There are few things people agree on in the Blogosphere. In fact the debate and discourse are arguably the most compelling thing about the Blogosphere. Anyone can say just about anything they want and they can say it without fear of prosecution and in most cases for free.

Well not everyone. Per the BBC Today:

More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report.

In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.

More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran, said the report.

It goes on:

Arrested bloggers exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights or suppression of protests. They criticised public policies and took political figures to task.

More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran, said the report.

For instance, it said the Committee to Protect Bloggers has published information about 344 people arrested in Burma - many of whom are thought to be be bloggers - but the WIA could not verify all the reports.

It also noted that many nations, perhaps as many as 30, imposed technological restrictions on what people can do online. In nations such as China this made it difficult for people to use a blog as a means of protest.

This report doesn’t mention even mention the severe free speech restrictions in Canada and most of Western Europe.  The next time you find yourself ranting about your congressman, senator, or local mayor; The next time you do a Google search for “human rights abuses in China” thank your lucky stars that you are free to do so.

More than that be mindful of your responsibility to maintain those freedoms for all of us and use a power that we as citizens have never had before in all of human history to help spread these freedoms to bloggers in countries like China, Burma, Iran, and Egypt.

Presidential candidates began courting political bloggers before the 2008 nomination race even got started. Virtually every candidate hired bloggers on staff. Some successfully and some not so much. Many set up conference calls with bloggers (McCain has excelled here). Both the RNC and DNC are allowing bloggers access to the show floor during their national conventions.

For those who are able to navigate the many minefields of the Blogosphere these efforts result in millions in online donations and of course turning voters out to the polls and caucuses.

Arguably the two candidates most attuned to the Blogosphere during this presidential campaign were presumptive nominees John McCain and Barak Obama (notice the video?). Obama has certainly benefited the most from social media having raised $45 million dollars online in one month!. He has more followers on Twitter (31,000+) than anyone including Bloggerati Rock Stars like Robert Scoble and Jason Calacanis. Mommie and Techy bloggers regularly tweet and post on his behalf. Obama has near 850,000 members on his Facebook fan site and a huge presence on MySpace (though many of those friends may not be old enough to vote). Who can forget the Viral Videos from Obama Girl (nine million views!); which had more than a small part in raising national awareness and elevating Obama’s candidacy to legitimate contender status.

McCain on the other hand has a distinguished military career, has made many trips to Iraq and constantly praises the men and women serving in our armed forces earning him the respect of Milbloggers.

Now the McCain campaign in following with it’s overall strategy of reaching out to voters beyond his base is reaching out to left leaning blogs and even non-political blogs. Here is an excerpt from a Washington Times article on Friday.

Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign is trying to tap a new audience of potential voters by taking his campaign message straight to liberal and nonpolitical issues-based blogs, which reach millions of readers but don’t often delve into conservative politics.

The strategy was in full swing yesterday when Mr. McCain invited non-conservative bloggers to join his regular blogger conference call, just hours after he delivered a major speech previewing his war strategy and other priorities for a first presidential term.

These candidates are both going to continue to seek the support of the Blogosphere and their tens of millions of readers. They are wise to do so. Bloggers and their readers vote. For the candidate that does it right, it just might mean the difference between winning and losing the Presidency.

PS. A couple of months ago I was joking with someone that Obama might be the first President to Tweet the State of the Union Address. I might not have been that far off.

Check out 2007 BlogWorld speaker author and all around nice guy Professor David Perlmutter on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Show talking about his new book Blog Wars.

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why do we hate Vista?

It seems Joe Wilcox warned Microsoft about many of the reasons before the release.

More Chinese Internet repression.

A Mac patch named after Rush Limbaugh?

Techcrunch interviews former HP CEO and new RNC hired gun Carly Fiorina. 

Congrats to Chris Brogan whose blog is working again.

This is scary stuff. From Reporters Without Borders:

Reporters Without Borders condemns the “self-discipline pact” signed by at least 20 leading blog service providers in China including Yahoo.cn! and MSN.cn. Unveiled yesterday by the Internet Society of China (ISC), an offshoot of the information industry ministry, the pact stops short the previous project of making it obligatory for bloggers to register, but it can be used to force service providers to censor content and identify bloggers.

