Recently in politics Category

Via Rolling Stone.

As of an hour ago, I'm officially on vacation until September. Tomorrow morning I'm putting on my journalist hat (and cape?) and will be covering the Democratic National Convention from Denver.

Keystone Politics, my business, will be credentialed to cover the convention. We'll be doing our usual stories and also have a brand-new channel on YouTube.

In addition to that, I'll be doing TV segments for NBN of the Philippines and hopefully I'll get a few pieces in the Guardian's website as well.

Phew! That'll be more than enough work for me. I'll keep you posted - look for my first Youtube video on Friday.

There are many stupid members of Congress, but Bill Sali might be numero uno. From ThinkProgress:

Rep. Bill Sali (R-ID), who is participating in the GOP's ongoing "Drill Now" energy stunt, has a unique idea about how to bring down gas prices: extracting oil from trees. In a meeting in his Capitol Hill office, Sali reportedly told a candidate for Idaho's House of Representatives, Byron Yankey, that there "'could be up to 40 barrels of oil' in a single tree."

From their glossary of political terms:

"Democracy: A moderately representative plutocracy."

Jon Voight shows his crazy in the Washington Times:

Sen. Barack Obama has grown up with the teaching of very angry, militant white and black people: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Rev. Michael Pfleger. We cannot say we are not affected by teachers who are militant and angry. We know too well that we become like them, and Mr. Obama will run this country in their mindset.

The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way. It seems to me that if Mr. Obama wins the presidential election, then Messrs. Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers and Pfleger will gain power for their need to demoralize this country and help create a socialist America.

Sometimes I write something and I'm not quite sure where to put it - this blog isn't really about politics, but Keystone Politics should be about Pennsylvania. But in any case, take a look at My Dream Veepstakes:

The only way John McCain could make his candidacy even more boring would be to add another white guy to the ticket. You know the type - big fluffy "Trent Lott" hair, southern drawl, wears a flag lapel pin and has memorized his favorite bible passages. Sure, another white guy would probably add some desperately-needed Jesus power to the McCain campaign, but c'mon! We've seen it all before!

So throw away the white southerners, because it'd be way more fun to see Johnny Mac pick Joe Lieberman. They've become best buds, after all. We haven't seen my favorite war hero plant a big ole' kiss on Joe's face yet, but I think it'd make a great October Surprise.

Just when you thought Pennsylvania politics couldn't get any more corrupt, the Inquirer has uncovered a $1.7 million taxpayer-funded effort by House Democrats to spam e-mail users around PA. All for partisan purposes, of course.

Just a quick note to mention that I'll be on the RJ McKay Show in Philadelphia tonight around 9pm. Tune into WPHT (1210 AM talk radio) to hear you favorite political pundit (ie, me) pontificate about the Iowa Caucuses, the New Hampshire Primary, and what it all means for the candidates.

A friend and I decided to do top 3 picks and see who comes closer. I'm gonna put them here for the sake of keeping things out in the open. Me: 1) Edwards 2) Clinton 3) Obama Him: 1) Obama 2) Edwards 3) Clinton Can't wait to see who got closer... Update: Looks like I'm the big loser here!

This evening I rolled out a new design for Keystone Politics. I never seem to be satisfied with the design, but this represents an improvement over the past color scheme and a professionalized look for the site. I'll roll out specific new features over the next few days. Here are a few notes on key areas where I'm either testing a new feature or looking for ideas.

• Subscriptions: For the past few years, I've focused on RSS subscriptions. With this design, I'm testing whether we'll see a better response rate from a daily headlines e-mail. Knowing the political audience, I think it will be a hit.
• Discussions: One of the biggest challenges on Keystone Politics is convincing our readers to participate in discussions on the site. I don't think we made a big improvement in this area, but I'm going to be actively seeking out ideas.
• Revenue Opportunities: I finally caved and installed a leaderboard advertisement banner at the top of the page. I've resisted it for four years, but increased server costs mean that we've got to bring in more money.
• Cleaner Sidebar: We fit a lot of information into our sidebars; I think this look is cleaner than the last one.

Overall I'm happy with the new design, but I'll be watching our analytics and metrics packages carefully over the next few days and weeks and making changes based on those measurements.