respublica

New look for Capitol Fax

Illinois political writer, Rich Miller, has redesigned his site, Capitol Fax.  It takes some getting used to but there are lots of cool new ways to interact with him and others who visit the site.

Silencing dissent

There's an app for that.

Via Scott Ott

Today Respublica Turns Five

Five years ago today I started this blog.  It was a sunny, somewhat boring, Saturday afternoon when I began fooling around with creating a blog first using Google's Blogger software and then almost immediately changing over to Typepad. 

In the five years I've posted everyday except for a day or two after my father died for a total of 5,983 posts and 8100 comments.

Readers come from all over, local Collinsville and Metro East, St Louis, Clayton, Chicago, Minnesota, Utah, California, Florida, New York, Texas etc etc and especially the many quiet readers in Washington DC.  One of the biggest thrills this past year and a half has been getting linked by the New York Times on many occasions.  The first link was so exciting I made a screenshot of the Times website.

I've also had the opportunity to get to know other bloggers like Allen Adomite,   Cal Skinner, former Illinois state legislator, runner and Chicago and national commentator, John Ruberry, Norman Teigen from Minneapolis, Paul McCain of Cyberbrethren who has been so supportive, and even got a mention on the famous Instapundit a few weeks ago. 

But most of all I'd like to give a heartfelt thanks to everyone who stops by here, your visits make doing this so very satisfying.

Too slow a blog

I'm having trouble running typepad this morning, things are loading way too slow, so...I'm going to go cut grass and come back after lunch.

Show them the money

"Some of the leading liberal bloggers are privately furious with the major progressive groups — and in some cases, the Democratic Party committees — for failing to spend money advertising on their sites, even as these groups constantly ask the bloggers for free assistance in driving their message."

Well, after giving it away for free for so long that's what happens. 

Blogging romance

As many of you know, I've been reading Ann Althouse's blog for 5 years or so.  Ann, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin, writes an eclectic blog, always interesting even on topics I could care less about (like American Idol).

The New York Times published a story yesterday describing her engagement and impending marriage to one of her long time commenters, Laurence Meade, a garden designer from Ohio.

This is quite the story in blog world.

All your faves

A webpage with many favorites all in one place, All My Faves.  Click on one of your favorites and there you are. 

A one stop page for lots of stuff you look at on the internet and some you've never seen before but are really cool.

Like:  Write on it.  I'm going to play with this one later today.

Hollywood blogs

Since this is Oscar night, Hollywood reporting is everywhere including more and more blogs aimed at entertainment.

According to the Financial Times a couple of new Hollywood blogs are going toe to toe to report both breaking entertainment news and find an audience which has been ignored by Hollywood.

The Wrap, by former New York Times reporter, Sharon Waxman, wants readers "disillusioned with the level of Hollywood coverage in the print media." 

 Big Hollywood, created by online news veteran, Andrew Breitbart, wants to "redress Hollywood's liberal bias". 

Both sites are written by a team of contributors and seem fairly interesting, even to someone like me who is not at all interested in the entertainment industry.

The reigning queen of Hollywood blog reporting is Nikke Finke's Deadline Hollywood.

Want to get away?

It's snowing a bit here this morning, windy and cold.  Alberta and her pesky Clipper just keeps visiting and visiting us this winter and we've grown weary of being cold.  That is until I revisited Cindy Baumgarten's blog this morning.  I will stop complaining.  Cindy, her husband Joe, and their two children are in Fairbanks Alaska where Joe is has been pastor of Zion Lutheran Church for two years.

Cindy writes about "getting away" for a while and how difficult it is up there in Fairbanks. 

"Don’t get me wrong, we love Fairbanks. But to get anywhere in Alaska (besides a roadside lodge on one of our 3 state highways) you are looking at traveling at least 6 hours to reach any significant destination. 

While the ride is beautiful, filled with mountains, rivers, valleys, wildlife and the occasional gas station with a flushable toilet (the outhouses are closed in the winter because they freeze up - yuck!) the roads can be treacherous when an unexpected storm hits - just ask my mom. However, the experience is definitely memorable."  

Find out what they did.

I love how they found a change of scene and even down here in St. Louis, I feel the relief their thermostat maneuvering brought.

Allen Adomite

Dot com

Has begun a new blog which will center on things happening in and around Troy, Illinois, the city in which Allen serves as alderman.

He got off to a good start by photo blogging a water main break during the frigid weather we had last week.  Way too much ice forming on the public works employees trying to repair it, it feels cold just looking at the photo.

You may remember Allen as one of the co-authors of Partisan Discourse and the Illinois Civic Justice League.

I'm looking forward to checking in regularly.