RAW AS WE WANNA BE
The inane and often irrelevant ramblings of editors, or: why starting a site is more than we bargained for.

2.29.2004

Jesse's back in action. You'll likely see a blog from him later today.

I can't believe all this stuff about Blair's government. There's a new scandal each and every day and very little talk about him resigning. The truth of the matter is, if you've any familiarity with the British political system right now, taht there are very few in either Labor or any other party who would be able to take his place. The best candidate is the Chancelor, but even he doesn't have the broad appeal of someone like Blair (if you can call it "appeal").

But what kind of "democracy" spies on its allies, the UN, falsifies evidence to go to war, and discards the better judgement of its military leaders? I can tell you one country: the United States. It's just that the British and the British press have been much harder on Blair, and these recent scandals have surpassed those in the United States.

I think it's time for Blair to step down. One of the most important things to a government is its legitimacy, and Blair has exhausted his.

On a totally random note, I discovered a wonderful typo in the New York Times yesterday. The paragon of journalistic rectitude used "it's" when it should have used "its."

Site news: Traffic was dismal yesterday, but I didn't do a lot of updating because I had a family party. Weekend days are also typically slower. No substantive news otherwise.

Oh. And happy leap year!

—JOHN

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2.27.2004

So another blog. Poor Jesse — again, I'll have to reiterate that he's not dead. He's just been pretty preoccupied. I'll let him tell you about that when he gets back. It might not be tomorrow, because he has a retreat.

Unfortunately, I don't have any political commentary to offer you today. I did my part-time job work, which was why we didn't get as updated as usual.

If you haven't checked out Drudge Retort yet, you ought to. Two of our lead story links today came from there. And our quotes today we're pretty funny.

Ian, our Deputy Managing Editor, helped us add a locally-hosted poll today; if you've voted, you'll always see the most current results when you visit the page.

To add a fifth paragraph, also short, I will entertain my desire to add a character I've always wanted to see in this blog. Which is: £. And to double that: €. I know we have a lot of Brits reading this, and I have to hand it to you for the pound character, it's rahther elegant. But you've gotta go Euro; it's the only way to economically take on the U.S.

—JOHN

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2.26.2004

Much to our chagrin, the Boston Phoenix didn't run the piece we thought they were doing on us this week. Allegedly, it will run next week. When it comes to media reporting on us, though, we've constantly been disappointed. A story is also (hopefully) still on in the (acclaimed) Somerville Journal.

I was positively enraged to see in the Boston Globe today that John Kerry will support a constitutional amednment to the Massachusetts constitutional banning gay marriage. To me, it's a de facto support of the federal amendment, whether it's meant to be or not. And it certainly ensures that I won't be voiting for the man. It confirms what a lot of true Democracts have been saying: that's he's a hollow career politician, who will do anything he can to get elected. He did the same thing in voting for the Iraq war. As sad as this may sound, I actually believe George W. has more in the way of values — he's stuck it out on many wildly unpopular positions. Though I never agree with them, I have more respect for a person if they can actually prove that they believe something, rather than being a vertiable automaton and waffling on every issue.

I bet if people knew he was going to do this, more would have voted for Howard Dean. Kerry's certainly not bringing anyone to the polls by turning his back on one of the most fundamental issues that sets the Democracts apart from the Republicans: a genuine belief in the equality of every person. Writing discrimination into the constitution is an unbelievably horrific precedent.

On a happier note, we had people from 62 countries visit us this past week. Including one person from Iraq!

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2.25.2004

A day without a blog! Egads!

We've been busy though: we hooked a story in the Boston Phoenix that is going to come out on Friday, and another in a local paper, The Somerville Journal, for next week. Hopefully that kind of publicity will bump us up a few notches in terms of income. Our current status is still pretty bleak.

Links to us on the web: 37, according to Marketleap. I know there are more out there, it just doesn't seem to register everything. First link to us in German: Kidon.com medialink.

Anyway, I've gotta pull together some posters for people to put up in their various communities. More later.

—JOHN

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2.23.2004

You can tell, of course, that this blog was always Jesse's idea. You can tell by the fact that he makes incisive political comments, and by the fact that he actually gets comments. But not to worry; you'll always get the news of the site here.

