City saloon called the Backstage whose interior design could be summed up as one pool table, a no-frills photo booth and some scattered neon. Blondie and the Rolling Stones belt out of the stereo, $3 Newcastle comes on tap and sticky laminated menus offer up garlic fries, chili cheese fries and buffalo wings. In other words, welcome to No. 148 of 150 things white people like: dive bars. "If you want to say I was planning that far ahead, that's great," said Christian Lander, resident white person behind the...

While all the military services are concerned about operational security and compromising the mission, each branch has its own rules for servicemembers who want to sound off in the blogosphere. Army An April 2007 operational security policy mandated that soldier blogs get "eyes on" by a blogger’s immediate supervisor and OPSEC officer before publication. The policy also covered (but was not limited to) "letters, resumes, articles for publication, electronic mail, Web site postings, discussion in Internet information forums, discussion in Internet message boards or other forms of dissemination or documentation." The free-speech firestorm was fast and furious, and the Army...

Iran's parliament is set to debate a draft bill which could see the death penalty used for those deemed to promote corruption, prostitution and apostasy on the internet, reports said on Wednesday. MPs on Wednesday voted to discuss as a priority the draft bill which seeks to "toughen punishment for harming mental security in society," the ISNA news agency said. The text lists a wide range of crimes such rape and armed robbery for which the death penalty is already applicable. The crime of apostasy (the act of leaving a religion, in this case Islam) is also already punishable by...

Spitzer Call Girl Dupre Speaks Out On Myspace BlogLast Edited: Tuesday, 24 Jun 2008, 4:09 PM CDT Call girl Ashley Dupré is speaking out for the first time since the scandal that brought down New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, thanking her fans and her critics alike. "Thank you all so much for taking the time to send me a bit of strength and inspiration via e-mail or comment," Dupré, 23, writes on her MySpace blog, in which she calls her mood "Thankful." "Your words have touched me, and I thank you for that ... with all my heart, I love...

More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report. Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

Jihadism in the 21st century has plans for all types of situations, including Mujahada (Jihadi activity) in a courtroom when needed. This is now what the world will witness during the trials of the al Qaeda detainees in Guantanamo, Cuba. Both the inmates on the inside and the Jihadi-mates on the outside were waiting for this moment to strike, politically and psychologically, using the media as their weapon. To the well-trained and -indoctrinated five standing trial, the objective is not to gain as many rights and freedoms as possible under current U.S. and international law; rather it is to resume...

A NASA employee has been suspended for soliciting donations and writing politically partisan blog posts and sending e-mail messages while at work, violations of the Hatch Act. Office of the Special Counsel officials said a Johnson Space Center employee promoted local and state political candidates in 2006 and 2007 through his Internet writings. The officials also found the employee solicited small campaign donations two times in 2006 through blogs. The employee has been suspended for 180 days without pay. The suspension started March 30. Special Counsel Scott Bloch said the suspension is part of an effort to crack down on...

On accepting Scott McClellan's resignation as his press secretary two years ago, President Bush predicted that he and the outgoing aide some day would be "rocking in chairs in Texas and talking about the good old days." But maybe their days in the White House together weren't so happy after all. Next week will bring the publication of McClellan's 341-page tome, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception." It is described by Politico's Mike Allen as "surprisingly scathing."

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Jane Novak, a 46-year-old stay-at-home mother of two in New Jersey, has never been to Yemen. She speaks no Arabic, and freely admits that until a few years ago, she knew nothing about that strife-torn south Arabian country. And yet Ms. Novak has become so well known in Yemen that newspaper editors say they sell more copies if her photograph — blond and smiling — is on the cover. Her blog, an outspoken news bulletin on Yemeni affairs, is banned there. The government’s allies routinely vilify her in print as an American agent, a Shiite monarchist, a...

