It's

www.firedupmissouri.com

This is not just about Missouri politics, no sireeeee. Check out Roy Blunt, Abramoff, and lots more, written by people who REALLY know the truth.

And it's getting an awful lot of hits lately.

Go check it out.

(Told ya! ~MC)


www.firedupmissouri.com
Submitted by Jeff Mazur on Thu, 12/01/2005 - 8:54pm.

AP reporter Sam Hananel gives the full treatment today to Fired Up LLC and co-founder Roy Temple, and lays out the landmark importance of the Federal Election Commission's recent decision to grant Fired Up a press exemption from campaign finance laws.

Roy Temple has worn many hats in his career as a savvy Democratic political operative in Missouri. But he's never been known as a journalist - until now.

In a controversial decision last month, the Federal Election Commission granted Temple's political Web log a press exemption from the law on reporting campaign finance activity....

"I think it's an important victory for free-speech advocates," said Temple, who served as chief of staff to former Sen. Jean Carnahan, D-Mo., and was chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party. "I view the expansion of the Internet in the political discourse as an important civic space."

Roy's journalism, as described by the piece, is doubly remarkable in that he has brought to light innumerable unreported stories about state government and politics, while simultaneously serving as an advocate for internet freedom and rights which will benefit bloggers and news gatherers around the nation and across the political spectrum.

Notably, the bipartisan FEC was unanimous in its decision, with Republican and Democratic members of the panel agreeing to grant the exemption.

What's more, the wire service story also explicitly recognizes the tangible and growing real-world effect that Fired Up has had on politics, particularly in Missouri.

Since Temple co-founded the site in March with Carnahan and a computer consultant, it has earned a reputation for withering attacks on Republican officials in the state and in Congress.

The site regularly mocks Republican Gov. Matt Blunt (a headline on Thursday: "On the road again: Is Matt Blunt gladhanding with lobbyists, again?") and lampoons his father, the U.S. House majority leader, as "Roy Blunt (R-K Street)."

And that recognition, fittingly, serves to undermine the laughable Republican Party response to the decision gathered by the AP:

John Hancock, a spokesman for the Missouri Republican Party, said the state GOP is taking no official position on the issue.

"It doesn't matter what the ruling is on FiredUpMissouri.com because we don't consider it to have an impact on state politics whatsoever," Hancock said.

The AP story fails to report how many governors in states beside Missouri issue press releases responding to sites that have no "impact on state politics whatsoever."

Roy's story just goes to show that with political bloggers --while they may be newly considered journalists-- the best ones aren't any different from the best of those from traditional media. They are the ones that speak truth to power.