Well, I just got back to the hotel and didn’t liveblog the remainder of the program and focused on my lunch instead. During and after the meal there was Glenn Reynolds who introduced Judith Miller, and Texas Senator John Cornyn (via a TV-link) who addressed the group. This is what they said, and I work from memory here and a few illegible notes:

Glenn Reynolds: The news business all started out with correspondents and reporters, then we got “microphones with excellent hair” and now we are back to the origins of the news where bloggers report and correspond with their readers.

Judith Miller: Started off with a similar analogy (borrowing from Karl Marx) about a change in the means of production which has changed consciousness, which in turn has resulted in yet another change in the means of production. Yes, although I think it wasn’t an entirely new observation about blogs.

Anyway, she moved on to her prison ordeal - on which Stephen Green has some thoughts - following the Plame/Libby affair and couldn’t resist slipping in some complaints about how the blogs had gossiped about her and the NYT. Yet in the same breadth she couldn’t resist mentioning that she had received a "very personal" letter from Libby without of course disclosing what was in it. She elaborated on the Free Flow of Information Act currently before Congress and ended with the five basic journalistic standards that journalists/bloggers should adhere to:

1. Be honest about who you are and who’s funding you;
2. Ask subjects to comment before you publish;
3. Comment on the response from your subject;
4. If you’re wrong, acknowledge it
5. If you’re wrong, try to get it right.

Miller was still contemplating whether to start het own blog, but if she does you know what standards to measure her – and actually all of us - up to.

Sen. John Cornyn: Highlighted how bloggers have demonstrated their importance and at one point actually used the term “pompous MSM”. Of course he tailored his comments to his audience, and reiterated his strong support for freedom of speech and acknowledged that campaign finance legislation could potentially have an unwarranted impact on the freedoms that bloggers have. Very true, and not only in the US. During a recent provincial election in British Columbia local bloggers were subjected to a mandatory registration of their sites with the provincial election commission. Sounds innocuous, but once registered the next step is monitoring content. And that goes back to Judith Miller's rule about disclosing who is funding you.

That's it for today, tonight we'll have the formal launch party here at the hotel which is good as I can easily extricate myself if it gets out of hand.

Well, the fashion segment is over. Jeff Jarvis didn't like it. We're over to more serious stuff now: Who is a Journalist in 2005? with John Podhoretz, Richard Fernandez, Claudia Rosset, David Corn. Larry Kudlow is stuck in traffic apparently.

Corn: "Blogging couldn't exist without the mainstream media and bloggers can still learn a lot from "the old dinosaurs". I think he's right.

Belmont Club's Richard Fernandez argues that the blogs complement mainstream outlets - gives Bill Roggio as an example in the way he covers Iraq.

Kudlow's in: "Feels better after he has blogged".

Corn highlights the increased access to information and argues that Cronkite-style of reporting is history, such is the impact of specialized blogs.

Kudlow: "Is the NYT just a liberal blogsite?" Rosset says yes, but it's attached to a large corporate enterprise, but ultimately every site is a blog.

The discussion goes to the blogger's responsibility to try and ensure factual correctness, which at times can be challenging for one-man operations. And: everyone is biased, so blogging equally creates a market to disseminate lies, accroding to Rosset. This is a very valid point and it's what I would consider the risk of propagating a lie that then becomes "accepted groupthink" in the blogosphere.

In response, Corn calls for bloggers to maintain "a standard of accuracy" and learn from the MSM mistakes. Again, it's something I would strongly concur with and the discussion in the bar last night touched on this. The nature of the new medium - fast, quick - sometimes impairs accuracy. This is why I tend to write longer posts, they reflect a thinking process where I try to maintain a level of accuracy while ensuring most aspects of the issue at hand are covered.

Reynolds weighs in: MSM have thrown away their "killer ap" by moving away from direct reporting to an opinion-based franchise. Yet, he agrees that reporting from the ground - say Iraq - is equally subject to bias and accuracy issues. Readers however have far more tools at their disposal to assess the facts.

I am on the 65th Floor of Rockefeller Center, and Roger Simon has just launched Open Source Media, following an introduction from Andrew Breitbart. The key message: a new citizen's media has emerged, not to replace mainstream media but to enhance it.

What I'll do is update this post with some comments as the presentations unfold this morning/afternoon.

LGF's Charles Johnson has taken the stage to walk us through the new Open Source Media website.

On the table next to me is Glenn Reynolds, and he's actually not blogging this yet, but LaShawn Barber on the other table, is.

We're on to fashion blogging with the Manolo. Never paid much attention to this phenomenon to be honest. One of the panelists argues: "blogging is for rich people with too much time on their hands and who feel disenfranchised". Hmm. Didn't catch her name but she is a fashion writer for the NYT.

Kim Weinstein speaks.

Meanwhile on another table Martin Solomon is uploading his photos.

Pajamas Media, it's history. The new name and site: Open Source Media.

In the 'W' Hotel on Lexington Avenue. This afternoon I took the opportunity to visit Ground Zero and take the ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty, something I had planned to do on my last visit but never got around to doing. Great November weather, it’s actually quite warm.

New York always feels ‘easy’, for lack of a better word, things flow naturally (apart from the traffic). It reminds me of London and Hong Kong: large urban sprawls, overpopulated, but they feel good and they work. There are quite a few urban centers that somehow never have managed their size and growth. NY has. More later.

UPDATE: Andrew Leigh has an NRO piece on the media venture that is about to be launched here tomorrow.

This Wednesday Pajamas Media will be formally launched with a big bash in New York and I will be on a plane shortly to be part of the festivities. I have no idea what to expect, but Roger and Charles are bringing together various media luminaries (Judith Miller) and bloggers (like this guy) for a forum on journalism and the online launch of the new venture. Today they announced the closing of their first venture round.

Other bloggers are getting excited too, Ed Driscoll and GayPatriot are ‘en route’ and I expect many more to be there. Of course, this event will impact blogging this week and I plan to keep you fully informed, as it is something in which readers have an equally important stake.

UPDATE: More here.

Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish is moving to Time.com, in what the creator of the Dish himself calls "a moment when the blogosphere and the MSM made touchdown". Absolutely true, the MSM have woken up to the blogs and are now finding various creative ways (the online version of the WaPo for instance now has Technorati links) to become part of, and play a role in, the interactive and dynamic landscape created by bloggers. To Andrew I say, congratulations. We can be sure that his move comes with a sustainable revenue model attached to it and his relentless output of good stuff deserves it.

The left has discovered Pajamas Media, at least the posts I discovered via Gates of Vienna appear to be one of the first salvo’s I have seen. Don’t worry; these are harmless and somewhat hilarious attempts to smear our new media adventure. Incumbents don’t like renewal or competition.

Vanity Fair’s James Wolcott has determined that this blog is part of an “inveterate stirpot whose presence all decent men and women should shun until proper disinfectant can be found”. Wolcott is probably more upset by David Corn joining the PJ editorial board rather than anything else and if that’s his take, so be it. But there’s more.

Representatives of the North American, historically ignorant as they are, use the term ‘fascist’ whenever they see someone who thinks outside the omnipresent politically correct constraints. Toronto Star’s Antonia Zerbisias is no exception, at least that’s my analysis after she branded Corn the “token non-fascist” on the PJ board. In addition, Zerbisias was able to confirm, in case you didn’t know, that this blog is exclusively serving up “White House talking points”. Not sure what she means, or what Wolcott is on about, but could it be this post?

DISCLOSURE: The Dorsman household has a huge collection of old editions of Vanity Fair. There was a time when we read it religiously and purchased it almost every month. The increase of insignificant actresses on the cover and the repetitive Tom Cruise hagiographies put an end to that and now they’ve become collector’s items. The kids clip the Hollywood starlets whom they believe are princesses and Irene and I re-read the timeless articles by Christopher Hitchens and Dominick Dunne.

Pajamas Media has announced another addition to its editorial board, John Podhoretz. Read his profile and his comments on the evolving landscape of media and technology, he nails it. And while you are there, scroll down as there are many more bloggers profiled - they're now adding about a profile a day - each of them interesting with their own unique story.

In case you missed it, my profile is here.

RELATED: Bill Hobbs is taking a break from blogging politics, but has some good advice for others:

Journalism isn't difficult - and you don't need a four-year degree to do it or do it well. You need to be able to ask the right question, you need to know how to find information, you need to write reasonably well, and you need to be accurate and be honest. And you need a place to publish - a blog.

UPDATE: Read David Adesnik's interesting take on blogging vs. journalism too.

The BBC initiated its own investigation into the alleged pro-Palestinian bias of the British public broadcaster. Further evidence that the Beeb is slowly coming to terms with a changed world emerged yesterday at a media conference in New York:

The avalanche of high-quality video, photos and e-mailed news material from citizens following the July 7 bombings in London marked a turning point for the British Broadcasting Corporation, an executive said Wednesday.

Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC World Service and Global News Division, told a conference that the BBC's prominent use of video and other material contributed by ordinary citizens signaled that the BBC was evolving from being a broadcaster to a facilitator of news.

"We don't own the news any more," Sambrook said. "This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between large media companies and the public."

It will be interesting to see how, and how quickly, public broadcasters will adopt to these rapid changes. My guess is that they will try and adapt rather than disappear. This by the way was the same confence where Al Gore gave a speech on the changing media landscape.

The BBC initiated its own investigation into the alleged pro-Palestinian bias of the British public broadcaster. Further evidence that the Beeb is slowly coming to terms with a changed world emerged yesterday at a media conference in New York:

The avalanche of high-quality video, photos and e-mailed news material from citizens following the July 7 bombings in London marked a turning point for the British Broadcasting Corporation, an executive said Wednesday.

