My History With Democrats.com

Recently a few folks have inquired as to my status at Democrats.com and how I came to be a blogger here. In the course of answering these inquiries I realized that in the process I have created a bio of sorts. So without further ado here's how it all happened...

What a long strange trip it's been (someone once said)... startin' shortly after I became politically active back in the post coup madness that was Tallahassee in Nov./Dec. 2000.... An aquaintance pointed me to democrats.com to get on the mailing list for daily news updates of the ongoing coup.

In Jan. '01, days before Smirk's coronation, Dems.com sent out a form letter to send to local newspaper letters to the editor in protest of the illegal appointment of said small shrub by the SCOTUS (or as my wife calls them the 'Criminal 5'). I did so w/o changing the letter and it was published in the Tally Democrat (our local toilet paper alternative).

A day or two later some wingnuts caught on to the the letter campaign and made a stink. I was then summarily banned for life from the TD in a scathing op-ed by the Letters Editor. At which point Dems.com co-founder David Lytel (former Gore and Clinton WH staffer - he designed the first WH website) stepped in and came down on the Tally Democrat like a ton of bricks.

We both got our rebuttals to the Letter Editor's article that "exposed" the "hoax" letter campaign. So that was my introduction to democtats.com and online political activism.

After that experience I joined many newsgroups and proceeded to learn web skills and start my first website for a yr. or so. That led to volunteering to help develop the website www.falloutsheltersnews.com (a wholly-owned subsidiary of CLG's Mgr. Lori Price - www.legitgov.org). Along the way I developed an eye for politically pertinent and over-looked, under-reported news. Which I then started submitting to Bob Fertik at Democrats.com, along with www.Buzzflash.com, www.UnKnownNews.net, CLG, www.MakeThemAccountable.com, etc., etc.

After about a year or so of this activity, Bob Fertik invited me to join the democrats.com newshound team sometime in the beginning of 2003. Which was a small group of dedicated volunteers (5-10) pounding out the daily news of the Bush Junta. Which I did for nearly two yrs. off and on as time and motivation permitted. The searchable archive of our efforts stands in memorial exposing the crimes of the first term of the Bush Junta at http://archive.democrats.com/

Then, on election day - Nov. 4th, 2004, Bob Fertik unrolled the new blogging website on us. We, the volunteer newshounds, were then invited to begin blogging. Most demurred, having burnt out in the frenzy leading up to the (S)election of '04 and shocked by the surprise change of format.

It was a big step to start blogging for me, having one's identity attached to posts, after years of anonymous volunteer servitude and political activism behind the scenes. I didn't take up the blogging mantle for a month or so after the Stolen Election of 2004. At that time it was mainly Bob Fertik and Ted Kahl, site editor, who were blogging regularly. There were a couple of others occaisionally lending their efforts.

So there it is. My history with www.democrats.com. I still blog here from time to time...

CP ;>)