Outside the Perimeter
Courtesy of Department of Defense

At this time last year, Tommywonk, Curmudgeon, Delaware Liberal, FSP, Delaware Watch, Down with Absolutes, The Delaware Way, The Colossus of Rhodey, Pencader Days, Mike’s Musings, and others, were on fire…

Perhaps I’m nostalgic, but last year it seemed like the Delaware blogosphere was a bit more personal. There seemed to be more posts, and more personality coming through the blogs, than we see today in our selections.

There could be a myriad of reasons. One, the election season, extended version, could have taken a lot out of us. Two, several blogs switched servers, making my finding the archives a little difficult…..Three, viewing all the blogs from near this time last year, they all seemed written in a simpler in style; This year many are covered by a number of widgets…..and some with advertising……Last year most blogs were written by just one person; DelawareLiberal was the only “super” blog on line at the time. FSP was in the process of acquiring a bigger team. Since this time last year, three major Delaware blogs have become an “editorial board”, and not the “editor in chief”…..Delaware Watch, Delaware Libertarian, and Down With Absolutes have grown contributors since last Memorial Day……….

Perhaps we were more passionate last summer, because almost each of us had a different presidential candidate in mind for the Denver or St. Paul conventions…Each of us had something serious to argue about….Just mentioning the list of candidates today brings a lot of local names to mind…..Romney, Thompson, Giulliani, Biden, Gravell, Dodd, Richardson, and of course…..Ron Paul. Destiny has reduced us to three candidates, and conversations within the blogosphere, have become somewhat “canned.”

Some of the “greats” have left us…..Dave Burris……Mike Matthews…….Matt Marshall……but their shoes have been filled by David Anderson……Frank Knotts……..John Feroce…….Dominique………and the blogs go on…..

Perusing through some of the archives, much more original research was placed on line in the form of links. Now, it seems as if one browses another blog or newspaper site, pastes a byline, and moves on. Another difference, perhaps also due to the popularity of the personalities involved, is that there appears to be a lot more self advertising in the form of the announcement of other speaking engagements; local talk radio in particular……..Not that it’s a bad thing of course…..A wider audience is the sole effort all of us have to contribute to if we are to give politics another outlet of getting their words out to the public, other than the News Journal……….

It appears that local stories dominated last years news, at least as summer began. Of course in an election year, one should expect a presidential election to take precedence…..

And last but not least, we were a lot fresher last year….Blogging takes a little out of a person each time, does it not my friends?

Exceptions to what I just said. Hube seems to be on fire this year…..writing rather prolifically as well as providing eclectic, interesting tidbits about himself during the process….. His 100 top movies, and his videos in Spanish….prove that “personality” should not be pruned when writing, but rather cultivated instead….(It also proves life is bigger than just reading blogs). He still busts letter writers who errantly violate good sense in their News Journal letters to the Editor, he still posts the Watcher of Weasel’s results, some of which are first class writings…..Of course some of us think he could polish up his comments better, if he chose to become a first class writer, but……(lol)…….he wouldn’t be Hube, now, would he?

Whereas Hube has stepped up, Alan Coffey, who once was everywhere across the blogosphere, has tapered off a bit. Beset with tragedy earlier this year, that is understandable. However his prolific wisdom in the comment section, often through the back and forth between himself and other writers, often uncovers the details of a viable national policy that should be followed for years to come… And then he occasionally picks up something the rest of us have missed…..

Shirley at Curmudgeon, has written with less political passion since Ron Paul has stopped being news…One should pause to consider the milestones Ron accomplished in the area of raising money…..He may not have gotten the votes, but he is one candidate who does not need to beg for us to show him the money……..Obama and Ron Paul: Ticket for Change….. But if your are ever interested in some Weed.….

