I’m very proud to say that Blogpac just announced West Virginia Blue is a recipient of the 2nd round of grants to help develop the netroots movement.

This is exciting news on many levels for me. When I began the site in August 2006, I had been a relatively veteran poster at Daily Kos.

I’d seen the way the site had helped develop many Democratic activists. The site helped inform us. The site helped motivate us. The site empowered us.

I wanted the same thing to happen in West Virginia.
We’re a diverse state with many challenges — not the least of which is our geography. Those of us in the Eastern Panhandle know little of the problems in Southern West Virginia. In many counties schools are having to consolidate due to a lack of students. Here in this area schools cannot be built fast enough to keep up with the enrollment.

Our traditional news sources seldom cover other parts of the state and when they do seldom provide context. The lack of quality coverage of politicians like Shelley Moore Capito in between elections has allowed her to manipulate the voters into believing she is a moderate who cares for the people of West Virginia when the reality is she’s beholden to corporate and right wing interests who have profit margins and executive pay as their priorities.

Before 2000, I took little interest in politics. I voted, I donated to charities and causes I believed in and by that I thought I did my part. Too many of us have been apathetic as to what the government did in our name and we’ve paid the price for it by having right wing corporate media sell us a false bill of goods. We’ve seen the manipulation of reality and people’s emotions lead to Republican victories and put an incompetent, ill-equipped administration in the White House. We’ve seen the price paid with record deficits, terrorist threats ignored before the worst criminal act occurred in U.S. history, international good will squandered and old alliances tattered.

Blogs have the power to inform and unite us. Ask Democratic Senator Jim Webb and countless others how effective blogs can be at helping campaigns. But it’s not just campaigns that can be helped. It’s a long-term movement. And that’s what I’m here for: the long haul. We’ve not rested between election cycles. Politicians like Ms. Capito aren’t going to be able to rest on their laurels in between elections and have people forget their votes and their words in between. This is a democracy. We’re here to remind the politicians they work for us.