Richard Sambrook, director of the BBC World Service and Global News Division, told a conference that the BBC's prominent use of video and other material contributed by ordinary citizens signaled that the BBC was evolving from being a broadcaster to a facilitator of news.

"We don't own the news any more," Sambrook said. "This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between large media companies and the public."

It will be interesting to see how, and how quickly, public broadcasters will adopt to these rapid changes. My guess is that they will try and adapt rather than disappear. This by the way was the same confence where Al Gore gave a speech on the changing media landscape.

Michael Totten is reporting from Lebanon for the next six months on his renamed blog, Middle East Journal with daily dispatches, usually with some spectacular photos. You won't get any of this in your daily newspaper.

Sullivan, priceless as ever:

I am now and long have been for small government, low taxes, a balanced budget, welfare reform, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, a flat tax, states' rights, and an increase in defense spending. I believe abortion and affirmative action are immoral and would have voted in dissent on Roe vs Wade. I'm a believing Christian. Right now, that makes you a "prominent liberal"

Over the last week I’ve been pruning the blogroll a little bit, it was getting too long and it didn’t reflect what I’m reading or what I would recommend Peaktalk visitors to click on and read. There were also quite a few inactive blogs – highlighting the amazing turnover in this space – and with some regret I delinked what once were rising stars such as Arthur Chrenkoff and Kim Du Toit. At the same time new blogs continue to emerge, Technorati now tracks 18.7 million blogs, a number that stood at 18 million only ten days ago.

We shouldn’t attach too much value to blogrolls, really. As MyDD discussed in an excellent post last month, they have little value in terms of driving traffic, and there are other and better ways in getting your blog front-and-center.

Anyway, new on the list are:

The Cunning Realist, a conservative who works in finance in New York. Wall Street institutions would probably not really entertain their employee’s blogging, so that’s why he probably prefers to remain anonymous. He’s one of the few on the right to have taken on discussing torture as part of the GWOT.

Oraculations run by Howard, a republican in Southern California who is increasingly angry with the Bush administration. His fury is channeled into hilarious and direct prose. Today the target is Julie Myers.

And, Tammy Bruce, who doesn’t need any further introduction.

The latest Pajamas Media contributor profile is up and today it's me.

As I mentioned to PJ's Jill Stewart when she interviewed me yesterday, one of the more interesting things about blogs is to learn about the people behind it. If you scroll down the various contributor profiles on the PJ site you'll discover a wide range of backgrounds, interests, expertise and ambition. If they're combined in some form, and stay committed, then Pajamas has a good chance at carving out an interesting position in the rapidly evolving media landscape.

Read this column from Cathy Seipp (and the comments on her blog) about the deranged attitudes that drive some parents to take a stand against vaccination and medication for their kids. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so serious.

"An openly gay, pro-choice, gun owning, pro-death penalty, voted-for-President Bush progressive feminist".

Bookmark her. Tammy Bruce's new blog is here.

Just finished listening – some 47 minutes – to Ann Althouse’s podcast and if you have some spare time it may be worth your while. It was revealing to me, not only to hear someone go through a detailed commentary on her own recent blog posts, but to notice a stark difference between Ann’s online blog persona and the one that came through in the podcast. Sure, hearing and seeing people usually causes some surprises if you’re only familiar with their writings, but I just couldn’t match the concise blog entries with the long winded chat that Ann treated us to in her podcast. Maybe it was her mood which by her own account wasn’t that great and which didn’t help the first ten minutes. For a little while her performance was somewhat off, but it got better, much better. The one thing I just couldn't figure out was Ann's sense of humor, maybe it was shrouded in her bad mood as I would have expected her to have one.

She covers a wide range of topics and what the podcast did, and what you often don’t get from her blog, is how she gets excited about a particular issue. She doesn’t seem to be driven by a particular emotion or specific interest, but it’s the use of certain terms that get Ann going, in both the wrong or the right direction. An example of the latter is her spot-on assessment of Cindy Sheehan and the use of words in her campaign; less convincing is Ann’s take on her little spat with Andrew Sullivan over a BBC-opinion piece. Some of us enjoy getting linked by Andrew, Ann. His linkage to Peaktalk wasn’t always contextually perfect but it did help to move a particular issue or argument further.

Other topics on Ann's table are the tropical storms, Lynndie England, supreme court judges writing and blogging, government sponsored-sex in Denmark and an interesting take on the movie The 40 Year Old Virgin. As they say, hear the whole thing.

Would I do a podcast? Hard to say, my Dutch accent wouldn’t probably really bolster my image, but I think that commentary on the radio – which I did a few times after a European issue was discussed here – or online does add to short and fast crafted blog posts. It adds as another layer. Check out Ann and you will know what I mean.

Technorati is now tracking 18 million blogs. On Monday this week, which is only four days ago, that number stood at 17.4 million. Amazing.

Following the shockwaves after the appointment of David Corn to its editorial board, Pajamas Media today announced that it has added Michael Barone to the same board. He probably doesn't need any further introduction here, but I want to mention that Barone runs a very good blog on the US News and World Report site - highlighting the new media awareness he brings to the table - covering a wide range of issues, one of which inspired the next post below.

Over the weekend Arjan and I exchanged a few e-mails, discussing reform in the Arab world and what parallels there are with the Reformation of the 16th century. That issue will be revisited here or on Arjan's blog later, but we agreed that those who could initiate non-religious reform - meaning social, political and economic - are often no longer living in the place where their ideas are most applicable. But their voices are heard, just take a look at the very good and informative blog of this London resident of Saudi origins, The Religious Policeman and visit him regularly.

In the same weekend that Pajamas Media announces that it has appointed someone from the left, David Corn, to its editorial board, Andrew Sullivan launches the Yglesias Award, which is to be handed out to anyone willing to alienate his or her readership with some unpleasant truths. It may be a coincidence, but it is part of a trend that has gained some momentum in recent months where an increasing group of readers is unable to find itself in the dogmatic approach that has become so characteristic of many blogs on both the right and the left. Evidence is the proliferation of moderate blogs (only yesterday I got an e-mail alerting me to Moderate Voters) which has gained some clear momentum in recent months.

No, we’re not moving to the center over here, certainly not, but in our criticism of MSM and its institutional bias we owe it to ourselves to be fair and balanced and be willing to sometimes face up to some of the realities that we were all too willing to ignore. Only with more honesty and less dogma can we move the debate forward.

For those of you who were wondering, an update and time schedule is here.

Since I was away most of the day - a seminar on intellectual property protection was on the agenda - I forgot to link to Second Draft, a site which has as its primary mission to review the "first draft" of events that the mainstream media tend to serve up for consumption. Second Draft is not the only one this week to scrutinize the process of altering the news or overly relying on biased sources, just take a look at this.

A word of thanks to Sol who has actively promoted this site and allowed us to take a look at it before it went live today.

... for the good news from Iraq and Afghanistant now that the Chrenk has formally said his farewell. Not only was he a great blogger able to come up with some pretty unique content and ideas, he actively promoted other blogs by regularly linking to them. There are quite a few regulars of Peaktalk who came here by way of that Polish guy in Australia who also proved that blog-design doesn't really matter all that much if you produce great stuff. Best of luck Arthur, and stay in touch.

And yes, the good news series will continue at their new home, Good News Central.

With one week to go to the pivotal German elections, one of the sharpest Euro-critics in the blogosphere decides to close shop. Too bad, but we wish George good luck with his future endeavours.

A national (or international) blog convention, is an event that I've long been looking forward too. Donald Sensing suggests New Orleans, Labor Day, 2006 as the place and time. It's a worthy initiative that deserves some serious consideration, so spread the word and mark your agendas.

Jeff Jarvis meanwhile looks at ways in which we can use technology (and in particular the internet) to co-ordinate relief efforts better, now and in the future. Areas where we can do better:

1. share information, 2. report and act on calls for help, 3. coordinate relief, 4. connect the missing, 5. provide connections for such necessities as housing and jobs, 6. match charitable assets to needs, 7. get people connected to this and the world sooner.

And of course The Turth Laid Bear (or TTLB as most of us know it) who has not only been raising funds but also put up a Web Relief Project Directory.

And yes, you can still give money. My contribution went to Mercy Corps who apparently with 92% of contributions going directly to actual relief have one of the lowest overhead rates in the business.

Pallywood

Caliphascism

You keep on learning in the blogosphere. Endlessly.

Or that’s what it looks like. Most of the people I work with are on holiday, e-mail volumes are down and so is traffic on this site. With that in mind I will slow down too for a few days and enjoy my time with the family before things switch back into action in early September. That reminds me, call the Europeans hedonist, at least they send their kids back to school at a decent time in August and not well into September after more than two months of holidaying.

The summer quiet is also evidenced by the increasing number of guestbloggers that pop up everywhere, a phenomenon that I am not overly keen on. Blogs are good because of the individual style and voice that they present and someone who is guestwriting on a well-liked site to me just doesn’t seem like the right way to keep up traffic levels (which is what it is all about of course). There’s one notable exception and that is Walter Kirn who this week is guestblogging at Sullivan’s Daily Dish. Refreshing and provocative stuff – I don’t always agree with it – and his perspective from distant Montana is absolutely worth your while:

This stupid business of classifying one another according to state-of-residence is exactly what I'm complaining about when I say that political conversation nowadays has gotten awfully tiresome in certain aspects. This red-blue thing isn't real: it's a grid put down on the landscape by lazy pundits in order to foster a conflict that isn't there so the people who profit from conflict can work their way with us.

It looks like another another Peaktalk friend is considering his blogging future. Joe Katzman's is moving to America (so Winds of Change can no longer be considered Canadian content?) and will stop contributing to the excellent Winds on a regular basis. Good luck, Joe.

