I am blogging the debate at The Homestead

Beautiful Homestead resort in western Virginia.

Virginia's two gubernatorial candidates will meet eye-to-eye today as they square off for Virginia's first debate between Bob McDonnell (R) and Creigh Deeds (D). Mr. Deeds will be in his backyard since he is from Bath County, home of the beautiful and historic Homestead Resort.

Sponsored by the Virginia Bar Association, this annual summer event in the mountains of western Virginia is a must-do for political junkies and offers an opportunity for Virginia's lawyers and the public to sit in as the issues are debated.

This year Virginia political bloggers will cover the event live along with mainstream media representatives. For those unable to be on the premises, a live feed will be available at VirginiaTalks.com.

This is the first meet-up between Mr. McDonnell and Mr. Deeds since the June Democratic primary. While Mr. McDonnell has proposed a series of 10 debates between now and election day, Mr. Deeds has agreed to only four.

Bloggers United had invited both candidates to attend at its annual event, debating one another in the presence of political bloggers from across the Commonwealth. Mr. McDonnell agreed; Mr. Deeds declined.

Since Mr. Deeds appears to be a reluctant debater, there may not be many opportunities to observe him discussing issues with Mr. McDonnell so this weekend is especially important.

Let the debate begin!

Bob McDonnell for Governor

Add another debate to McDonnell's column

Jim Hoeft at Bearing Drift extended an invitation on behalf of Blogs United to the two gubernatorial candidates, Republican Bob McDonnell and Democrat Creigh Deeds, to debate. As Jim reported on Wednesday and Jim Riley picked up at Virginia Virtucon, Mr. McDonnell accepted.

Will Creigh Deeds do likewise?

YankeePhil.blogspot.com

Phil's old blog appears to be terminal so he has scrapped it and restarted as www.YankeePhil.blogspot.com. He's back in the saddle again so watch for lots of posts to begin coming from his area of the blogosphere again.

Yankee Phil blog in distress

Got a phone call a while ago from Phil and was distressed to hear his blog, after having problems earlier in the week, is having more serious difficulties than I realized. He was working on a couple of things with two of the other SWAC bloggers and called to ask about something. I certainly hope his blog is up and going before long because he has been prolific in getting information into the blogosphere.

Get well soon, Yankee Phil blog!

The granny who cruises BNN

My mom cruises BNN....

Mother's Day is Sunday and the weather sounds as if it will cooperate with warm temps and maybe just a chance of showers or thunderstorms. My sister and I have been going back and forth through phone calls and emails making plans for Sunday dinner, a day to be spent together as the dads grill and we all enjoy being together.

Mom let us know the flowers arrived on Tuesday and were, in her words, absolutely gorgeous. Peruvian lillies ... sent early so she could enjoy them all week leading up to Mother's Day.

My mom is 80-something and still on the go although she has slowed down a bit the past few years. The career woman of the 1950s, '60s, '70s, and 80s, she was reluctant about finding her way onto a computer. She resisted for a long time but finally got one about seven years ago.

Voila! She became the emailing queen, staying in touch with friends and family all over the country. She also reads newspapers online, keeps up with the political world, and reads Blog Net News/Virginia on a daily basis. I get tickled at her ... she will email to let me know the bloggers who are trash-talking and need to be rated a "1" on the BNN rating scale ... and others who have written a good piece and deserve a "10." She told me she wants to be introduced to my blogging friends at the Republican Convention. My mom ... she's amazing!

So this Mother's Day I'll remember the mom who encouraged me when I entered the work force to learn everything I could about every job because I would be able to use it down the road. And it was good advice ... I have tried to excel at whatever task was put before me. She practices what she preached everytime she sits down in front of that computer screen ... new horizons are always before us.

Meanwhile, Mom is prowling BNN. If you run into her, say hello. She's the granny who was way ahead of the career curve ... and still going strong!

Congrats, Guys

Yankee Phil comes in at # 1 on this week's BlogNetNews rankings, and Fishersville Mike is # 4. Both have good, positive writing and contribute to the dialogue in the blogosphere ... and both are fellow SWAC bloggers. Congrats, Guys!

Thanks for the welcome, Virginia Conservative

“The Jeffersoniad” was an early 19th century series of columns printed in Boston’s Columbian Sentinel during the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Today, the Jeffersoniad is a group of respectful yet ideologically separated Virginia bloggers seeking a genuine contest of ideas.

Last week I accepted an invitation to join the merry band of Jeffersoniad bloggers. Virginia Conservative blog north of Augusta County in the Shenandoah Valley posted to say hello and welcome me to the group. Many thanks, and I look forward to writing with some old blogging friends while meeting new ones.