One commentary I did want to make: There was a Boston Globe lying around our apartment and I happened to catch sight of an article about the plight of Massachusetts' education system. The long and short of it: Massachusetts has lost 1,400 teachers in the last year. Boston has closed six schools. One school system raised their after-school activity fees from $50 to $300.

I estimated that the cost of saving those 1,400 teachers was about $40 million. Our national defense budget? $386 billion. That's $368,000 million. Or 9.2 million teachers, at $40,000 a pop. And this doesn't include the $80,000 million we're spending — this year — on Iraq.

Even the most conservative of conservatives — economists — can tell you that an educated workforce is more productive. And a more productive workforce means a higher GDP, a richer country, and more profits for impecunious CEOs. Like, uh, me. ;)

Site news: Our advertising campaign on goClick seems very effective, and profitable. They allow you to bid on ad spaces for as low as one cent per click. Since we probably make more than one cent per visitor, when we factor in the click-throughs on ads, it's a no-brainer. Also, I added a logo-only shop, at the behest of a loyal fan who wanted to contribute but wanted something a little more tame. So there you go. If you wanted to buy some merchandise, but we're too keen on telling your co-workers you like it raw, stop in our new store.

Our Raw Story Arts page is now under development. We hope to have a parallel site that focuses almost exclusively on our own content. It will likely be a little 'edgier' and 'younger' than our main page. Look for it sometime next week.

One more thing: If any of you are members of fark.com, and you see Raw Story articles that seem appropriate for submission, by all means, submit!

—JOHN

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My last blog entry was serious. I really am waiting for a willing patron to give me a new computer. The machine I currently work with has generally been great over the last five years. We've been through a lot, and I cant imagine where I'd be today without it. But as happens in many relationships, the two of us have reached point where we are no longer contributing to the each other as positively as we have before. It is time for us to part ways.

At any rate, because of the technological problems I've had, it has made it hard for me to do everything I need to for Raw Story. Included in this has been my failure to respond to the multitudes of comments I've received about my last blog entry. Hah! For some reason, people just aren't using this slick new comment feature that I added. Though I did receive some email comments. While one was my mom insulted by the insinuation that I didn't care if she read this (see my entry from 2/17), a few folks did email and suggest that given my attitude about Howard Dean, and my lack of enthusiasm about John Kerry, I should check out Dennis Kucinich. To quote one person suggested I "learn more about the candidate who preceeded the others and persists quietly in the background, saying all the right (don't take this the wrong way!) progressive things, if with a weak and squeaky voice. Dennis Kucinich is for peace, freedom, prosperity, education, good lives for the common citizens, not just the rich big whigs."

Honestly, I feel that Kucinich pulled an even faster one over progressives--just not as many as Dean. The biggest and most well-known criticism of Kucinich of course is his abortion position. In the 2001 - 2002 legislative session, the congressman voted 71% of the time in line with the National Right to Life Committee's position on abortion issues. During that same position he received a 10% approval from Planned Parenthood and 0% approval from NARAL Pro-Choice America. I understand that politicians do change their position some times as they learn more about an issue, the social implications, and start thinking more critically rather than emotionally. But Kucinich's sudden 360 on the abortion issue, right on the heels of his presidential run, suggest to me that he is an opportunist. Similar to John Kerry who I believe is too wishy-washy to take unpopular positions, Kucinich tailors his views to appeal to voters-whether he actually believes it or not!

I've had good conversations with Kucinich supporters about this very topic. They admit that the abortion switch is a big deal, but honestly believe that this shift is genuine. And maybe in his heart-of-heart's Kucinich has always believed in a woman's right to choose but been forced to vote otherwise by his overwhelmingly Catholic district. But that is exactly what raises my suspicion: now that his targeted constituency is the Democratic-left (within the party) his conservative abortion stance no longer served his needs.

In the November 2003 issue of the International Socialist Review, editorialist Katherine Dwyer paints an important picture of just how low Kucinich's pandering has sunk. While driving Cleveland into the ground in the early 1970's as the "Boy Mayor," Kucinich has played the race card to appeal to his majority-white constituency. On par with the Willie Horton ads of the late 1980's, Kucinich has used manipulative campaign tactics to conjur up stereotypes of black men versus white women in campaigns against former City Council President George Forbes, a black man. He has called white politicians who support blacks in office "puppets,&q uot; and even opposed the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in Ohio. Now, as the "progressive Democrat" for president Kucinich rails against the the racial segregation that still exists in America's urban centers and disparities in public education while he opposed busing to desegregate Cleveland schools.

