Bad Gals Radio

Independent

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Mixing music and message together, Mama ASID brings you Bad Gals Radio. While tapping your toes to the streaming music, you will enjoy reading topics ranging from U.S. politics, the Caribbean, and Africa, as well as the latest news from around the internet.

Welcome to our latest website review. This week, I am proud to bring you our first blog radio. If you had the chance to read our review on the EGO blog, you will see how some of our fellow bloggers take advantage of audio files to expand the reach of their message. Our friend over at Bad Gals Radio takes this form of media to the next level.

Bad Gals Radio is a unique website mixing news articles, opinions, and radio broadcasts together to pull you into Mama ASID’s world. Much of the news articles deal with current events, focusing on the trials and tribulations of our brothers and sisters in Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. As she states, the focus is on those who cannot speak for themselves. With an independent perspective on the candidates and politicians, she listens to their messages regardless of their party in order to vote and voice her consciousness. To give you an understanding of her work, let us review the two main features of her website.

When Mama ASID writes about a topic, she usually provides you multiple news articles from different sources to gain an overall sense of the issue. To give you an example, take a moment and read the article “Bloody Sierra Leone punks GUILTY – Charles Taylors’ Balls Roll Next.” Her article includes stories from New Liberian, BBC News, Voice of America News, The Liberian Journal, as well as video clips from ABC News, the UN, and other content from YouTube. All of this material is summarized and pulled together into a cohesive message. Liberia is a country you probably haven’t thought about this month, even though the country and the United States share a close connection (take a moment to look up the American Colonization Society).

The radio broadcast and streaming music ads the unique factor to the website. Through the voice of Mama ASID, you hear the emotion that completes the message; something that text cannot do alone. Her podcasts cover related topics on her site, as well as website reviews, shout-outs to EntreCard members (through her EntrePod recordings), and discussions with others. On today’s EntrePod broadcast (which lasts 30 minutes), she covers over ten websites by highlighting what the sites are about, with examples of topics they could discover. All of this is mixed with humor and sound effects, including one of my favorite clips from the move “The Fifth Element” (I’ll let you listed to the broadcast to see if you can find it). The streaming music is a mix of Caribbean and African music, exposing you to a style that you might otherwise never come across in your daily lives. While doing my research on her website, I had the music playing in the background and found myself tapping my toes along with the beat at times.

Bad Gals Radio is not the only site that Mama ASID operates. Her empire includes a MySpace page, a mirror site at Mama ASID’s EntrePod, and Recycled Frockery. If you are interested in Bad Gals Radio, you might want to visit her other sites as well. I do want to point out that the Bad Gals Radio website views better through Firefox than it does with Internet Explorer. With IE 7, the background images are slightly skewed, making it difficult to read some of the text on the screen. Additionally, it should be noted that Mama ASID has been bringing you her opinions since 1999, but due to a database failure in October, the older material is no longer available.

So take a moment and drop by Bad Gals Radio.

EGO

Independent

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Martin Lindeskog brings us a unique perspective on U.S. foreign and economic policies. Located in Sweden, Martin is an “American in spirit” that holds true to the Objectivism ideology developed by Ayn Rand.

The latest addition to the Political Blog Listing comes not from the United States but from Sweden. Martin Lindeskog, the author of EGO, might not be in the United States, but he is an American at heart. When he is not discussing American politics and policies, he is exploring the American economy and markets. With that, let’s take a moment and explore Martin’s domain.

EGO derives its name from Egoist; a person who is devoted to their own interest and advancement. It is this ideal that many American’s possessed to become successful. It is also a good description of bloggers everywhere - including myself – since we strive to advance our understanding of politics while exploring our interests in a public format. In his quest for advancement, Martin provides the readers three formats to choose from in order to learn about his positions and views on economics and politics. When I first started writing this review, I wasn’t sure how to address this without including his other two sites in the review as well. This multi-site format is unique to our current list of reviewed websites, so let me take a moment to cover them in brief.