In what will probably one of the last instalments, Arthur Chrenkoff has another Good News from Afghanistan up. I will miss the invaluable contributions from Arthur as well as his generous linkage to this site now that he moves on to another career. Best of luck and stay in touch.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, do have a look at Ann Althouse’s notebooks with impressions from her 1993 trip to Amsterdam. Americans have always had a deep fascination with the city and are therefore able to capture its spirit in a far different way than any local artist would. And come up with interesting observations. That reminds me of how Europeans are able to grasp America in a far different manner than any of its homegrown artists. Think about the way Wim Wenders pictured America in his classic Paris, Texas, a movie which has left an indelible impression on me.

It didn't take long for the blogosphere to start discussing the offer that Pajamas Media sent out to participating bloggers a few days ago and Ann Althouse has become the epicenter of the debate it seems. Ann’s problems in a nutshell focus on (a) the lack of information provided by PM and (b) the fact that PM ad revenue falls short of what’s she’s currently making from BlogAds. If you’re interested do follow the comment thread or read Dean Esmay and Ace of Spades who have also weighed in on the issue with their perspectives.

Since I signed up with PM and since I have been in touch with some of the PM folks over the past few months I would like to share some of my thoughts here, based on my understanding of the deal. Given my background in structuring business plans and financings for early stage (technology) firms I do think I have some credibility to comment on the whole thing and it is from that perspective that I will do so, Ann's commentary needs a rebuttal.

From day one it has been clear to me that PM is looking to compete with MSM and in the process take advantage of the same pool of ad revenues that currently support MSM. The underlying assumption has been that Economist and NYT readers read blogs too, and corporations that promote their services in these paper periodicals should in theory also advertize on well-read blogs. Now, regardless of whether you blog for cash or not, bloggers look for traffic and recognition (book deals, columns, radio appearances etc.) and if there is a vehicle that seeks to take the fruits of your labor to a higher level – more exposure – it is something that in my mind is of interest, regardless of the immediate monetary benefits. Especially when the people that are in the driving seat of that project have proven to be quality bloggers who are both intelligent and generous in the way they have promoted the entire blogosphere beyond themselves. Roger is a case in point, his generous linkage to my site while commenting that he considers me to be a worthwhile pundit on European matters is illustrative. And Charles has likewise helped many bloggers too. There now are many experts/pundits and PM is probably a first and genuine stab at creating a portal where various experts are aggregated, who in turn will benefit from the exposure that PM’s founders already have. If their vehicle is funded and well-managed than it should give additional momentum to the entire venture and all the bloggers that participate under the PM banner. That’s how I see it and that’s how I interpret what they have disclosed to the rest of world. I am not a partner, nor an investor, so I have not seen the detailed plans and PM has no obligation whatsoever to share them with any of the participating blogs. That brings me to my next point.

It’s always difficult to take a risk on early stage ventures but in general you buy into a concept or technology and the people behind it. You don’t have any other tools to measure it, although you could look at competitors and in this case there really aren’t any. PM is first to market. That by the way is not an easy spot, not only is there direct competition with MSM, there surely are a number of similar initiatives waiting in the wings to jump in and learn from PM’s mistakes while fishing in the same pond of limited ad budgets. But then the question is: do you want to take the risk that PM will not succeed? What if they do? Do you think PM will return to you with an offer down the road if you declined them today? There are no quick and definite answers here and the PM team probably doesn’t have them either. The point is that some bloggers have been asked to come on board at an early stage, be part of a journey that may well end up in a completely different place. There’s no early stage company that I know of that executed its first business plan in minute detail and never diverted from its initial plans. It doesn’t happen and it never will. Success is born out of bringing together a vision, the right people and some capital. From thereon anything can happen, but it all boils down to taking a view of the capabilities of the venture in question to succeed. If you bring in ten new participants at an early stage then each one will walk away with a different perception as to how success will be achieved, but they’re all willing to contribute capital or labor or advice (or a combination thereof) to help create success and a return, while willing to adjust their immediate return to a very low level precisely to ensure long-term success. That’s my view on any new deal that has the right ingredients and that’s my view of PM.

NOTE: The Anchoress wonders if this is splitting the blogosphere. It’s probably hard to maintain that it has ever been one unified whole, it has been a group of now millions of participants who are essentially all very small individual enterprises. That’s not sustainable and we will eventually see more consolidation (look at the increased number of group blogs) and PM is one of the first to make a formal move based on a business model. Expect more of it in the months ahead.

Given the many "Good News From ..." editions, we all know by now that Arthur Chrenkoff has way too much time on his hands. He now points us to some very addictive, visually compelling and time consuming geographical tests, for Europe and America.

OK, on the European one I scored 44 out of 45 for Europe because I dropped Austria too quickly on the map. Well, they're Germans anyway. On the US tests I scored 49 out of 50 at the "expert" level (putting states on the right geographical location), but that should have been 50/50 because I dropped Arizona too fast. I know where Arizona is ...

Have you lived life? Not unless you've had one of these meals.

More burger-blogging here.

Winds of Change has launched a new regular round-up of posts and news that looks at "hate" or in their own words:

This briefing will be looking hard at the dark places the mainstream media sometimes seem determined to look away from, to better understand our declared enemies on their own terms and without illusions. Our goal is to bring you some of the top jihadi rants, idiotarian seething, and old-school Jew-hatred from around the world, leaving you more informed, more aware, and pretty disgusted every month.

Good initiative. It's sad and sobering to note that many media often fail to address this phenomenon appropriately.

Here's a new centrist blog, Donklephant, which as the name would indicate merges some Republican and Democrat elements. I once argued that the center was disappearing but there may be sufficient frustration on both the right and the left that some are eager enough to help rebuild it. Today they have an interesting essay on how terror could unite the West, something that is far more difficult than some would think.

Another liberal-to-moderate blog mostly on American politics and culture is The Reaction from Michael Stickings. Some find it is too far to the left, some find it too conservative. You be the judge, I do find that centrist blogs tend to bring a lot of perpsective and common sense to a debate that is too often partisan in nature.

Under the title Are Blogs Ready for the Big Time? the National Post on Saturday investigated how blogs could become commercially viable:

So where is the money in blogs? The area with perhaps the most potential is advertising, which is surging as the Web becomes a bigger part of marketing budgets. Last year, the online advertising market jumped 33% to US$9.6-billion, and it is expected to climb 34% to US$12.7-billion in 2005.

"Advertising is going to be big because advertisers are running out of good places to put ads, and blogs are such a good area," said Tris Hussey, a professional blogger and consultant. "It's going to be huge but it's untapped."

The article goes on to argue that the pioneers that are willing to stay the course (ie. blog for free or little revenue) could reap the rewards if new business models emerge. And with ventures like Pajamas Media that could be sooner than many had anticipated.

Roger and Charles attended a party in Silicon Valley the other day and this classic exchange ensued:

“ … queried Charles and me about our "politics." When I allowed as how we were the kinds of fellows who favored gay marriage and the War on Terror, he looked incredulous. How was such a thing possible? His reified brain looked as if it were about to short circuit. Then he smiled in relief. "Ah..." he said... "You mean the Global War for Oil!" Now it was Charles' turn to look stunned (...) Were there still people who believed in this nonsense on the very day jihadists had blown up people all over London? Yes, there were.

The baffling thing is that you encounter these attitudes especially among the wealthier and more educated urban elites; I get that here all the time. The moment the discussion turns to Bush or Iraq or indeed the War on Terror you instinctively feel that there’s going to be an irreparable disconnect that will dampen what was supposed to be a fun get together. That’s why I often dance around the subject: let's preserve the great amicable atmosphere. However I am increasingly thinking that I shouldn’t. Time to put on my Reagan t-shirt to the beach today.

This weekend's linkage is focused on the blogroll which I have retooled a bit. There are a number of newcomers and they all had good stuff this week:

Neo-Neocon has an excellent post contrasting the Bushies with the Kennedys and wonders if the "extreme privilege" that many use to describe the lives of the Bush offspring is not just a qualification fueled by pure envy.

EU Rota , an American who devoted his blog to European affairs is baffled after realizing that this week's Supreme Court ruling means that socialism is alive and well not just in Europe, but in the US too.

Mike Talley from Wunderkraut has launched a sub-blog where his wife is keeping a diary about the planned adoption of their Chinese daughter. It's a move I deeply respect, especially given the fact that the Talleys have already three children of their own.

Booker Rising is made by and for black conservatives and moderates. They've linked to me often, and I am always intrigued that they label me as a "moderate-conservative", as in Europe many think I've lost it and are part of the "radical right". Like me, the Bookers keep a close eye on Ayaan Hirsi Ali's career.

The Head Heeb made it to the roll as I had hoped to get access to more analysis on Israel's disengagment from Gaza, but instead as probably the only blogger out there Jonathan gives us an update on how Chad is tinkering with its constitution..

I've been reading LA-based writer Cathy Seipp's blog for quite a while and it has above all, variety. This week a post about social cues which left me wondering how to interpet being served with wine in tumblers?

Marc Cooper - in LA too - is disgusted by what's going on in Zimbabwe and provides a useful link to one of his students who's in South Africa and blogging about it.

Fjordman points to yet another great example of how the European bureaucracy sets its priorities: washing instructions now run the risk of being banned.

Dan Morgan of No Speedbumps voted against Clinton twice but applauds the old president's common sense about Iraq.

And finally Wilisms who takes a close look at the state of affairs in California. Arnold Schwarzenegger ran a campaign on taking on special interests in a state that is built on special interests and that may give him a unique legacy.