I'm not calling Kucinich a racist, I'm calling him a liar. I believe that manipulative, self-serving politicians are evil on all accounts--whether liberal or conservative. I don't know whether Kucinich is a progressive or not, but if he can morph so easily I wonder what drastic change would come if he were actually elected president.

Of course, it's all a moot point because Kucinich will never win. -JESSE

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2.22.2004

Good morning, Sunday! Sad to see Nader is in the race again, I suppose. It's not so much that I think Nader is really bad, only that I think he's had his (many) chances to shine and never has. He should really pick out a new person to replace him.

To clarify: I never bought the argument that Nader cost Gore the election. Gore cost Gore the election; well, Gore and the Supreme Court, and Katherine Harris. But if Gore had won his home state, all of this would be moot -- really, if he can't win his home state, what kind of politician is he?

Boring.

The situation in Haiti is really troubling; I mean, if it's not going to be a formal U.S.-led coup, than it'll end up being an informal U.S. puppet show. My journalist friends tell me that most of the people actually support Aristide, and that the AP and other organization reporting on the ground tend to skew the tide against him. For example, an AP poll showed Aristide with 52 percent support. Yet their wire story called him a "thoroughly unpopular president." If they did the s ame thing with Bush, they would be slammed. A majority approval is NOT thoroughly unpopular, in any sense of the word.

Site updates: I'm trying out goClick.com, which may well be a scam, but our Google ads still aren't functioning and I want to capitalize on high weekend search traffic. It was $10, so I figure that I can't go too wrong. I've also posted a blurb about us on Indymedia.org, and have decided to post abbreviated exclusives there to draw more people to the site.

Oh, and for those of you who were wondering: Jesse isn't, in fact, dead. But his computer is dying.

--JOHN

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2.21.2004

So we go a comment on the autorefresh feature and you can see my reply below, in the comments section for 2.20. I doubled the time between page refreshes. If you have any thoughts on this, comment below.

We also received our first piece of hate mail, which I almost declined to comment about, but I found it pretty amusing. The best part was a barbed retort about how Oberlin (our alma mater) is a second-rate school, which, of course, I generally agree with. Still, Oberlin receives a five-star ranking in the guides in terms of academics (as does Brown, Harvard and Yale), and the rankings are skewed towards schools with obscenely large endowments and high donor giving ratios (easier at Harvard where the net worth of alumnae are a gazillion times more thatn Oberlin's. But my friends at Harvard tell m e that the Ivies are a disaster in terms of actually getting to participate in class — and I'm thankful that I've been (largely) spared the panoply of old white men as profs.

The Bush nose job article is hillarious if you haven't read it. And Katie McKy's new piece on stranger danger is really fascinating — most people are actually assaulted by those they know (you knew that, I'm sure).

I'd like to weigh in on the whole gay marriage debate, even though it seems like a dead horse already. Frankly, I was surprised that such a large percentage of our readership doesn't favor gay marriage, since I assumed we attracted a really solidly liberal audience. Yet, since most of our click-throughs on Google come via 'Drudge' or 'Drudge Report,' it's not entirely surprising.

Personally, for me the biggest sticking point in the gay marriage debate is taxes. I think it's ridiculous that str aight couples should get tax benefits while gay couples don't. Concurrent to that, of course, are other nettlesome legal issues: hospital visitation rights, wills and of course the underreported fact that when gay couples adopt, each partner has to adopt separately, making the process stretch on for years at the expense of the child.

--JOHN

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2.20.2004

God, I have to go to the bathroom so bad, you wouldn't believe. But my dedication to Raw Story is unflagging. I apologize today for the lack of updaying for much of the day; I had to w ork at my father's office, typing up forms and working to credential the physicians at the practice with insurance companies.

