This thread is for discussions about blogs - what they are, which ones are good ones or anything else related to the Blogosphere.

Anyone here read any of the big name political weblogs (i.e. Blogs) on a regular basis?

Here's a list of some of the biggest political blogs...

Progressive Blogs:

Daily Kos - the 800 pound gorilla - 600,000 unique visitors per day average - the source for all things Democratic campaign related.

Atrios - one of the oldest, biggest and most influential of the single-person blogs.

Political Animal - associated with the Washington Monthly magazine.

Tapped - associated with the American Prospect magazine.

Digby's Hullabaloo - Digby writes some of the very best blog posts out there.

Talking Points Memo - a clearing house for coverage of Washington political scandals. This site engages in actual research and original journalism.

The Washington Note - Steve Clemons - focused entirely upon US foreign policy, US diplomatic service and foreign policy think tanks.

Lawyers, Guns & Money - mostly focused upon US Military, Reproductive rights and Supreme Court issues, but not entirely.

Firedoglake - Jane Hamsher rose to fame for live-blogging the Libby trial. Most of the MSM found Jane's live-blogging to be the 'go to' source for all things Scooter Libby. Since then Firedoglake seems to have become somewhat specialized as experts at live-blogging Court trials (those involving politicians) and various Congressional hearings (such as Gonzales).

Salon.com - this is a paysite, but it hosts Glenn Grenwald who is one of the very best columnists out there.

Right-side Blogs:

Red State

Instapundit - Glenn Reynolds

Little Green Footballs

Weekly Standard

Pajamas Media

Some of the blogs I check from time to time:

AmericaBlog

Think Progress

The Huffington Post

Crooks and Liars

Fact Check

All but the last are on the left side of the political spectrum. While their commentaries are sometimes too progressive for my tastes, they generally provide links to more mainstream sources, and that I like very much.

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Curly

The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

- Hermann Goering

I think political blogs are essentially unsanctioned editorials.

While they are interesting to read, the authors are not accountable to anyone or anything and so their tone and content can be more dramatic, hyperbolic, biased, and inflammatory than a mainstream news report. They are also not held accountable in any way for the degree to which their content is factual.

Blogs should be viewed having entertainment value, but should not be taken too seriously.

Just as many of us enjoy the freedom to post things in this internet forum that we may never say in our real lives; so too do bloggers.

This can be a good thing because it brings more opinions out into the open and promotes a very free exchange of ideas, but at the same time, they should all be taken with a grain of salt.

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Screw Change!! Let's have a Seamless Transition of Power and Policy.. John McSame in 2008!

Actually, I'd say the reverse is true - and that is where the blogs came from in the first place.

It was the unsigned, unaccountable, dramatic, hyperbolic, biased and inflammatory editorials in the nation's newspapers that marched the nation into war in Iraq that inspired the creation of many of the 'progressive' blogs.

Those editorials are totally unaccountable. Indeed, most of those who editorialized on the nation's newspaper pages - totally wrong - and are still there, still pontificating without acknowledging their lies or errors of fact.

The blogs on the other hand are wide open to scrutiny. Every blog post is identified by the author. If you lie or have questionable facts, your blog post will be referenced, linked and attacked brutally until it is corrected. That is the kind of accountability that is no where to be found in the nation's conventional mass media machines.

Jane Hamsher's live-blogging of the Scooter Libby trial at Firedoglake was the source for over 90% of all (factual-based) Libby trial reports published in the mainstream press (usually without credit given).

Indeed, the whole Plame investigation came from the urgings of the blogs. They assembled the rudimentary facts that convinced the authorities to investigate.

Likewise with the Abramoff affair and the US Attorney scandal. All of these stories originate in the blogs. They did the early legwork on the issues to bring sufficient information and facts to the table to enable investigators to investigate. Certainly under Gonzales DOJ, none of these investigations would have occured without the 'progressive' blogs pushing the ball.