Liveblogging Wright at the National Press Club: The "black church" is under "attack;" "I am open to being vice president;" defends his AIDS conspiracy-theorizing, "God damns," "Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy;" don't be dissin' my mama or my faith

Good morning, people. I'll be on Fox and Friends at around 8:15am to talk politics. Today's engine-starter is The American Digest's post on Jeremiah Wright's racial brain theories. Do you remember nutball racialist professor Leonard (Blacks are "sun people," whites are "ice people.") Jeffries? Jeremiah Wright is the Leonard Jeffries of 2008. First, watch this:

Another ethnic slur has reared its ugly head from the golf world, and once again, it's from a golf announcer. Bobby Clampett, a former pro and CBS announcer, referred to Chinese golfer Wen-Chong Liang as "the Chinaman," on the air on Friday. Clampett issued an apology, albeit a rather weak one, on the air: "It has been a privilege to be here with you the last two days describing action of the players. In describing the Asian player Wen-Chong Liang if I offended anybody please accept my sincere apolgies." These are sensitive times in the golf world. Golf is trying...

I have a blog, lets call it "myblog," and it's at blogger.com. I'd like to move to my own web site, www.me.com, and have it within a folder, www.me.com/blog. The instructions that blogger.com gives are really unclear. I know I can republish, but I'm unclear of the directory settings. Thanks for any help.

Today I read on Shanghai Daily that the picture that the Dalai Llama has been showing to prove that Chinese soldiers dressed as priest to start the violence in Tibet is not real. According to this report is is an old photo. I am not going to post the two contrasting photos on the site. Please click the Shanghai Daily link to see them. However, I am going to comment on them. In the first photo you see many Chinese soldiers with no hats on but in uniform. Most of them are holding monk style clothes. In the second photo...

Looks like the folks in Minnesota are trying to have a little fun. So many of you responded to our video requesting help to name our blog, we here in Minneapolis-Saint Paul figured we're in March, the local college is trying to get into the post-season basketball tournament, that tournament has a catchy nickname, so why don’t we *ahem* "leverage" that into creating our own contest: Blog Madness?

The New York Times started a community in Russian part of LiveJournal. Some of NYT articles will be translated to Russian and published there, collecting comments from Russian readers. These comments then will be translated into English and published at nytimes.com. Here you can find comments of Russian readers for NYT article "Putin’s Iron Grip on Russia Suffocates Opponents".

Thanks Doug for the great Image. I asked the Freepers for help and it took about 2 hours to get what I needed. You guys rock or as they say in China "Lock." Please come on over to the site and see the new logo.

May as well pimp my blog too, it's a good place to avoid politics for a while.

Just to let you all know, in case you are interested. I help run/manage/contribute to www.American-Infidels.com as WOLKING'S WORLD, which is all dedicated to defeating radical Islam and its leftist allies while defending Western civilization. I also just started a live political blog recently, www.WolkingsWorld.com Check them out and let me know what you think.

Scratch one terrorist from the FBI's Most Wanted list. An explosion killed Hezbollah leader Imad Mughniyeh, one of the planners of the 1983 bombings in Beirut that killed 241 Marines and another 63 people at our embassy in Lebanon. He also took part in the 1985 TWA hijacking that resulted in the beating death of Navy diver Robert Stethem: A senior Hezbollah commander implicated in some of the most high-profile international terrorist attacks of the last 25 years has died in an explosion in Syria, Hezbollah TV said Wednesday. Imad Mughniyeh was suspected by Western intelligence agencies in the 1983...

And Obama Wept February 07, 2008 9:43 AM Inspiration is nice. But some folks seem to be getting out of hand. It's as if Tom Daschle descended from on high saying, "Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of Chicago a Savior, who is Barack the Democrat." Obama supporter Kathleen Geier writes that she's "getting increasingly weirded out by some of Obama's supporters. On listservs I'm on, some people who should know better – hard-bitten, not-so-young...

