What kind of stories and diaries do you want to read?
About The Author

BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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It’s the beauty of writing founded in creative thought, well prepared and presented with apt attention to the opening paragraph
s o I d o n ‘ t h a v e t o g u e s s w h a t t h e r e s t o f t h e d i a r y w i l l b e a b o u t . D o n ‘ t e x p e c t m e t o p u t m y e n e r g y i n r e a d i n g y o u r d i a r y , w h o d o y o u t h i n k y o u a r e . H a v e y o u w r i t t e n a d i a r y b e f o r e ?
Sorry BooMan, I had to get this off my chest, although your reply yesterday didn’t lead to any misunderstanding. Good for you!
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I caught that too Oui. BooMan was very eloquent in his response ;o)
I was just in a bad mood, and I can’t take that crap that is constantly ruining the fun over at dKos.
It was a classic smackdown Boo – a rambling, pissy post without addressing the context, shot down with a few precise words. Loved it.
Your writing is excellent – you make facts interesting to read. That’s a sign of a great non-fiction writer to me. And the interview you did with Johnson was superb. (Hope that you’re in a better mood now!)
link? I always miss these classic Boo moments.
dKos smackdown
Ohhhhh … when did this happen? Because I saw that diary, recommended it, and read a few comments but there was nothing like that there then.
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A Classic
Ssst – don’t tell BooMan!
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And I see that some people have believed that BooMan is really Sy Hersh. Wow.
(Makes note to be nicer to BooMan from now on, just in case.)
But catching up now, I see this is about a rude first comment to a diary. I hate that. It happened at Eurotrib the other day. Someone makes an effort to post a decent diary and the first response is something like, “what this? – it ain’t right.”
Like the man said, ‘don’t read it.’
It’s like going to extremes to criticize a painting, making no comment is a good enough critique and it is effortless.
Since most diaries “generally” have some nugget of info in there, I don’t scream “bloody murder” when it is badly written… Most Bloggers are armed with great info and very little writing skills.
And I don’t give negative ratings for “bad comments”. Even if you pop into my diary I will give you a 4 for saying something I may disagree with. At least you are contributing.
Discussion is good.
There are theories that make sense AND some, after comments, that don’t hold water. Who cares whether they write like Shakespeare or Carrot Top?
I save my neagative ratings for the ones that rate me, or others, negatively based on a thought OR that personally insult me, or others, for posting a differing point of view. I can never understand why someone would troll rate based on a different POV? It hap0pens too often on dKos these days.
As a side note: I like Booman’s diaries Su, BUT if he is Sy Hersh… Well, I wouldn’t insult him because Booman is a very good Blogger, as many are, but… He is no Sy Hersh. Unless he has some hidden diaries I have not read yet?
She’s got a tiger by the tail but she’s cool and collected and swinging for the fences, ranch fences that is but this could be the symbol we can really support and appeal to the public.
She’s eloquent and yet so familiar and everyday.
I wish her luck. She’s up against a seamless reality and a kabal the likes of which our society has never known. I don’t even want to speculate in public.
That’s meetwithcindy dot org but Ed Schultz says the site is swamped just now. Hmm, my browser just returned “Welcome to chun.” and nothing else.
More on the environment, health care and how unlivable wages are effecting people and our entire system. How to get our Senators/Representatives to pay attention to us on all issues.
With such unrelenting bad news, high crimes and lies from this administration and the continuing carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan I’d also like some relief from that…like a Silly Saturday for taking those stupid polls where your categorized as a movie or something..just something with absolutely no redeeming value whatsoever.
I’ll do anything to increase traffic on Saturdays.
Saturdays absolutely kill our weekly average.
Thought it was a little quiet in here on Saturday. How about a “single-issue” day, with vote? An issue a week is all we ask? Topic announcement on Monday, diaries submitted Friday night, Saturday discuss, Saturday night VOTE?
it would be great if a group of Tribbers could put something together. I liked how the FBC evolved without any top-down control or influence. It lets people put their own stamp on the site, and it is interesting to watch, frankly.
