As a progressive entrepreneur (the48er.com), I got pretty excited a few weeks ago when I saw Chris's posts here and elsewhere about the BlogPAC progressive entrepreneur contest. I applied and was glad to see that the announcement of who'd won had been delayed until today -- August 14 -- so that those evaluating the applications would have more time to do so. But now today's slipping away, and so far I've seen no word about who won. I'm pretty sure that I've checked all the logical spots on the Net -- but nothing.

Has anyone else seen or heard anything in these regards?

Earlier this week, Blogpac announced a series of $5,000 grants to support entrepreneurs who develop proposals for building progressive infrastructure.  Having spent a bit of time discussing liberal entrepreneurship on this blog, I was very excited to read the announcement.  This kind of effort is exactly what I want to see more of from progressive organizations, and three cheers to Blogpac for leading the way!

I will probably be sending in my own submission to this contest, and for the moment I'm holding my own hand close to the vest.  But in the spirit of friendly competition and encouraging other budding entrepreneurs, and in hopes of flooding the panel of judges with good ideas, this diary is dedicated to helping others develop proposals for the contest.  Follow me across the flip...

Over at Blue Majority, this cycle's version of the Netroots Candidates list on Act Blue put together by the folks here at MyDD along with the folks at Daily Kos and Swing State Project, we're having our first big fundraising push of the year on behalf of the two candidates on the list thus far: Al Wynn-foe Donna Edwards and soon-to-be John Doolittle-slayer Charlie Brown. For those unfamiliar with these two candidates, Matt had a great post on Edwards, who is running in Maryland's fourth district, here, and Markos had a great post recently on Brown, who is running in California's fourth district, here.

We are not making a huge ask today, but it's an important one. We're fast approaching the end of the second fundraising quarter -- all contributions need to be in by the end of the day on June 30 -- so we are asking folks to chip in $10 for Edwards and Brown, and we would like to see 100 new contributions for each of them by the end of the day Saturday.

So let's make our mark on these important races at this critical early stage in the campaign. Head on over to the Blue Majority page on Act Blue and show your support for Brown and Edwards today.

(For more on this effort, head on over to Swing State Project)

Thanks to help from Blogpac Maryland progressives now have a new home:

Free State Politics

I thought you might like to know that, thanks to a generous grant from BlogPAC, Maryland's liberal group blog
Free State Politics (http://freestatepolitics.blogspot.com/) has
successfully moved over to Soapblox. The new URL is:

www.freestatepolitics.us

I encourage Marylanders who read or write for MyDD to check it out.

Bumped--Chris

State and local blogs are the way of the future. They provide local political news and analysis not available anywhere else, especially as media consolidation means fewer and fewer experienced political reporters and good stories. And they also help bring together activist communities, which can change the shape of an entire race. (See Lieberman, CT, or Allen, VA for examples).

Blogpac wants to support that work. As previously diaried, we are offering a series of grants to community blogs to help cover hosting fees (one year of hosting, ie. $180, will be the standard amount). Blogpac is pleased to announce our second round of blog grants.

• Connecticut: My Left Nutmeg
  
• Illinois: Prairie State Blue
  
• Maryland: Free State Politics
  
• New Mexico: New Mexico FBIHOP
  
• Ohio: As Ohio Goes
  
• Ohio: Buckeye State Blog
  
• Rhode Island: Rhode Island Future
  
• Vermont: Green Mountain Daily
  
• West Virginia: West Virginia Blue

Read more about the grant criteria here. For the first time, we're also offering grants to group blogs not on a community platform - to enable them to switch. Congratulations to those in this round, and stay tuned for more grant awards in the future.

Like what we're doing and want to support it? Contribute to Blogpac monthly or one time only.

Bumped--Chris

This is the first in a weekly series of articles that will appear on BlogPAC.org, recognizing unsung heroes of the progressive movement--ordinary people who are working tirelessly to make America a better place. If you have suggestions about people who deserve more recognition for their work as progressive activists, please contact us at fighttheright-at-opendoor-dot-com.

