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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (46912)	5/25/2004 3:15:32 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794196

Interesting development The Durham Herald-Sun went live with its candidate blog page last Friday, and so far seven candidates have signed up. "As expected, the first to sign on were Libertarians. However, the most active blogger is a Republican candidate," says Jon C. Ham, director of digital publishing at the Herald-Sun, which prides itself on its coverage of local politics, and has found a great way to distinguish itself in a crowded media market. I'm guessing that the active Republican would be Whit Whitfield, who has his own campaign blog, too. (Love the chipper post about the NC GOP convention -- who knew ideological purges were so much fun!) Ham is coaching the candidates, some of whom are complete newbies to the medium. "I'm sending them periodic emails about blogging and sent them links to Rebecca Blood's weblog ethics article," he says. "Some seem to know the drill. Others are totally in the dark but intrigued. My guess is it might take an election cycle or two to get this cemented." Given the blog site's soft opening -- no advance notice, just letters to all the candidates inviting them to take part -- the response seems impressive. Candidates are free to take their blogs where they wish. "I've encouraged them to promote their blog on their other sites and share their URL with friends," says Ham. Candidate blogs are a natural progression for Ham and the Herald-Sun. Ham: "Our candidate blogs are under our VoteBook umbrella. VoteBook is a site I dreamed up in 1995 (you can tell I was a political scientist in a former life) to allow unmediated communication (you can tell I was a gubernatorial press secretary too) from local candidates to voters (it won the first Digital Edge Public Service Award in 1996, by the way). We don't even edit their essays. Last year one candidate's was so filled with grammar and typographical errors that we were accused of trying to sabotage her campaign. But our view is that if you don't have the common sense to let a friend edit your VoteBook essays and questionnaires then maybe you shouldn't be in office." For the techies: "We wrote our own blog application instead of using one of the well-known ones. I'm a blog fan (but not a blogger; too many conflicts with this job) so I worked with our main IT programmer to get it into some form that blog fans would understand. It's in our main template, which was just easier for us to do. It has all the bells and whistles for posting (hyperlink, boldface, italic, blockquote, etc.) It's simplified a bit -- no trackback, but we have permalinks." Says Ham, "I believe it will become a staple for local candidates." radio.weblogs.com

To: LindyBill who wrote (46912)	5/25/2004 7:10:26 PM
From: Neeka	Respond to of 794196

Broad consensus over UN Iraq resolution eupolitix.com A UN Security Council resolution on the handover of sovereignty in Iraq can expect wide backing, Germany’s foreign minister said on Monday. “I think a consensus is feasible, possible and desirable,” Joschka Fischer told reporters in Brussels. The UK and US are tabling a draft resolution to Security Council ambassadors for the first time today which outlines plans for the handover to an Iraqi administration. “There is broad consensus to achieve the transfer of authority by June 30, and to do this with a Security Council resolution,” said Fischer, adding that he discussed the issue with US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday evening. But he added that there was “broad agreement” to wait until a report by UN envoy Lakdhar Brahimi was completed before signing off the final resolution. Brahimi, currently in Baghdad, is hoping by the end of May to achieve consensus between Iraq’s three communities on a caretaker government which would include a president, prime minister, two vice-presidents and 26 ministers. According to current timetables, the first democratic elections in Iraq would be held in January 2005. One of the most controversial issues to be resolved among members of the Security Council is the relationship between the US-led multinational force and the Iraqi government. While Germany and France are reported to favour a “sunset clause” which would end the mandate of the international force unless the new government asks it to stay, the US and UK prefer a review after a year. Both Washington and London are keen to mention the timetable for a political transition in the resolution, although the US has backed down over the endorsement of the Iraqi interim constitution. “We are obviously looking forward to obtaining the maximum support for this resolution,” said UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw. “I dare say that as with previous such resolutions, there will be quite a period of negotiations which is entirely to be expected, because this is a council where we need the support from all partners on the council..and have them pass by unanimity.” “But what the resolution is about is ensuring that its made clear to everybody, above all to the Iraqis, that there is a full transfer of sovereignty and power taking place on the 30th of June, and too that within that there will be acceptable arrangements for the mandating of the multinational force.”