Let me bump in here as I read you comment and it made me happy so I wanted to respond here to another comment you made about writing a diary with “not much interest”.
On my site we can see the number of times a diary is read and it’s quite interesting, not many comments in a lot of cases, but sometimes over a hundred reads, and that is on a little tiny new site…so imagine the number of people your words are reaching on this site, with it’s much bigger numbers.
So I say do all the diaries that feel important to you, regardless of the number of comments you get. Many times there is just nothing to add from my perspective.
Weekends are going to be tough no matter what, because people seem to do more blogging when they are at work than at home.
Maybe weekend ‘carnivals’ with each diary a booth, so to speak, one with Jazz, one with gardens, one with painting, one cafe, and so on. If you could keep moving people from booth to booth, that would keep people on the site longer. Have signups on the Cafe diary….then the cafe diary can advertise the other diaries….Seems like on the weekends people don’t want to think about more politics and maybe we all need rests from them..Just some thoughts!!!And Front Page the FBC on Weekends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well I didn’t expect that all to come out when I wrote this, but that’s been happening a lot lately…lol.
You like my idea above for the “carnival” I can write it up for todays FBC and add it right in…and announce that it’s coming, etc.
The FBc could be renamed, The ‘Froggy Bottom Carnival Cafe’ for the weekends…..
I like it. Could blossom into a biggie, I think.
What would we vote on?
I like this idea also….and I think we could do both on Saturday…Silly and Serious entries..something for everyone.
I collect various articles all week and most times never know where to put them …if a topic was suggested on Sunday or Monday then everyone could kinda keep an eye out for news/articles on subject during the week and have them ready for the weekend.
I’m excited about the upcoming photo thingy happening in September. How about a themed picture diary for every Saturday? Like Froggy Bottom Cafe, only more visual. Silly pics, animal pics, landscapes, your house/space, vacations… I have a feeling there will be a lot of takers for posting photos. OOOoooo… how about “Froggy Bottom Gallery”?
on hotlinking photos being a copyright violation, I’m a little discouraged. (actually I skimmed the comments for the legal advice offered).
-hotlinking is legal but bad netiquette because it steals bandwith.
-providing a URL link to the photo is ok legally and bandwithy.
-copying the photo and putting up on Photo Bucket or your own site is a copyright violation unless you have permission from the owner but it is good netiquette. It does not steal bandwith.
Thumbnails are legal according to a 1999 lawsuit so I will stick to them. It’s good for boomantribune too as they don’t slow up the site.
about their bandwith being stolen so one can continue to hotlink to their photos.
Big means sites like CNN, MSNBC, etc.
DKos is re-writing their FAQ’s on this subject – it will likely be more clear there what I’m on about.
Thanks for the info, I didn’t stop to think that there could be issues to hotlinking photos. Copyright issues are good to avoid, wouldn’t want to make trouble for Booman. Well this was like a brainstorming session, and not all ideas can fly.
What “upcoming photo thingy” in September? Have I missed a paragraph?
in the cafe but you can read about it here
Thanks for posting the link; I should have done that when I mentioned it in my post.
We could have rain dances on Fridays and make Saturdays so miserable everyone stays home and blogs.
Winter’s coming on. Soon, far too soon, it will be cold and snowy (or rainy, depending on location), and we poor progressives will have to stay indoors, huddling over our keyboards in an attempt to stay warm, because fuel oil will be too expensive. Thank you, Georgie.
I’m doing my best to increase your Saturday traffic – its the day I spend the most time here. Now I understand why its so quiet. Unlike others, I can’t blog at work – so I tend to actually spend more time here on the weekends. Wonder if there are any others like me?
think would be quite useful and also stimulate participation, though I’m not necessarily able to initiate them.
Someone could do a diary listing all the main Repub talking points along with the deceptive wingnut propaganda jargon that accompanies them. Then we all could join together and post our own ideas of how to factually refute the lies being spread by them. After all our input, someone tasked with the job could distill everything into a more concise format in another diary, creating a clear, item by item strategic dialog with which would help us all be better prepared to refute the wingnut propaganda more effectively.