Can Mitt still win? Frankly, no – the arithmetic makes it all but impossible The Republicans have already chosen most of their delegates, and Romney has won only 256 of the 1,417 chosen so far—some 18%. To get the delegates he needs to lock up the nomination, Romney would not only have to improve his performance, he’d have to become virtually perfect – winning 934 of the 963 delegates who haven’t yet been chosen. Unless all other candidates dropped out of the race, there’s no way anyone will scoop up more than 97% of the delegates remaining. Even if Mitt...

Are immigrant Muslim taxi drivers heroically selfless “family men” or are they soldiers in an advancing jihadic Army? As a New Yorker, I have been driven by very friendly and exceptionally courteous male Muslim taxi drivers from Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, and Somalia, and once, by an enchanting woman driver from Afhganistan—but I have also held on for dear life as ill-tempered, mentally unbalanced, unbelivably misogynistic male Muslim drivers have indulged in full-blown rage attacks as they careened in traffic. Of course, I have also experienced similarly bad behavior at the hands of home-grown taxi drivers as well. Maybe long...

Before leaving the Middle East, Bush is reported to have promised Benjamin Netanyahu that the US would join Israel in a nuclear strike on Iran. In Israel, there is talk of a "...a rain of missiles" for which Israelis must prepare now. Speaking on radio as part of a military propaganda offensive, retired general Udi Shani said: "The next war will see a massive use of ballistic weapons against the whole of Israeli territory." Shani was tasked recently with drawing up a report on the way the military authorities operated during Israel's summer war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. During that...

“We can achieve much more in peace than we can ever achieve in these needless, unconstitutional, undeclared wars.� “Don’t we know if we sacrifice security for liberty we lose both, that’s what is happening in this country today!�“If you look at every problem we’re facing today its because for the lack of rule of law and the constitution.�“We live way beyond our means, with a foreign policy we can’t afford and an entitlement system that we have encouraged.�“With politicians like these, who needs terrorists?�“NO! I’m saying that we should take our marching orders from our Constitution!�“…[the neo-cons] said we’d be...

Oro Valley Scores another Dubious First: Town threatened blogger's First Amendment rights by Clint Bolick The town of Oro Valley, whose local government does not mirror its idyllic surroundings, was Arizona's retail development subsidy capital until its town council declared a moratorium on the practice last year. Now it is distinguishing itself in another way: as the state's leading suppressor of political expression. The town's policies have inspired a remarkable degree of civic activism, including a blog called Let Oro Valley Excel, operated by retired executive Art Segal. Segal is an irritant in the body of the beast, regularly subjecting...

Before starting a conference call with bloggers that is in progress, the Thompson campaign said it was expecting a "big, big, conservative endorsement" tomorrow.

You may (or not) remember the headline back in October. Apparently someone had put the State of Michigan up for sale on EBay – in response to the budget debacle. That someone was me. After about a four day stretch of non stop blogging about what was going on in regard to the crisis, I decided it was time to have a little fun. Little did I know what that “fun” would cost me personally? My husband works for the State of Michigan. When he returned to work on Monday, he received a call from his district supervisor essentially telling...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has brought its concerns about the detention of a well-known blogger to the Saudi Arabian government at "a relatively senior level," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday. McCormack, speaking at his regular midday briefing, said the message delivered "was pretty clear." "The U.S. stands for freedom of expression," he said. "It is an important element of any thriving society. It's a cornerstone of any democratic society. Wherever people are seeking to express themselves, via the Internet or via other areas, whether in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere in the world, we stand with that...

Rudy Giuliani's once solid lead among Republicans nationwide has vanished, and John McCain -- whose campaign was regarded as dead in the water this summer -- is back on top with the GOP leaders. McCain has 22 percent support among Republicans, followed by Giuliani at 20 percent and Mike Huckabee at 17 percent. Mitt Romney follows at 12 percent with Fred Thompson at 19 percent. The survey was conducted Dec. 19-30 and has a 5 percent margin of error.