Tomorrow we will announce our first $1,000 BlogPac Activist Hero Award.  Please sustain our efforts by contributing to BlogPac.

In the late 1990s, Raven Brooks was a member of Texas A&M University's elite Cadet Corps--a four-year military program similar to West Point. "I wasn't very politically aware at that time in my life," he explains. "I would have said I was a Republican, because growing up in Texas, in a conservative family, that's all I knew....but I didn't really agree with my parents--or my classmates--on many topics."

Cross Posted At Dailykos

In response to the growing disgust over their decision to partner with Fox News to host a Democratic presidential debate, the Nevada Democratic Party issued the following statement last night:

"FOX News' viewership in Western states and across the country does not always get to hear directly from Democrats in an unedited and uninterrupted fashion. The August debate in Reno will allow the Democratic Presidential candidates to speak to the Fox audience who may be hearing from them for the first time for ninety minutes unfiltered and directly."

Unfiltered, huh? Here are some "unfiltered" highlights from the last Fox News debate for Democratic presidential candidates:

[C]onsider the September 9, 2003 Democratic debate in Baltimore, Maryland, hosted by Fox News in partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus. Fox News graphics, as well as a banner over the stage, titled the event as the "Democrat Candidate Presidential Debate," a misconstruction of "Democrat" used as an an epithet. Fox News then summarized the debate with a story titled, "Democratic Candidates Offer Grim View of America," continuing with such jabs as, "The depiction of the president as the root of all evil began at the top of Tuesday night's debate...." Controversial questions included the accusation that Howard Dean had a racist gun policy by Fox News analyst Juan Williams. There were also multiple interruptions by protesters throughout the debate, leading to four arrests.

Insulting graphics, biased post-debate spin, loaded questions, conservative protesters--none of that sounds very "unfiltered" to me. Further, how much of the debate will Fox cut off entirely in order to have their in-house pundits offer negative commentary while the Democratic candidates are still speaking? Four years ago, in typically unfiltered fashion, Fox cut away from the Democratic debate they hosted a couple of minutes before it ended, in order to give arch-conservative William Bennett the first shot at post-debate spin. One also has to imagine what new ways Fox News can think of to distort the debate. For example, before it even takes place, it is not hard to imagine promotional ads along the lines of "watch to see which Democrat best remembers his Madrassa training!"

What particularly stuns me about the Nevada Democratic Party's decision here is that they first admit Fox News is biased against Democrats, and then use that as a justification for partnering with Fox News. If you believe, as the response from the Nevada Dems implies, that Fox News does not give Democrats a chance to speak in an "unfiltered" and "direct" fashion, then continuing to do business with them is entirely-self-defeating. All that does is lend Fox News, and their attacks against Democrats, credibility. At least Barack Obama and Howard Dean have both had the good sense to freeze out Fox News after they were smeared by the network. More Democrats should follow their lead, and stop shaking the hand that slaps them.

There are numerous outlets the Nevada Democratic Party could find to broadcast this debate besides Fox News: CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, or even live streaming video over the blogosphere. All of these outlets would provide the Democratic candidates with a much more "unfiltered" and "direct" platform to reach potential voters. Instead of providing Fox News with a means to reach a new audience--Democrats--and thereby stave off its slumping ratings, instead of giving them a golden opportunity to further distort the image of Democratic presidential candidates, and instead of providing them with credibility for all of their past and future attacks against Democrats, it would be best if the Nevada Democratic Party chose a different media partner to broadcast this debate.

In order to fight this, BlogPac has set up an email form that will allow you to contact several leading Nevada Democrats at once. Please, send an email to Nevada Democrats letting them know you oppose having Fox News host a presidential forum.

Tell Democrats to freeze out Fox News today. Remember, while we have provided you with a sample letter, a personalized email and subject header always helps.

Update: So far, over 350 450 760 920 1,170 1,650 1,900 people have taken the action! Let's keep going.