Under the new pact, blog service providers are “encouraged” to register users under their real names and contact information before letting them post blogs. More seriously, they will be required to keep this information, which will allow the authorities to identify them. These companies have already in the past provided the police with information about their clients, resulting in arrests.

The pact says “blog providers should monitor and manage comments … and delete illegal and bad information in a timely manner.” Articles 11 and 12 urge them to equip themselves with a secure management system that allows them to keep bloggers’ details, including their real name, address, contact number and email address.

ISC secretary-general Huang Chengqing was clear yesterday when he said: “Blog service providers who allow the use of pseudonyms may be more attractive to bloggers, but they will be punished by the government if they fail to screen illegal information.”

Most people know free speech does not exist in China.  What continues to amaze me is that American and European companies continue to agree to help the Chinese government monitor, censor and suppress their citizens free speech.

This morning’s opening keynote speaker Robert Steele is dropping bombs. This presentation is supposed to be about Open Source but Steele (a former spy and self proclaimed “moderate Republican” is off the rails. He opened with the statement that Dick Cheney had created at least 25 impeachable offenses. I missed quite a few of the gems during the first fifteen minutes of his presentation trying to get internet access (this may be the biggest single problem with blogging conferences by the way) but here is a running list of the controversial stuff Steele is saying.

• “Message to Microsoft, we will let you live but we want your money.”
• “We have a military industrial complex that profits from war and secrecy not open source and peace. “
• “I dont think anybody unwilling to support open spectrum should be elected to anything anywhere.”
• central banking is an evil cancer. These people are selling us credit they dont have to make profits they don’t deserve.”
• “Lincoln and Kennedy were both assassinated when they were about to print money and not borrow from the banks.”
• “I gave up on Wikipedia because I don’t have time to deal with morons.”
• “The Federal Government is broken in every possible way. “
• “I don’t want you to think I am Jane Fonda on steroids. “
• “I am on my best behavior with you guys by the way. “
• “Our education system stinks it beats the creativity out of kids by the fourth grade.”
• “We have gone from America the Beautiful to America the shit in just two administrations. Clinton is just as much to blame”
• “The Iranians have a sunburn missle and I think they have a nuclear warhead for hit.”
• “I believe we need to start blogging retroactive impeachments. I am not saying we need to hang them or execute them just expose them.”
• “I got thrown off Fox News for saying the global war on terrorism wasn’t real. Well its not”
• “We are in a hundred year war that we started in 1988″
• “our job in the next 15 years is to hand out cell phones around the world first one per village then one per family then one per person”
• “your government is stupid and they are stupid deliberately.”
• “I sent a letter to Bill Bradley and Bloomberg and asked why don’t you contact Ron Paul and McCain and build a cabinet and they didn’t respond.”
• “No one here who doesn’t agree with me isn’t getting out alive”
• “Every time someone touches my social security number I want a Cisco based system to notify me so I get to decide who gets to see my information.”
• If I had my way I would significantly upgrade the luxury at Guantanamo and I would take Bill Gates, and
• “if I had one take away message from here that you can blog I would say why aren’t Microsoft, and Google and Sunn and all of these guys asking for an antitrust waiver to create an Open Source skunk works.”
• “We don’t do peace.”
• “If I had been Shinseki, I would have grabbed Wolfowitz and thrown him down the steps of capital hill.”
• “The Alien part I am not prepared to reject but it is much to digest right now.”
• “Central Banks are Evil. The sooner we get a grip on open money, the sooner we stop buying stocks, the sooner we stop being serfs, the sooner we will do well.”
• “In an unjust bandwidth environment, everyone should be a hacker, or a Ham radio operator.”
• “The Freedom of Information Act is just a way to keep you busy.”
• “Don’t waste your time on the Federal government. It’s going away.”
• If the Federal Governmet does not get turned over in 2008 I expect serious session movements to follow. (Note I do not have this last quote 100% accurate and am paraphrasing)
• “There is a sweeping movement across the country called home rule.”
• “Extremist religions both Jihadists and Christian fundamentalists are evil.”
• “Faith is not about god its about you and me.”

Technorati Tags: gnomedex, gnomedex+keynote, Robert+Steele, Open+Source

I leave for Chicago tomorrow morning and am really excited about attending Yearly Kos. Thousands of progressive political bloggers are descending on Chicago and every Democratic Presidential Candidate will be there to engage them.

