Navelgazing News on the Stemwinding Stump

I hate housekeeping (as my wife, Lauren, will ruefully affirm…), so I’m going to get a bunch of it out of the way in one go.

First, I had to disable the Odiogo listen feature (hopefully) temporarily. I know from usage stats that many of you enjoyed the feature, but it was causing freezes for readers using Firefox (including myself) so that they would have to resize the window in order to interact with the page. I’ve reported the bug and can turn the service back on soon, hopefully.

Next, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that I’ve given the blog a new layout. Some have reported hating it, some have reported loving it. The intent was to make it easier to focus on the main content without framing it with sidebar clutter, making the site easier to navigate and sidebar content easier to locate. If you have strong feelings either way, leave me a comment and let me know how its working out for you.

I’m trying out a new feature of Google Reader that allows easy sharing of posts one finds interesting. I have created a sidebar item called ‘Mike’s Arizona Blog Notes’ using the feature. I subscribe to a disturbing number of Arizona-based blogs across the political spectrum. Whenever I find something I think is interesting or especially informative, I will share it there. My Del.icio.us links will continue to feature material I find of a more national or global nature.

I created a permanent homepage for the Election Integrity story. Since it seem like it is not going to resolve any time soon, I wanted a place where readers could get a quick look at the latest developments, as well as find a complete resource on the back-story. I will continue to post stories in posts, but this way infrequent visitors can always be sure to have easy access to what’s transpired. I won’t flatter myself to think that people are checking this story every day…

I have added a new feature that I hope you will sign up for: Mobile Notifications. There is a hard-to-miss widget that will live on the far-right sidebar that allows you to sign up to receive text messages from BlogForArizona.

I respect your privacy and your time, so I will only be sending messages when there are late-breaking events or action-items that are time sensitive in nature. Short notice political events or meetings, lobbying instructions for crunch-time legislative actions and similar situations are the contemplated type of uses for this network, not just annoying notices of stuff you can get elsewhere by other means. Sign up now, you won’t come to regret it.

If you come here through the URL www.BlogForArizona.com you will have surely noticed that you now get punted to parking page. My registrar RegisterFly.com went spectacularly bust, was decertified by ICANN, and my domain was plunged into admini-limbo. I’m working on getting it back up and pointing to my junk. In the meantime, you can refer to this site using arizona.typepad.com, as I’m sure you’ve already figured out, since you are here…

I recently updated the graphics at my CafePress store, so if you really love BlogForArizona and are casting about for some way to support what I do here, you can go a buy a little merchandise with my sexy, sexy branding on it. You not only get get to wear my adorable little Democratic mascot, you spread my meme, tell the fascists to ‘kiss my Democratic ass’ in a spritely and cryptic manner, and you also help pay my hosting bill and allow me time to dabble in my digital sandbox. So go buy junk you don’t need for yourself and for all those flaming liberals on your Holiday gift list.

Finally, and certainly not least, two new regular correspondents will be joining me online in the coming year: David Safier (who was so instrumental in my coverage of the Pima County election integrity trial) and Russell Lowes (whose commentary has appeared on Blog For Arizona in the past).

Both gentlemen are learned and thoughtful with a passion for their subject matter. David has decided that he would like to comment and report regularly about educational issues, and Russell is devoting his attention to energy affairs. Both fill gaps in my own knowledge and bring an expertise and depth of experience to their subjects that will broaden and deepen the citizen-based journalism on offer here at BlogForArizona.

I have long enjoyed regular correspondence with several folks who have contributed occasionally to BlogForArizona with original content. I hope to continue to offer a modest platform to interested and active citizens who want to speak out about public affairs in the future. If you might be one of those who decides that the mainstream press just isn’t doing the sort of job that needs to be done on a subject or story your care about, let me know. There might be a place for your voice on BlogForArizona, too.

I don’t anticipate adopting a diarist format such as DailyKos, or more locally the always entertaining and useful AZNetroots.com — I prefer to maintain some modicum of editorial pretense — but I am always open to original content from Arizona citizens, sometimes even if (or because) I disagree with their views. For instance, I have invited Rep. Kavanagh to respond to some questions regarding his support for Arizona’s new employer sanctions law and he has accepted. I will post his response as a guest-post as a stimulus to debate.

I hope there can be more to blogging that preaching to the choir or hurling devastating bon mots at your enemies — though that is certainly some great stuff, eh? I hope there can also be reportage of a scale and depth that is not available through traditional media; honest, uncensored and heart-felt citizen opinions; and thoughtful discourse and discussion of difficult and complex issues.

If we hate what our media has become, it is incumbent on us to create the alternative that shows a new way forward. At base, the media is only an expression of the human desire to know and make sense of the world they live in, and the opportunity to feed that need is now open to every citizen with an internet connection. Many amateurs following their passions and practicing their ideals can change the world; its the only thing that ever really does.