Michael Mukasey has decided to open a criminal investigation into the destruction of videotaped interrogations conducted by the CIA that included waterboarding. John Durham, the federal prosecutor for Connecticut, will head the probe. It raises the stakes for everyone involved in the destruction of the tapes, which the CIA denied ever having and kept from the 9/11 Commission: The Justice Department opened a full criminal investigation Wednesday into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, putting the politically charged probe in the hands of a mob-busting public corruption prosecutor with a reputation as being independent. Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced that...

The assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was only minutes old and details remained sketchy when former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign issued a condemnation of terrorism writ large. "Her death is a reminder that terrorism anywhere -- whether in New York, London, Tel-Aviv or Rawalpindi -- is an enemy of freedom," said Giuliani. " We must redouble our efforts to win the Terrorists' War on Us." That it was the first statement that arrived in The Fix email inbox is not surprising as his campaign strategy is closely linked to many voters' belief that...

For years, we've been pointing out how ridiculous it is for professional sports leagues to try to claim ownership of game data. Facts cannot be covered by copyright -- and neither can your own description of the events on the field. However, many of the leagues still wanted to claim that you couldn't report the facts of the game without paying a license. Trying to show how ridiculous this claim was, I asked where it ended, saying: "If I'm at the game, and I use my mobile phone to report what I see, is that considered 'rebroadcasting' the game? What...

<p>NEW SCHOOL President and former US Sen. Bob Kerrey just couldn't help himself from applauding Barack Obama after endorsing Hillary Rodham Clinton in Iowa yesterday - until he gave a left-handed compliment that almost sounded like it was cooked up in Clinton's headquarters.</p>

Interesting comments both pro and con, some of the most adoring coming from Americans and Canadians. We hope you get your nuclear power plant!

It contains more than 55,000 pages … It is so complex that even those who wrote it don’t fully understand it. The “it” is the federal tax code, and more and more Americans are demanding that the time has come to abolish the IRS in favor of a “Fair Tax” system. The Fair Tax system would eliminate the IRS and replace every current federal tax—personal income tax, business income tax, the death tax, the investment tax and Social Security/FICA taxes included with a simple, Fair Tax. In other words, you would keep 100 percent of your paycheck and then pay...

In the tradition of my list of the top places to find melanistic squirrels in 2006, here’s a list of the top locations to see black deer in 2007. 1. Texas Hill Country, Central Texas. It has been said that the eastern edge of Texas’ Edwards Plateau region and adjacent areas of the Blackland Prairie region are the epicenter of the world’s population of melanistic white-tailed deer, for reasons not well understood by zoologists. In going over the scientific literature, Dr. John T. Baccus and John C. Posey of Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos have been unable to...

Ahmadinejad's Blog Attracts Critics November 26, 2007 The Guardian Robert Tait in Tehran -excerpt- Far from being a repository of fawning admiration, Ahmadinejad's blog has attracted criticism as scathing as that voiced by his known adversaries. Somewhat gleefully, the reformist newspaper Etemad reported yesterday that some respondents were venting their spleen with little regard for pleasantries. One writer - calling himself Sadegh Al Ebrahim - sarcastically congratulated Ahmadinejad on his success in creating new jobs through last summer's decision to ration petrol. "In our city before rationing there were two petrol stations, of which one was always shut. But now,...

Tuesday/Wednesday, November 13/14 - about 4 a.m. Sources inside and outside Iran. A series of explosions rocked the Parchin Military Site (where missiles, including "cruise" type missiles, are manufactured) at Varamin south of Tehran. The Shahab 3, 4 and more recently Shahab 5 solid fuel missiles at the site are hidden in old salt mines in the mountain face in the area, further excavated and furbished for development and manufacture. The main purpose of this Ministry of Defense site, established by the late Shah's father - Reza Shah Kabir - in the early 1900's and taken over by the IRGC,...