In arguably one of the most hilarious posts I've read in a long time Kim Du Toit explains that he will make some adjustments to the content on his blog in order not to scare away potential investors for his software business. But even for Kim there are limits: he refuses to become an "effete National Review-style girlyman essayist". Read the whole thing.

Cara Remal and Jeremy Brown's Who Knew has moved to a new URL. And Jeff and Brian Medcalf have breathed new life into Caerdroia. Check them out and link them both.

For those of you who have been following the spat between Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Reynolds, please check out Greg Djerejian who has taken on (in what is a blogospheric first?) the role of mediator.

How interesting that animal rights activists have now launched the International Respect for Chickens Day. As you will see below, for some of these activists care and compassion for animals doesn't always extend to human beings. Matt Rosenberg is celebrating with a chicken recipe contest.

Today the Left-Of-Center Bloggers have selected their favorite columnists over at RWN. Although Krugman comes out on top, the real winner is Hitchens who is highly popular on both the left and the right.

In addition to many bloggers signing up, the Pajamas Media project is now getting traction in the mainstream press, today in the NY Sun:

In a dramatic sign that Web logs are going mainstream, three of the largest political blogs are banding together to form what is believed to be a first-of-its kind ad-supported network.

Like others, I was approached a few months ago and under the terms of the agreement was bound to keep it quiet. Apart from being pleased that it's out in the open now, it's good to see that the attention for the project is actually helping it move forward, faster. Create momentum and bloggers, investors but above all advertisers, are likely to jump on board early, afraid of missing out later.

The internet-boom of the 1990s was nothing more but a rush to make money on something new, but people just hadn't figured out how to turn the new technology into sustainable and profitable business models. We are now entering the era where we will see that happen and together with bigger names such as Google and eBay, blogs are now well positioned to move content, advertising and goods in the online world.

John Hawkins has run another edition of Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select Their Favorite Columnists. He did the same in September 2003 and if your compare the results it seems that the right-of-center bloggers have moved further to the right. Christopher Hitchens dropped from number 9 on the list to number 16 and Andrew Sullivan disappeared altogether while Ann Coulter's popularity has increased considerably. My list contributed to the other noteworthy trends: Victor Davis Hanson is steadily moving upwards and Peggy Noonan, absent last time, is now on number ten. This was my top-5:

1. Victor Davis Hanson
2. Mark Steyn
3. Christopher Hitchens
4. David Frum
5. Peggy Noonan

The genie is out of the bottle. Roger Simon, Charles Johnson and Marc Danziger have now launched their Pajamas Media initiative to the outside world and are inviting other bloggers and investors to take part. The two-tiered business plan (corporate advertising and a news service) offers a clear route to make blogs commercially viable which is good news as a business model for blogs has so far been somewhat elusive.

The advertising part, getting the Lexuses and Microsofts to spend some of their big budget ad-dollars on blogs rather than on The Economist and Time Magazine, is straightforward and kudos to the Pajamas folks for moving this forward. By pooling blogs in order to expand eyeballs and get a bigger chunk of advertising dollars all participating bloggers will benefit.

As Roger rightfully comments, the newswire service is a bit more complicated. The news generating capability that blogs have is phenomenal, from Rathergate to part-time writers with a laptop on the scene disseminating newsworthy stuff from places like Iraq and Lebanon. Yet, the implementatation is somewhat more complicated (it will require a separation of free and subscription-based content) and it requires financing which prompts the question: is there a clear market need and if so, who are your direct competitors? Here Pajamas will go head to head with existing media and newswire services who have deep pockets. Traditional media have so far been unable to adapt to the blogging phenomenon - it wasn't a major threat initially - but now that blogs are creating news and providing sound analysis, their franchise is under pressure, but it's certainly not dead. The shift of corporate ad-dollars is a wake-up call and while bloggers are ahead of the curve now, their advantage won't last long. My advice to Pajamas: move fast.

NOTES:
Marc Danziger has a fairly detailed description of the rationale behind the Pajamas project, here. For bloggers a must-read.

Dan Drezner is excited and has initiated a discussion on his site.

Gawker Media has launched a new site, Sploid:

Sploid is a news site with a tabloid mentality -- top stories up top, played big, as fast as they break. If there's a political line, it's anarcho-capitalist: sniffing out hypocrisy and absurdity, whether from salon left or religious right.

As you can imagine, I find the anarcho-capitalist angle interesting, but I do wonder whether this market is not already covered by a multitude of blogs.

Great weekend, it started off sunny but it turned to rain on Sunday which didn’t really matter as we had some great guests. Matt Rosenberg – of Rosenblog and Sound Politics fame – and his family were in town and dropped by for a visit. Matt is the second blogger that I’ve met face to face (Armed Liberal being the other one) and as our respective kids got along well playing, we managed to a spend lot of time talking about politics and blogs. Interestingly, Matt was able to put my mind at ease: Washington State can be as wacky as British Columbia when it comes to radically enforced liberal agendas, political correctness and highly disruptive public-sector unions.

Blogs and e-mails are great communication tools but there’s nothing, and this is a cliché sure, like meeting people face to face, especially when you’ve know their online persona for a while. Thanks Matt and Patricia, we’ll drop by in Seattle soon.

NOTE: Matt has a round-up of the best and worst of Vancouver.

Jim Hake and Michael Totten are now in Lebanon where they have launched their project to help the Lebanese in their fight for freedom and democracy. They have set up a dedicated blog and if you feel like it, you can contribute here.

Or click here:

UPDATE: Jim writes:

Syria is publicly acting like it is playing nice and withdrawing. Behind the scenes they are destabilizing the country, delaying the elections and intimidating the opposition. The good guys in Lebanon need our support.

Earlier this week I asked: Do you still read newspapers?. A Danish reader alerted me to a paper he had written about the topic under the title, New Kid on the Blog. It's a good addition to the debate as it is not only trying to summarize the history of the press in a nutshell, it also looks at how newspapers can adapt to the new world by offering a few interesting suggestions on how they might want to adapt.

Chicago-based radio-host, professor and author Milt Rosenberg has been added to the blogroll. He is of course not to be confused with Seattle-based writer and blogger Matt Rosenberg, although I happen to know that they're related.

Also, Publius Pundit, for their good work, but also for accurately recognizing that Peaktalk does not fit into any geographical box.

Michael Malone asks: Does anybody read newspapers anymore?

To answer that question directly: I do, but not with the same zeal as I used to. While two newspapers land our doorstep every morning, one local and one national, by the time they are here most of what they offer is old news. The local newspaper has turned into a somewhat useful listing of activities in our community with targeted ads, the national paper is now competing head-on with the Economist and Time Magazine as a source of secondary news and analysis. Malone is right to point to the pressure newspapers now face to adapt to the fact that primary news is sourced online and that they will have to compete in that space. And there's a lot available there these days: the day for me usually starts with a mixture of newsgroups, blogs and online newspapers. The distinction between the three is blurring rapidly and if newspapers want to survive in that new environment then they will have to adapt in order to survive which, says Malone, will be tricky:

But that plan has its own costs. For example, even the best of these newspaper sites are still surprisingly retrograde. For all of their blogs, online journals and cheeky attitudes, they are still depressingly static. Why? No doubt it's a legacy issue: when you've been in the business of producing words and still pictures for decades, it's hard to cross over into the new reality of links and mpegs. Thus, while some of the best writing on the Web can be found in newspaper sites, it is not always the best (or at least the most rewarding) reading.

This is the last great divide, and my sense is that few newspapers will be able to make the crossing.

It doesn't mean that the blogosphere is replacing the traditional media (or MSM), a claim which you can often read these days. The bloggers do however have a head-start in a vastly changed mediascape and are forcing MSM to rethink their strategies and compete. First-comers are by no means guaranteed winners and the old media happen to have very deep pockets to wage a competitive and long battle. It will be an interesting one and I intend to be part of it, in whatever shape of form.

At one of my early stage companies we are currently working on a Google Ad campaign and in the process came across this interesting post - a must-read for bloggers and entrepreneurs - which explains how the web is going to be instrumental in making money from an untapped market, or the so-called long tail:

" ... the most interesting, transformative businesses that have been built over the last decade and that will be built over the next one are going to operate in and make money from the long tail. Google, eBay, Amazon, Rhapsody, Netflix, iTunes. What do they all have in common? They all work the long tail and they’re all radically changing the dynamics of their more traditional businesses "

Looks like Glenn attended the same conference as Times writer Simon Jenkins who remains very skeptical over the ability of bloggers to take on traditional media:

"These people claim to be the unofficial legislators of free opinion. They quake, rant, muckrake, scream like 17th-century Puritans. Most of the blog sites regurgitate and spin what the mainstream media (dismissively the “MSM”) has spent millions finding and checking. Most are fanatically conservative. All you need is a taste for exhibitionism and a fancy name"

and:

The mainstream media have to make money or the blog’s professional resource will die. With newspaper sales declining and news bureaux shutting down across the world, the outlook is not good. It was never more true that opinion is free, facts are expensive.

Jenkins' argument is not new. The bulk of the 7 million blogs out there is no doubt of poor quality when measured against the rigorous standards of traditional media. But by now there are a significant number of bloggers all of whom give interesting opinions as well as make news by reporting, fact finding and doing research. Not to mention the number of experts that have added to the debate by offering their opinion and expertise, free of charge, immediately, without waiting to see their letters published on the op-ed pages of an established newspaper.

If blogging revenue would allow these enthusiasts - that's what they are - to give up their daytime jobs, many would be able to devote even more time to creating fact-based content or develop unique stories built on home-based research. Many are already doing that (even I can claim to have been ahead of the NYT in two cases) and it is a point that is often missed by the skeptics out there. No the dead trees will not die and disappear, but they are are waking up to a world where they have now have a rowdy and hyperactive roommate.

