Maryland Furloughs Unconstitutional

Apropos my previous post about the Chicago public employee furlough, Aaron Brazell tweets about a Maryland judge ruling that state furloughs violate the U.S. Constitution.   He links to a WaPo recap: A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Prince George's County violated the U.S. Constitution when it furloughed 5,900 workers in the last fiscal year, a decision that could force the ...

DC Most Dangerous Driving City

Aaron Brazell passes along word that DC and Baltimore are the most dangerous driving cities, as calculated by Allstate Insurance.  Bengt Havorson has the list: The Safest Driving Top Ten 1. Sioux Falls, SD 2. Fort Collins, CO 3. Chattanooga, TN 4. Cedar Rapids, IA 5. Knoxville, TN 6. Fort Wayne, IN 7. Lexington-Fayette, KY 8. Eugene, OR 9. Boise, ID 10. Colorado Springs, CO Bottom of the List – Riskiest Driving ...

Failure of Breaking News Reporting?

Aaron Brazell argues that, with the advent of instant-reporting of rumor via Twitter and other social media, the mainstream press has fallen behind.  He cites yesterday's Steve McNair murder, the false rumors that Jeff Goldblum had died, and Michael Jackson's death. He laments that, while the McNair news broke on two Nashville stations but "It was a long time (30 minutes ...

FTC to Monitor Blogs

Here we go again:  The government is looking to get into the business of regulating blogs, reports AP's Deborah Yao. Savvy consumers often go online for independent consumer reviews of products and services, scouring through comments from everyday Joes and Janes to help them find a gem or shun a lemon. What some fail to realize, though, is that such reviews ...

Congressional Twitter Fight Hits NPR

Friend of OTB Aaron Brazell was on NPR very early today talking about the controversy over Congress and social media. The cause of the Twittering representatives has been taken up by bloggers like Aaron Brazell of Technosailor. "Frankly, we're in 2008, and we have a government for the people and by the people," says Brazell, who lives in Baltimore. "Right now, ...

Congress Banning Social Media?

As if to prove Robert Heinlein correct, the House Administration Committee is, apparently with honorable intent, considering effectively banning the use of popular social media sites, including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook by Members. Soren Dayton couches this in partisan terms: "In typical fashion, House Democrats are trying to pass rules that stifle debate and require regulation." In fact, though, it appears ...

10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.6

Just when I think we've gotten the kinks worked out from converting to WordPress 2.5, Aaron Brazell tells me version 2.6 is about to come out! He's written a handy dandy guide called 10 Things You Need to Know About WordPress 2.6 complete with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one. (Actually, ...

Decline of Political Blogs?

Aaron Brazell, who used to blog politics but now mostly does tech and social media, notes something interesting: While political blogs are blogging in terms of media coverage of the phenomenon, they're actually a relatively small part of the story. It's not just that, as we all know, personal diary blogs far outnumber others in sheer volume but ...

Blogs Then and Now

Aaron Brazell is doing some research on the evolution of blogging in recent years and has asked for my input. [Update: The result, "Political Blogging 2.0," is now up.] I started OTB in January 2003 and have seen a lot of change. I should note at the outset that my experience is almost entirely with the political blogosphere, a ...

Fifth Blogiversary

My first post* at Outside the Beltway was at 9:47 the morning of January 31, 2003. If my math is right, that was five years ago. When I started this thing, the blogosphere was in its infancy, with most of the big political sites no more than a year or two old. There were still regular Big ...

Multilingual Blogging?

A few days ago, Aaron Brazell announced that his popular Web 2.0 blog, Technosailor, would start featuring regular Spanish-language posts in the niche by Carlos Granier-Phelps. I found the idea odd at first and then remarkably annoying once implemented. It's not especially hard, frankly, to skip past the odd Spanish language post in Google Reader, yet I find their presence ...

10 Things You Should Know About WordPress 2.2

Aaron Brazell has a great run-down of all the new features available in the latest WordPress release, version 2.2. I like the fact that WordPress is moving to a release early, release often model. There does not appear to be much in this update that I'll use, although the new editing functionality might be helpful. I ...

Republicans Missing Social Media Train?

In a column for The Politico, David All argues that the Republicans' comparatively poor showing in online fundraising and presence on social networking sites like mySpace and Facebook indicates a need to catch up fast. To head off electoral catastrophe, Republicans should take immediate steps to improve their technological game. They can begin by creating a nationwide network of state and ...

Benefits of Tagging Vice Categories

Of interest primarily to bloggers, Aaron Brazell continues his WordPress FAQ series by answering one of my questions: "What advantages obtain from direct tagging, whether manually or by widget, vice using the WP category?"

Major Leagues to Swing Pink Bats for Mother’s Day

Major League Baseball is breaking out the pink bats for Mother's Day. Hulking Jim Thome. Rugged Manny Ramirez. Brawny Adam Dunn. "The thought of these big macho men, swinging pink bats to help women with breast cancer ... what a novel idea," Louisville Slugger president John Hillerich said Tuesday. Major League Baseball granted special permission for players to use the colorful ...