By attending the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers (MOB) Summerpalooza III at Keegan's Irish Pub on University Avenue in Minneapolis on Saturday, I renewed my membership in good standing and refreshed my blogger juices for another six months.
Immediately after I entered the friendly confines of Keegan's, Mitch Berg (Shot in the Dark) flagged me down in a booming voice and introduced me to the knot of bloggers in his immediate vicinity, including Chris (Buddha Patriot) and John LaPlante (PolicyGuy). It was a pleasure to meet frequent Shot in the Dark commenter Kermit.
I discovered that Berg and Captain Ed (Captain's Quarters and Heritage Policy Weblog) are fellow (former) technical writers. Tech writers are natural bloggers, they're writing all day anyway.
After asking for a glass of Killian's Irish Red on tap, my server informed me that they have it in bottles only at Keegan's, but how about a Smithwick's Draught (pronounced "smith-icks" or "smit-icks," the "W" is silent, which must please Democrats)? I found it to be a very tasty Irish red ale, much less filling than Guinness for a lightweight like me.
MOB t-shirts outnumbered the campaign shirts. Richfield Republican activist Rob Hewitt sported a red Pawlenty shirt. During the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign, I discovered that Rob truly puts the "active" in "activist." Various members of the Sue Crew sported the shirts and buttons of Pawlenty's primary election challenger.
David Strom and constant gardener Margaret Martin (Our House) and King Banaian (SCSU Scholars) held court at the power table on the Keegan's deck, under the chilly night sky. Those three (yes, Margaret too) plus Berg puffing on huge cigars out of David's humidor made for quite a smoke-filled image of political punditry.
Robin Marty, blogging as "rew" from Power Liberal informed Rob Hewitt and I that her co-blogger and hubby "smartie" is a homonym of S. Marty, for Steve Marty. She also told us that she will be starting a new blog that will be doing more original reporting, with journalistic-style standards, as opposed to just opining.
Grassroots activists Shar in Minneapolis, Julie W., and Eva Young (Lloydletta's Nooz) talked about their next stadium tax project: ousting at least one of the Hennepin County Commissioners who voted to levy a $1.1 billion Twins stadium tax without permission from county taxpayers (primary target: Mark Stenglein).
Being campaign season, several politicos made appearances at ground zero of Minnesota's conservative blogosphere:
- Obi Sium, U.S. Congress Fourth District
- Sue Jeffers, Governor - as usual, upbeat and very generous with her time
- Jeff Johnson, Attorney General
- Derek Brigham (Freedom Dogs), Minnesota Senate District 45 - a conservative alternative to Sen. Ann Rest
- Penny Steele, Hennepin County Commissioner, District 7
- Greg Gray, Hennepin County Commissioner, District 2 (Stenglein is the incumbent) - Stenglein and Gray will probably be the top two vote-getters to advance from the primary to the general — and not necessarily in that order!
Vote in tomorrow's primary election!
UPDATE: For more on the MOB party, check it out:
"Keegan's was MOBbed Tonight" SD63
"The conservative voice(s)," Polinaut
"MOB conducts semi-annual soiree," MOBANGE! - thanks to Doug Bass for saying "hi" and for running the MOBANGE! MOB community site.
"MOB Party Photos!," Crazy But Able - John was able to get some GREAT photos with no flash in the difficult lighting on the Keegan's deck, thanks to a sweet new digital SLR. Now I'm really glad that I didn't post any of my awful deck photos. Be sure to click the link to John's Flickr album of the event. See: Margaret's smile! Strom! King! Sue! Obi! Me! That biker guy!
"A look back at the Minnesota Organization of Bloggers soiree," Christianity, Politics, Sports and Me - more pics!
"MOBapalooza," hammerswing75 - even more pics!
POLITICS | BLOGGING
1 comment:
Matt,
Thanks for the roundup. You pointed me to several I hadn't seen.
Uncle Ben
Post a Comment