Blogging, particularly political blogging, is considered by many to have moved into the mainstream, especially after the last U.S. election. As a result, some of the early adopters of Web 2.0 have thrown in the towel, because blogging is no longer "revolutionary" or "maverick" enough – such as Jason Calacanis. If this is their true reason for ending their blogging careers, it is foolish one. From the start, bloggers have craved the kind of recognition usually reserved for the mainstream media. Now that many of us have achieved mainstream status, are we seeing a revolution that eats its children?...
I learned something new from The Shotgun blog tonight: apparently, pacifism is "amoral". Yes, according to Craig Yirush (who the heck is that anyway?), wanting or working towards peace and understanding is "amoral". I know that we can't avoid every single war or every act of violence in the world, but I have no doubt that many of those instances of war or violence are triggered by people like Yirush who believe that wanting peace and harmony is...
It seems the National Post has launched, or at least thrown its weight behind, an "Infidel Blogger Award". Don't you think that this is all a bit on the silly side? I mean, the category for best blog post about insulting the prophet is beyond the pale. I am not a Muslim, but imagine if a major national newspaper in Canada started handing out blog awards for blog posts "most insulting to God or Jesus Christ". Don't get me wrong: I am not saying that a human rights complaint should be filed over stuff like that. What I am...
Looking at this post by Ezra Levant, one must wonder whether he is functionally illiterate – recognizing words but unable to comprehend them in their context. Ezra rejoices at the fact that prime minister Stephen Harper has finally commented on the issue of human rights commissions and provides a transcript of the prime minister's response to a journalist's question. Now, look at what Ezra turns this into: In terms of the free speech issues and some of the activities of human rights commissions, I think that everyone has had some concerns about this. Stop and think about how incredible...
Warren Kinsella is suing Ezra Levant for defamation – yawn! These two make you wish that Paul Martin's national daycare program had been implemented, because both require around-the-clock adult supervision while blogging. Levant expends an exorbitant amount of time blogging about free speech, while Kinsella uses his blog, among other things, for slagging off journalists, columnists, politicians, etc. he doesn't like. Both should be entered in a mandatory make-work program, as they seem to have too much free time on their hands. Levant is wrong when he says that Kinsella's lawsuit is frivolous; everyone has the right to defend...
Garth Turner may have lost his seat tonight, but he was right when he referred to yours truly as "one of the "leading bloggers and opinion-makers in the West". Earlier tonight I called on Jason Cherniak, who had backed the loser Stéphane Dion, a.k.a. the "final nail in the coffin of the Liberal Party", from the very start, to resign as "leader of the Liberal blogosphere". It seems that Jason has taken my advice to heart: This is my last post on politics. After almost four years of blogging, I have decided that I have had enough. [...] All...
This is a bummer, and probably somewhat embarrassing for the owner of the site/blog, but the Election Blog at Democraticspace.com has been inaccessible all day – 24 hours ahead of the election! At first, the site would load and load, and then the browser announced a Page Not Found error. Later in the day, the mystery was solved, as the following message appeared where the blog was supposed to be: This Account Has Been SuspendedPlease contact the billing/support department as soon as possible. Looks like someone didn't pay his bill .... is this a sign of those rotten economic...
Interesting advice regarding corporate/business blogging: However if you are going to invest in business blogging, be good to yourself… don't have all those wonderful incoming links to your great content go to a blog that is not hosted by you. [...] Online personal branding experts even look to encourage people to use Typepad.com as a blog platform - whilst it's a great blogging platform that I use and recommend, if you also have a website, a Typepad blog is not going to help you with your link building and search engine optimisation strategy which is becoming even more critical...
Liberals4Linda is a blog/site launched by a "strategic voter" who wants to prevent a Harper victory on October 14. The site is dedicated to NDP candidate Linda Duncan, whom I have also endorsed (for various reasons, her commitment to education issues being top of the list). The author of Liberals4Linda, however, has a somewhat distorted view of me and my political convictions: So who is Werner Patels? Well, he hates Kevin Taft. And he doesn't seem to like Stephane Dion either. In fact, he seems to admire Stephen Harper. But he loves Linda. So we think he's ok. For...
