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Saturday, February 23, 2008

Blogging, Blog, Writing On Line


Many of the friends that read this site are from all over the world. With Papamoka Straight Talk being a national political blog we talk about and write about politics that is not on the local over the fence level. In retrospect, many of my readers are from the heart of New England, Worcester Massachusetts. Proudly, and locally we can boast politically that our states Lieutenant Governor is the former Mayor of Worcester, Tim Murray. For the record I think he and Governor Deval Patrick are cleaning up the Mitt Romney mess very well. But I digress. My five year old had breakfast with Lieutenant Governor Murray last year at a local event so that is my local connection to politics in Mass-a-two-sticks. A phrase I use often to describe the taxation status of Bay State residents and what we have left over after we pay all the damn taxes tossed on us.

Getting back to my original point… Many local blogs and people visit this site day after day and all of the contributors and I appreciate that. They are the reason we write day after day and offer opinion on national politics but in the same perspective I have built many personal relationships with people that link to this blog, write for this blog, and email me on their blogs latest posts. Some I have never met and some I think as my brother or sister with a DNA link with a high speed internet connection.

In the format that the “This Blog is Rated E for Excellent” I offer the following ten amazing reads, some local and others around the world. Punishment if you receive this award and have to pay it forward.

My number one "E for Excellent" award goes to someone that I consider one of my closest online friends and that is Michael Linn Jones who is also a contributor hear at Papamoka Straight Talk. No matter how many times I scream at him to write a book he refuses. Through him alone I personally have grown as a political writer and following his lead is why he is my number one E for Excellent nominee. If you love Mark Twain, one of my favorite authors of all time, then you will love visiting Michael Linn Jones.

My number two link "E for Excellent" is yet another group of folks that reached out to me and caught me when I was down and I will never forget that. Bring IT ON is a national site with writers from all over the United States that write from the heart on a moderate to left leaning perspective and each one has a unique view on national politics. Pick an issues and Bring IT ON has it coming up on the radar. My thanks to Jet and Cranky for believing in me and letting this writer cross post on their site. If you have a left sensing personality then Bring IT ON is a must visit site.

My number three "E for Excellent" is of course the Gun Toting Liberal. If you want to read real opinion and real thoughts then Gunny has it covered when it comes to national politics. I consider the GTL my mentor and my brother from another mother. We are kindred political and personal friends. I absolutely loved writing for the Gun Toting Liberal and the site is just amazing with all of the posts that make you think out side of the box. Visit the Gun Toting Liberal and be enlightened. Private message to Gunny, you’ve been tagged bro so pay up and you better link back here… LOL!

Number four for "E for Excellent" is all of my friends from Poli Gazette to Chells Roost to Pissed on Politics to Vim and Vinegar which reminds me...

Number five is of course Vim and Vinegar. If you want from the heart political news and opinion then she has it covered in spades! She also contributes when she can here at Papamoka and when she does it is always a great read. Just Wondering has a spin on politics with a Southern twist and she calls it like it is. Painting a fire in her words is what she does best on her site at Vim and Vinegar and yet another must read.

Next on my list for "E for Excellent" is at number six my good friend BJ at I See My Dreams. One of the things that makes me read a blog is the love of writing from the site owner. BJ is a retired news paper editor in South Carolina and I just love reading her posts. Liberal leaning and on topic with facts and links to back up all of her posts. In her heart is what is right and from her perspective is always an amazing read. I just love her work. Who loves ya BJ!… Tag, your it my friend! You can see her work at I See My Dreams and get addicted yourself.

Number seven "E for Excellent" who I will personally forever email all of the emails that demands you forward to twelve thousand friends or your head will pop off is I’m From Worcester. Photographs out of this world and local events and culture is her heartbeat. This is where I go to find out what is actually happening in the real world in Worcester culturally.

Claudia is an amazing person and she has a gift that she hasn’t tapped to its full potential as a blogger yet. That reminds me, I have to forward her this great opportunity to get a piece of the action from a dead banker with $26 million dollars in escrow with no family in Africa email…LOL! I’m thankful to the author and blogger of I’m From Worcester for putting Papamoka Straight Talk on the local scene. Visit I’m from Worcester and check out her insight and thoughts on life in Worcester. Thank you Claudia for including this little blog.

