At this month's county party meeting, Mark Miller announced the launch of West Michigan Rising, a new progressive blog covering West Michigan.

http://www.westmichiganrising.com/frontPage.do

For those of you who have heard of blogs, but are not really into them, a community blog like this one is like a newspaper where all the readers are also journalists - if they want to be. You can just read what is there if you want, or write comments on what others have written, or write your own diaries.

We have had blogs like Daily Kos, covering national politics from a progressive perspective, for some years now. Michigan Liberal is the state-wide blog equivalent. But the focus tends to be on the southeast corner, naturally. Personal blogs are fine, but are limited in perspective and scope. I decided that a regional blog, West Michigan Rising, would have the right balance of critical mass, so there is always something new to read, and a tighter focus on issues and races here in West Michigan. KCDP's own Mark Miller has accepted the invitation to be the editor for Kalamazoo and the 6th.

As an example of the type of coverage you can expect, check out Mark's article on the UAW rally in Three Rivers on Thursday. It's at the top of the page right now, but as new content is added, it scrolls lower. Anyhow, check out the pictures of some of our local folk.

Come on over to WMR, make an account, add events to the calendar, add your own articles, or email Mark Miller with ideas for articles.

Tags: West Michigan Rising

Retired State Representative and long time Kalamazoo Democrat Ed LaForge has launched a new blog, The LaForge Report, with An Open Letter to Senator Obama.

Tags: The LaForge Report

Maybe the blog overreacted.

What do you think? Read the new blog post and leave your comments.

Commentary on the "compromise" that allows Bush to use the telephone companies to spy on you has been posted on the blog.

Tags: Civil Liberty

Normally, commentary is placed in the blog, but this Battle Creek Enquirer article shows why unions are so important to Michigan. "'We believe the state needs a new, larger budget,' Mark Gaffney, president of the [Michigan AFL-CIO], said today at a pre-holiday weekend press conference. 'We believe there is going to have to be tax revenue enhancements. We are talking to legislators about reforms and reorganizations, but we do not believe for a minute that reforms and reorganization alone will fix an over $1 billion hole. We are concerned that as months go by the hole gets bigger.'"

GOP extremists are already starting recall drives, and the AFL-CIO promised to help state legislators who vote for the necessary revenue enhancements.

This is a courageous stance and far sighted stance by Michigan's AFL-CIO, and every Michigander owes Mark Gaffney and the union membership a debt of gratitude.