Those who don’t believe blogs wield real power in American politics better think again.

Today the Washington Post runs a mostly complimentary piece by Howard Kurtz recognizing HuffPost’s many achievements. Kurtz does point out several times that Huffington Post is a left leaning site which is true and Arianna is proud of it.

The most notable change is that HuffPost has morphed from a left-leaning site with a modest conservative presence to a pugnaciously liberal operation in which the banner headlines and majority of bloggers holler about the latest outrage perpetrated by the Bush administration.

“We are opposed to the war in Iraq,” Huffington says from her Los Angeles home. “We think the troops should come home. The headlines are going to reflect what is in the best interests of the country.”

Huffington Post co-founder Ken Lerer reiterates:

As Lerer puts it: “Attitude is a huge positive, not a negative. People don’t have to love you. Maybe people come to you because they don’t love you.”

Huffington and Lerer are absolutely correct but I don’t believe the MSM really understands it. Kurtz correctly points out they cover stories much faster than any network news channel can, and often times faster than cable but seems to suggest they are successful despite their blatant ideology:

Beyond ideology, though, the Huffington site has succeeded through its relentless updating, serving up links to all manner of news and entertainment

Huff Post is successful because they are forthright about their political leanings.

The MSM still tries to claim objectivity but hard core consumers of news just don’t believe that anymore. You may disagree with every word of a post at Huff Post (as I usually do) but you know where they stand and often times read things you will never see in the main stream press.

This isn’t a left / right issue and Arianna rightly recognizes another new media pioneer The Drudge Report (it’s not a blog but thats a whole other argument) for contributing to her success.

“We could not have existed without Drudge,” Huffington says. “Drudge habituated people to going online for their news.”

Blogs are changing the way political news is covered and The Huffington Post can rightly take credit for being a big part of that change.

John Hawkins of Right Wing News has announced he is now consulting for GOP Congressman Duncan Hunter’s Presidential campaign via TCV Media. Here are details from his post at RWN:

On February 3, Nathan Tabor from TCV Media got in touch with me and asked if I’d be interested in consulting for the Duncan Hunter campaign. We bantered back and forth, came to a basic understanding that Saturday, and then finalized the deal the next day. Long story short, TCV Media brought me on board to be their point person in building up buzz for Duncan Hunter online.

Since I am a blogger who’s doing some consulting on the side, not a consultant doing blogging to get his name out there, I did attach a condition to my employment that Nathan was willing to go along with:

#1) I agreed to work a maximum of 3 months for the campaign — which should be, in my estimation anyway, plenty of time to give Hunter a huge boost in name recognition and prominence in the blogosphere.

Additionally, while I am working on the campaign, I’m not planning to blog about any of the 2008 Republican contenders on RWN unless a story too big to ignore hits the wires. That’s because I don’t want to come across like a shill for Duncan if I eviscerate one of his opponents or talk him up. Additionally, if I’m done by May of 2007, at the latest, it’s not as if it will be too late to get in on the serious 2008 discussions.

Being a San Diego Native I wish John and Congressman Hunter the best of luck

Lawrence Bush the facilities and events director at The Dole Institute has posted video of the panel discussion here.

I would like to thank Lawrence, Bill Lacy, end everyone else at The Dole Institute for hosting us and particularly Professor Perlmutter for putting the event together and moderating the panel.

As for the bloggers; all I can say is Wow! No matter your political views or interest I encourage you to watch the video and am confident you will be as proud and impressed as I was at how well they represented the blogosphere.

Jerome, Erick, Patrick, Scott and Joan absolutely know as much about modern politics as any beltway insider. What you will see in the video is really just scratching the surface. Sitting at the bar after the event I felt like I was at some post election reunion where the winners and losers get together over a beer to reminisce over the highlights and lowlights of the recent campaigns and which political stars inspired them and offered hope for a better future.

The animosity and hyper-partisan sniping that the political blogosphere is famous for at least for this evening was set aside. This night everyone agreed new media offered new hope for our political process. Certainly not a guarantee but hope.
I certainly felt privileged to be among this group of patriotic Americans who couldn’t disagree more with each others politics but who all deeply loved their country.