The first site is Martin’s primary blog. EGO is a multipurpose website (a “pundit style” as he calls it) covering politics, capitalism, blogging, religion, military, and more. Narrowing the scope of the review down to politics and capitalism, you get a good sense of where he would fit within the American society. With a keen interest in U.S. free-market system and philosophical references to Ayn Rand, Martin could easily find a home in the United States. If you look at his post “Christopher Cox at the Securities and Exchange Commission,” you get a feel of his pundit style. With 20 separate links in one post, Martin discusses the appointment of Mr. Cox to the SEC and the criticisms and praises Cox received for his acceptance of the philosophy of Ayn Rand towards corporations and free enterprise.

The second site in Martin’s corner of the internet is another first for the Political Blog Listing. He hosts a podcast hosted on Solid Vox. While the podcast is a new feature, with only two interviews currently uploaded, they are full-length interviews with a depth of information. If you have 27 minutes available, I would recommend you take the time to listen to his interview with political cartoonist Allen Forkum. They discuss not only the process for creating a political cartoon but also explains how you can get your hand on some original pieces of work.

The last tool is his presence on the Open Forum (powered by American Express). Most of his in-depth writing on businesses and working with the U.S. economy can be found here, and many posts from the EGO website links to these articles. While these articles might not necessarily be political in focus, U.S. policies towards the free market makes our economy a fertile field for new businesses to grow. Martin has an excellent article on “Five Reasons Why America is a Great Place to Run a Business.” Here he explores how our culture and policies are important aspects in our economic security and expansion for the future.

Be it his focus on an open economy or his Objectivism views, Martin reminds us of our can-do spirit and entrepreneurial drive. Take a few moments to visit his website and explore the wide array of topics and sources he links in his articles and get a better feel for his outside impression on the United States.

I must apologize to Martin, however. When he first contacted me about reviewing his website, my initial glance at his site gave me the impression that I could write the review within a few days and have it posted by the weekend. However, once I started reading the 6 years of material and discovering his additional work outside of the EGO blog, the more complex the task became. There are blogging tips that I discovered that I might experiment with and integrate into U.S.C.S website as a result of the additional time I spent reading his works.

The Right Wing

Conservative

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John Kaduk and Matthew Kowal bring you today’s latest news and points of view from a strictly conservative point of view. Visit their site and join in with the discussion.

Our third volunteer for a website review comes from our friends over at “The Right Wing.” As with many of the initial websites we review on here, this site brings us a new first.

The Right Wing is a conservative website using a magazine-style format. Similar to websites managed by larger publications, such as CNN or FOX, the website is broken down with the latest articles scrolling in the main body of the site, with smaller sections broken out by categories displaying their most recent article. And like the larger sites, The Right Wing has more than one author.

John Kaduk and Matthew Kowal joined forces at the beginning of 2008 to cover the issues facing the nation as well as current events. Branding themselves as “conservatives in the truest form,” their first article (penned by Kaduk) defined what conservatism means to them. Lower taxes, less regulation, a strong military, and more are the core platforms of conservatism that are described and are evident in many of their posts.

While they might be harsh on the focus of their article, they do layout their case and cite sources to back-up their position. However, they are fair to those that disagree with them, especially if they cite references to disprove their arguments (as suggested in their initial post). A decent example of this is their article from October 16th entitled “Obama’s Membership In The Socialist ‘New Party.’” Framing their argument around five different references, they make the case how Obama and the New Party are connected. In addition to source articles, the authors use comics and videos as points of discussion in many of their other posts.

The site is updated a few times a week with original content. Also, there are new polls a few times during the month, located at the bottom of the page. Reading through many of the articles, I did not see any foul language nor content inappropriate for young viewers. If you are interested in a purely conservative point of view, I recommend you spend a few moments reading the works of Kaduk and Kowal and join in with the discussions.

Phuck Politics

Independent

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Are you looking for a change of pace? Need a good laugh when the government does something that doesn’t make any sense? Ron has the website for you. (Note, this site uses adult language.)

