Pushing Rope Celebrates its Sixth Anniversary

Today is Valentine's Day for many people. For Pushing Rope this is our sixth anniversary. The first post ever on this blog was a humor piece about former New York Times columnist John Tierney. Since that time there have been nearly 8,000 blog posts written on the site. Some by fantastic guest bloggers who have left. (And whose contributions are greatly appreciated.) Tas and Litbrit have been the main guest bloggers. Their advice has also helped me improve this blog.

I would like to thank the readers for supporting this blog. Blogging can be lonely. It is nice to know that people are reading what I have to say.

Mission of Pushing Rope

Pushing Rope is a progressive blog. That doesn't mean it is a pro-Democratic Party blog. That is what many people didn't understand during Kendrick Meek's failed Senate campaign. PR pointed out the corruption allegations against Meek, Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist. The Meek campaign did push back against this blog. I pushed back.

This blog has been critical about President Barack Obama failing to "change" the unethical banking system and continuing the Bush policies of TSA searches and indefinite detention. This blog has not hesitated to bash the horrible policies of Republicans nationally and in Florida. Unlike some progressives, we aren't going to change our positions on civil liberty violations because there is now a Democrat in the office. That would be intellectually dishonest and only strengthen the erosion of civil liberties, if we allow illegal searches, and imprisonment without due process to continue.

PR started a netroots campaign against a post by Sticks of Fire blogger Rachel Moran. In the post, Moran discussed her and her friends assaulting homeless people on-camera. Progressive bloggers condemned Moran's post here, here, here, here, here and here. At the time, Sticks of Fire was the most popular Tampa blog. I received a lot of flak for taking SoF to task for its hate post. Sticks of Fire died a slow death due mainly to readers moving to sites like Saint Petersblog. This site is alive and well, and still taking hate mongers to task.

The mission of Pushing Rope is not to do what is popular. Our expressed goal is to stand up for what we feel is justice for civil liberties and social and economic equality. Those issues are important to us. If that means dealing with negative comments or emails then so be it.

Happy Valentine's Day to all our readers.

PUshing Rope Mentioned On TYT Now

Tina Dupuy gives me shoutout at the end of the TYT Now webcast.

It is a great episode of TYT Now. Discussed is the Rupert Murdoch hacking scandal, California parents spreading misinformation about vaccinations, and the debt ceiling.

Pushing Rope Makes Top 75 FLA Political Twitter Users List

Florida's Top 75+ Political Tweeters

I made the top 75 Florida political tweeters list. Peter Schorsch made the list and used Klout.com for crunch the numbers. The list isn't 100 percent scientific.

I have been aware lot of political and media people follow my tweets. One of my tweets was mentioned in a Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times article written by Adam Smith. That isn't to say that journalists hang on my every tweet. Far from it. However, there is a level of six degrees of separation between bloggers, journalists, activists and politicians. Schorsch and Joy-Ann Reid of The Reid Report can attest to this. Twitter's social networking makes the surprising relations between liberals, conservatives, bloggers, media and circus freaks more obvious.

Side note: I follow almost every person on Schorsch's top 75 list.

Pushing Rope Fifth Anniversary

Pushing Rope turns five years-old today. The first post ever written was on the horrible punditry served up in the New York Times op-ed section. I think there was less than 40 page views the first day. PR started gaining traffic with its coverage of the Mark Foley scandal. I noticed that the St. Petersburg Times was informed of Foley's sexual advances towards a former page from Louisiana. I even got into a heated online exchange with St. Petersburg Times media critic Eric Deggans over his newspaper sitting on the story.

PR has evolved into a national economics and Florida politics blog. There are various regular features such as the Joel Award and Quote of the Day. Somewhere along the way PR became read by political journalists and the media. Former Creative Loafing political editor Wayne Garcia often linked to PR.

I had no idea how this blog would evolve when I first started it. Over time I cared more about policy than political party. I am not a conservative or a Republican. However, I will not hestitate to bash President Barack Obama, Blue Dogs, or Tim Geithner if they wish to enact policies that will hurt the American people. Protecting AIG bonuses or turning off the heat of poor people during winter is not what I signed up for. If you aren't willing to fight against that then you are being a cheerleader and not a progressive. We can get the same results with Mitt Romney in the White House.

