National Journal’s Beltway Blogroll on Pundit Review Radio

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This Sunday evening we will be interviewing National Journal’s Danny Glover, the editor of Beltway Blogroll, a new blog that looks at the growing number of policy blogs shaping Washington debates.

Danny launched his blog with a great post titled, The Power of the Blog,

The blog days of Campaign 2004 are over now, but this year the technology
that transformed the political scene is taking root in the wonky world of
Washington. Web logs are quickly becoming a more visible and influential policy
weapon.

About Pundit Review Radio
Pundit Review Radio is where the old media meets the new. Each week Kevin & Gregg give voice to the work of the most influencial thought leaders in the new media/citizen journalist movement. This unique show brings the best of the blogs to your radio every Sunday evening at 9pm on Boston’s Talk Leader WRKO.

In the wake of an in-studio appearance on Pundit Review Radio, Boston Herald business reporter and blogger Jay Fitzgerald has written an excellent column about Michael Yon’s amazing reporting from Iraq.

One Blogger Cuts Through Fog Of War

A former Special Forces soldier is becoming an online media sensation with
his vivid and sometimes brutal blog accounts and photos of the daily battles,
patrols and raids conducted by U.S. troops fighting terrorists in Iraq.

Michael Yon, 41, a Florida native who now calls Massachusetts his “home
base,” set off for Iraq earlier this year â?? paying his own way â?? in an effort
to find out and convey exactly what’s going on in the war-torn
country.

What Yon has seen â?? and reported â?? is shocking and mesmerizing to many
readers of his blog (michaelyon.blogspot.com).

Read the whole article!

Hugh Hewitt wrote yesterday, “perhaps the bloggers could agree to set a day for a unified blog beg”

Instapundit took him up on it.

So tomorrow blogs everywhere will be asking readers to contribute to some reputable charity of their choice.

NZBear has set up a Hurricane Katrina: Blog for Relief Day page with links to bloggers recommended charities and information on how to contact them.

When I heard news that the Bush administration was releasing the Strategic Petroleum Reserves I had a couple of different reactions. The first was, good. Now is the time when it is needed most. Suppy has been disrupted heavily in the Gulf and this is a prudent decision all the way around.

The other thing I thought of was how all the political opportunists in the Democrat Party have been calling for use of the Strategic Reserves since oil rose above $34 per barrel. Releasing the reserves at that point would only be strategic for their political ambitions. The security of the country is a mere afterthought to these people.

They were predicting economic catastrophe to the American consumer with $40/barrel oil. What does it say about their understanding of the economy when we have a GDP growth rate just under 4%, the best in the industrialized world? And this is during the time when oil has risen from $40 to $70 per barrel. They are either clueless, political opportunists, or both.

The Strategic Reserves are simply a political weapon to Democrats. Has been for a long time.

Flash back to the 2000 election,

Al Gore, September 21, 2000 (Cost of a barrel of oil, $34)

“We ought to start with several releases of five million barrels each, and assuming that is successful, we should continue with these swaps in an effort to stabilize the price of oil at lower levels and help consumers.”

Bush’s reply,

The reserve, Bush said, “is an insurance policy meant for sudden disruptions of the oil supply or for war. It should not be used for short-term political gain … at the expense of national security.”

How prescient is that? That is the difference between leadership and political opportunists.

May,2004 (Cost of a gallon of gas, $2.00)

“These out-of-control prices are burning a hole in Americans’ wallets,” said Senator Schumer. “They are putting at risk the economic recovery and the administration insists on throwing fuel on the fire [making the situation worse]. So what are we doing? We are calling on the president to use our one ace in the hole [perfect solution]. The one way we can stop OPEC [Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries] and big oil from raising prices through the roof and that is by releasing some oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”

May 2004 (Cost of a barrel, $42)

Half a dozen Senate Democrats plan to call on Bush today to begin releasing as many as 60 million barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

These people cannot be trusted to leadership positions in government. Their first priority is to achieve power. They have demonstrated time and again that they cannot make tough, unpopular decisions. They just don’t have the stomach (ie: courage) to go against short-term public opinion.

Where would we be if they got their wish?

Jay Fitzgerald of Boston Herald joined us in-studio for a lively discussion about blogs, media bias and the coverage of the war. It was great to hear from an “old media” veteran, especially when he talked about Michael Yon and the reporting he has been doing from Mosul.

Jay is a blogger himself. He has maintained a favorite of ours, HubBlog, for more than three years now. He also runs the Herald’s Econoblog.

Enjoy.

We enjoyed a special double feature on Pundit Review Radio this weekend. Boston Herald business reporter Jay Fitzgerald joined us live in studio. Here is what Jay had to say on his personal blog, HubBlog,

Michael Yon rules the blogoshere — and airwaves: Local blogger sensation Michael Yon will be tentatively on WRKO tomorrow night along with yours truly, 9 p.m.. He gets to talk about his incredible blogging from Iraq. I get to talk about, er, my blogging from Beacon Hill. Hmmm. … I’m psyched just to talk to the guy.

He was psyched and so were we. Last time Michael was on the show people lined-up to say thank you.

This week we focused on the issues at hand.

• Where are we in Iraq?
• Are our strategies and tactics working?
• What is the state of the Iraqi Security Forces and the insurgency?
• How are we treated by the Iraqi’s?
• What do the troops think of the anti-war left as represented by the crowd in Crawford?

You don’t want to miss Michael’s audible reaction when he heard a quote from Cindy Sheehan!

You wont find this kind of analysis anywhere else.

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