I know some of you kids must be reading this page, but why aren't any of you commenting? Afraid? We really don't bite, or at least I don't. And I know that I never have anything insightful to reply to, but Jesse always does. Why don't you reply to Jesse? He's lonely. --JOHN

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2.19.2004

As you can see, there have been a number of additions to Raw Story today. For one, we have a nifty new " Raw Story Cafe," chalk full of great Raw Story merchandise. I am excited about my trendy Raw story trucker cap, but am confused about the name of the store because I associate "cafe" with food. We have no Raw Story food...

At any rate, the second new feature is the "comment things" at the end of each blog entry. I suppose it's not as major and exciting as our store, but it's really the small victories that count. I'm excited about it because it ads a new level of in interactivity (interactiveness?) with our readers. Take for example, my little Howard Dean tirade from yesterday. Throughout the day today I received a couple of comments from folks through email. With this new feature you can post your reactions here, I can respond, other folks can join the..debate! That's right, perhaps we can get a little back-and-forth going here about whether Dean's ill-fated campaign was as ridiculous as I insisted. I even promise that we will only censor for libel and perhaps a little bit of taste, b ut everyone is free to say exactly what they think. So, feel free to tell me that I'm a jackass (oo, is that tasteful?) because as I criticize the progressiveness of Howard Dean I fail to mention that none of the alternative options fit my idealized vision of the Wellstone progressive. Of course, your willingness to comment depends completely on John and my ability to actually say something worth responding to.

Speaking of my Howard Dean tirade, I have been thinking a bit about it today. Perhaps I was a bit too harsh, but I was experiencing a bit of a campaign overdose. As I briefly alluded to above, the fact of the matte r is none of the alternative Democratic candidat es are much better on core progressive issues than Dean. Even Kerry who supposedly holds the most "liberal" record voted for the war and then waffled so much he almost drowned in syrup! Given the lies fed from above, the Iraq war may not be the most clear-cut issue, but his actions on that issue, coupled with his opposition to gay marriage make me think he has no backbone. Honestly now, do you think Kerry opposes gay marriage because he finds it so morally despicable? NO! He opposes it because it's not politically smart, just as these "trying times" in America made it wrong for Kerry to stick his neck out and question the president when Bush first proposed war in Iraq. Kerry can attack Bush all he wants for being a tool of these non-descript cool-buzzword "special interests." But when it comes down to it the Senator from Massachusetts wont take a position just because it is right to do so, regardless of public opinion. I do not see how this is worse than being a slave to Enron.

When it comes down to it, like so many other progressives today, I find myself in a slump. Our first concern, of course, is defeating George W. Bush but just don't get excited by the current crop of alternatives. Granted, it's basically being decided for us with a Kerry/Edwards ticket likely, but shouldn't the leaders we sweep Bush from offices with be ones that excite and energize us? Can they even do it without us? I suppose that is what I respect Howard Dean for, his ability to get so many people--especially young voters so-long disenfranchised--so into politics. And he did it through means never before utilized or even imagined. I do believe that Dean's internet-campaigning has revolutionized American politics. As the digital-divide grows ever smaller, more and more potential supporter will be reached through specifically targeted and outrageously cheap means provided by the nature of internet communications. As Friendster and Meetup hone their hone their human-networking systems, campaigns--led by the Dean example--will develop similar means. So, while the reality of today's candidates may not make one jump for joy, the internet techniques Dean introduced promise a great grassroots revolution on the horizon.

And finally tonight, I need a new computer. Mine is about to take its last breath, and if it does, that spells disaster for my ability to work on Raw Story. So, I would very much appreciate it if a willing patron could contact me for the address to ship my new computer to. --Jesse
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So these comment things are amazing -- saw them elsewhere but didn't know they were free. Now you'll always have a chance to have your say.

The Raw Café has sold one thing -- a trucker cap (to Jesse). I actually really like the look and design of the items; I'd buy them myself if I didn't make 50 cents an hour. You know what the really sad thing is? I make more in eight hours at my part time job than I do working on this for a week. No joke.

But we're making more each day, more of less. It's too bad we have to deduct advertising expenses for Google, although so far today we've made as much on our Google ads (on this page) as we've spent on Google advertising. Hopefully we'll be out of the immediate doghouse in a few more weeks, when I'll finally have enough money to pay the rent just from working on the site.

