September 10th, 2009 
joel 
Former Cong. Phil English
Local blogging is about to take a huge leap in credibility.
Peter Panepento has announced that former US Rep. Phil English (R-PA) will begin a new blog on GlobalErie.com in the coming days. Panepento says English will tackle Erie issues looking through Beltway-framed glasses:
But he remains closely connected to Erie and I expect that he will be able to provide an interesting view of how what’s happening on the Hill affects life in northwestern Pennsylvania.
English has told me that he plans to be non-partisan in his approach — so don’t expect this site to be falling into the Republican party machine.
Rep. English is now a lobbyist employed by the Arent Fox law firm in Washington. With his 14 years of experience representing this Congressional district, including occupying a seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, he will instantly become the highest-profile blogger on Erie issues. More than likely, he will also be one of the most controversial, as he accumulated a bevy of haters during his tenure in the Capitol.
The addition of English to the blogosphere in Erie further elevates a paradox in Erie blogging. For as strong as a Democratic foothold this area is, and with the natural bent of the blogging medium to be left-leaning, my anecdotal review of the local blog roster shows more conservative voices than liberal ones. Is that just my perception, or are there fewer voices pounding for the progressives?
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No Joel, you’re right…conservatives seem to outmumber liberals…or even moderates…in the local blogosphere. As for English’s promise to be “non-partisian,” well, we shall see. His record in Congress certainly doesn’t bear that out.
JimGriffey is correct on a record of the past, pretty much showing your future response. Phil is partisan, Runs mean campaigns too.
But he is connected to Erie, and is used to free travel, health care, and benefits of being in Congress, so a free blog seems reasonable.
But I would add that it appears free advertising for the next campaign to get back in. He will fail.
Dahlkemper is now one of 44 Democrats to tell the 44th president she will oppose Health Care, as it stands, composed by HER president and party.
For a newbie, this is savvy politics by Dahlkemper.
Phil always agreed with his party and we saw all our jobs exit his district accordingly.
But Dahlkemper, in her disregard for Obama’s plan, presents win-win to the locals. If he wants her vote, he must offer something to her, that directly affects US, positively. That tradeoff system is Washington at work.
Her reasons are “iffy”, but her declaration was firm and in writing to Pelosi. Dahlkemper said:
“Rep. Kathleen Dahlkamper (D-PA): “We Cannot Support Any Health Care Reform Proposal Unless It Explicitly Excludes Abortion From The Scope Of Any Government-Defined Or Subsidized Health Insurance Plan.” “We believe in a culture that supports and respects the right to life and is dedicated to the protection and preservation of families. Therefore, we cannot support any health care reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan. We believe that a government-defined or subsidized health insurance plan, should not be used to fund abortion.” (Letter To Speaker Pelosi, 6/25/09)”
The letter is 6/29/09 to Pelosi.
The head count is today, 9/10/09.
The list of Dems opposed is up and running right now on Drudge; Dahlkemper is Number 15 of the 44 opposed:
http://www.drudgereport.com/flashwc.htm
Danny and Jim:
Thanks for the comments.
While it is likely that English’s political views will sometimes show, he is not doing this as a platform for reelection or to be taking hard political views. I would not let my site become a space for candidates to get a free stump. If he was looking for that, he could have gotten a cheap URL and a WordPress account and started his own with the help of a campaign worker.
We’ve discussed at length his goals and I’m comfortable providing a platform to English as someone who has a unique point of view related to Erie.
The great thing about a blog is that you will all have the opportunity to publicly debate his views and challenge his assumptions if you disagree.
I don’t think there is any question that conservative bloggers outnumber progressives in the region, or nation for that matter.
For one reason, it is so much easier to be against something and/or express dissatisfaction than to articulate a positive and right now the right feels there is a lot to be against.
Also, many of today’s conservatives — and I use the term loosely — have a sense of righteousness that lends itself to taking to the talk shows and the blogosphere.
It is interesting to me that progressives made such great use of new media and technology in the last national campaign, but have failed so miserably to use it successfully for follow through, leaving the playing field to the right.
The left needs to become more engaged in the blogosphere and certainly do a better job of explaining its positions and firing people up.
In order to counter the real right-wing nuts, the left needs to become as mean and hard.
And woe the poor centrists as we go down this path, and perhaps woe the nation as well.
Phil voted with the Dems 44% of the time, that’s why he lost. Why have Dem light when you can have Dem? Mean campaign? Like asking Dahlkemper to release her tax returns? Even Hillary, who made $106 million in 8 years (who says politics doesn’t pay) released hers.
Phil is a very sharp guy who brings a huge level of experience to the table, even if you disagree with his politics you have to see that getting real insight on how politics works (not some talking head guessing) will be great for everyone in the region.
I bet Kathy will have someone keep tabs on his blog too even if they don’t admit it. Funny how she’s voting just like Phil would on this.
It may seem that there are more conservative blogs than liberal ones in the area, but I believe there is a reason for this: Erie has been under unchallenged Democratic rule for the last 40+ years. The local media doesn’t challenge this because they don’t have the staff, and also I feel because they have some “friendly” relationships with some of these people in power. And if you go to a coucnil meeting and try to make suggestions, those suggestions usually aren’t listened to anyway. You can’t even post comments on the GoErie, or local news sites. Where else can a local conservative have his/her voice heard? The logical answer is, on a blog.