Honest–and cheap to implement!
Maybe it is cuz I have been gone for almost three weeks working that your site is not busy…:o)
I try to post as much as I can when I am here at home. I am very active here when I hAve the time to do it.
I so enjoy this site any day of the week, Booman. My job has just bee so very busy as of late and I can not get on as much as I would like. I sit down to read the posts and I start to get sleepy. Agter putting in almost 12-18 hours a day I just can not do it any more. When things slow down, I will do it again. I try to read this the first thing after getting up, while drinking my coffee and listening to the news and this keeps me updated on thins; but this has not been normal for me for three whole weeks. I am in withdrawl!!!!!!!
Thank you Booman, for your site. I love it so much.
BRENDA! We miss you when you work so much. Stop it.
I love that chocolate ink. Sounds like a neat idea. Something frivolous and fun like you suggest, you know, so we don’t all go totally freaking insane…
Good idea, chocolate!
I think Susan should bring back her uh… Flatulent Fish diary series for Saturdays, too. Lots more people here nowadays to add to it.
I ran out of material from, um, my secret site (The Guardian) for those stories…. should check it out again. Maybe they’ve got new stories up.
…
P.S. As you know, I tape shows for half the town and get access to pay cable stations. (Like, every week I tape three copies of “Six Feet Under” for various people.)
Last night, I taped the first episode of Showtime’s brand new series starring Mary Louise Parker, one of my favorite actresses. SNL’s Kevin Nealon has a part as a dope-smokin’ father.
Parker plays a suburban mother who’s widowed and has to supplement her ‘burb lifestyle by selling pot that she buys from a bunch of wise-crackin’ black people.
It is a RIOT! It’s called “Weeds.” Here’s the site section about Weeds.
The conversations between the mothers reminds me SO MUCH of all the chats I had when my daughter was in school.
Lets ask everyone to log on, on saturday at some point during the day if they can and click on an ad..
I try to check out what is happening here on Saturday when my children take their nap. Some days my beautiful wife has a nice long honey do list for me to do and I can’t always get here. But I make every effort to log on and check out the site.
Inspired by the marihuana legalization diary a couple days ago, BooMan, I’d be curious to get your thoughts on this hypothesis: Regardless of the original motivations for criminalizing various drugs, the government has no interest in legalizing any illicit drugs, since (among other reasons) they have a very good money-laundering system in place using illegal drug money for certain….well, let’s say less than scrupulous operations. Start legalizing drugs and you have to come up with a new scheme (other than arms deals, which they appear also to be pretty apt with, but those are more traceable).
I’m not sure that it is worth a diary or a story, but I thought of it the other day and wondered if the possibility had any merit.
Larouche cult has done some amazing work on The Octopus. The Christic Institute did as well, in their time.
The problem is verying their work. I’d love for someone to dig up all the early to mid-90’s work that was done by the Larouchies, before the right-wing nuts made the issue all about Mena Airport and mooted the issue, and to try to sift the wheat from the chaff.
Yeah, the first time I started reading about this stuff you had me up all night googling and reading 🙂
The problem I always have with looking into those matters are that a) everyone else always seems so far ahead and b) the trail seems pretty cold (at least on the things we know about at this point).
Years ago, Saturday Night Live did a really funny bit involving the Queen of England as a drug runner — royal family involvement in drug running was one of LaRouche’s claims. I laughed my ass off at it. Nowadays, though, it no longer seems so impossible.
The story posted last week on TomFlocco.com that Bush, Cheney and others have been indicted has led me deep into tinfoil hat land these past few days. I question the veracity of these reports, but Flocco is sticking to the story. His website was also been suspiciously hacked into and disrupted so badly that he had to get a new host.
The story has been propagating around the web. Here is one site that has it.