Number eight "E for Excellent" comes in as Worm Town Taxi. This a great blog by yet another on line friend. Jeff drives a cab keeps us all posted on the goings on in Worcester. He doesn’t just end it with what’s going on but has some great tips on the latest electronic gadgets out there. In-between all the great pictures he puts up on Worm Town Taxi is his personal thoughts and opinion where the local paper is way off the mark and that is why I read his posts daily. That and the fact that this is one site that has inspired me to write many national related posts. You don’t have to pay the fare for visiting the Worm Town Taxi but it is worth the ride.

Number nine is A View From Battleship Cove. This site has a great writer in Lefty covering everything that is Fall River in Massachusetts. If you want to know what is going on in Fall River then you need to read A View From Battleship Cove. My personal thanks go out to the site owner for contributing here and linking to this site where he has. If you want to know the truth about Lizzie Borden then Lefty at A View From Battleship Cove has it covered. If you like Fall River Politics, or love great photography of Fall River he has that nailed!

Number ten is my email friend that has linked to this site time and time again from Crooks and Liars. Mikes Blog Roundup is an inkling to small fish in the sea that are not on the radar. When it comes down to blogging there is no better sense of making it to the big time than being linked on Crooks and Liars. Mike has been kind to me at Papamoka Straight Talk and I do appreciate it more than he will ever know. If you want the latest politically the Crooks and Liars is a daily must see.

That is my list of ten blog’s that I think stand for Excellent in content and worth your reading. If I listed your site then I am immune from the tag so go get the blogs you think are worth reading. You can mention this blog and I would appreciate that.

If you clicked on any of the links here I thank you for visiting sites that are all friends and favorites of Papamoka Straight Talk. Each one is a gem and if you find yourself addicted to them then please let the writer know that. Comment on the sites and just let them know what you think. Bloggers do not make much money if any for the most part for what they write and this is just something we do. If it entertains you then that is a plus. Visiting their sponsors helps though. For all the people I listed today, tag, you have been chosen as an Excellent Blog and now it is your turn to pay it forward. Ten Blogs you love or appreciate.

Papamoka

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Thursday, February 14, 2008

Screw You MSNBC Blog Advertising

Papamoka Straight Talk is not a big fish in the sea of the blog world but we have standards. The contributors and I write what we feel and from our own perspective. Pick any topic in the news and we write about it if it has a political twist. In that context I try and ad things in the sidebar that might interest our readers and most of it is informative. Google ranking, Technorati links, Blog Cluster Maps, Widgets to different directories and of course Feedburner. A link that makes it easier for our readers to pick up the site in a quick read format. User friendly stuff like that. Any of the links are what you call blog candy or eye candy for the site.

Recently, I added the MSNBC widget to the sidebar simply because I thought readers would enjoy the latest video or topic that MSNBC is covering. This is a political site and video is great eye candy. Supposedly, there was some benefit that Papamoka Straight Talk would get out of having this MSNBC widget on the site and yet I haven’t seen it other than something neat for readers to click on. They have not paid this site one penny to have this free advertising.

How would you feel if you received this email from a posted for free link on your site?

Good Day,

We are writing to let you know that upon a routine review we have found that the MSNBC ad unit is currently placed towards the bottom of your website.

Please let us know if you are able to raise the units to a higher point on the website, as we are unable to let the unit run in its current position.

It is suggested that the unit be displayed about 800 pixels from the top but we understand that this does not have to be exact and we would be happy to assist you in any way that we can.

My blood was boiling mad! Who the hell does MSNBC think they are dictating where there widget appears on this site? Not for just giggles I emailed them back with my opinion and this is the email I sent to the nice folks over at MSNBC…


Excuse ME? I'll just pull your free to MSNBC advertising unit from my site. You are not paying ME to be up on my site and I will not be censored by anyone on MY Website! Your advertisement was put on my site for my readers and you can take your demands and file them as never to be seen on Papamoka Straight Talk ever again.

By the way, Crooks and Liars links to my site, Gun Toting Liberal links to my site, The Moderate Voice links to my site, Bring IT ON links to my site, Michael Linn Jones links to my site, The Left Coaster links to my site as well as every newspaper in the country that I write about. By the way, Imus was right, MSNBC has no balls and no class and for the record he has linked to my site on the air!

Don't threaten me with your position requirements. When you are handed free advertising on my site you have no say where the hell I place your ad unit. I'll put my readers needs over your demands any day of the week and as for the rest of the friends that link to my site, I respect them because they have honest opinions and not bias.

Your free advertisement will be deleted. Thanks for playing nice in the blogosphere. See this email at Papamoka Straight Talk... Screw you MSNBC!


