HEY!!!

Several alert readers clued us in to Josh Marshall's new word on the NY-23 race. This is clearly gimmick infringement. But at least Josh and I thought of it, which either brings me up to his level or brings him down to mine...

Shep's "Playground"

He now has a new reservation from which he can wander off. Shepard Smith's new web page. He vows to keep it running until he gets bored with it.

Why We Don't Take Google Ads

Whoops. TPM this morning:

On Lack of Advertisers

I've said this a zillion times before, and I'll say it again. This blog costs me a grand total of $14.95 a month to run. The other little apps like the live chat and occasional Zonkboard cost an annual fee which are far from bank breakers.

I do this mostly as an outlet, a way to propagate some of the more fascinating things being said out there and as therapy for me and anyone who wonders if things are really that nuts out there. Hoffmania tells them "Yeah. They are. So let's deal with it."

For that, $14.95 is much cheaper than therapy, so it's a price I'm glad to pay.

If someone wants to reach our readers (averaging 1500-2000 a day and has totaled 3.5 million so far), there's a link over there in the right column. But if they don't, I'm not going to go broke.

So when I see the A-list blogs worrying about advertising revenue, I wonder how the hell they're handling their affairs. I'm not talking about the Josh Marshalls and Markos Moulitsases who each have a full time staff to handle the enormous communities on their sites. But I mean the Blogspot/Typepad/garden variety sites (like this one) which I'm certain aren't being bilked for a huge monthly nut by their service.

I know as well that a lot of people get annoyed when I link to Al Giordano because he sees things through the eyes of an actual organizer and not as an armchair pundit (like Glenn Greenwald and uh...me [not that I'm in the same online bracket but I admit my armchairedness]), so he doesn't always align with the well-worked talking points we have. But the story he posted yesterday about blogs and advertisers struck a chord with me, and I highly recommend it.

I'm not as prolific as I was during the past four years because well, we won last November. I'm now trying to wean myself off all that anger I was feeling with all of you, and we've segued into trying to hold a mirror up to what's passing as discourse today.

With that switch in the (groan) paradigm, advertisers on the left are feeling two things right now. The economic pinch and the lack of windmills during this wait-and-see period of the Obama presidency. But because they're not throwing as much money our way, that doesn't mean we shouldn't give them space. I'd say this piece is costing me around 17 cents to post. So...

MoveOn.org. ACLU. Democracy for America. Michael Moore's new venture, whatever it may be. And I'll even throw in a few I see on these blogs. Claritin. Capital One.

There. Free shout outs because they support our side. Didn't cost me anything, and I'm not expecting any of them to buy ads here. We won't collapse either way.

Get your financial houses in order, now more than ever. The road's not going to get any less bumpy and we're gonna need each other at the end of it.

And when you need to raise some fast cash, tee shirts and bumper stickers are a great way to go.

Oh, look. I have to send TypePad another $14.95. Here comes another month of this crap, America. Thanks for reading it.

Imploding

Stranger's a lot more tolerant of Little Green Footballs than I am. But seeing what's happening now, I'm now kinda rooting for them.

Nice Look, John!

AmericaBlog did a major redesign. These are always a royal pain in the ass, so when it comes out well, we know how satisfying that is. Congratulations to y'all.

Krugman Knows

It ain't easy running a blog.

Say Hallo to Our (New European) Frahnd

Frequent Hoffmania commenter YK has finally started a blog, live and direct from Germany. Pop in, make yourself known, and see what they're saying over there. And congratulations, YK. So I guess you didn't want any spare time, huh?

Die Tagespolitik

"House appears to be destroyed. Mood: sad."

Ken Levine tries living a day of his life tweeting.

In Honor of Blogroll Amnesty Day

SHAMANAQUA! Five years old. They grow up so fast.

One of the Great Things About the People on Our Side

They write some amazing things. twamsiam at Carry the 3:

If you worked long and hard on this campaign, and you wish this historic first African-American President didn’t have so many crises on his plate, foreign and domestic, let me give you a gentle reminder.

Take a look at our money; sneak a peak at Mount Rushmore. Lincoln and Washington; Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt. You don’t become a great American President by taking over when things are quiet and leaving things as they are. .250 hitters don't make the Hall of Fame.

Barack Obama is already in the history books, no matter what he does. The only question is, will he be remembered only as our first African-American President, or as a great President?

He’s going to have some difficult decisions to make. And we’re going to have to work together, hope together, fail together and ultimately succeed together, to make the Change and the Hope he campaigned for, take shape, take root, and rejeuvenate this country we love.

All right, people! Forward we march, voluntarily and energetically together. Eyes front and upward, hearts open, we roll up our sleeves and get ready, comforted by the knowledge that we chose well.

Hey, As Long You're Tootin' Your Horn Over There...

Y'know...bragging about how you scoop everyone? What took your leader this long to post this story? Didn't get your paper early that day?

Bloggregator Additions

We added Rachel Maddow and the Gallup Daily feed to the Bloggregator. Now you never have to go to any other site. Ever.

So This Blog Walks Into Twitter

And...I have no idea why this is big news, but we're on Twitter.

Hate to Admit It, Eh?

The blogosphere doing the vetting and dirty work on Palin has paid off. We got your back, Barack.

And no, the DNC, the Obama campaign, the vast left wing conspiracy and George Soros all had nothing to do with it. We - and that includes you - did this on our own (especially the resistance inside of Alaska, Mudflats, and the local media up there).

We have computers. We know how to use them. We know how to find the truth. Deal with it.

The Obama campaign can concentrate on the Human Gaffe Factory, John McCain. The rest is taken care of by facts and our (and I again include you in that group) pressing the MSM to look into them.

GREAT Site These Days

Thanks to our bud Andi, we've discovered Mudflats. One AKMuckraker, a politically astute Alaskan, started this up back in May when the only thing we had to fear was Ted Stevens. They've been doing a splendid job since. Watching the ascension of Sarah Palin chronicled here is fascinating and chilling.

It's really hard to keep up with it all, but they do. Bookmark 'em. We're in the process of adding them (along with the return of Bob Geiger) to the Bloggregator.

(Or maybe not. It seems Feed Digest, our Bloggregator's RSS server, has packed their bags, even though our codes are still working. Ugh. Looks like a long weekend ahead of me...)

UPDATE: We seem to have found a stopgap called FeedSweep. But it's got little ads. Ugh. I think we got it looking somewhat compatible, though. The search goes on.

Say Hallo to Our...Well, Old Leetle Frands

We mentioned that Bob Geiger is coming back to Planet Blog after the first of the month. Also if you haven't checked out Blah3.com lately, DO IT. Stranger is now resting his carcass in front of the posting page and is kicking out a lot of gems, just in time for the stretch.

It's good to have anyone on our side who has the volume cranked to 11.

Oh, yeah. Have a great weekend if you're making the big trip to your back porch. And remember what Monday stands for - the labor grunts throughout our history who fought and died for the rights of American workers and their families. I'm a union guy, so I'm a little misty when it comes to this day.

Palin for President!