Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds

From PR Newswire:

President Bush Boosts Porn Industry With Economic Stimulus Plan, According to AIMRCo

An unforeseen and surprising beneficiary of the Economic Stimulus Plan, a plan that George Bush contends will "boost our economy and encourage job creation," has surfaced this week. An independent market-research firm, AIMRCo (Adult Internet Market Research Company), has discovered that many websites focused on adult or erotic material have experienced an upswing in sales in the recent weeks since checks have appeared in millions of Americans' mailboxes across the country.

According to Kirk Mishkin, Head Research Consultant for AIMRCo, "Many of the sites we surveyed have reported 20-30% growth in membership rates since mid-May when the checks were first sent out, and typically the summer is a slow period for this market."

Jillian Fox, spokeswoman for LSGmodels.com, one of the sites reporting figures to AIMRCo, added, "In a June 15, 2008 survey to our members, thirty two percent of respondents referenced the recent stimulus package as part of their decision to either become a new member, or renew an existing membership."

(h/t to Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend)

Al Giordano to the DNC

This is a "blogger inside baseball" story, so if you think such things are trivial, feel free to skip.

Long time progressive writer Al Giordano ended up writing a new blog this year, quickly building traffic based on his astute coverage of the Democratic primary battle. He parked this blog at the site of a fledgling organization called Rural Votes run by Deb Kozikowski, a vice chair of the Massachusetts Democratic Party.

Al built his blog into a mini little powerhouse, worked his way up the Technorati rankings and was able to score a blogger pass for the DNC convention. In addition, his readers raised several thousand dollars to help get him there.

Then one day Al wrote a piece that cited Saul Alinsky (the inspiration for my forthcoming book, in fact), and Kozikowski freaked out.

From: DebbySKoz@cs.com
To: narconews@gmail.com
Date: Wed, June 11, 2008 at 8:00 p.m.
Subject: What Are You Doing?

Rules for radicals? Give me a break. We have a meeting with Farm Aid and other interested parties in the next two weeks -- what do you think you are doing? This is not helpful -- do you WANT Barack Obama to lose? Talk about creating the petrii dish for beautiful loser syndrome. I am including Matt in this conversation b/c w/o an understanding The Field goes fallow. I mean it, Al. I cannot allow you to rule this roost to the detriment of the overall mission. I'll take the hit if you refuse to be a team player and quit. An Obama funder I have been courting is horrified. That makes three -- two in the last week. You are wrong headed. This has NOTHING to do with rural at all and this particular hero of yours according to Time Magazine in 1970 -- "SAUL ALINSKY has possibly antagonized more people—regardless of race, color or creed—than any other living American."

This is pretty funny, if a tad pathetic. Alinsky is a true American hero, and like I said, my forthcoming book pays homage to him. But that should give you a taste of this sordid affair. (I won't get into the details, you can get them at Al's site if you want them).

Bottom line, she thought Al was harming her site, so she didn't just pull the plug, but she purged all of his past writings from the site. That's fine, it's her site. Kind of short sighted, since Al's blog was the best marketing possible for her obscure little organization. (Should I ban Saturday Morning Garden Blogging on Daily Kos because it doesn't directly relate to the mission of the site?) But whatever, no one cared much about that.

What was a problem is that Kozikowski essentially stole the money his community had raised to send him to Denver and kept the blogger credential Al earned for herself. When I asked her about it via email, she came up with a bizarre rationalization that she had used her apparently boundless clout within the DNC to pull strings and get those credentials. Total delusions of grandeur, and completely contradicted by emails from her Al posted on his blog.

Whatever. This post isn't designed to run Kozikowski or her lame organization through the mud. I think they're pretty irrelevant and will stay that way.

This is all to explain and promote an effort by some of Al's readers to get the DNC to issue him a new credential. So if you value Al's work and think he should get credentialed (like me), sign the petition.

Open Thread and Diary Rescue

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are Avila, BentLiberal, jennyjem, jlms qkw, Louisiana 1976, watercarrier4diogenes, and YatPundit, with srkp23 as editor.

• jhutson asks for your help to stop torture in Why Leanh Took Up Chain-Smoking. (jennyjem)
• shellac tells the tale of public healthcare in Brooklyn in "The County" And Its Woes. (YatPundit)
• iampuhna reminds us that today is really the anniversary of our break from King George in July 2, 1776: the resolution of independence. (YatPundit)
• In His Military Service Was Not Honored, karateexplosions laments the lack of care and compassion for the average war veteran and the hypocrisy of the deference to McCain. (BentLiberal)
• Rimjob posts an impeccable (and totally relevant!) diary on a Disastrous Month For The Auto Industry. (BentLiberal)
• gjohnsit chillingly describes a failure of the world's richest nation in Hunger On The March: Then and Now. (jlms qkw)  
• Phil In Denver wonders if an under-represented sector of the voting population could be the ticket to a Democratic victory this fall in The Coming Democratic Earthquake Part II: Can the Millennials Save Us From Ourselves? (jennyjem)
• Crashing Vor writes in vivid detail about being a little blue drop in a sea of red, and gives this community some much-needed perspective in Political Geography for Kossacks: Crimea River (jennyjem)
• cityvitalsigns says Thanks dKos, Obama, the Democratic groundswell, Bill Moyers, and more, for making me a better mother, and means it. (watercarrier4diogenes)
• cskendrick delivers a thoughtful treatise on the Constitution and watching our leaders closely, in Regarding The Big Picture. (BentLiberal)
• Chris Rodda describes David Barton as a Christian nationalist and historical revisionist whose work on behalf of Republicans has flown under the left's radar, in David Barton: Bobby Jindal is "One of the Really Cool Guys." (BentLiberal)
• mwmwm explains why international environmental leadership from the US is essential in Dole, Del Monte, Endosulfan, and the Ferry. (YatPundit)
• Are arthouse films and other smaller films, compared to major Hollywood films, financially unsuccessful? In On the Success of Big Blockbusters and Independent Films, AgnosticTheocrat says there's much more to the story than that. (Louisiana 1976)

If you enjoy Diary Rescue, please consider joining the Rescue Rangers. It's a great way to become more involved with the Daily Kos community. Did we mention it's rewarding and fun? To volunteer or learn more, please contact us (don’t forget to tell us your screen name) at: dkos.rescuerangers@gmail.com

Enjoy and please promote your own favorite diaries in this open thread.

RNC makes first big ad buy of year

From the subscription-only Roll Call:

The Republican National Committee is launching $3 million in independent expenditure television ads in four states, focusing on the energy issue.

The ad is slated to run on network and cable television in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and will highlight the differences between Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) on energy security.

This is good, our first look at how much McCain and the RNC can move people with their usual bull. It's all offense, too. The four states are Kerry Blue states. Let's grab the current Pollster.com composites for those four states, so we can use that as a baseline to see whether these ads move numbers:

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