The vast majority of people that read this blog follow politics. I don't expect to change their opinions. What this blog does is advocacy journalism. In order to do that there must be honest debate. The bloggers at PR are not trying to get anyone elected. We do want to hold Democrats and Republicans accountable. This is what the media should do. Unfortunately, the media is more concerned with access than angering the establishment. That isn't to say that there aren't good journalists. (There are.) On the flip side: there are bloggers making a living defending the two party establishments. That holds no interest for me.

This blog has been a joy to work on. I am grateful for the platform I have been given and the people who have helped me.

Zencomix started posting his great comic strips. Litbrit and Tas have written many great posts have have been patient enough to serve as editorial sounding boards for me.

Special thanks to Crooks and Liars, Feministe, Pam's House Blend, Lindsey Beyerstein, former Raw Story editor Ron Brynaert, The Sayfie Review, and Blue Gal for the links bringing much traffic to this site. Most of all thanks to all the readers.

Pushing Rope Online Newspaper

The first Michael Hussey Daily is out. It is an online newspaper made from articles and blog posts linked in my Twitter feed. The online newspaper will be updated daily. Go check it out.

Pushing Rope Wins An Award We Never Heard Of

Pushing Rope won an award and bno one told us. Tripbase Review awarded the badge below to blogs they deem the best in Tampa. Other Tampa blogs that won are Re/Creating Tampa, Sticks of Fire, My Tampa Life, Brand Tampa, If I Could Escape, Our Radiant Tampa, Tampa Sports History, The Daily Loaf, and sometime PR contribitor Alex Pickett's Will Report for Food.

The write-up given to PR.

Five writers add a variance in editorial voice over at Pushing Rope, a (nearly) five year old blog in which nothing Tampa-related is left unreported.

Actually, we don't leave everything in Tampa unreported. Litbrit and I are the only two writing on PR these days. Tas has officially retired from blogging. The others come and go when they please.

Tampa Tribune: Start Paying Bloggers

I have received a lot of emails from bloggers that are concerned about their work being used by the Tampa Tribune without consent. I have blogged about Pushing Rope content being used without permission. Tina Dupuy and Alex Pickett have written about similar experinces. I have decided to start the Facebook group "Tampa Tribune: Start Paying Bloggers." The group is to help bloggers whom have had their work used by the Tampa TribuneTBO.com without their consent. This is a place for us to organize, share ideas and post updates. WE also want to know if your work has been used by the Tampa Tribune without consent or credit.

Tampa Tribune: Start Paying Bloggers

Tampa Tribune Runs Tina Dupuy Column Without Payment

L.A. blogger/stand-up comedian Tina Dupuy freelanced the op-ed "'Birthers' are clinging to unreasonable doubt" to the Tampa Tribune. The Tampa Tribune/Media General ran her column without giving her payment. Dupuy has worked for many alt-weeklies and did not send her work to the Tampa Tribune as a letter to the editor. She expected payment and has taken action by posting a Youtube video.

I have written about the Tampa Tribune running Pushing Rope content without my consent. PR bloggers Alex Pickett and Litbrit have had their posts run without their permission. The Tampa blog Sticks of Fire have also experienced the same problem. This takes serious chutzpah on the part of the Tribune.

Odd fact: I'm partly the catalyst for Dupuy becoming a columnist. I wrote these words on a defunct blog. Dupuy has posted my quote on her blog.

"But her blog posts are humorous and on target. She writes better than many columnists."
-Michael Hussey

In an interview, Dupuy explained why she became a columnist.

It's a great exercise as a writer. A guy wrote on his blog that I wrote better than some columnists. You'd think I'd be flattered. Yet, I immediately thought, "Wow. I'm a loser. I should submit my work to newspapers." So I started doing that. A couple of pieces have gotten published. Which may have not happened if I wasn't obsessively writing a blog almost everyday for two years.

I still believe Dupuy is a great writer and the Tampa Tribune should pay her for her work. The Tribune's use of bloggers' material is getting ridiculously out of control. I'm sure many bloggers would allow their content to be used for the exposure. Dupuy and PR bloggers don't need the exposure. If the Tribune wants our content than pay up or stop reprinting our words.

Pushing Rope Email List

Pushing Rope now has an email list. I will be updating it regularly.

Note to progressive activists: the Google group is only for PR updates. The Florida Progressive Coalition is where you want to promote your cause or current Daily Kos diary.