On another wildly speculative matter. Some people are guessing that we may be on the brink of another “terrorist” incident to take place on the coast of South Carolina. The first I heard of this was at a John Conyers DSM party a few weeks ago. One of the people there mentioned that there were some “terror drills” planned for S.C. having to do with a nuclear attack, and that we should be on the alert for any funny business. I kind of forgot about this until I ran across it again at these two sites:
here
and
here
The reason some people are wondering about this has to do with the fact that there were war games being conducted on 911. These games have been used as a partial explanation for why the various agencies involved acted with such confusion on that day. And in the London bombings, claims were also made that drills were being conducted at the time of the attack.
This is a pretty wild ride, but I thought I should post it now, because if something were to happen, we have some documentation of its prediction.
the fact that drills were going on on 9/11 doesn’t imply that much. It indicates that our enemy has moles in the Pentagon, and they selected the day carefully. It doesn’t necessarily mean the high command was behind the attacks, it could just as easily indicate they were caught with their pants down.
Not to get your tinfoil hat antennas quivering, but its interesting to note what went on in Kings Bay SC on May 25, 2004. Probably one of my last weeks while still on the job working for “the man”.
And that is as close to the Octopus as I’m going to get 😉
Pax
the art students and moving companies, that whole angle just creeps me out.
BTW- I used Israeli movers when I moved to Philly and they put a curse on me. I had cracked glass on a painting and they tried to refuse to move it claiming it was bad luck.
My first month in Philly I had an amazing string of bad luck, including being attacked by a pit bull which resulted in my hospitalization, and near death for my dog.
I’d also like to see more stories/diaries on environmental issues, and how they connect and relate to everyday living, as well as labor and unions and all those sorts of things like that.
Neither of those are my ‘subjects’, although I support both, but it would be interesting to hear from people who are involved in these issues. Or at least know way more about them than I do.
I think (personally) that we settling in to having the very best front page for news and analysis, covering a variety of issues… and that adding a few more topics would cover things nicely. Plus, of course, the tremendous variety in the diaries, which cover just about anything one can think of.
By the way, is ‘diary’ a hard coded in term in scoop, or can people who have the software change that term to something else?
But MSNBC had a short little article on zero-energy homes today.
I’d read about them before, but didn’t realize that in certain areas there are communities of them springing up.
Great story! No, I hadn’t seen it yet.
They are going to have to do something to bring the costs down on those types of places (and from the story, it seems as if they are planning on that).
I did see something the other day, I don’t remember where, that said that many of the suppliers of the solar panels and other things are running out of material (and that the material providers are raising their prices) due to the sudden influx of people wanting energy efficient homes. They have months worth of back orders.
It’s all good and bad news (from different aspects), but I hope it shakes itself out and becomes the standard of home and apartment building.
Nice to see this getting into MSM. That’s encouraging.
None of this is new, except that it seems never to be discussed in this country, outside of environmental circles. And it’s not just in California where solar is possible. I had solar hot water once on a house in Massachusetts, and friends here in Maine have their house plus two barns totally off the grid: solar panels, insulation, passive solar gain, energy-efficient appliances and bulbs.
It’s so nice to be in their house because there isn’t the usual background buzzing from electricity, and your whole being feels more calm.
If you can light a house with solar panels in this area, where we have fewer sunny days even than Seattle, you can do it anywhere.
Environmental issues really are a massive subject as everything on the planet is effected by everything we are doing…not my area of expertise either(actually I have no area of expertise). Certainly wouldn’t have trouble picking any area of the environment to write about.
I believe the environment is killing us…because of what humans are doing or rather not doing to preserve the air, land and sea.
Yes, and it’s killing us closely, and that’s one of the things I believe needs to be brought out.
Environmentalism seems to have gotten itself the reputation for being mostly about great big wide open spaces and rainforests, etc… which are good, of course. But are not applicable to most people’s lives… even streams and rivers and so on mean little to urban dwellers. But there are other, related environmental issues that do directly affect people who never get out of the city (beyond smog) and I think things like that would be good to explore.