Mike Mahaffie is probably the best at showing all of us what being a Delawarean is all about….It’s about teams, its about eggs, its about one’s hometown….Forever the photographer, we see in his blog, the better part of Delaware we sometimes rush pass on our way to meetings that we tell ourselves are “more Important.” Mike, thank heavens, shows all of us,….. that is not so…….(Why do I get a spooky feeling I’m about to witness a 111,111…..?_)

Duffy at Pencader Days seems to be on his hiatus right now…I hope it is for good, not bad, reasons. Reading Duffy’s blog one senses the humanism required to face up to challenge, after challenge, after challenge. Sharing with the rest of us his triumphs and antagonistic sessions, we cannot help but appreciate that life is a series of challenges. The easy challenges do not really stretch us into adulthood. It’s the really big challenges that make us men and women, out of boys and girls…I find his personal accounts uplifting for the simple premise that if Duffy can face his challenges as he does, there is no excuse for the rest of us to face our own obstacles, with as much drive, determination, and grit…..

Merit Bound Alley has been on line, then off, then on, then off and is now on line again. I am trying to keep him as our science guru, scanning the science wires and posting the newest and greatest discoveries rocking the scientific world……..As politics heat up, it is nice to have a reminder that no matter how significant we tend to think ourselves to be……that we and an ant are in a statistical dead heat, when one compares each of our respective atoms to those of the universe as a whole……

Every community needs someone to keep the others in touch. Someone like the telephone operator in Andy Griffith’s Mayberry who kept all informed of everyone’s business. The community was closer that way…We have Nancy Willing and Delaware Liberal who serve that purpose well. Scanning the wires, copy and pasting, they provide the fodder for the rest of us to look at, dissect, and rebutt……The prodigious amount of what they cover, is the key.

Delaware Way, for example covers these local events, all of which are big in their respective neighborhoods, whether its Mr. Valahura,, The Middletown 301 Project, the SEU’s . Delaware Liberal keeps us posted on bloggers emotional events,….like kissing and making up…. as well as acknowledging the greater world out there….

But DelawareLiberal.Net. has taken on some serious investigative journalism. Jason did original research into the formation of the SEU and its continuance despite the fact hat its charter states that it should have closed down. LiberalGeek has the latests on their most recent meeting, here….It was obvious to me that something was different about this meeting which was missing from the last. Should I say more of a serious, or “get something done” attitude was present this time? Could we be seeing the fruits of Geeks reporting of his first foray into the lions den of General Assembly committee hearings?

DelawarePolitics.Net marches on without Dave….For an example of how unexciting it is without Dave’s boastful exaggerations, check out the mild tone of Smitty, reminding one of Ben Stein‘s character on the “Wonder Years.” David Anderson tries to get up into Sharon Stone and her karma…Just don’t forget what happened to Michael Douglas when he tried to do the same……..

Delaware Libertarian, has been preoccupied with the Libertarian National Convention, coming up with this visual aid to assist those wondering if Libertarians may make a mark this year………I was just speaking of this post the other day, telling someone that I thought it would have great relevance to our lives beginning after the stock market crash next fall…..

Meanwhile Tommywonk continues to doggedly pursue the Wind story, both on line and on the air….. As his post suggests, crunch time is here to persuade Senators to vote in favor of the best new opportunity Delaware will have for a long time…..The same arguments being used today, were used against the Banking Act, which just barely squeaked though the General Assembly.That bill did a lot of good for Delaware……

Dominique has breathed new life into Down With Absolutes….All the guys who use to give Mike Matthews a hard time, are enamored with her…..The best comments now come from Liz Allen and Nancy Willing…..Go figure….. But lately a series which invites a reader to tell whatever dirt they know about a candidate, is creating a rather good tutorial that our citizens can use in both the primary and general elections….Trolling for comments, and keeping it personal….Dominique carries Matthew’s good work forward…..

Delaware Watch took a break from blasting McCain to have some fun….Apparently out with his camera he caught this riding around our first state…..But if you ever wanted to blow a national presidential campaign completely out of the water, but just did not no how…..then this site is for you….

So I may concede that collectively we are not as good as we were last year…..But because of us, the News Journal is doing a better job. Because of us, talk radio is actually interesting again. Because of us, we are 3 Senators and one desk drawer shy of passing a Bluewater Wind deal over the objections of one Delmarva Power company….

Who would have ever thought something like that might come to pass?