Pushing Rope Demographics

To my surprise: I found out Quantcast.com was during market research on Pushing Rope. For laughs, I signed up for the service.

Say Hello to BeingQua

Pushing Rope contributor Sine.Qua.Non is now blogging at BeingQua. Update your bookmarks at blogrolls.

Pushing Rope In Online Edition of Chicago Sun-Times

My "Big Racist Tent" post was published by the Chicago Sun-Times. Pushing Rope is part of the BlogBurst network and occasionally gets posts published by Reuters. I still don't make any money of this. In case you're wondering.

Pushing Rope Now On Twitter

You can now can't Pushing Rope updates on Twitter.

twitter.com/pushingrope

Facebook Blog Network

Pushing Rope is starting a blog network on Facebook. I learned about this application from Brian Spears of Incertus. Hit the banner to join the Pushing Rope network.

Join my blog network
on Facebook

Blog Networks

Pushing Rope friends with blog networks.

Incertus

Shakesville

Pam's House Blend

Pandagon

Blast Off!

Florida Progressive Coalition

Feministe

Go join the networks and support these bloggers.

Pushing Rope Second Anniversary

Pushing Rope is officially two years-old today. I like to thank Tas, Zencomix, Litbrit and Sine.Qua.non for making this site a better place.

Thanks to Creative Loafing for the loaf of bread, Wayne Garcia warned me not to eat. For those you Loafie winners that ate your award... err, yum?.

Thank you to our blogmother. I greatly appreciate the traffic she sent my way.

Jill Filipovic, Lindsay Beyerstein, Kenneth Quinnell and Pam Spaulding have been kind enough to link to this blog.

Props to Cernig, the Panda, David Scott Anderson and most of all our readers and commenters.

Thank you all and anyone I accidently left out.

Pushing Rope Mystery Blogger

Can someone tell me who Terrence O’Brien is and why he is credited with writing my blog post?

Pushing Rope On Reuters

Reuters has published my blog post "Petraeus: Six More Months." Now if Alternet would run my posts...

Zencomix Hits the Charts

Zenocomix's An American Brayer strip is a Technorati rising post. Go over to Zen'site and congratulate him.

Pushing Rope Not Member of FNC

I was asked by the media if Pushing Rope is a member of the Florida Netroots Coalition. The answer is no. The blog isn't even on the FNC blogroll. Gene Smith officially announced that the FNC is an official Florida Democratic Party club.

On Sunday, October 28, 2007, the Florida Democratic Party Central Committee approved the recommendation of the Committee on Clubs, Caucuses and Organizations to grant approval to the charter application of the Florida Democratic Party Netroots Coalition.

Only two Pushing Rope members live in Florida. The others have no dealings with the Florida netroots. Litbrit and I are not members of the FNC. I do wish the FNC luck and congratulate them on their new status.

Update: Kenneth Quinnell informed me that the Florida Netroots blog is not affiliated with the Florida Netroots Coalition.

Litbrit Wins Best Writer

One of the things I wanted to do, when Litbrit came on to Pushing Rope, was make people in the Tampa and Florida blogosphere more aware of her writing. She was known nationally for writing on Shakesville and Ezra Klein. She received no attention in the Tampa blogosphere. She isn't even on the Sticks of Fire Tampa area blogroll. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to nominate the Litster when Kenneth Quinnell asked for nominations for the Florida Netroots awards. The rest is history.

Litbrit is the 2007 winner for best writer. Kenneth Quinnel sums up why she deserved to win.

Winner Best Writer: While I’m a little sad I didn’t win this category, I didn’t deserve to, since Litbrit is without a doubt the best writer we have in the Florida blogosphere. I voted for her myself. Now you need to start reading her writing much more frequently.

Writers often need encourage (and sometines large quantities of alcohol) to keep them inspired. Many political bloggers receive little traffic, but continue to write because of their passion for politics and self-expression. Litbrit has both qualities in spades. Pushing Rope is proud to have her as one of our members. We just get grumpy about having to share her with Shakes and Ezra.

In other news: I lost in the best national blogger category. Blast Off won and I wish Sinfonian the best. He was extremely gracious towards me and Mustang Bobby in his victory post.

My consolation is Reuters News running one of my blog posts. That is the first post that has ever been freelanced. The only problem is I never gave Reuters permission to run my entire posts. I did sign with Blogburst. Reuters runs posts from that service.

Today is a great day for the Florida progressive blogosphere.