Blogs Beat Cargill To The Punch

Two local blogs beat House Speaker Lance Cargill to the punch in announcing that Jennifer Mock, a reporter for The Oklahoman, would become the new State House communications director. Her employment was announced on Monday by Cargill.

Calvin Rees at http://www.demookie.com/ posted the story on December 29th at 9:24 a.m.

John Angier at http://www.okiecampaigns.blogspot.com/ posted the story on December 29th at 12:30 p.m.

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Blogger Geiger Offers Thoughts On Benge, OTRS

Tulsa blogger Stan Geiger has an interesting post today in which he disagrees with Rep. Chris Benge that the Oklahoma Teacher Retirement System is on the mend. Food for thought at http://www.stan-geiger.com/. Geiger presents no credentials to give credence to his argument, but it is interesting nonetheless.

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Democrats Use The Blogosphere Most, Study Finds

Michael Bates at the Tulsa-based BatesLine has a fascinating study about the blogosophere. Read all the details here: http://www.blogreaderproject.com/aggregates/medianindex

Michael's study found that Democrats use the blogosphere most.

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Other Voices In The Blogosphere: Rush Limbaugh

From www.oklahomalefty.blogspot.com ~ The latest controversy surrounding conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh is honestly a bit silly. There are many, many reasons to go after Limbaugh but this is not one of them. This situation is an excellent example of what happens when people take statements out of context and run with it. Sadly this kind of thing happens all of the time (Rush himself partakes in said activity from time to time) and it is just plain sloppiness. I am not about to get into a debate on media bias, because I don’t believe that systematic media bias exists (individuals are biased sure but the organizations as a whole are not). I’m sure that I will get some comments from my good friend Red telling me that I am wrong and that is fine. Millions of people believe in media bias, but that doesn’t make it true. This however is not the point of my post. The point is that there is a laundry list of reasons to go after Limbaugh, but be careful in doing so and make sure that you can back up your claims because he has an army of supporters ready, willing, and able to defend El Rushbo’s honor (for example, I heard this story discussed on three other nationally syndicated talk shows this morning). Granted, Limbaugh is guilty of making unsubstantiated attacks on others but it is not right when he does it and thus it is not right when it is done to him.

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Okie Blog Awards Stir Spirited Comments

Oklahoma's growing community of Internet bloggers has an annual awards event originated by fellow blogger Mike Hermes, the veteran who posts at http://www.okiedoke.com/. Every year, Mike conducts "Best Of" voting by bloggers. This year, Mike reports, he's had spirited comments on the "Best Political Blog" category. Here's the story from Mike:

"The Okie Blog Awards were created for the purpose of showcasing well-known and lesser-known Oklahoma blogs, and this year’s Awards were again well received with more blogs being nominated than ever. Thirty-six blogs made the final nomination list for the first time. To date, the 2007 Okie Blog Awards website has received more than 2,000 page views, hopefully opening up many Oklahoma blogs to new visitors.

PART NEWS, PART ANALYSIS, PART COMMENTARY

"Yet, not everyone was happy. It should surprise no one that most complaints had to do with politics. '2 okiefunks and no Mark Shannon. This ‘contest’ is trivial and meaningless!'

"And one Okie blogger lamented: 'The Okie blog awards are conducted by liberals, dominated by liberals and (shocking) won by liberals. Unfortunately all of the 'awards' in the world won’t make their lies into truth or their hatred into votes for Democrats. But it does make them feel important and authoritative. Small fish in an even smaller pond… or in this case, glass bowl.'

"Those weren’t the only complaints. I also received a few suggestions to change some Award categories and/or add to them. One of the suggesters thought the Best Political Blog category should consist of two sub-categories of Best Right and Best Left. While I kind of like the idea, my own sympathies lie toward more non-partisan political blogs, so a third, moderate/non-partisan sub-category would then be in order. Being a simple guy, I thought better of it. However, I have decided to also announce the runner-up blog in each category this year. One reason being that the top two finishers under Best Political Blog have always consisted of both a conservative and liberal blog. Another reason is the slight differences in votes received by the top finishers in many categories. (I had to break a tie in one category.)"

The Okie Blog award winners will be announced at an October get-together in Tulsa.

The definition of "political blog" is of some interest, and I can't say I've been able to figure it out yet. Some nominated in the category seem to me more social commentary than political commentary and a couple defy even that label. Ah well...it's all good fun and notes the growing influence and importance of the Oklahoma blogosphere. ~ Mike McCarville

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Other Voices In The Blogosphere: Oklahoma Lefty Believes It Is 'Time To Clean House'

From Oklahoma Lefty ~ I truly believe that it is time to clean house in the Senate and House of Representatives. We have a disgustingly corrupt Congress that is more interested in serving their own personal needs and those of their associates (and PACs of choice) than they are in serving this great nation. Don’t believe me? Just ask the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. CREW cited 4 Democrats and 18 Republicans as the “most corrupt” in office; the two most corrupt of the most corrupt being John Murtha and Tim Murphy.

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Other Voices In The Oklahoma Blogosphere

From http://oklahomalefty.blogspot.com ~ Headline: Elizabeth Edwards criticizes MoveOn.org ad. Money Quote: “Someone who’s spent their life in the military doesn’t deserve ‘General Betray Us,’” said Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. This ad was a bad idea and will probably backfire against MoveOn.org.

From http://www.ronblackradio.com ~ Guns cause crime like flies cause garbage.

From http://www.boundedrationality.blogspot.com ~ Illegal immigration is a big problem in the United States. Legal immigration is not.

From http://www.redstaterusa.blogspot.com ~ The "Pinwheels For Peace" anti-war protest uses school children as human shields/billboards for their anti-Bush, anti-war, pro-Democrat agenda and I think it is despicable. These left-over 60's, flower-power, peace/love/rocknroll, Vietnam era moonbats are out of control.

From http://www.yastm.blogspot.com ~ YASTM has been getting a lot more traffic lately and since I moved to Oklahoma from the place where both smog and Sig alerts were invented, I became suspiciously curious to find out what gross polluter was causing my hit count to increase. (For the rest of the story...go to the blog and read "We Can't Go On Together....")

From http://www.tulsatoday.com ~ State Senator Don Barrington, R-Lawton, who authored Senate Bill 881 creating Oklahoma’s sales tax holiday, announced this week he will introduce legislation expanding Oklahoma’s annual back-to-school sales tax holiday to include school supplies.

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