It Only Takes a Spark

Blogging is a labor of love, without a doubt. Any semi-serious blogger will tell you that. Community blogs, such as Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood can be less ardous and in some ways, more fulfilling than traditional one-man blogs.

Since my venture into the world o' blogging little under a year ago, I have become deeply passionate about this venue and its potential for the political sphere. The internet is the place to be seen and heard, and it's only fitting that politics has its place here.

I've recently been promoted to front-page contributor at MichiganLiberal, a huge honor and even bigger responsibility that I refuse to take lightly. Within the core group of bloggers that call MichLib home, the running joke is that I'm the cruise director of the group. It's not so much a joke as it is fitting. I'm a networker, I bring different people, groups, and organizations together. I'm more than just a social person, I'm a connector.

I believe the best writers are the ones who stay true to their passions and their strengths. It is my hope to help connect voters to the information they need to be the best informed about their government. I've seen how various watchblogs can be extremely effective at this if managed properly and updated regularly.

I don't believe that blogs need to be flashy or nasty, just informative. If it's entertaining and informative, all the better because it makes for an even more enjoyable read. In the end, blogs are simply an educational tool that the public can utilize to stay informed.

In the coming weeks and months expect to hear a lot of grassroots information from me both here and on MichLib. I firmly believe that there are many readers and lurkers of blogs just waiting for the perfect opportunity to jump in. I'm going to be meeting with a lot of folks all over the state, working hard, continuing to get the word out, and providing the nudge that we all need in order to get started.

If you've got a desire to learn more, to make your own mark, and do your part, drop me a line.

A community starts with one person working with another.

It's about what's best for MI, not just for me.

Whoda thunk it?

I never would have thought that within just a couple hours of the new RogersWatch blog (Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood) going up, that it would receive so much attention. But it did.

I'm no dummy.

That tells me that I'm not the only one sick of Mike Rogers using my district as a pulpit for his extremely conservative agenda. That tells me there's hope for our district in 2008.

I'm much more politically active than most folks I know. Sometimes when I have a strong feeling on something, I try to gauge the rest of the world's temperature to mine, to see if I'm really just out in left field, or if I'm just the only one willing to stick my neck out there and speak up. On this issue, I know it's the latter.

I would like to clarify something though. Just because I'm a staunch liberal/Democrat/progressive, doesn't mean I'm against all Republicans. There's a lot of tenets of the republican platform that make sense. (Notice I said republican, not Republican - big difference these days.) There's some Republicans who do good work in office on behalf of their constituents. Mike Rogers is not one of those.

Identified time and time again as one of the most conservatives in D.C., it's hard to understand how Rogers claims to be working for us, his people. His campaign finance reports don't lie. It's the special interest lobbying groups that he works for.

Check out his voting record, how many times has a vote of his aligned right up with the Bush policy? More times than not. I'm not saying Mr. Rogers hasn't done some good work in D.C. I'm saying that most of his work has not been for the people, but rather for the special interests. That's where the problem lays.

That's why there's so many of us who are going to work feverishly between now and November 2008 to make sure the people of the 8th District Neighborhood see how out of touch Mike Rogers really is.

So during the next two years, keep tabs on LLP and The Neighborhood. The great thing about The Neighborhood is that it's not just one person spouting ideas. That blog is a community, made up by different folks from all across the District. Men and women, from the newly employed to the retired and everywhere in between. We're military veterans, homemakers, blue-collar workers and policy wonks, and everything in between. We want the same things you want, to have our government work for us the way it should - for the people and by the people. We don't all agree on the same issues, but we do agree that no matter where we stand, Mike Rogers stands against us.

Something's Brewing in the Neighborhood...

Who Is This Man?

He carries a big stick.

He doesn't wear a yellow sweater.

He preaches war and hate.

He openly discriminates against the very people he's supposed to be working for.

He narrowly missed getting downsized last month. (too bad!)

He's good buddies with two of Washington's most corrupt players (Abramoff and DeLay)


He got more airtime with this child molester (Mark Foley) on CNN than he probably has his entire career.

He lives in Our Neighborhood.

That's right, he's the one and only U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (MI-08), your very own public official.

We're going to hold him accountable and

• Watch every vote,
• Count each dollar collected from special interests and
• Record each time he continues to wreak havoc on us, the people of the 8th Congressional District.

Stop on by The Neighborhood and join us as we take back Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.