Warren Kinsella writes today that bloggers have become news in this current election campaign (e.g., for breaking stories on various candidates who have had to resign as a result). Warren seems to think that this a bad thing – I don't. It shows the resourcefulness of bloggers and their ability to do things that the mainstream media, apparently, couldn't. But I also detect a double standard in Warren's remarks. When a journalist breaks a story, no one is saying, including Warren, that the journalist has become news (well, except for one CBC reporter who tried to manipulate the news...
The Prairie Wrangler is mad. He's been roiled by a column in the Globe and Mail today. No columnist gets me more riled up than Rick Salutin. More than that, I'm convinced he's doing it on purpose: "Hey, you know what my column's gonna be about today… pissing off that young firebrand Olaf. He's gonna get so angry." And I keep falling for it! He plays me like a fiddle. Olaf takes exception to this piece: Our dominant political culture is social democratic. (As opposed to democratic socialist. There is nothing socialist on the electoral radar.) This includes 60...
Robert Jago is without doubt one of the quality bloggers in Canada. But his "ranking" of blogs is not only highly subjective, but also based on totally unreliable data, and therefore complete rubbish. Problem number 1: Robert selects the blogs he includes in his "ranking" manually – a subjective choice. If a pollster excluded, for example, the Conservative Party from the choices given to respondents, even Dion could come out the winner. Problem number 2: Both Alexa and Google Page Rankings are completely unreliable because they capture only a tiny fraction of site traffic. For these services to work,...
I know, I know, it's really hard to digest, but Red Tory actually makes sense today in light of the moronic accusations of "plagiarism" against the Prime Minister -- as if this were a real issue of national significance to Canada:[I]t really is a measure of the Liberals’ desperation. Is this actually the best the LPC can come up with… “a debate about a five year-old speech that was delivered three Parliaments ago, two elections ago, when the prime minister was the leader of a party that no longer exists”? Quite pathetic really.Extremely...
This is almost as good as Stephen LeDrew's recent editorial: The left deserves to be governed by the right for four years just so the left can understand what goes on in the heads of the third of the country that is traditionally conservative. The Liberals deserve to pay for their poor choice in leadership. This isnt bitterness. It is stating plain truth. Dion has been everything that his detractors predicted. AND MORE! ---- (Antonio...
Jason Cherniak used to have principles, but not anymore. He is so desperate now, in view of his Liberal Party's total annihilation, that he is willing to bargain with the very party he has maligned and fabricated stories about: All this being the case, it is time for those of us who want to defeat Stephen Harper to put our personal differences aside and vote strategically. Everybody knows what I think of the NDP, but I would be happy to support 12 more seats for them if it means getting rid of Stephen Harper. Cherniak has reached stage three...
Who would have thunk it? The Old Prairie Wrangler is back -- left the blogosphere about a year ago, to do some missionary work in Africa or something. No longer hosted on the Blogger platform, the Prairie Wrangler now calls Wordpress.com his new home. Welcome back and good...
Poor Jason Cherniak, he simply can't take it anymore: Warren Kinsella can remove me from his sidebar if he wants. He can continue attacking the Liberal Party that he obviously does not care about if he wants. I really don't care anymore, because I'm no longer a reader. [...] I will never mention him on this blog again unless something completely unexpected happens. In case you're wondering, Cherniak is upset about Kinsella's recent admission of defeat. Poor Cherniak. At least he'll be able to take comfort in knowing that he won't have to stress over running his Liberal bloggers...
... and now that Royal Canadian Air Farce will soon be back on the air for its last season ("Final Flight"), maybe the Confused Philosopher, a popular character on the show, can answer a few questions about this confused blogger. Ken, who puts partisanship way above common sense and reason, supports both Alberta premier Ed Stelmach and Liberal leader Stéphane Dion. No, honestly. I know it's hard to believe, but when it comes to utter nonsense it just can't get any worse. I mean, both are utterly incompetent, so if that's the common denominator Ken goes by, fine, but...
Sour grapes from a Liberal über-partisan: This is a horrible failure to report the news and the Globe should be ashamed. During this election, I think they are going to lose their reputation as Canada's paper of record if they do not start reporting news other than a poll of less than 15% of ridings in the election. The difference between the Globe and Mail and Cherniak is that the newspaper employs professional and ethical standards of journalism, whereas Cherniak is nothing but hype, hot air and distortions of facts in his zealous attempts to prop up a party...