Forums are far more anonymous than any weblog. Weblogs are NOT anonymous. Weblogs are registered entities - registered to real people who can be identified.

If you took the weblogs with half the grain of salt that reading the mass media requires, then you are fine.

Without a doubt, the mass media has a far worse track record for publishing lies and propaganda and refusing to acknowledge blatant errors of fact. The mass media is also very 'close-mouthed' about who is paying them to speak - 'guests' are often scheduled on tv-talk shows and identified as 'political experts' yet they are paid campaign operatives for a particular candidate. The Sunday political talk shows do this all the time. All blogers identify who is paying them (if anyone is paying them).

Internet blogs are dangerous IMO.
Because it is impossible for a reader to vet the information, you are in fact trusting a total stranger that they are telling an accurate portrayal.

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The most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but our own fiscal irresponsibility 2008 - David Walker, Controller General of the United States

And this is different from mainstream news sources how?

The wonderful benefit of the blogs is the fact that one rarely ever reads just one. If one blog is shoveling it at you, the other blogs will let you know that fact.

The same things happen on forums and in Newspapers. In fact I saw two seperate newspapers in Utah provide wrong information about the Reality T.V. show "So You Think You Can Dance". There's no live back&forth when it comes to a newspaper. The exchange of information is much too slow.

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Is our children learning? -George W. Bush

"I think—tide turning—see, as I remember—I was raised in the desert, but tides kind of—it's easy to see a tide turn—did I say those words?"—Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

"[T]he illiteracy level of our children are appalling."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

There is only one:

The Rude Pundit

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So many cowards.

You know who you are.

Si modo turned me on to Pollyticks.com | Political Cartoons, Funny Videos, Jokes and Satire. Other than that, I really don't do blogs. I like that one because it's funny. If I wanted news or opinions on issues I wouldn't turn to a blog for the same reason I can't stand it when someone here sites their source as a blog.

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Blogs are great! They get you thinking, and allow for the expression of ideas that otherwise wouldn't be expressed.

Are the dangerous? That's crazy talk, no more dangerous than talk-radio, or the sunday morning pundit shows.

Anyone who takes any singular source of information as gospel, will be sorted out in the end.

My blogging days ended when I found USPOL, never got much readership anyway. I can butt heads, and bounce ideas with far more people here.

Blogs just take too much time for me to maintain.

Don't really care for RedState, they banned me twice (not much for free speech over there; or maybe it was my "George W. Bush" user name.)

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"Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."

"An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens."

-Thomas Jefferson

Whilst that's true for the most part there is a blog that I visit everyday - Politics1 - American Politics, Elections, Candidates & Campaigns - which is quite the opposite. It provides an analysis each day of the major political activities of the day, and the latest poll results. The original blog owner was indeed so regimented about his non-partisanship that he publicly announced he was running for his local council or something, so turned the blog over to his partner so that he wouldn't be seen as pushing his politics.

There are also lots of highly specialized blogs out there for those interested in specific issues handled by experts in the field (such as the Supreme Court, healthcare, taxation, corporate governance, environment, you name it).

I spend far more time reading (specialized) blogs than I do reading discussion forums as blogs supply much more information and sources for yet more information. Discussion forums are where one can discuss that information.

I agree. I read mostly specialised blogs (indeed, most news sites have their own blog as a summary these days) and hardly any time reading commentary blogs (after all, I get enough commentary from USPOL Online).

I like blogs simply because they generally raise and explore issues long before mainstream media has taken the public temperature to determine their advertising driven reporting and editorial slants. With the advent of corporate media in a few hands and subsequent decline of investigative reporting blogs have a comfortable feeling of who cares what public reaction (read advertiser audience) is to the truth.

Michael Yon - frontline reporting from the war in Iraq

Laura Mansfield - respected terrorism expert/analyst and Arabic interpretor. Laura scours the internet for "chatter" and translates Arabic commentaries or statements issued by Al-Qa'eda.