In the vein of Jesse, I guess I've got to make a political commentary. Hmm. I guess I'm pretty interested in this whole Cuba thing. It reminds me a lot of Reagan's interference in Latin America in the '80s. I thought Iraq would be enough for Bush, or for the CIA, and that, if anything, any future military maneuvers would be very up-fro nt. Guess that just ain't so. —JOHN

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Just opened our fantastic store! Also opened my emailbox, to discover I was at 125 percent of my quota. Oops. Guess I should get to that and not be writing a blog. More later. —JOHN
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2.18.2004

The server has been messed up all day, I can't get the latest version of the Raw Story homepage working on my computer, and my computer is messed up so I can't even edit a new column that was just submitted. For some reason-and for the first time ever-John is not on Instant Messenger, so it looks like the site may go without an update this evening. And that's unfortunate because I'm sick of Howard Dean and don't want hi s face on the front page anymore. At leas t the photo that that we have up right now is so embarrassing for him.

I do feel bad for the guy, though, after he placed so much on the line to run for president over the past two years. Say what you will about politicians and their intentions, but campaigns can be intensly emotional experiences for everyone directly involved. My father has been a City Councilo r in St. Paul, Minnesota since 1997. In 2001 he ran as the Democratic-endorsed candidate for Mayor, loosing the general election by a slim 0.06%, or 403 votes. The whole experience was incredibly trying for my family, as we had to deal with dirty and underhanded attacks and accusations lobbed at at our father in each morning paper. I still cringe when I see the name of the man who beat him, preceeded by the title Mayor, feeling robed and cheated. At any rate, this was only the race for chief executive of a moderate-sized U.S. city; I can't imagine the dissapointment felt by the unsuccessful one-time front-runner for the Democratic nomination for President. For that I salute Howard Dean.

But that's the only reason I salute him. In every other way, I'm so annoyed by Howard Dean. I feel he pulled one over on so many, convincing American progressives that he was one of them. He invoked the image of the Late Senator Paul Wellstone by claiming to represent the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." But Dean was no Wellstone. Dean supported a balanced budget; balanced on the back of America's poor by slashing core social services like Medicare and WIC that benfit the most vulnerable in our country. He had a very moderate position on gun control, leading to more endorsements over the years from the National Rifle Association than the National Education Association. Yada, yada...no universal health care...yada, yada...supported NAFTA...Sure, he opposed the Iraq war but so did Saddam and I wouldn't vote for him.

I too was a Deaniac at one point, for about three months this past summer. But as soon as I took a deepe r look at the Governor Dean versus Candidate Dean, I saw the inconsistencies. I'm still looking for the one who can fill the shoes of Wellstone, but Dean was not the one. He may have been a populist (which I'm not even so sure of), but he was certainly no progressive. Dean may have raised a helluva lot of money from a ton of people, and technologically revolutionized American campaigns, but I will not miss him in this campaign. The doctor is OUT.

That's not where I imagined this blog was going, but I'll leave it at that. -JESSE
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So I similarly want to kick the blog to kingdom come today; it's just another thing to update! Jesse and I are meeting tonight for our second- ever planning meeting, so an hour or so of nonupdated news around 8:30 p.m. EST.

Specific site changes today include the revamp of the "EXCLUSIVES" text to replace it with a graphic, and graphical replacements for all the top lead bar titles (the bar itself is going to be changed throughout the site as I get around to it). Which, come to think of it, I should probably do now.

Traffic is pretty steady around 2,000 unique visitors per day. I've added more search terms for our Google ad, to increase the number of people clicking through there. Today I turned it off for a bit intending to see if people were coming back regardless of the ad, but basicaly realized we should just leave in in place. We're going to run a daily budget there of $5.00, which pays for 100 click-throughs a day.

I researched Yahoo! to see i f it was worthwhile to advertise there -- but their rates are twice that of Google's. So not now, I guess. —Jo hn

2. 17.2004

Have no fear loyal subjects, I am back from my time in New York. I had a wonderful vacation visiting with many friends I haven't seen in months and celebrating my birthday in the city that never sleeps. Now, I am back in Boston, and ready to get grinding again on Raw Story.

