WordPress Group For Political Bloggers

I’ve thought for a while that it would be a good idea to have a venue where political bloggers that use WordPress as the platform or CMS for their blogs can have a place to discuss not politics, but WordPress.

I say this because political bloggers from the left and right typically have some unique needs and a unique set of problems that aren’t shared by WordPress bloggers that, perhaps, spend their day blogging about Paris Hilton or their cats. Too, our difficulties and challenges when it comes to coding, design, and usability are solved differently than those of our colleagues who use MoveableType, Drupal, Blogger, or other blogging platforms or CMS.

Thus, I’m proud to announce that WordPress PoliBloggers, a new Google Group, is open for business. It will be a forum for political bloggers who use WordPress to talk about problems and difficulties, tips, tricks and hacks that make WordPress work better for political bloggers.

Note: This list is for bloggers who are using the self-hosted version of WordPress (i.e. WordPress.org) and not WordPress bloggers using WordPress.com’s hosting.

If you are interested, sign up!

Technorati Tags WordPress, WordPress Group, WordPress Political Bloggers

Star Telegram Starts Political Blog

I am not sure where we’ve been between January 4 and today, but somehow we missed the fact that the folks at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram have started a political blog, PoliTex. We’ve been fans of the Star-Telegram’s political coverage for a good while now, and we’re glad to see them entering the blogosphere.

We’ve yet to see a MainStream Media blogger with the blogger-chops of some of the folks at the Dallas Morning News yet (Christy Hoppe and Karen Brooks–who could teach a class on how to become an MSM blogger come to mind), but give them time.

Welcome to the Blogosphere, PoliTex.

Texas House Republican Caucus Has A Blog

Be sure and give a big “welcome” to the Texas Blogsphere to the Texas House Republican Caucus, which now has a blog.

Muse has some additional commentary on the subject.

Judge Criss Starts New Blog

State District Judge Susan Criss from Galveston County, one of the Democratic Party’s rising judicial stars who has handled several high-profile cases, has started her own blog, As The Island Floats! Check it out!

Standoff At Perry Press Conference? What Does This Mean In Terms Of Access For Bloggers?

A tipster sent Capitol Annex and other blogs a note about a story at Capitol Inside [sub. req'd.] concerning a standoff at a gubernatorial press conference earlier this month which we were unaware of.

Check out this:

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Koufax Awards: Vote The Texas Ticket

Texas’ progressive bloggers had a heck of a year in 2006. From TexRoots to exposing scandals like CondoGate, we “crashed the gate” and rocked the (Texas) House, helping Democrats up and down the ballot.

Now, it’s our turn for a little recognition. Every year, the Koufax Awards honor work by the best bloggers of “the Left” (hence the award being named after a lefty baseball player, Sandy Kofax).

The Texas Progressive Alliance has, as a group, come up with a “Texas Ticket” that we are asking all of our readers to nominate for the Koufaxes. The “ticket” is below. Blogs with the most votes will make it into the second round of voting and we’d like to see Texas blogs up for the finals in every category of the Koufaxes.

Voting is easy. All you have to do is copy the list below and paste it into the comments section on the Koufax Awards site, which is here. (Please note that you have to paste it in as it is here because the rules require URLs for each entry)

You can add additional blogs to this list as well, but we do ask, in the hopes of supporting Texas bloggers, that you vote this entire list, especially since all it requires is a “cut & paste.”

Best Blog : Off The Kuff  (www.offthekuff.com) , Burnt Orange Report  (burntorangrereport.com , Texas Kaos  (texaskaos.com) , Capitol Annex  (capitolannex.com)
Best Blog — Pro Division:  The Agonist (www.theagonist.org)
Best Blog Community:  Texas Kaos  (texaskaos.com)
Best Writing:  Charles Kuffner, Off The Kuff  (offthekuff.com)
Best Post:   Best Post: Get Out Your Map Colors, It’s Time For More Redistricting Fun! (Capitol Annex, http://capitolannex.com/2006/07/15/get-out-your-map-colors-its-time-for-more-redistricting-fun/))
Best Series: Capitol Annex’s Coverage Of The Renewal Of The Voting Rights Act (http://capitolannex.com/capitol-annexs-coverage-of-the-voting-rights-amendment-renewal-2006/); Burnt Orange Report’s 40/40 Project (http://www.burntorangereport.com/tag.do?subjectId=20); Musings’s Coverage Of State Rep. John Davis’ $1,500 Boots (& Various ethical problems) (http://muse-musings.blogspot.com/2006/10/khou-exposes-state-rep-john-davis.html)
Best Single Issue Blog:  Grits For Breakfast  (gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com)
Best Group Blog:  Burnt Orange Report   (burntorangereport.com)
Most Humorous Blog:  People’s Republic of Seabrook  (intellectualize.org) , McBlogger  (mcblogger.com)
Most Humorous Post:  McBlogger (http://www.mcblogger.com/archives/2007/01/giant_wax_cock.html, Burnt Orange Report: (http://www.burntorangereport.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1986 )
Most Deserving of Wider Recognition:  McBlogger (McBlogger.com), Musings (muse-musings.blogspot.com)
Best Consonant Level Blog:  Capitol Annex  (capitolannex.com) , McBlogger  (mcblogger.com , Musings  (muse-musings.blogspot.com)  , Bay Area Houston Blog  (http://bayareahouston.blogspot.com/ ) , Eye On Williamson County  (eyeonwilliamson.org)
Best Expert Blog:  Grits For Breakfast  (gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com) , A Capitol Blog  (acapitolblog2.blogspot.com)
Best New Blog:  North Texas Liberal  (northtexasliberal.blogspot.com) , Texas Kaos  (texaskaos.com) , Musings  (muse-musings.blogspot.com)
Best Human Equality Blog:  Dos Centavos  (doscentavos.blogspot.com)
Best Coverage of State or Local Issues:  Burnt Orange Report  (burntorangereport.com) , Eye On Williamson County  (eyeonwilliamson.org) , Capitol Annex  (capitolannex.com) , Off The Kuff  (offthekuff.com)
Best Commenter: The Pretzel, Texas Kaos  (http://soapblox.net/texaskos/showDiary.do?diaryId=2269)