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Jersey Blog Beat

I should be starting this baby up soon.

Blogging was something I've kind of taken for granted -- I've done it since college and so have most of my friends. It was like scratching an itch. I didn't appreciate how democratic and even Darwinian the nature of blogging is. Anybody can make a blog and have their voices heard, but adroit bloggers like good ol' Abe see their posts read on constant refresh-dial.

In the aftermath of the Monmouth Blog wars, in which the county's cadre of Republican bloggers were referred to as "terrorists" by their flumoxed party chairman, the roles blogs play in Jersey politics, news and communities became something of great interest to me.

I'll be leaving my thoughts on Monmouth politics to this blog, though. The NJ.com blog is going to look at a wider swath of blogging and technology issues in Jersey and how they affect our cultural climate.

So I hope to post there very shortly and get these wheels a'rollin'.

Live in fear. Or something.

Somebody's got some explaining to do

A few of my favorite folks from my reporting days of yore have got quite the hot tamale on their hands:

Star-Ledger News Log

The corruption probe into the business dealings of former state Sen. John Lynch inched nearer to the Democratic Party powerbroker today with new allegations that two of Lynch’s closest associates paid elected officials for their votes on a controversial Monmouth County project.
...
The indictment does not identify the builder or his associate by name, but township records related to the project and campaign contributions indicate they are Jack Westlake and Jack Morris, two of Lynch’s longtime business partners and close friends.

In search of a name...

There will (hopefully) be a new blog adventure soon.

I was very impressed at how adroitly Monmouth's Republicans took to utilizing blog technology and websites. I think a fair argument could be made that the blogs played a role in the party's selection of it's November slate for freeholder.

So, somewhat in that spirit, I want to write a blog about New Jersey blogs and the subculture that seems to surround them. Part of it will be basically recapping the blog entries heard 'round the Garden State aon a daily basis.

The only name for this theoretical blog I could come up with so far is "The Meta-tator" but that's just way too pretentious for a Jersey blog.

Think, think, think. I come up with the best names (or the somewhat non-sucky names) when I actually don't think too much about them. I'm turning the tables to you guys: help me pick a blog name.