The Jeffersoniad Bloggers are statewide:
badrose
Bearing Drift
Below the Beltway
CatHouse Chat
Conservativa
Crystal Clear Conservative
Deo Vindice
Good Sense
J’s Notes
Leslie Carbone
On the Spot
Rappahnnock Red
Reagan’s GOP
Red Virginia
Rick Sincere News & Thoughts
Right-wing Liberal
Scott’s Morning Brew
Shaun Kenney
Skeptical Observer
SWAC Girl
Tertium Quids
The Contemporary Conservative
The right-wing liberal
The Write Side of My Brain
Virginia Conservative
Virginia Virtucon

BlogNetNews/Virginia pulling in hits for bloggers

BlogNetNews' Dave Mastio posts about the increase in internet traffic in the BNN Virginia blogosphere....

Carnival of Christmas 2008

Cat has graciously offered to host the 2008 version of the Carnival of Christmas ... but if you want to participate, you had better hurry. The deadline is tomorrow, December 23. Check out her post to see what is acceptable, what is not, and how to go about entering.

Thanks, Cat ... and Merry Christmas!

Elephant Ears blog is back!

Just got an email from GOP Hokie saying that, after taking a one year break, he is restarting his Elephant Ears blog.

I talked with him last weekend at the Republican Advance and he was not inclined at that time to fire up his blogging platform ... but somewhere along the way he obviously changed his mind.

While outlining his points for the blog, he wrote:

The third (and most important) difference is that this will no longer be a mouthpiece/cheerleader for campaigns or the party. I have always tried to be optimistic with my blog, both with coverage of candidates and with my outlook. I usually took the "best case scenario" or "hopefully we will win" mindset. I will now be very open with my opinions and not sugarcoat them.

As a corollary to this, I will also not post information on campaign events other than if it pertains to something I want to talk about (i.e. please do not email me and ask that I put up a post promoting an event, b/c I probably will not do so). I believe that one of the primary reasons blogs have lost their "swagger" is that too many people viewed them as extensions of campaigns, which therefore meant the unbiased viewpoint was lost.

I look forward to having Elephant Ears back in the mix and hearing his unbiased commentary.

Welcome back, GOP Hokie!

BNN/Virginia adds new bloggers

BlogNetNews' David Mastio reported Saturday that they have been busy adding new blogs to the system. In a post to the aggregator, he listed eight bloggers who have joined the BNN/Virginia network.

Adding new features and bloggers, BNN continues to grow and grow and grow....

RPV's Advance offers new media workshop

Brian Kirwin has a tongue-in-cheek post over at Bearing Drift ... "RPV Advance to New Media: We'll teach you how to blog," asking a few questions that other Virginia bloggers may be wondering.

I have eagerly looked forward to what RPV would offer for bloggers at this year's Advance because Chairman Jeff Frederick is a techie guy. It is no secret that, though I am one of the older bloggers in this spectrum, my feelings have been that Virginia Republicans -- and Republicans in general -- need to catch up with new media technology. Shaun Kenney and I had that conversation on several occasions when he was still communications director at RPV which was, of course, preaching to the choir. He absolutely agreed ... but the problem has been getting our politicians to understand the importance of catching up in this field.

Brian writes about the RPV Advance and their New Media Seminar and asks who of the Virginia bloggers is involved? He then mentions top-notch bloggers -- JR, Shaun Kenney, John Henke, and Jim Riley -- none of which have been invited to participate. (And thanks, Brian, for mentioning me and, you are correct ... I wasn't asked either.)

I am always eager to learn more about this craft, and enjoy reading the writings of the gentlemen mentioned above as well as others in our blogosphere. It was a productive learning experience to hear Leslie Carbone and other new-found blogger friends at the AFP Summit's workshops in October. The AFP provided a "Bloggers Row" and ID for bloggers attending the Summit so we could identify and meet one another. I met Chuck from Virginian Federalist, Krystle from Crystal Clear Conservative, and of course hung out with fellow SWAC blogger Phil Lynch from Yankee Phil.

It would be nice to have some form of ID for bloggers attending the Advance so we could identify one another. A workshop for bloggers to get together and crunch ideas would be great by perhaps discussing ways to coordinate about elections, to advance our candidates, to promote conservative legislation, to get the word out about what the liberals are doing.

Perhaps it would have been nice to hear from members of the two dominant Virginia blog alliances -- Old Dominion Blog Alliance and the Jeffersonaid.

I would have liked to hear ideas on how to reach out to more readers and increase traffic count because I am in this to run around the mainstream media and get the message out.