I want to thank the author of Phuck Politics for being the second person to volunteer his site for review, and for giving me my first real challenge.

As you can tell by the title of the blog, the author has a very low opinion of US politics and politicians. Living up to the profile of website, the author points “out how stupid our elected officials are and how f—-d we are.” Being disassociated with a political leaning in one direction or another, all politicians and their decisions are fair game for criticism, spoofing, and name calling. The satire is thick in most of the posts, making the website fun to read. However, don’t let the humor mislead you.

Mixing humor with criticism, you might think the author works for the Daily Show.   Reading passed the jokes, you will discover logical arguments on the issues.  Take the example of the bailout of the auto industries and Wall Street.  The author discusses how we tend to punish people more for smaller issues (such as illegal drugs), but are willing to give a pass on those companies that did not practice sound business policies.  We are willing to give these companies billions in dollars with little oversight.  When they spend it in ways that do not directly benefit the company’s financial position (such as going on expensive retreats), the Congress has little power to punish the companies other than saying “stop.”  In the ten different articles I read regarding the bailouts, the underlying message remains true.

This is just but one example of the topics covered on Phuck Politics.  The author covers a wide array of topics that are popular at the time, but I do need to warn you before recommending visiting the site.  The author relies heavily on foul language, and while I would wish that people abstain from such practices, it would take away from the humor and identity of the site.  So let me just state that I would call this a “mature” site, and recommend parents to preview the site before allowing their children to visit it.  Beyond the language, I do not have any issues with the site.  It is running a streamlined theme with very little advertisements and badges in the sidebar.  The only items that would delay the page from loading properly would be if there is more than one video object embedded on the page.  This usually isn’t the case.

With most of his posts, the author uses good blogging practices by linking a source article or image to create the basis for his entry.  This is as much a humor site as it is a serious site, and I do encourage you to visit it (if foul language does not offend you), especially if you need a laugh.  Our politicians create legislation or act in ways that cause the general public to scratch their heads and question, “What were they thinking.”  Phuck Politics simply states our thoughts out loud.

The BoBo Files

Conservative

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The evil conservative clown mixes passion with sarcasm to the hot topics of the day. Taking a true Freedom of Speech approach towards blogging, he encourages debate by those who share different opinions.

I would like to welcome you to the first website review for our Political Blog Listing. The author of The BoBo Files has graciously volunteered his website so we could create a few sample reviews for future Bloggers to read when considering to have their own sites reviewed. With that, let’s get started.

The BoBo Files takes a Conservative view on the issues, though the website does not follow the Republican Party talking points. Following the hot topics of the day, the author structures the articles in a well-researched manner that encourages discussion. The level of debate is evident, as most of his posts receive comments, many with more than 10 different people sharing their views.

Another way the author encourages the exchange of ideas is through his weekly “carnival.” A Blog Carnival is service where various Bloggers can submit their articles for consideration on a different website. In the case of The BoBo Files, the author encourages Bloggers to submit their articles by Saturday each week, choosing from one of the seven following categories: conservative, democrats, liberal, libertarian, news, politics, or republicans. Averaging at least 15 submissions on a weekly basis for all across the political spectrum, the author takes time to read and comment on the submissions when posted.

In addition to the carnival, the author actively reads other websites and chooses articles of interest to discuss. It doesn’t matter if the article is something the author agrees with or not, but the author gives credit and links back to the original article. With over 150 daily viewers, these links back to other sites drives needed traffic to other Bloggers out there.

One criticism we have with The BoBo Files is the extensive use of advertisements and banners in the right-hand sidebar. The high number of graphics and links leads to a slow load time. We find it quicker to load the site using Firefox rather than Internet Explorer, however using the RSS feed tends to be an easier option for the causal reader.

Over all, the website is very well done, full of thoughtful and interesting original content. Other than a passing four-lettered word from time to time, the content is family friendly with no adult content displayed. And unless you suffer from Coulrophobia (the fear of clowns), you should take a moment and visit the site.