I’d like to see more on urban issues. Boo’s diary this weekend on the sad occasion of a shooting in his neighborhood brought out commentary that touched on the intersection of drug laws, gun violence, and underemployment in city neighborhoods. Poverty, education, environmental justice and sustainability are all of vital concern to people in urban areas who as we all know, were given short shrift in the last national election. On the other hand focussing on this stuff would bring stories down to the local level which is not what BooTrib is supposed to be about, so, I don’t know…
about urban issues, and issues of race. But the few times I’ve done it, I’ve gotten very little response.
I think you should write about them anyway. The reason they get little response (I believe) is because sometimes people are still a bit uncomfortable with, and/or are not knowledgeable about those issues. All the more reason to write about them, as they are important, socially and electorally.
As people become more comfortable discussing the issues, there will probably be more response, as well as drawing different groups of readers to the site.
I agree – I’d love more discussion of these issues and as we get to know one another better, I think the discussion will happen.
Also agree. As our major cities here have grown larger the frequency of “urban issues” has increased also. Other than living a few years in Winnipeg and Denver I have little experience with the larger urban areas/issues. So any insights you can add would be appreciated.
(Operating at 31.2 K tonight, almost the Dark Ages, so please excuse, as I am not able to rate and recommend as easily as usual on 1.5 M.)
http://tinyurl.com/9l7a3 this is the new issue of Black Commentator which has some of the best articles around. This is billed as their summer reading issue and won’t be back until Sept.
It also is not as dry as it might sound as there are cool links and other good stuff.
Boo, I think you should continue will race issues-it does effect everyone and this just simmers so much underneath a facade of all is well.
Hey librarylil – Did you see kid oakland’s post over there -> on the rec list, white kid? A great story – a positive story – on neighbourhood, culture, roots, childhood, etc.
I did read that, thanks Olivia.
Every now and then, I wouldn’t mind seeing diaries written that do not assume that the audience knows that much about politics.
Sometimes stories don’t seem important initally and then later become very important..
like “Rovegate for dummies” or something.
how would that go? It’s funny how tiring it is to write (and for me, to read) the obligatory explanation for how Rovegate got started, in every article on the topic.
As soon as I see it, my eyes just jump to the next paragraph.
But I know what you mean. If we’re not careful, we take too much for granted about what the readers already know.
Any advice?
I imagine it would be extremely tedious to summarize the whole thing. Probably impossible without writing a whole book.
So how about this instead?
-) Start a diary / story that will serve as the RoveGate FAQ
-) Each story that deals with RoveGate could link to it as ‘the basics’.
-) In the comments of each of these stories, encourage and then pick out questions that people might ask about certain aspects that are foundational to the case. Add them as comments in the FAQ.
-) Maybe have the body of the diary be a table of contents that links to the appropriate comment in the comments section..
How about setting up a Wiki like they did at Eurotrib? I’m technologically challenged in that area but I’m sure there’s someone here who could help organize something like that. I realize DKos has an exhaustive wiki, but it’s time to spread those wings abit more and get this frog flying higher.
will hook us up when he’s done setting the ET Wiki up.
Yeah, I understand that it must be annoying addressing the obvious as say writers at the NYT have to do (I found it humorous that everytime Abbas was mentioned the writers would also say “who is also known as Abu Mazen”).
I guess a diary outlining the chronogy of known events would be great.. including speculation labeled as such (I don’t mean conspiracy theory).
Then when discussing breaking news, this older diary could be hyper-linked and updated.
Just an idea, I’d volunteer to write it, but I just haven’t been following as close as others..
has a pretty good timeline already set up.
You should read the Wiki.
I could link to it when I write about it.
Cool..
I’m taste-testing Vanilla Bean from Tillamook in Oregon .. they’re the co. that told Monsanto to fuck off. Funny how there’s a political angle to everything.
Looks like there are some good ideas here … will read/comment more when I get back from making a Taco Time delivery to Darcy’s place of work. Already did her grocery shopping. This was the list she e-mailed me:
Wait til she finds out I got her SIX Take Five bars … they were 3 for 99 cents at the Elwha Native American store where I went to buy cigarettes.