Here’s an example of what I was referring to about the local media coverage- The Buzz Andrezeski youtube videos. Everyone saw them, and watched Buzz make a fool of himself. Everyone saw him hammer Mark Divecchio, while at the same time basically encouraging people to vote for Barry Grossman. The media covered all that. The question they never asked though, was why?
Why would Buzz sabotage himself and another candidate, but then almost endorse the third one. At the same time, he raised almost no money for his campaign, and seemed to be resigned to losing. Then I see in the Real Estate transactions that are listed weekly in the ETN that he recently purchased a fairly expensive home in Millcreek.
This leads me to ask the question: Is there an unseen power player in Erie who has a financial interest in either seeing Divecchio go or Grossman get elected, that paid off Buzz to help ensure that this outcome would happen? Some might say my theory is off base, but I don’t think that it’s an unreasonable question to ask once you connect all the dots. The problem is, there’s no one in the local media who will investigate this, so who else will pose these questions besides someone on a blog?
Dots
Amoeba
Electronic Pulse Brain Control
Carrots
Colorado
Uganda
Toe Fungus
There you go Mike. Connect the dots.
There MUST be a conection to all these dots.
You were off to a good start, and meandered into Buzz and went off a cliff.
Sorry Mike, no dots for you there.
As for liberal blogs, moderate blogs, conservative blogs, does it matter? People who read Coulter, Malkin, and Rush will tend to cling to each other in Erie based blogs.
The other extreme finds their menu of choice as well.
Further, I know of no study identifying these segments enough to say, conservative blogs dominate in Erie. I would suggest a few malcontents get vocal, more than outnumber their counterparts.
When I peruse the Erie Blog list, I am amazed at the number of Blogs that should be Archived as “Haven’t Posted in Too Long, BYE!”. Many on the list do not exist or rarely post.
BOLDT.US
Clamjaw
Dagoth’s Domain (last post 11/2007)
Forest, Fields, Water (July 6,2009 last post)
Jenson (selling her domain)
The People Demand It (closed with a “last post” on January 21, 2009 in the morning, and by mid morning, opened a Blog as a Pseudo, instead of using his name as on People Demand It, with two others…one has left already…..and only Hillman and Hannah read the rest of the Malkin-ish baloney).
[Note: This is NOT exposure of a pseudo. The Blogger admits on his first post at Kool Aid that he just left People Demand It. I guess they didn’t demand it anymore, and got thirsty for kool aid, a pseudo, and a rant, over a real name and reasonable writing….
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
So, here I am. Retired from “The People Demand It!”. Welcome to the new site. I’ll see you soon.
Posted by E-Dogg at 1:18 PM 0 comments
http://koolaid-aintkool.blogspot.com/2009/01/so-here-i-am.html
But, The People Demand It runs right now….on Erie Blogs!
THIS would be counted as a “Conservative” locally.
Um, it does not exist.
Hope you guys who got it figured out on conservative/liberal blogs, do not do the census in 2010.
Erie Blogs needs to clean house from top to bottom on their list. Dead, out of date, and drivel are all up and down the sidebar. Make room for some newbies.
(preferably alive people)
The Blog Browser is backwards. It highlights the post name, and below is the Blogger in smaller print. This makes it impossible to find a BLOG, as you wade through hundreds of titles, or click on one that misleads you into weird territory….like this current scroll going on now, 9/12/2009 at Erie Blogs….a tribute to 9/11/2009 that you are likely to never see anywhere but Erie.
Blog: “Wrap Your Head With This Material”
Post title for 9/11:
Friday, September 11, 2009
Instead of Friday Quotes I’m going to talk about retards and gays
http://sillyswedishskier.blogspot.com/
Makes Phil look better by the moment, eh? I look forward to his wisdom and discernment, now that he can yield neither in Congress.
Thanks, Danny. It’s been awhile since I’ve been through the list. Late summer is the busiest time of the year where I work, but it’s slowing down a bit and hopefully I’ll get some time to go through the list. If you see any other sites we have listed that haven’t updated, email them to me and I’ll clean them out.
Your welcome Mike!
It appears all your dreams have come true this year, for you are receiving all you requested.
In addition to your list cull, see your Blog Browser.
The posts and blogs are backwards.
Here is the current lead:
enCouragingBliss: The New To Do List
Blog: blisschick.net | Posted: July 17, 2009
People search for blogs by blog title, NOT by post.
You need to reverse the two. You lead off with titles of posts, instead of blogs.
Or, you could change Blog Browser to “Post Browser”.
No one can find anything as is, without wading through myriad pages.
The grey dates all down the left are meaningless.
Please note the example above has a date to the Blog post. All of them do.
The left side timer, down to the second, for a post long ago, is wrong, misleading, and redundant, since all the Blog posts are dated.
You could eliminate that grey date section and ask for ad folks to put permanent, cheaper ads in there, as traffic is lighter.
I believe if something is not broken, don’t fix it. But that part in Blog Browser, and your current list, are broken.
Some sites move blog roll blogs that fail to update way down at the bottom under a new title called:
“Blogs that used to Update, but Don’t”.
Sometimes, it makes the blogger post, and sometimes it ticks them off. But at least people can see a farewell warning. Turnover in blogs amazes me.
If only Congress representatives turned over as fast as blogs, eh? (I threw that in, so that EBW doesn’t get worked up worse than LaRocca; but Mike’s note is in
Phil-ville here; so my response is too).
Keep up the good work, Mike.
Best regards,
Danny
Cong. English’s blog went live today:
Presque Isle to the Potomac