No, not that kind of party.
This kind. Having been invited to a meeting of interested Galveston County Republicans, I arranged for a late arrival at work today, so that I could participate in this feedback session.
This session will be more about hearing FROM YOU than about speaking to you. Some officials and activists will speak but everyone will be expected to keep comments short so that we can get around the room several times - NO LONGWINDED SPEECHES. The hope is to hear both your carefully thought out comments as well as spontaneous input based on the input from others.
The audio will be made into a digital file and sent along with a key points transcript to Republican Party leaders, conservative movement leaders and elected officials across the state and nation.
And quite a session it was. Starting with a great breakfast of bacon, eggs, hashbrowns biscuits n' coffee, the group enjoyed not only a hot and hearty meal, but a very fulfilling discussion of the Party and it's recent debacle at the polls.
With better than thirty active Republicans attending, a free-form dialogue ensued. The comments of the attendees were virtually 100% on-target, forcefully yet respectably stated, and very, very refreshing to hear.
One thing I'd noted from the group as a whole, was how very, very little awareness existed among Republican operatives about the greater blogosphere, and of specific heavy-hitting conservative blogs in particular.
And that really, is too bad. Because I'm of the firm belief that had certain personages among the Republican heirarchy been more familiar with those blogs, that a much greater awarness of discontent among the rank and file may have been noted in time to help stave-off the disaster which was November 7th.
So, for my new found friends of this Saturday morning, please allow me to introduce you to some of these highly persuasive voices in the conservative blogosphere. Please do add these to your daily reads, and be the wiser for so doing!
Kindly note that I've not specified each and every site on my blogroll. That's not to denigrate those not listed, but I only want (for now) to draw attention to the more straightforward political commentary therein. Some of the links on my blogroll are there as I simply admire, and enjoy, reading their works, regardless of topic. And yes, I would urge you to spend a bit of time visiting them also, as much depth and worth exisits in their words.
Going further afield from straight commentary to some very impassioned and scathing rants, you can visit:
The Anti-Idiotorian Rottweiller
Just for two fine examples!
Now, of equal importance... just as political, but with the unique voice of the Uniformed Services, resides the Mil-Blog community, and as represented on my blogroll:
Of course, if you're not checking in at:
..... at least three times daily, well then, you're just not up to date with the news behind the news!
And in closing, please allow me the indulgence of leaving you with a few of my better bits of political writing:
With this, a final link to a more acerbic work, inspired in anger by the beheading of Mr. Nick Berg.
Lessons of Enemies. Which, I'm happy to say, was nominated by some libs out there as one of the 20 Most Hateful Posts of 2004. Damnation from the left is high praise, indeed!
Now then. Enjoy the reads, and do please kindly leave your thoughts and comments by clicking on the word "comments" at the bottom of this post!
I sincerely hope that this morning's session will do some good. Locally, to be sure. Statewide, if we're lucky...and Nationally? Who knows, but I'm not watching for pigs on short final in the pattern.
Nice to have met ch'y'all, everyone!
Jim,
It was good to meet you at this morning's discussion event. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to speek one-on-one.
I am plugged into the blogosphere (as you can see from my blogroll on my blog at Reiff on Life and have been trying to educate our local GOP leaders on issues discussed by conservative bloggers (and even a few liberal ones) that we should be considering and using to focus our message to the voters.
Unfortunately Galveston County is still in pre-Internet communications mode most of the time and it is a struggle to get people to even read short, critical e-mails let alone website content. I am afraid expecting them to drink from the blog firehose is extremely ambitious. But we can encourage them to visit key blogs for specific threads immediately relivent to them. Keep up the good work.
Pardon me for raiding your blogroll for links to add to mine. You are welcome to do the same with mine (we already have some common links.)
Mark Reiff
Precinct 467 Chairman and e-insurgent
Posted by: Mark Reiff | December 09, 2006 at 04:10 PM
Excellent sites listed, Jim.
Posted by: Mia | December 09, 2006 at 05:31 PM
Jim I'm crushed, no mention man... shame on you ;-)
Now, go forth and post some more.
Posted by: Chris Byrne | December 10, 2006 at 05:20 PM
Thank you very kindly for the recommend!
Posted by: Phil | December 20, 2006 at 01:02 AM
Nice aggregation, Jim-o. One caveat: you mis-linked Random Nuclear Strikes; the URL should be http://www.softgreenglow.com/wp/ .
Ok, two - I'm not listed. :P But that's just fine; I realize I'm not the most prolific or insightful bloggist out there.
Posted by: Caimlas | December 21, 2006 at 11:03 PM
You overlooked The First Blogger, and whose conservative credentials are impeccable:
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/currentview.html
Posted by: Kiloseven | February 24, 2007 at 04:06 AM