The DemocraticSPACE 2008 Canada Election blog is now up and running – thanks to Greg Morrow. I am one of the bloggers for that site, so you'll find some of my blog posts cross-posted there. I also hope that, time permitting, I will be able to post some original posts there as...
Funny, funny, funny and so typical Cherniakian at the same time. Watch the video and pay special attention to final few seconds when Conservative blogger Stephen Taylor thanks Jack Layton for agreeing to be interviewed by a blogger – a Conservative blogger. Layton's response: Better than a Liberal. Proof that Layton is a trustworthy politician who speaks the...
Some interesting developments in the blogosphere during this exciting election campaign. Buckdog, who was threatened with legal action by the Green Party for linking to a YouTube video of Elizabeth May's latest gaffe and impulsive language, has received an apology. What is interesting, or troubling, about the apology is this part: My actions came out of a concern to ensure that internet content is an honest and real representation of facts [...]. Since when is some Green Party apparatchik in charge of policing the blogosphere? Who made him the blogosphere's cop? Buckdog counters all that masterfully in his reply:...
Interesting question posed by The Economist: Who today speaks truth to power—not only in authoritarian or semi-free countries such as Russia and China but in the West as well? Answer:...
I recently issued a call to bloggers to show the world that we can be better than the politicians and media pundits. Even though the picture is quite funny, I'll have to admit, what this blogger has done with it is not what I had in mind when I urged bloggers to keep their blog posts on a professional and objective level. This is old-style blogging, the kind that has led media people like Christie Blatchford to hate us so much that they'll fabricate stories to "prove" a...
On Sunday, Prime Minister Harper will pay a visit to the Governor-General to ask her to dissolve Parliament and call for an election. From that moment on, the election campaign will be in full swing. You all know what this means: blogging will go through the roof. So far, we have all posted our personal thoughts and observations on the various parties and leaders – sometimes in a professional tone, at other times in less-than-professional language. Before I say what I am about to say, let me get just one thing out of the way (because afterwards I won't...
The Globe and Mail has set up a separate site for full coverage of the upcoming federal election. Here you will find all the latest polls (national and region by region) as well as an interesting blog that features a Liberal (Robert Silver) and a Conservative (Tim Powers). What is more, readers are invited to submit their own political cartoons. It goes without saying that the site comes with full Web 2.0 functionality, i.e., it is interactive and readers can post comments. Also see the special note from the editor, Edward...
Christie Blatchford must feel so insecure about (and jealous of) bloggers that she felt compelled to distort the facts in her latest column by fabricating a quote by John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin: I guess they didn't believe her when she said, with that trademark wag of a finger and an outthrust chin, "Here's a little news flash - I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this great country." Hurray for that, I say. Hurray for anyone who has the cheek not to genuflect before the...
My wife and I agree: at least 85% of the world is filled with morons today. Unfortunately, our hypothesis is proved with every new day. The other problem is that the number of morons in the world isn't holding steady at 85% or so, but growing. The latest example of morons at work can be seen at Garth Turner's blog. Garth has had problems with a "wiki vandal" and troll who has been falsifying Garth's Wikipedia page. As if such childish nonsense could break a politician and/or candidate. Garth says the he's identified the vandal/troll, so I hope we'll...
Here's Jason Cherniak's latest example of "Liberal" when it comes to freedom of speech: I am also going to be picky about comments. Responding to a story about income trusts with some accusation against Ralph Goodale will not get in. Responding to a story about In and Out with "well you're responsible for sponsorship" is also not enough. However, if you mention sponsorship in an intelligent way and actually make an argument, then I will allow it. Think of your comments as letters to me, where I will print what I find interesting. I know some people do not...
Christie Blatchford is an accomplished and talented columnist, currently covering the Olympics in Beijing for her paper, the Globe and Mail. In her most recent column, she bemoans the downsides of blogging and telling her readers that her talent should not be wasted on or consumed by something as "ephemeral" as a blog. Her comments are true of at least 95% of the blogs out there. So many bloggers share even their most inane thoughts with the rest of the world that it borders on a miracle of sorts that there is still bandwidth and disk space available for...