UPDATE: A reader comments on the MSM issue:

When a cornerstone of our republic - free speech- is publicly attacked by an influential and powerful individual - Simon Jenkins - every man must arise in that republic's defense. So, here is one citizen's reply to Mr. Jenkins and his ilk.

Mr. Jenkins and his MSM buddies (sorry, COLLEAGUES) have long considered themselves the arbiters of political discourse. Unfortunately for the Western electorates, these guardians have displayed both poor reasoning and contemptible ethics in this self-appointed role. The recent Dan Rather disgrace is but another piece of evidence on the mountain range of evidence that bears this conclusion out.

The number of Dutch-speaking Peaktalk readers is small but I still would like to point to a new very good site – and weblog – called Vrije Denkers (Free Thinkers). It’s a group effort based around the frustration over the current state of affairs in Holland. What prompted my interest and recommendation was that the group believes that: (1) recent developments in the world don’t necessarily mean an end to history or a collapse of Western civilization, but the new circumstances require a very different approach to move forward in uncharted territory; (2) as such the debate, existing political constructs and thus political parties need to undergo fundamental change and reform; (3) which is evidenced by the fact that yesterday’s progressives are today’s conservatives and that yesterday’s conservatives are today’s progressives. These three things are not unique to the Dutch situation, Europeans and Canadians should take note of these mechanics while Americans can point to a progressive conservative revolution which by the way took some forty years to entrench itself in American life. Anyway, check out the site and if they have some worthwhile posts or articles I will link and translate.

Although in the debate over Million Dollar Baby it seems that for once I am not ending up on the conservative end of the opinion scale, there is now an excellent blog, Libertas, dealing with conservative thoughts on the movies. As a Reagan buff I am also thrilled to see that John Meroney is part of the team, he's currently working on a book and documentary film about Ronald Reagan’s Hollywood career, and the impact it had on developing Reagan’s vision. (via the Corner)

And while pointing you to other good reads, do check out Matt Rosenberg's Rosenblog whose recent site re-design simply looks awesome. And yes, the content is good too.

Since Sullivan was one of the first real bloggers his departure from the scene has prompted not only a discussion about his influence and pledge drives, there’s also a debate about the limits of blogging, here is John Schrock of the Jujitsui Generis blog:

The harder you blog, the more likely you are to say something stupid--or worse, get into a sustained mental rut that shows everyone how narrow-minded you can be. And in blog land, everything you say goes down on your permanent record.

Tim Blair shares his anguish over having contributed to Andrew Sullivan’s pledge drive now that the latter has decided to go on hiatus to travel and write a book.

Well, I can say here that I too have contributed to Andrew a few times. And while the thought crossed my mind that taking off after a few of these big-buck pledge drives could be construed as somewhat inappropriate, I have to say that I am not in the least bit bothered by it. If I see how much time I have spent reading and enjoying Andrew’s stuff (either the night-cap read or the morning coffee round) and what I learned from his viewpoints and analyses I can only say that if I distribute my contributions over the time spent on the Daily Dish it not only was a very small amount for what I got out of it, it was worth every penny. On top of that, but that may be unrelated, he sent quite a bit of traffic to this blog which would not have been here if it wasn’t for him: it was the first blog I came across after I saw Sullivan on CNN during the Florida recount and it inspired me to set up Peaktalk. I even participated in Andrew's short-lived book club with some of my thoughts ending up on the Daily Dish.

Yes, we can have a discussion about pledge drives but the fact of the matter is that a fairly unique mechanism (no one was forced to buy the product that was essentially available for free) supported Sullivan's writing at a particular point in time. So people contributing rewarded past writings and made an assumption about future work and it is to Andrew's credit that he was able to use that mechanism to generate significant cashflow. The market validated his blog, no small achievement.

Final note to Blair: don't worry too much, he’s on hiatus only.

You may not have noticed it but my archives were, like those of many others, subject to a massive trackback spam attack yesterday morning, online gambling and stuff like that. Stacy helped out immediately and at the same time I have upgraded to the latest Movable Type release, MT 3.15. Things are now running much smoother here.

Andrew is taking a long break from blogging in order to concentrate more on writing feature articles and a book as well some other activities. If that's what he needs to do, fine, especially if it enables Andrew to produce quality stuff like his piece on Hillary Clinton last week. If we get more of that, then his scheduled break may indeed be a good move. Enjoy it Andrew.

Professor Bainbridge discusses the well-known Instalanche phenomenon and those of us that have experienced it know all about its phenomenal impact on your site counter and how it can make your day.

What I find interesting though is the retention level, i.e. how many new visitors that come to your site through an Instalanche return and become loyal readers? Without running a full reader survey, my back of the envelope calculations tell me that these days it’s somewhere between 1 and 2 %. That’s is low because Glenn’s audience is wide, although you can counter argue that only those with a specific interest click-through when they see something on Glenn’s site that they like. Still, if you get a flood of visitors from a blog with a much narrower audience that happens to identify with your site then the retention levels go up to 10% and above, in my experience. Following the phenomenal explosion in blogging and available sites you will need multiple Instalanches, Sullivanches or PowerSurges in order to build up a sizeable readership. Or just write a damn good blog.

It doesn’t stop. Here’s blog for socially conservative points of view and a counter-terrorism blog.

Robert Tagorda has pretty much shut down his shop and moved to Outside the Beltway in what seems an increasing trend towards group-blogging. Another notable move is Stefan Sharkansky who is now spending the bulk of his time over at Sound Politics a move probably inspired by the ongoing political mess in Washington State. Andrew Ian Dodge put it this way last week:

Solo blogs, except in rare cases, will not stand the test of time. Establish yourself as a decent blogger then get yourself into a good group blog.

There’s some truth to that and it’s probably a good solution for those whose daytime activities don’t allow regular quality updates of their weblog. The flipside is that you, and there’s my concern, probably have to give up a bit of your independence and flexibility. That’s why for now I am quite happy to remain on my own even though sometimes I lack the time to produce the quality type of posts that I would like to.

Giving an entire new meaning to the word hate-mail: Michelle Malkin’s inbox. You really wonder where this vermin comes from, but you can probably find them on the fringes of what passes for a political debate these days.

Michael Totten has looked into his traffic numbers following some comments from N.Z Bear. As it turns out Sitemeter, what has become the de facto standard for measuring blog traffic, is off by a wide margin if you install Webalizer on your server, a finding corroborated by the Argus. As one of the commenters on Totten’s site remarked it doesn’t make a real difference since the N.Z. Bear’s traffic rankings – which uses Sitemeter – gives you a ranking relative to others. So whatever we tracking system is used, we may end up with pretty much the same charts.

In addition to Sitemeter I use OneStat to track traffic and its numbers are pretty close to Sitemeter's. What I do wonder about is general preference for Sitemeter; OneStat gives me a lot more information about traffic than Sitemeter bearing in mind that I use the free version for both counters. What would be nice is to have a tool that not only accurately counts your visitors but which would also be able to tell you how you are retaining visitors and how your group of ‘retainees’ found you. That in turn would tell you a lot about content preferences and in turn could help focus your postings a bit more. Anyway, interesting stuff and I am sure there will be more developments in this area in the near future.

Spectacular nature, depressing cities. That in summary is conveyed by Michael Totten's impressive photo gallery that he has just posted following his trip to Libya. Highly recommended.

Good stuff over at the Interested Participant who is hosting this week's Carnival of the Vanities, a long-running blogospheric tradition initiated by Bigwig.

A new group blog definitely worth a visit, in their own words:

A Blog by career US Foreign Service officers. They are Republican (most of the time) in an institution (State Department) in which being a Republican can be bad for your career -- even with a Republican President!

They've got some pretty sharp comments and are even offering their services to those in need:

US Consulates will stand by 24/7/365 to receive immigration applications from sane Canadians fleeing the howling wilderness that will become Canada once the link to the oppressive imperialist war-mongering USA is broken; once the border is solidly locked down to prevent movement either way of anything; once hateful US investments stop; and once Canada can no longer serve as a cheap backlot for Hollywood productions. This is tough love, but at times it's the only way. We might have to destroy Canada to save Canada from Canada to make it again Canada.

As I said, sharp.

Kevin Aylward at Wizbang has launched the 2004 Weblog Awards. Nominations are open until November 28 after which voting will start on December 1. It's not only a great opportunity to reward your favorite bloggers (no, I am not hinting or lobbying, I wouldn't fit into most of the categories anyway), the voting and final results give a pretty good picture as to where the 'market' is.

Jeremy Brown of Who Knew? is guestblogging over at Michael Totten's who's on a trip to Libya. Good stuff, so go check it out.

Via w4d I found this political quiz that generates three interesting graphs and determines where you are politically in each one. Have fun.

The authors of this blog are discussing whether I am 'fair and balanced'. The basic idea behind Peaktalk is to give you my views and analyze events and by doing that in most cases I would end up in the 'fair and balanced' department, very few have qualified my writings as demagoguery. But yes, in a few cases I can't resist coming out with strong language. Anyway, you be the judge of this.

UPDATE: Colby Cosh has some fair and balanced comments on the particular political issue in question. If you're interested in how the politcal career of an America-basher in Canada's parliament ended this week, read more here.

Andrew has opened the discussion over who should be TIME's Person of the Year and it seems we're destined to have George W. Bush on the cover of the red-rimmed magazine. It's not easy to come up with many alternative options but Micro Persuasion at least gives it a good try and is suggesting that bloggers should fill the slot as they meet the basic requirements:

"Person of the Year is an annual issue of TIME magazine that features a profile on the man, woman, couple, group, idea, place, or machine that "for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year"

Hard to say if bloggers "most influenced events" but they certainly deserve an honorary mention. If I come up with a better candidate, I'll let you know.