[cough] immigration reform [cough]
I like the idea of tackling a specific issue on Saturdays, I think if you put a notice somewhere prominently on the front page during the week, it will help you appeal to groups that target that one issue.
Also, I think you’re doing a great job of promoting diaries regularly to the front page. It’s a good way of affirming your contributors.
I would also like to see more collaborative work, an example would be the document review project that Susan spearheaded a month or so ago.
Did I mention immigration reform? 😛
I vote against the single-issue day. Although a special focus one one thing, like the photo Saturday event and the music and book diaries are great. I just would hate to see this place lose its free-wheeling attitude, by putting up unnecessary restrictions. Next thing you know, we’ll have a dress code. I can’t imagine how the single issue idea would manifest, sounds boring to me. Please explain.
I agree with you Alice. My thinking on this would be for the front pagers to set the focus with stories explaining different angles of the issue. An example: global warming; one story could be about the arctic ice melting, the next regarding bird migration, another on the effects of Bush’s big F.U. regarding the Kyoto Treaty…etc. etc. I love to volunteer other people to do the work, can’t you tell? heheh, just kidding Boo and Susan!
It’s a mechanism for discussing a topic in-depth. That’s all. And it’ll take alot of us to develop the concept over time. None of us wants to be a prick. [No. 1 Violation of BooMan’s Rules of Etiquette]. 🙂
I don’t think anyone means the entire Trib is “taken over” on Saturday. It’s participatory – not mandatory – and to me would only involve setting off that topic with brackets [IMMIGRATION].
Off the top of my head: Set off a bracketed topic on Monday to use as an open thread that could spawn links to diaries generated on the subject matter during the week. (You can get to diaries through your “Comments” links – even if they’ve expired).
If you’re interested in following a discussion, you only need to link to the original to get to the others. The same would apply on Saturday Vote-type diaries. All you do is add a poll.
I think we should begin a section for reviewing our favourite beers, wines, and liquors that we might order when sitting and relaxing in the Froggy Bottom Cafe…
Seriously? I think the front pagers do a great job of mixing it up. Even the articles where I don’t agree with their opinions are, at the very least, informative and interesting.
A hearty welcome to readers from Raw Story and Project for the OLD American Century. Don’t be shy, sign up for an account and join the discussion. Paz.
Now imagine Bush saying something like this? -something you Americans have longed for over four years.
Dream on for a change in 2009.
And not a ruler midway in taking posession of a big chunk of the global economy.
We still have a few politicians here too. They’re called “Democrats.” If we can get them to grasp the distinction, we may yet have a shot for 2009.
He enjoys so much flexing his power. We have the recent examples like the John Bolton recess appointment. He has enormous power without the leadership skills to guide it.
We (most of us)here in Canada are sure rooting for the US Democrats.
and I talked to the WB17 field reporter about the Saturday night murder. Comcast 8 was also hanging around with their satellite truck.
The reporter told me they don’t know jack about who did the shooting, and I told him all about the weed smoking ways of the intended victims.
Half the neighborhood is out on the street consoling each other.
were you interviewed for the newscast? It’s amazing how strangers come together during tragedy…
Are you on teevee tonight?
And where in the heck are those photos of your meetup last week?
he was packing up and getting ready to leave. I just picked his brain for info, and then gave him some tidbits.
How about a catch-all diary? I’m thinking of a place where you could just drop in the clever one-liner you heard on Wednesday, or the great bumper sticker you saw, or something else not significant enough for a diary and that requires no commentary or affirmation. Sort of like an open thread, but wouldn’t move on the front page.
So, you could post something and everyone else could ruffle through the pages.
We all have lots of little tidbits like that in the course of a week, and a catch-all on Saturday would generate traffic to look and post/contribute, but not need comments. Perhaps under weekly categories like Humor, One-liners, Recipes, etc.
Call it ‘The Grabbag’.
I love this site and all of archive!
You are a great webmaster
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