I wanted to introduce you to a new columnist of ours, a good friend of mine Joe Chard, who will be writing a weekly piece for us on domestic politics. This week he tackles gay marriage, and the audacity of conservatives in the United States to call themselves "tolerant" given their position on this issue. As only this college philosophy major makes a serious, well constructed argument with the just right amount of biting humor. In college this guy did a stand-up routine that had the whole room ro lling on the floor in laughter--well, at least gigg ling a bit. But seriously, check ou t what he has to say in his column.

Also, tomorrow morning we should have our first movie review from a talented writer named Sam Weisberg. I worked with Sam when he edited the arts section of a newspaper John founded and I ran in college. Somehow he is able to get into exclusive movie showings of top-noch films. Hopefully, he'll continue to be a regular writer for Raw Story.

I've also been thinking a lot about this blog, and what purpose it is serving. I am interested to know if people actually read it. Please email and tell me i f you do. Now, I know my mom reads this because she wants to know what's going on in my life (at least this part of it), but I'm more interested to hear from other people. Maybe even those of you I don't know. My curiosity stems from an interest in John and I utilizing this section in a more constructive m anner--to actually talk about current events. Maybe we can mix it with some of what we have been doing, but I'm sure this blog could be a lot more interesting. Anway, let me know.

I must be off now. We have a visitor from Japan staying with us this week, and she is bunking up on our living room couch...four feet from where my computer is. I'm sure she's exhausted and wants to sleep. Plus, I d o too. --Jesse

Quick blog entry — you'll even get one from Jesse later tonight, he's finally doin g updating again! Yesterday's Google ads brought out traffic higher, absolutely, and probably will augment our unique visitor traffic again today. We also resolved the revenue spike situation with our advertising provider -- they basically took away $50 but left the rest, still an appreciable sum.

We're narrowing our search for an arts editor, to eventually implement arts.rawstory.com, a unique subdomain with a large supplement of exclusive material. It's likely we'll have two arts editors, so the workload can be shared.

Other news — not too much. Drudge did another story on himself, his second lead story, 'Drudge is third most searched topic on Yahoo!' Shoot me if we ever do stories like that.

2.16.2004

Evening entry: Another pleasant day, with the highest traffic we've seen since our initial Craigslist ads went up in Boston and New York. This is due to the fabulous Google AdWords program. If you're looking for a cheap way to boost the visitors to your site, this is it. It amuses me to no end that every time someone searches Drudge on Google, they get us.

I posted an ad for an arts editor with Dreamweaver (our web software) experience, and our replies to date have either been exc lusively about arts writing or about web stuff. Did anyone actually read the ad?

Tonight we'll hopefully add a new poll that links to a page within the site — I've been irritated that the current poll takes people to a free poll domain (but the popup for that page pays them, not us). You probably thought it was in our domain b/c the background was the same, but if you check again, you'll see that the URL address is, in fact, someone else's.

No word back from our ad company on the revenue spikes. Today's revenue good too, a comfortable $20.

Early morning entry: Revenue spikes! For some reason, our revenues leapt yesterday, to $90 for the day. It looks, though, to be some sort of computer malfunction of some kind, because it's simply unbelievable. The traffic doesn't support it.

Our traffic, though, is up! This is largely because of a new ad campai gn we're running (very cheaply) through Goo gle, at about 4 cents a hit. Hopefully, because the ads are very search specific, these are people who will become regular readers. We'll be able to tell in about a day, when I turn the campaign off (I'm going to run them in concert with big exclusive stories).

I've managed pretty well without Jesse, although it's meant long periods without updating. It's okay on a Su nday, I guess. I look forward to tomorrow night when he'll be back for evening updates.

So maybe this revenue spike is legit -- if so, I'm in the clear on the job front. Still pretty dubious tho.

Exhausted. That's it for now. —JOHN

2.15.2004

So a quick blog entry before bed.

Today was a low day in terms of traffic, about where we were last Saturday (Saturdays and Sundays are notoriously slow).That was disappointing, but not surprising.

I tried posting to Google's Usenet groups about the site, but it didn't seem to spark many visitors. C'est la vie I guess. We're trying. The Kerry exclusive we're working on is really hot, will go up tomorrow AM. We've got some really g ood info from the guy who's leading the Vietnam Veterans against Kerry crusade; he was interviewed in an article today in the New York Times. I feel a warm glow, a sort of degree of separation because he chatted with a Times reporter.