Chrenkoff is unstoppable, he's now leveraged his franchise by looking for Good News from the Islamic World.

Serious content from my side will have to wait until later in the weekend. In the meantime I encourage you to visit some of the latest additions to the Peaktalk blogroll:

Firstly there are two conservatives in the Pacific Northwest, Jay Currie in Vancouver and Matt Rosenberg with his Rosenblog in Seattle.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean we find Johan Norberg, a great proponent of freedom and globalization and Fistful of Euros which given the exchange rate movements really has become a truckload full of dollars. In Ireland, American conservative William Sjostrom and his AtlanticBlog which has been around for a while covering economics, politics and Irish affairs.

The Evangelical Outpost is a most necessary addition in the department of social affairs or in their own words: culture, politics, and religion from an evangelical worldview.

In the regional blogging department I have added The Argus, a very interesting group blog focused on an area that is traditionally underreported: Central Asia and the Caucasus. In Hong Kong, my old love, it ‘s Phil and his Flying Chair that are worth a regular visit.

I have also added Ann Althouse, Matt Yglesias, Tim Blair and Hugh Hewitt none of whom requires any further introduction I think. The same applies to Donald Sensing who it seems has returned from his blogging break and if you want to read quality stuff that pretty much ignores the election you should go and check him out. Another returnee is Andrew Coyne.

And finally, if I am not blogging or spending time with my family I actually work. With hi-tech start-ups and Venturpreneur is a great launchpad for those with an interest in the entrepreneurial spirit, the law and ... cheese.

Michael Totten’s assessment of being Glenn Reynolds doesn’t give us anything that we didn’t already know or suspected about the professor from Tennessee, but it is a great read and I urge you to read his comments. Be sure to click through to Ann Althouse and learn what Glenn’s inbox looks like, not surprising yet still revealing. It’s a miracle the man provided six e-mail induced links to me since starting this blog.

Some common sense from Dean Esmay on blogging after November 2 ...

Hugh Hewitt organized a bloggers symposium over the weekend discussing the Marcy Cheney affair and no less than 225 bloggers submitted a link, me being one of them. Hugh is impressed with the response he got and notes that:

The very fine analysis among some of the very new bloggers tells me not only is the self-inflicted political damage done to the Democratic ticket extreme, the explosion in blogging popularity is expanding and deepening. The technology has finally caught up with the talent. A year from now, I expect N.Z.Bear's ecosystem and rankings by traffic to have changed dramatically. Given that the talent is overwhelmingly on the side of the center-right, and that MSM is tilted way left, every further expansion in participation in and readership for the blogosphere is a huge structural advance for center-right politics and economics.

Yes, but at the same time it is likely that many new election and politics driven blogs will lose some of their momentum and some may even disappear altogether after November 2. It’s hard to break into the upper echelons of the ecosystem and increase traffic at a time when so many new blogs appear on the scene.

What will be interesting to see is how the outcome of the election will affect blogs; Glenn for instance noted yesterday that he might be doing well in terms of traffic if Kerry wins. Very likely, an entire monitor-Kerry industry will appear and if Bush wins, which I expect to be the case, we may see a re-adjustment to pre-election traffic and link levels.

Here’s a new blog that I have been reading for a little while, a great mixture of politics and markets from Johan Norberg, a Swede who promotes global capitalism and (traditional, not North American) liberalism. Interesting stuff any day, but coming from someone who shaped his sense of freedom in one of Europe’s most regulated and statist entities a refreshing read:

“ we also ran the co-operative speakeasy Tritnaha, as a protest against the restrictive licensing rules in Stockholm. Other pubs not being allowed to stay open after midnight, all the night owls came to us for their after dinner drinks – we had thousands of members. It was a kind of peaceful civil disobedience which harmed nobody, and I myself was on duty all night long as bartender, serving beer and carrying on ideological conversations with the guests. Every time the police raided the club and closed it down, other enthusiasts in our co-operative organisation were able to reopen it a few hours later. To put an end to Tritnaha’s market once and for all, the Stockholm politicians were forced to let other bars stay open till three at night, some of them until five, and so, having achieved our aim of enabling Stockholmers to go on enjoying themselves after midnight, we were able to close down for good. That was my greatest political success to date”

The usual recommendation: go check him out.

A venerable blogger has returned: Being American in T.O. is no longer inactive. Debbye falls into the "good stuff" category and many will be pleased to have her back. Whatever the origins, blogger fatigue can be cured.

Offering you the best of this week’s medical blogosphere is up over at Galen’s Log. Go check it out.

Jeremy Wright the owner of Ensight, a blog about business and technology, has sold it for the tidy sum of $15k and a monthly fee, allowing him editorial control in return for all advertising revenue.

The BusinessPundit asks if this could lead to blogs as a commodity: build-up blog brands and then sell them off. This in turn could help create small conglomerates that aggregate blogs with similar content. It’s not inconceivable that many B-list bloggers who command decent traffic rankings and search engine power would sell of their ownership or form smaller groupings of like-minded blogs, finding a model to make their efforts commercially sustainable. A-listers however could do without this as their market - read traffic - pull is probably strong enough to survive on their own. If so, than it looks like we will see a number of different models of commercialized blogs co-existing, dispelling the myth of one model for blogs to attain sustainable revenues.

UPDATE: James Joyner has some interesting comments on blogs and commerce.

Donald Sensing has taken a sabbatical and is joining Steven Den Beste in the group of pre-eminent bloggers who have figured out that there are - believe it or not – some drawbacks to this phenomenon. It’s a pity because both would have had valuable contributions to especially the debate over the next steps in Iraq. Now they join the list of inactive links on the right sidebar, weblogs that were recommended highly on this site and for whom we can only hope that at some point they will return. All three currently on the inactive list have linked generously to Peaktalk in the past which is why I am reluctant to boot them off completely. Again, let’s hope they return at some point.

Phil Carter’s Intel Dump has appeared on the blogroll and with good reason as it is one of the better quality blogs around at the moment. Phil has analyzed the self-congratulatory mode of bloggers following the Rathergate event last week. He argues that in this particular case the topic was well suited for blogs, but that at the end of the day weblogs are nothing more than a streaming op-ed of sorts, read by a relatively small proportion of the population at large. The new medium is still reliant upon old media to pick up new stories it generates.

True, but a number of stories have indeed been both broken and fact checked by the sphere and if you restrict your consumption to a limited number of quality blogs they do start to take on the function of a primary news source, in addition to traditional media. My day starts with a quick review of the headlines of the newspaper on the doormat and the latest online, but I quickly shift to a few of the more well-informed blogs you can find on your right hand side. And even though some can be qualified as random op-editry, they do point to important news and interesting topics that both bring and help shape news. To that extent blogs are becoming one of the primary newsgatherers, a theory that has been around for a while, but I agree with Phil it only applies to “quality blogs”. It should also be noted that any firm numbers supporting this theory are very hard to get hold of, to the extent they exist.

Bigwig, the creator of Carnival of the Vanities is hosting the event today and celebrating its second anniversary and makes an important observation:

In fact, the long life of the Carnival--long in terms of the Internet, that is, for if a calendar year is the equivalent of seven for a dog then surely it is something along the lines of a decade in Internet time--is due to the fact that, not only does it keep on keeping on, something that I've long considered essential to blogging success, it's developed the primary characteristic of a successful meme--the ability to survive and prosper in a changing environment.

Yes, and it has given both upstart and established bloggers an avenue to get their stuff out to a larger audience. On top of that it has created a number of highly successful spin-offs, most notably the Carnival of the Capitalists which will be hosted here on December 20.

It’s a busy week, hence few posts but in them meantime check out this week’s Carnival of the Vanities over at Jeremiah Lewis' Fringeblog. I will check in later today, hopefully.

You can't really ask your readers to donate money for your blogging efforts and then retreat to the hammock for a month once the proceeds are in the bank. Well, justice is swift and today's blockbuster featuring New Jersey Governor James McGreevey will force Sullivan back to the workstation, although as of this moment the dish remains unupdated. I bet you he will be back tomorrow morning.

Iain Murray has together with a few others launched a new blog devoted entirely to free-market solutions for the environment, called The Commons Blog:

The Commons Blog is a collaborative web log dedicated to the principle of promoting environmental quality and human dignity and prosperity through markets and property rights. Put more simply, it’s about free markets protecting the environment.

Great initiative and if the content is going to be as good as the design (of course, Stacy) this will become a must-read site.

Michael Totten is back from his trip to North Africa and makes it clear he intends to ignore both the Democratic and Republican conventions arguing there’s no news to be had. I agree with him that events are too scripted but they are still newsworthy, if not for content than certainly for continuous entertainment. However Totten commits to take on the struggle that many in the center face:

I’m going to build two separate cases: The liberal case for Bush and the hawkish case for Kerry. Both strike me as dubious, and will strike most other people as dubious too. But I don’t have anything else to work with here. The liberal case for Kerry is obvious. The conservative case for Bush is equally so. You don’t need me to explain either one and, besides, neither speak to my concerns at this time.

It’s going to be a hard choice for the radical centrists this year.

If you think of launching a new weblog you would have to carve out a niche for yourself, providing something that no one else is covering. Arthur Chrenkoff has done that by taking the simplest of concepts: good news. I commend him for spending the time on finding stuff that few of us bother to write about, the things that go right, the things work, the things that generate hope. This week he’s found a lot of it in Afghanistan.

