BNN Colorado Tag Cloud

Want to know what’s “hot” in the Colorado blogosphere–left, right, and everywhere in between?

Try the new BNN Colorado tag cloud.

Biggest item right now–shocker–Democratic National Convention.

Face The State: Blog Wrangler

The great folks over at Face The State have undertaken a mighty task–the “Blog Wrangler” combines human editing and RSS feeds–to cover a wide swath of mostly center-right bloggers from across the state. It will provide a nice compliment to the Rocky Mountain Alliance 2.0 and BlogNetNews.com as a source for political blogging in Colorado.

DNCC Credentials More Blogs For DNC

SquareState.net has the full list of all the blogs, including the original state credentialed blogs, complete with embedded links.

Rocky Mountain Alliance 2.0

Ben DeGrow explains the relaunch of the Rocky Mountain Alliance–version 2.0 for 2008:

In 2004, the Rocky Mountain Alliance of Blogs was formed – a loose collection of Colorado conservative bloggers who combined forces to grow new media influence in our state.

Times change. New blogs come. Old ones go. 2008 brings the birth of the Rocky Mountain Alliance, version 2.0. Below you will find not only links to each of our sites but also a feed you can scroll through to see our latest posts.

Some of the original cast remain, strengthened by the fresh blood of some high-quality newcomers. The goal of the Rocky Mountain Alliance 2.0 is to promote our shared conservative vision of limited and accountable government, freedom, and personal responsibility – in Colorado and in our nation, the result of the most brilliant and noble political experiment in human history.

You are invited to visit each of our sites and leave your comments.

Members

* Best Destiny
* Daily Blogster
* The Drunkablog!
* Geezerville USA
* Mount Virtus
* Night Twister
* Rocky Mountain Right
* Slapstick Politics
* Thinking Right
* View from a Height

Projects

* Ritter Watch
* Schaffer v Udall

I have posted the RMA 2.0 blogroll in the sidebar, along with the RMA 2.0 blog feed.

Denver Media And Political Week In Review 042508

Highlights from local media types dishing on Rush Limbaugh, Recreate ’68, Colorado College–and other political banter from this past week:

Dave and Lois on “The Ride Home” (850KOA):
Dave and Lois press Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) on his call for Rush Limbaugh to face a “public reprimand” for his comments regarding Denver and the Democratic National Convention (interview starts at about the 1/4 mark of the audio)

Rush Limbaugh defends his comments, discusses the Denver MSM’s coverage of his comments and the relative coverage of Recreate ’68

---

Mike Rosen (850KOA):
Fri–(9am, 10am) Rosen discussing the Limbaugh comments; “winning at all costs” not an option for Rosen
Tue–(11am) Adam Kissel, Foundation for Individual Rights in Higher Education, discusses the Colorado College case

---

Jon Caldara (“Independent Thinking”):

Chainsaw Etiquette at Colorado College

Eco-Theology 21st Century Religion

Liveblogging SamSphere Denver II–Colorado Online Part II

SamSphere Denver–April 19: Registration Open

Ben DeGrow has the details. A tentative schedule has been posted, and you can register here.

This is a sticky post–scroll for newer entries . . .

Blogger To Challenge GOP Stealth Candidate

A week ago I linked to news from blogger Joshua Sharf of a stealth GOP candidate, anti-Israeli non-conservative Rima Barakat Sinclair, and joined in calling for others to step up and challenge her positions and prevent the nomination from becoming automatic.

Well, Joshua himself has taken up the challenge and declared himself a candidate for Colorado House District 6:

So, after casting about for a candidate to challenge Rima Barakat Sinclair, a candidate who’s a legitimate conservative, reasonably articulate, with a history in the party, and a record of promoting free markets, personal liberty, and limited government, a group of us has finally hit on…er, me.

Yes, I’ll be spending my summer just about the last way I thought I would, petitioning on to the ballot to force a primary, and then going on to represent the party in the fall election.