Thanks, Brian, for bringing up the subject. I hope to see you and many of the others at the Homestead in three weeks.

Another conservative SWAC blogger

There's a brand new conservative SWAC blogger in town ... Fishersville, to be exact ... and he's posting at Fishersville Mike. Pop on over and check out what he has written under his banner which proclaimes, "Another member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. It's vast, right?"

Right! Welcome, Mike!

Augusta Water Cooler, welcome to BNN!

A new blog is in town ... well, actually it's been around for three or four months and is written by the newest SWAC blogger, Jason Bibeau. The Augusta Water Cooler began aggregating through Blog Net News/Virginia Tuesday which is a good thing because now it can be read by a wider audience.

Jason bills his blog as, "A great place for conservative opinions, thoughts, and occasional blunt reality." For rational, well though-out political discussion, he is one of the best to go to.

His stories have included Was that lobster gold-plated?, Sam Rasoul deceives NRA voters with Waynesboro sign, Wrong again, Senator Obama, and other great reads.

Welcome to the Virginia political blogosphere and BNN, Jason!

Blog Net News adds new features!

More tools for political junkies!

Besides being a gateway to the political blogosphere in each of the 50 states -- and I've already checked out the Minnesota blogosphere, home of the Republican National Convention in September -- Blog Net News has other features to help with the upcoming election season.

After weeks of testing, BNN added a major update ... now you can search all 50 states' political blogospheres from one widget.

Two other new features include www.blognetnews.com/elections and be sure to check out www.blognetnews.com/whitehouse08.

And, of course, don't forget BNN's Righty Blogs where all the right-of-center political blogs can be found including some that do not show up in the regular BNN aggregator.

Our thanks to Dave Mastio and crew for the great internet tools and gadgets they provide to those of us who are political junkies and always looking for another way to satisfy that political fix.

RPV Convention photos - Part 5: The bloggers

SWAC area bloggers
Jason Bibeau (Augusta Water Cooler)
Kurt Michael (SixtyFour81.com)

Alex Davis with newly elected RPV Chairman Jeff Frederick.

Cathy Dickson (Powhatan Life; United Conservatives of Virginia)

Lynn Mitchell (SWAC Girl, SixtyFour81.com)
Alton Foley (I'm Not Emeril)

ODBA bloggers from left to right:
Ron (Isaphorone), SWAC Girl, & Alton Foley

Governor Jim Gilmore (Virginia Patriot)
Chris Green (Spank That Donkey)

Alton Foley


Photos by SWAC Girl & Cathy Dickson

Dave Mastio & Black Velvet Bruce Li in Washington Post article

A Washington Post article that was reprinted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch quoted Dave Mastio of BlogNetNews talking about the most influential blogs in the Virginia blogosphere.

Dave, who keeps track of over 200 political blogs in Virginia, cited Black Velvet Bruce Li as the most influential conservative blog in Northern Virginia, and said it's a sign of success when blogs are mimicked by others:

"In the blogosphere, attention is the coin of the realm. Blogs survive on controversy ..."

Greg Letiecq, aka Black Velvet Bruce Li, has seen a copycat blog sprout up to mock his strong stand against illegal immigration. He is not deterred. Read the entire article.

Blog Net News continues to add new features

Dave Mastio has added new features to Blog Net News that will continue to make it a useful research tool for bloggers. Here is what BNN had to say about it:

BNN has something new we hope you'll think is cool and maybe find useful. You can find it at BNN/FeedCentral.

In short, you can pick any section of BNN, then slice and dice it by blog, by category, by key words, then sort the new feeds by popularity (most linked, most clicked, most commented) and then have it delivered to your cell phone, your RSS reader, your email (hourly update or daily summary) your blackberry or a custom widget on your web page.

For instance, here's the RSS feed of the most clicked posts from Iowa blogs about the current battle between Hillary and Obama ...

... or a feed to track the most recent wisdom from New Hampshire bloggers on Romney's religion.

The element of this that I am most proud of is our partnership with BuzzMob.com. Working together, we're making blogs available in a way they never have been before and hopefully expanding the reach of blogs and the blogosphere another important step.

It is exactly this sort of thing that I had in mind when I founded BNN. By combining smart, human-edited aggregation with cutting edge technology we can make the blogosphere more useful to more people at the same time we help build readership for the best blogs.

I hope you'll help us spread the word.

Dave Mastio

BlogNetNews.com
We Serve Blogging

Sounds as if BNN does not intend to be just an aggregator ... it is striving to be the # 1 tool for bloggers' use to stay updated and use in their research.