Great piece yesterday by John Hawkins on the potential for bloggers going forward and why the arrival of established journalists like Michelle Malkin (who by the way has a great new blog, another superb Sekimori design job) is actually good news for the blogosphere. Hawkins is right, blogs are still in their infancy and only this week, a number of years after the phenomenon started, Time Magazine finally devoted a feature article to it. The public at large is still pretty much unaware of the incredible source of news and commentary that is provided by weblogs and for well-known names to jump into this game, there is a good chance that their efforts and brand appeal will rub off on smaller bloggers. The party has only just begun.

And I have to admit, that is also one of the reasons why I ended my 4-month sojourn, I had invested too much time and effort into something that I not only really like, it has some real future potential. With today’s Instalanche everything is back to normal here at Peaktalk. Thanks Glenn.

I know, things have been very slow over here but the break for me is worth its while as business affairs have taken precedence over writing about John Kerry and Janet Jackson who under normal circumstances would have benefited from some analysis from my side. But, I do continue to read other blogs and here’s a few that you should check into as well, good writing, great content and in some cases relentless irony. Go check ‘em out:

Belle de Jour

Blogfonte

Fresh Bilge

Solomonia

Trudeaupia

Bloggers who seem to have disappeared can make a surprise comeback, simply because they miss the art of blogging. I had written off No Cameras but stopped short of kicking him off the blogroll. Well, that apparently was for a good reason as the Dutch blogger in Washington State has returned, with a spouse actually encouraging him to do so. If you haven’t already done so, go check him out.

Yesterday was Carnival of the Capitalists day over at Samablog, tomorrow is the usual Carnival of the Vanities day and this week it is hosted at Drumwaster’s Rants. So the Tuesday was an open day, but the Canadians grabbed it and launched a new Carnival: the Carnival of the Canucks and today the first edition is hosted at Switching to Glide.

Ian Murray has disabled his comments and I buy into his rationale for doing that, although he had to shut it down because of abuse, which is not good. His trackbacks still work though. Some new readers ask me where they can leave comments and my answer is and has always been: send an e-mail. Regular mailers know that their input will find its way onto the main pages of Peaktalk or get a direct respose from me.

Jim Peacock of Snooze Button Dreams has launched a new initiative, a Carnival-like entry fest that focuses on the best posts from the history of weblogs. Since the blogosphere has a tendency to focus on the ‘latest’ I think it is a great idea to recycle some quality stuff from the past (entries have to be at least two months old), compile them and give them the attention they deserve. If you want to check it out, here’s this week’s edition.

My piece on Chretien resulted in some feedback from other bloggers, notably Debbye. Interestingly I used the term Trudeaupia in my piece which is another, increasingly common, way to describe Canada (was it coined by Mark Steyn?). The term refers to its former left-liberal Prime-Minster and parodies the place as a socialist paradise, governed by statist and political correct principles. Well, unbeknownst to me there’s actually a blogger in Quebec who has a blog entitled Trudeaupia and I encourage you to visit him, stuff like this warrants blogosphere attention.

This week the Carnival is hosted at Signal + Noise by Chris Genovese, lots of good stuff, as usual.

There’s no way I am going to dislodge Merde in France from collecting the Best Foreign Blog award, but there still is time to vote for Peaktalk and help it to at least an honorable defeat in the 2003 Weblog Awards. Thanks!

This week’s edition of the Carnival of the Capitalists is up over at A Penny For …, and it marks the first time that I have submitted an entry. This Carnival usually is a great round-up of the best the blogosphere has to offer in terms of business, finance, markets and everything that is somehow related to these topics, but even if you’re not interested I recommend you check in, there are usually some very good blogs participating.

Steven Den Beste has rolled his roll which he does every quarter or so, attempting to help new bloggers get exposure which he believes they rightly deserve. As an alumnus of his roll I always watch closely what ends up on his new blogroll and I encourage you to do the same by going here, on the same page you will also find a list of all the alumni. Interestingly another foreigner in Canada has landed on his roll, go check her out.

Kevin at Wizbang is hosting the 2003 Annual Weblog Awards where readers can vote directly for their favourite blogs. I scored a nomination in the category “Best Foreign Blog” so if you want, check into Kevin’s well designed ballot box and throw in a vote for the Peaktalker, judging from the interim results I could use a few votes.

Two liberals and two conservatives form the team of Begging to Differ and they are hosting this week's carnival. Go check 'em out!

The team of Setting The World To Rights is hosting the Carnival this week and judging from their comments they were unprepared for the workload that comes with it. As I hosted the thing last week I know that the deluge of entries can be overwhelming. However, I was truly impressed with the way nearly all participants met the deadline I had set, and none of them had any unusual requests or comments. That made the job both manageable and enjoyable and I think it highlights the spirit of co-operation that characterizes the blogosphere. It’s good to be a part of that experience, now head over to the Carnival!

Following the long spell of inactivity that has troubled Dilacerator and is now also affecting No Cameras I have been looking for other Dutch bloggers with some international exposure that write in English. Today via Jeff Jarvis I rediscovered Adam Curry a former MTV VJ and Dutch celebrity with American roots. We’re in the same age bracket, in the 1980s he was the benchmark for pop music on Dutch radio and TV and after a spell in New York he is now back in Europe from where, among other things, he runs a good weblog dealing with media, technology, Dutch stuff and from time to time politics. Today he has written a fairly interesting piece about Michael Jackson that takes an alternative point of view and is therefore definitely worth reading.

While we’re on the topic, I think Curry has a point in saying that we should be careful in pre-judging Jackson. Having said that I found the episode where Jackson dangled his hooded child from a Berlin hotel room far more alarming as it provided direct and visible evidence of serious abuse. It was appalling. Any other single parent engaging in such despicable behaviour would be dragged in front of a judge to hear that his child would be taken away from him and placed in an adoptive home. There’s a very good editorial in today’s Daily Telegraph that makes exactly that point:

There are those who will try to argue once more that Jackson is being unfairly persecuted because he is a superstar in the public eye. The very contrary is true: the blinding glare of Jackson's celebrity, talent and wealth has allowed him to escape with infinitely less censure than would any ordinary man.

Whether guilty of child molestation, yes or no, Jackson’s own children are most at risk as a result of the way they are being raised and the courts may now have a unique opportunity to do something about that. Go and read the whole thing.

The Madness Continues …

Are we mad? Are we crazy? Are we nuts? Have lost it spending hours in front of our computer writing, reading, commenting, trackbacking, permalinking and praying for traffic? Do the many e-mailers asking Glenn if he is some sort of weirdo have a point? Is it sane to forego news on TV, family life, a night on the town, work duties, and worst of all, sleep? All that just to immerse ourselves in what is called the blogosphere? Yes, the world of bloggers does indeed sometimes resemble some loosely organized meeting place for those who have collectively lost their minds. Or not? Is it a meeting of minds designed to enhance our knowledge of things which is finally bringing us that much dreamed of forum of direct democracy? Or, if some publisher is looking, an invite for a newspaper column or maybe even a book deal?

Maybe this week’s entries can shed some light on it!

Entertainment?
It seems that the quality of entertainment offered to us these days reflects this week’s theme, madness. It’s pretty bad indeed:

Mr. Cranky this week rants about the quality of local TV …

… and Israellycool alerts us the deteriorating quality of Arab TV …

… while Newman gives us some fair warnings before watching the new Matrix.

But not everyone is complaining of what can be seen and Rob Bernard produces a more balanced review of what’s on TV this season. Yet, instead of sitting in front of a screen, there are some other creative pursuits:

Matt Powell at Wheat and Chaff discusses anime and …

… Sneakeasy’s Joint discusses writing a poem.

Talking about poetry, what happens if you let children look at proverbs, asks Bussorah?

But then you can always make your own pornographic movie. Eric Berlin points out that you have to assume though that it will be made public at some point, and he has more solid advice for those that are commonly referred to as asshatted celebrities.

Or, is this Entertainment?
Many have long abandoned the box as a form of entertainment and visits to the theater are limited these days because of our busy lives. Yet, there are other ways to seek a break from day to day life:

Madfish Willie discusses a night on the town …

… and that brings me to Bogieblog’s time with the chickens.

Admiral Quixote at Solport discusses a sports event and true sportsmanship in this selfish world …

… as does the Sportsblog, rambling about a football junkie.

… whereas White Pebble’s Patti Niehoff ventures into very dangerous territory for a day-trip.

Or maybe we should just celebrate in Japanese style, says Lee of See the Donkey.

I really prefer to sit back and read a short story. Quibbles and Bits wants to share one with us this week called the Mailbox.

Wizbang’s Kevin prefers to stroll around computer expos, or does he? In any case he has some good advice on it.

But in the end, like the TV-critics I started with, it all depends on who is looking at what has been created. The Tears of Things describe two distinct reactions to a piece of art.

Basic Freedoms and Those That Defend It
Entertainment is to be enjoyed since we have the freedom to do that, yet very often this freedom comes under threat according to …

… James Griffith of Griffany who takes on the issue of ID-Cards as it impacts our freedom …

… as do the restrictions imposed on us by gun control, says The Smallest Minority.

And we should not ever forget those who die to defend that freedom says John Donovan at Argghhh!

And Blackfive adds to that that it is very often different generations of families that serve the forces, effectively creating a Warrior Caste.

The Lopsided Poopdeck talks about his mother who served in the armed forces.

In any case, there needs to be more attention for those brave armed forces and the Mudville Gazette has a rallying cry for those Military Blogs.

Freedom to do What?
We fight to preserve our freedom, and some of us die for it. But what do we do with our freedom once we have it?

We can chose to engage in unusual relationships like the folks at Taken in Hand, as Kathy, Stephen and Robin will explain to you.

Is their view of the role of women maybe traditional, women have changed says Bad Money, who discusses Yesterday’s Women and Today’s Women.