Regards,
Matthew O'Keefe
Owner of Papamoka Straight Talk
http:/papamokastraighttalk.blogspot.com


As a blogger that writes for the love of writing I do not and will not tolerate anyone telling me that they demand my site bend to their requirements or loose the link. Screw you MSNBC or anyone else that wants to put me in a corner! The audacity of the email threw me over the cliff. I will delete the MSNBC link just out of spite for the bullying tactic they used in their email to me as the owner of this site. I have put my heart and soul into this blog and nobody is going to tell this political writer that they deserve a better spot on the sidebar over writers and blogger’s that have befriended me personally or simply linked to Papamoka Straight Talk.

I wonder how many other blogger’s that loaded the free MSNBC advertising up on their private sites have been threatened by this kind of email from MSNBC?

Deleted MSNBC Advertisement…

My apologies to any of our readers that liked it. I’ll find something to replace it in the next couple of days.

Papamoka

Feel free to link to or borrow this post…

By the way, I recently added an email link to the sidebar where you can have any of the post’s at Papamoka Straight Talk sent right to your in box. Feel free to sign up via Feedburner but come back for the candy.

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Saturday, May 05, 2007

Vision is more than just seeing...


Politics is not what it should be anymore. We no longer elect the mind of a President and instead we elect a politically correct image of a President as the media sells it. Watching any main stream media news broadcast you will see the perfect image candidates from both parties that sell air time on the networks and it works. It works for them. If the checks clear then it is simply a business decision from a main stream media perspective. Does it or should it work for America?

Would America elect the homeliest son of a bitch you ever saw in your life today? Tall beyond personal belief and skinny as the day is long and according to historians suffered severe depression? Would we elect him based on his wife not being the perfect example of who might be our First Lady or remotely attempting to be a politician’s wife? No, we wouldn’t and the world we all know would be worse off for it. Thank God President Lincoln didn’t have CNN or Fox or CBS or NBC or ABC to answer to in his day. His message to the people would have been lost during the election on issues of Anorexia. Would America have existed today as we know it without President Abraham Lincoln? Would you vote for him today?

Would America elect a man stricken with Polio that could not walk in today’s media driven election process. Turn the tables around and your nation is in the crapper and five out of ten people you know do not have a job. Our economy is in the crapper and this guy has a plan to get us out of it and he knows how to get it done. Toss in your nation and the world at war and ask yourself if you would trust him to lead your nation in that kind of crisis? Would the wheel chair splashed on every television screen in America make you not vote for him? Would America have survived without the political vision for Franklin D. Roosevelt? Would you vote for his mind or his media image of him today?

I can go through this scenario and cover many President’s with great vision and some could argue that history does not fit today and I would have to say that you are wrong. People that are leaders come from all walks of life in America and that is the beauty of our political system. Our political system is being turned into a side show at a carnival and it does not matter what ideas you have to propose more than it does if your check will clear over at the main stream media.

If this is the vision of the American political system then you can start deciding your votes by picking up the grocery store tabloids as to what politician is wearing the right clothes over what politician offers the best theory for America’s future. My friend is loosing his sight but not his vision and these are words to think about from the GTL and Michael Linn Jones...

Having spent some days not without ONE image of any politician has helped my appetite.

Yet is also brings to my mind the fact that while the eyes let us see, they do not help us think. It is almost a cliché to say that we all take our sight for granted. Maybe true and I hope it’s true for everyone. We all should stop now and then and count our blessings, and despite any travail, at least cling to humor. It is not only the spice of life, but its greatest redeeming factor at time.

And humor is in sore need in times like these. I don’t need to watch a TV to hear the parade of promises and bromides by people who KNOW they will have the reins of government to do those things they see fit as best for….their country? Their agenda?

I’ll go with the latter. I believe we live in precarious times; great challenges await us, or our children. Never more than now do I understand “the vision thing” as mentioned in the Bush 41 years. We need more than money. We need a balance, between the enforced security of the nanny state and the chaos of unfettered economic greed. I disagree with Barack Obama; hope is not audacious, but rather a key ingredient of a healthy republic. Its opposite is cynicism, and we have had more than a full dose of that.

In my mind’s eye I see a land of munchkins claiming the height of a Lincoln or a Jefferson. Too many of these “leaders” show less acuity of vision than I do right now. If you have the gift of sight, then for goodness sake use some focus
- Gun Toting Liberal

My personal thanks to my friend Michael Linn Jones over at the Gun Toting Liberal for inspiring this thought process and commentary.

Be well soon my friend.

Papamoka

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