Newscoma

I thought the Buffalo Springfield classic would be appropriate today but I couldn’t find it on YouTube.

Instead, I found the Staple Singers singing “For What It’s Worth” and I had to go …

Whoa.

[youtube=[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1KHHg1hNg4&rel=1]

Whoa.

Dear Five People,

You know, you guys who come to the blog.

I have a couple of things to say today as I’m a whupped raccoon and I’m going to try to muster up enough energy to say Howdy. You know, the day job eats into the blogging life sometimes. Dammit.

First of all, please vote tomorrow. Vote for who you think will represent you the best. It’s the cool-to-be-a-voting-American Day.

Second, done with the shill blogging. DONE. I love you guys, but whoever wins the nomination is going to be standing on that stage in Denver with the winner. I want to read about why the candidates are worthy, not why those folks who don’t agree with you “suck.” We honestly are all in this together. Most of my dearest friends, and me for that matter, are voting for different people. The Dems among us are still friendly. And we are conversing about it. But we respectfully agree to disagree. We want to know why the other one feels the way they do. We want to be a team later in the year. We don’t have hard feelings. We are one in the long run. There is no reason for in-party sniping.

Third, did I mention the real job?

Fourth, go here. I’ve linked Democrats, Republicans, Newspapers (I’m cool that way). Stay informed and make your own mind up. It’s a good way to do it. I’m not the only one doing this. Our objective is to link to Tennessee election news and commentary. Go. I’ll wait.

Fifth, here’s a picture of a kitten and two ducks if you don’t dig the politics. Because tomorrow is going to be amazing.

Going to pass out in a heap of pre-Super Tuesday revelry.

Cheers,

Newscoma

I’ve spoken to several of you around the state about an experimental project that I’m working on with some fantastic bloggers around the state. In trying to explain it, I found that when you are a part of something cutting edge, it’s hard to break it down simply. If you notice on the right hand sidebar of this blog, there is a RSS feed that is constantly linking the stories we find. You can see, you guys have a lot to say.

This morning, Jack Lail did break it down for folks which was greatly appreciated. I asked him if I could post this in it’s entirety but I’m only going to post the explanation under the jump as it very long yet very comprehensive because I want you to go see the site.

Read Lail’s take of what we are doing in Tennessee. And then head to the site to see who’s been spotlighted. It’s been a combination of traditional news outlets as well as bloggers who are discussing their perceptions of Super Tuesday.

Here is what Mr. Lail says:

Here’s the best Tennessee election coverage that can be found on the Internet.

A bold statement, but arguably true.

(more…)

Two days and then we go to the polls although I believe a lot of you already have done that but I waited.

I waited because I wasn’t sure about who I wanted to vote for and I also waited because I needed to sit down and comprehensively read the issues. Honestly, I liked John Edwards platform the best overall but I wasn’t sold on a couple of things and I wavered between him and Obama. A year ago I wrote that I needed the candidates to talk to folks like me with intelligence and without the spin. If I’m honest, that still hasn’t happened so I went looking for them, gunning to see what would work for me and what would not. My optimism of my twenties and thirties when it came to the presidential race where I knew what I wanted in a president has sadly faded.

This year, I made a list of things that were important to me and weighed the pros and cons of each candidate. I studied their websites’ issues pages. I watched the candidates whittled out during the debates over the past couple of months. I listened to spin and blogs and weeded out folks that were shilling for their candidates and analyzed for my personal knowledge the truth between the real and the shill.

I thought about the one thing where my cynicism has been prevalent because I do believe whoever wins the presidency is going to have a lot of cleaning up to do. The executive privileges that were signed in to give the White House more control has been on my mind. The nightmare of Hurricane Katrina. The sad fact that this country had the support and good will of much of the world after 9/11 and how that was squandered.

And then I thought about how our government sold us a big whopping package of fear when I thought and was raised to believe that my country was about the hope of many. The poor, the downtrodden, anyone could indeed live the American dream with a bit of hard work and that things were possible. That we were the great American Melting Pot.

Because those were the things I was taught about my country, but I don’t feel that now with our current administration.

Many of the democrats have been a huge disappointment walking blindly behind any decision that the Rove/Bush/Cheney crew made that include a loss of some civil liberties and blatant disregard for common rights of each and every American. Borrowing money from other countries that will be passed on to my nieces and generations to come. Making the words “immigrant” and “gay” into dirty words said with a sneer and misconceptions by using Mainstream Media outlets to push a divisive agenda.

The democrats have dirt on their hands too for not being brave and following the issues that made me believe when I was in my younger years. They were never perfect. What is? But they aligned with my personal belief system.

As the democrats who are left in the race basically have very few difference in the issues they both say they will fight for, I made my mind up on who will get my vote Tuesday. Their platforms are basically the same when you break it down to its simplest form. We can nitpick it to death, but there aren’t that many fundamental differences in their platforms.

And that person will be Barack Obama.

It wasn’t the news or blogs that helped me make this decision.

It was simply I believe he will represent us globally the best. And I think he can unify this nation because we need it.

Do I think he will be perfect? No, I don’t. Do I think he will cure cancer, have a chicken in every pot and fight the dragons roaming the horizon? No.

But I do believe he is the candidate that is best for these turbulent times and I will give my one vote to him.

Photo Credit

Just four days ago I got an email from Scott Karp suggesting that his Web startup might have some tools that could make covering an election interesting — really interesting.More emails … phone calls … more emails … phone calls. The result: An idea to let some savvy political followers (except me) find links to the best stories out there and make a list of them that lets readers get the benefit of their foraging and expertise.

Who the hell is Scott Karp? Folio: mag tagged him as one of the 40 most influential people in publishing in 2007. He left his day job as director of digital strategy for the publisher of The Atlantic magazine last year to devote his full energies (and then some) to a startup called Publish2.com.

I’m honored to be in. Thanks to those who have faith in me.

Now if I can just figure it all out.

Hoping I do well.