Some guys like Jim Peacock at Snooze Buttom Dreams however need to listen to a reggae classic to realize that women are not always the answer to everything and that things can still be all right.

Maybe an imaginary girlfriend is the solution, you can get them at eBay says Resonance.

Freedom can also be abused since we can manipulate science to further our political views, until someone uses his freedom to debunk it which is what John Ray does on his Dissect Left and PC Watch Blogs.

Which takes us to those weird protesters who get angry because they just could not get arrested, says Ilyka Damen.

Sometimes protest and a closer look are warranted says Angelweave after she read Fast Food Nation.

To some freedom means to get rid of your waste wherever you like it, Canadians dump their garbage across the border, says the Interested Participant.

And if you abuse your rights to engage in some serious hazing at a fraternity, the outcome maybe reason for concern says The Sake of Argument.

Freedom also allows us to make money and see it grow by adhering to some very, yes, the frugal Dutchman loves this, interesting guidelines according to the People’s Republic of Seabrook.

And then there’s religious freedom, spawning groups like Jews for Jesus, appropriately discussed by The Raving Atheist.

Yet those that live in slavery often have to imagine things in order to escape their brutal circumstances and dream of things in the future. The Speculist underlines the power of imagination and our ability to conceive things that do not exist as yet, ie. the future.

Presidential Politics
Freedom is also there to elect our leaders and that brings out much discussion, yet it surprises me that no one bothered to discuss JFK for this week's Carnival. That may be because another scion of a venerable family is writing history these days:

Andrew Ian Dodge alerts us to the Bush visit to London and the protesters that await him …

… while Q and O believes the Bush speech of two weeks back is of historical significance.

The candidates that seek to replace Bush meanwhile engage is acts that are not of real historical significance says Robert Tagorda, irritated by Democratic candidates’ pandering to youth culture.

The King of Fools tells us that one politician once slated to occupy the White House was sent packing this week with his pension papers.

And The Gunther Concept compares Bush and the slate of Democratic candidates on their language and grammar skills and comes to some interesting conclusions.

And then there are the great Presidents of the past, Red Ted compares Andrew Jackson and Ronald Reagan.

The Old Continent
As regular visitors to this blog will know, my ancestral grounds are a topic of hot debate these days.

Nikita Demosthenes takes on the irrational aspects of the EU.

… and Walloworld looks at this contradiction in terminus, Freedom in France.

And Peaktalk, yes that's me, points out that the EU’s defense plans may be the final nail in the coffin for NATO.

An Even Older Continent
While the old continent seems troubled, the older continent is deeply troubled which is why we are sowing the seeds of democracy in the land of the Tigris and Euphrates:

The Patriot Paradox discusses the situation in Iraq, saying the Iraqis are better off and …

… Earthly Passions takes on the dilemma posed to us by the Iraqi Fork, arguing that whichever path we take is going to be difficult.

That difficulty required Paul Bremer to return to Washington for some meetings, Norbizness thankfully has a transcript of what took place in the Oval Office.

Yes, the war in Iraq has enriched our language and A Voyage to Arcturus examines those Quaggers.

And since it seems the Quaggers may be wrong, the time has come to bring more international troops to Iraq, argues Blog Simmins.

Quaggers? Vietnam? Brian J. Noggle explains that the Vietnam analogy only works for certain age groups.

The effort to bring democracy to Iraq, in the end, was based on intelligence and the entire The Smarter Cop points out to us that whatever was in the contested memo about al-Qaeda and Saddam, that intelligence had been gathered during the Clinton years. What did they do with it?

Idler Yet points out that Slate needs to be convinced on some of the al-Qaeda – Saddam files that are out there.

There is a group of people that didn’t need any intelligence, the warbloggers knew the right course of action all along, but that has not prevented them from being ridiculed as “chickenhawks” says The American Mind.

In any case, there’s there should be more focus on good news from Iraq says Feste’s Fools Blog.

Politics and the Law, Church and State
If madness and freedom intersect, it is no doubt in the area where church, state and law meet each other.

This week the focus of attention was the ruling on gay marriage in Massachusetts and Trish Wilson was on the spot to cover this, just in time for the Carnival.

The Calico Cat discusses a Democratic filibuster of federal judicial nominees, and historical perspective on the Supreme Court packing scheme of the 1930s.

Fringeblog is deeply worried about the Supremes rapid departure of pure Constitutional ruling.

And it is good to finally hear from real Alabamian Anastasia at Southern Musings what she thinks about the controversy surrounding The Ten Commandments.

Legal affairs come close to home when you get a demand letter, Patterico points us to one that is especially scary.

But Above All, Human
In the end we’re all human and subject to these basic human instincts as Jay Solo discusses our rodent tendencies. So does that mean we are all the same?

No, of course not. We are different and can celebrate our humanity, our diversity under a banner of universalism. Or do we? The inherent tensions between patriotism, ethnic and national identity and universalism are discussed eloquently by KesherTalk’s Judith Weiss.

Was this madness? No, this is what you get if you put a few enthusiastic and engaged bloggers together in the proverbial room, lots of interesting stuff and a few quaint episodes. Of course, there’s some absurdity around and Fragments from Floyd tries to initiate a new exercise for bloggers around the “Where are you from” concept, adding that indeed it may be silly. But if you want real madness there’s always a blogger to propose it, and this week the award goes to Pete Holidian who invites us to participate in some more Blogger Madness. That’s it!

And remember to check in next week with the team of Setting The World To Rights who will be hosting the 62nd edition of the Carnival!

Again, this week the Carnival of the Vanities will be hosted right here at Peaktalk (with a small ’t’) and I continue to be taking submissions for this madness (as one submitting blogger has qualified it, no I won’t tell you who it was) all week, the deadline however is Tuesday, November 18, 2003 at 3:00 PM, Pacific Time. Let me have your Permalinks and blog URLs and tell me if I can use your name yes or no, some of us would like to remain anonymous. You can add in a description but I am not guaranteeing that I will use it; part of the fun of hosting the event will be to throw in some random editorial comments. The e-mail address is pieter-at-peaktalk-dot-com.

Edition number 60 is up over at Dead Ends, touring Georgetown.

Next week, the Carnival will be hosted right here at Peaktalk (with a small ’t’) and I will be taking submissions all week, the deadline however is Tuesday, November 18, 2003 at 3:00 PM, Pacific Time. Let me have your Permalinks and blog URLs and tell me if I can use your name yes or no, some of us would like to remain anonymous. You can add in a description but I am not guaranteeing that I will use it; part of the fun of hosting the event will be to throw in some random editorial comments.

In case you have missed it, John Hawkins has an interview up with Andrew Sullivan which I highly recommend. As one might expect Sullivan has some interesting thoughts, but also recycles some of his ideas that regular visitors of the Daily Dish are well familiar with. The guy has a great ability to summarize political phenomena in a nutshell and this is my favorite part of the interview:

John Hawkins: Why do you think so many people on the left have had such a hard time dealing with the war on terrorism?

Andrew Sullivan: Because it requires seeing that the West is morally superior to its enemies. And they have spent a lifetime arguing that the West is morally inferior. So they will even find a way to justify or rationalize or overlook the evil and tyranny that lies behind radical political Islamism. They're trapped by their own past. Not all of them - but a resilient minority.

Invaluable. He has some great advice for bloggers too.

Liquor distribution has been getting some coverage here recently, especially here and here, explaining the atrocious situation in British Columbia. In the US the circumstances vary by state and maybe Kate can elaborate on how things are organized in Hawaii. Not only is she familiar with the state and consuming healthy amounts of alcohol, she also highlights the fact that there’s an interesting association between bloggers and drinking. If that’s the case I am amazed at all those great writers that drink seriously, think Hitchens, as it appears alcohol does not have an impact on the quality of the stuff they write.

Update: Andres Gentry has some thoughts on this topic as well.

It seems this site as well as many others came under a denial-of-service attack, earlier today as well as yesterday, Den Beste explains:

It would appear that the denial-of-service attack against Hosting Matters has been renewed intermittently today. One of their many clients runs a pro-Israel web site, and they came under attack last weekend because of it. However, that also brings down all their other clients, including such sites as Instapundit, Little Green Footballs, and DailyPundit. I'm sure that the folks at Hosting Matters are trying to do what they can to solve the problem. The best thing everyone else can do is to be patient.

There’s a lot more on this topic over at Winds of Change, it looks like there will be more attacks in the near future. If this is a one-off thing we should not be too worried, in fact it could be seen as an honor that some people want to shut us down, but if a multiple of blogs and other sites come under pro-longed attack with the likelihood of data loss then even I will lose my sense of humor.

In addition to the Carnival, here's another blogosphere tradition that gives you an interesting plethora of links to various blogs: Kate over at Electric Venom with her letter of the day. Today, coincidentally, it is the V, for victory or for vibrant California?

Wizbang is explaining how to best position your blog for an Instalanche, trying to see if there are any hard and fast rules that can help others getting huge instant traffic volumes. The Professor responds and clarifies the matter in very simple terms, although the concept of “the flow” was new to me. I have been Instalanched twice and am on Glenn’s blogroll, but in between the first avalanche and the second one there were quite a few e-mails from my side that were either unread or did not fit into the flow. Now that we have a better sense of how Glenn links maybe someone can tell me how, after various e-mails, links and generous contributions to his pledge weeks, I can get Andrew to finally get my counter going with a Sullivanche?

Today the Carnival of the Vanities celebrates its one-year anniversary and is appropriately hosted by its creator, Bigwig over at Silflay Hraka. As always: go over there and have a look at this week's goodies.

Looking around the blogosphere for a comprehensive round-up of the latest in California’s recall I came across Calblog and its BLAP, or, Blogosphere Loosely Applied Practices, which is an attempt to put together a code o