No, the blog’s not going away. If anything, it’s going to become more important, as a sounding board for ideas and issues. And as important as this race is to me, what profiteth it man if he gain the nomination and lose his personality?

If you’d like to contribute time or, eventually, money, drop me a line here or at my email, jsharf@jsharf.com, and you can be plenty sure I’ll get back to you.

The adventure begins.

Fellow blogger Ben DeGrow has already endorsed Joshua, and I will add my own words of support.

Joshua’s blog may serve as an initial introduction, but from my own personal experience he is a man of integrity, strong conservative principles, and an outstanding GOP candidate. His economic knowledge is extensive (as you will discover on his blog), but his wit and insight reveal an intelligent and circumspect individual–a rarity among candidates on either side of the aisle.

As Ben points out, House District 6 is a Democrat stronghold–this is House Speaker Rep. Andrew Romanoff’s seat, after all (he’s term-limited)–so this isn’t about politics.

It’s about principles.

If you are so inclined, you should drop Joshua an email. What he needs now are “boots on the ground” to collect signatures in HD-6 (you have to a registered Republican).

Good luck to Joshua. I’ll keep you updated as his campaign progresses.

Here is a look at State House District 6, smack dab in the center of Denver County (click to enlarge):

Rocky Mountain News Endorses The Blogger Protection Act Of 2008, And You Should Too

Freedom of speech may cost you dearly if you blog–you could find yourself subject to campaign finance law regulating “public communications.”

Fortunately, in a surprising editorial from an MSM source, the Rocky Mountain News endorses the forthcoming Blogger Protection Act and addresses why, with the First Amendment, it should even be needed:

Maybe you’re thinking of setting up your own blog to comment on the affairs of the day. By all means, join the fray. But please make sure you don’t run afoul of a judge who considers your opinions a political contribution that should be regulated by federal campaign law.

We’re not joking. This nation that so enshrines free expression still hasn’t decided for certain whether bloggers should have the same leeway that, ahem, newspaper editorials and other traditional forms of opinion enjoy. Fortunately, Congress will soon have an opportunity to give Web blogs more durable First Amendment protection.

In the coming days, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Tex., is set to introduce The Blogger Protection Act of 2008. The bill would enact in law regulations that were handed down two years ago by the Federal Election Commission regarding bloggers and campaign finance laws.

The FEC has twice attempted to protect Internet users from the strictures of campaign law, as it has exempted newspapers, broadcasters and other more traditional media outlets. But because these rules have been reversed once by a federal judge and could be overturned in another legal challenge or by a future FEC, a statute is needed. We hope the Blogger Protection Act becomes law.

The reason the FEC got involved to begin with was – you guessed it – the deeply flawed McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. That act regulates “anything of value used to influence an election,” including “public communications.” This lets the government determine whether a particular form of communication is either a contribution or an expenditure and subject to the limits of the finance law.

So does that mean a blogger who posts some snarky comment about John McCain’s age or Hillary Clinton’s hairdo is making a contribution to an opponent’s campaign? How would such a message be valued in monetary terms? By the number of hits the page receives? By the number of comments posted by readers?

It shouldn’t be. And in 2002, the FEC seemed to resolve the problem when it exempted from the law pretty much any information transmitted over the Internet.

The fact that the issue remains unresolved is most troubling, but since this has effects for all corners of the blogosphere, both left and right, it should be easy to build momentum for the bill.

What is amazing is that we need to debate this at all. The FEC and the courts have no place in regulating politically-related speech on blogs. We applaud the RMN’s lead in bringing awareness of the issue, at least for Colorado’s political community and especially its bloggers.

Blogging And Transparency

Ben DeGrow has an interesting post detailing liberal RMN columnist Jason Salzman’s call for full blogger disclosure–in the name of credibility and a sense of separation from “professional journalism standards.”

As I commented on Ben’s blog, coming from the MSM–where editorials are unsigned, wire stories often unbylined, and even named writers obscure, often omitting any semblance of identity or disclosure, and even rather poor “journalistic standards”–it seems awfully arrogant to demand “full disclosure” from bloggers.