JarJar Nixon's Blues Kitchen

When I was at the Republican Convention in Philly in 2000, web-based politics was a new-fangled thing, and several ambitious sites promised to transform the way elections were covered, interpreted and understood. A good deal of those web sites have since died, but the rise of Bloggers in the last two years seems to be a lot more permanent. At the Democrats' July 2004 convention, more than 35 Bloggers were credentialed as working journalists--something that would have been completely ignored just four years earlier. This shows the new importance of Bloggers like David Weinberger, who works for the Boston Globe, but also freelance Bloggers like Patrick Belton (www.Oxblog.com).

And, if you are interested in reading one of the most important predecessors of Bloggers, try www.drudge.com. If you remind me in class, I can explain more about who Matt Drudge is.