The Republican/Conservative blog RedState is up for a WebLog award, specifically "Best of the Top 250 Blogs." Until very recently, RedState was walking away with this award.And then this happened. The huge liberal site DailyKos starting pimping a Democrat blog, Balloon Juice. In just the last hour, Balloon Juice has caught up. So, I have come to shamelessly and blatantly pimp RedState on Free Republic. Vote Early. Vote often (you can vote every 24 hours). Thank you and good night.

Please stop by and vist the unofficial NJ Blog for Mitt Romney: http://mittromneyfornj.blogspot.com/. Created by Alan Moretti. NJ could be in play for Romney, if Rudy is vulnerable after four or five straight losses coming into 2/5 in NJ.

Minutemen Vs. The Race - La Raza "A national Hispanic civil rights organization said Saturday it will not hold its 2009 annual convention in Kansas City because an opponent of illegal immigration was appointed to the city's park board. The National Council of La Raza said its board of directors voted unanimously to pull the conference after being unable to reach an agreement with Mayor Mark Funkhouser over his appointment in June of Frances Semler, a member of the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps." -Source... http://takeastandagainstliberals.blogspot.com/

Here's a great online op-ed laying out why Fred Thompson will win the nomination. Basically, Fred Thompson's federalist principles are connecting with evangelicals and the more conservative people in the Republican party. My favorite part: While James Dobson has had some snarky things to say about Senator Thompson, I really see his federalist stance as an attraction to evangelical voters. Even though Fred has said he wouldn't support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, there are still evangelical leaders supporting him (Gary Bauer and Richard Land, to name a few). Evangelical Christians understand having a life philosophy that affects (in...

I know for a fact that Hezbollah is building defenses and fortifications from which they can launch attacks in the south (where I was two days ago), in the Bekaa Valley, and in Al Dahiyeh (the Hezbollah security square in Beirut, which we covertly entered and moved through twice during our photo-reconnaissance a few days ago). ... he houses are being rebuilt – as they were — with secret interconnecting corridors linking the houses together in a link-by-link network of fighting positions. There are tunnels running beneath the houses linking them with other buildings and adjacent neighborhoods, as well as...

For one with a long history of conservative Republican political participation…and mine goes back to the 1952 presidential campaing of Robert Taft…the rally Saturday afternoon at the Hyatt-Regency hotel celebrating Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) could not have been a greater shock. Taft, son of the 27th president, was constitutionally (and this word is used advisably) unable to demagogue. His message of hoped-for return to the policies of the past did not contain many personal incentives. In place of entitlements he advocated work, instead of farm subsidies he emphasized the free market. He accepted Social Security and few other accoutrements of...

San Diego (1-1) at Green Bay (2-0) - 1:00 PM (Sheridan's Line - San Diego by 4½) I just don't know about San Diego this year. They didn't play very well against the Bears in Week One, although they got the win. Then they were humiliated by New England in Week Two (on SNF to boot). QB Philip Rivers did not look impressive in either game, and RB LaDainian Tomlinson has a total of just 68 rushing yards. Of course, you could say that both games were against good defensive teams, but that's also true this week against Green Bay....

Former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., may have announced his candidacy for president from Jay Leno's couch in Los Angeles, but when it came to his campaign Web site, he brought his business to Chattanooga. Mr. Thompson's site, Fred08.com, was developed and is maintained by episode49, a Chattanooga-based Web development company. Episode49 also maintained Mr. Thompson's "testing the waters" Web site, ImWithFred.com. "We're totally responsible for Fred08," said Ken Smith, managing partner for episode49. Mr. Smith said the company's relationship with the campaign grew through work episode49 did for the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. "That's...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- DailyKos, an influential political Web site that serves as a virtual bulletin board for liberals, qualifies as a media entity exempt from federal campaign finance regulations, the Federal Election Commission said Tuesday. The FEC said the Web site, operated by blogger Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, cannot be regulated as a political committee and can freely post blog entries that support candidates. Conservative blogger John C.A. Bambenek had argued in a complaint last month that the site should comply with campaign finance laws because such entries amounted to "a gift of free advertising and candidate media services." The FEC...