Independent Political Report has changed hands for the first time. The new owner of Independent Political Report is Chris Martin. Chris is the proprietor of Net Exclusive LLC, he’s a silent investor and believes in the site’s core mission.
All bloggers will remain on board, if they choose. All standards of writing, reporting, and commenting remain unchanged. The first 6 months of IPR have been exciting and accomplished. We’ve been cited by major blogs all over the internet, quoted in newspapers, and we quickly became the number one source of news for third parties and independent candidates on the web. We hope the growth will continue and thank you to all the bloggers and readers who make this site great!
I get most of the CP stuff directly, but would be happy to bring in others. Kalipay is trustable, i’ll shoot her an email. Id also consider bringing on someone like Kimberly Wilder—though she did have that crazy criticism of our postings on IPR once….
I’d love to take on more Greens/Leftists/Socialist. Suggest someone, who is dependable, and I’ll make it happen.
Ronald Hardy, and anyone else that blogs at Green Party Watch. Kimberly Wilder. We could see if some people that comments here (Gillis, LaineRBT, etc) want to write. Those who write blogs linked from GPW.
We could also get some CPers now that you are not one. Maybe kaliplay would agree to post stuff directly, rather than just send it to us?
Those are some good places to start.
Email me a list Paulie.
I’ll work on that.
Did you guys get my email about Davis Fleetwood? He has a Nov 26th deadline for that.
Thanks!
By the way: I just read thorugh a decent portion of your CitizenEconomists backlog of articles–very good.
GE,
My point exactly. If no one cares, how have we eclipsed 1,000,000 page views and 375,000 in under 6 months? I suppose, like Spence, these people are FORCED to come here?
Nobody cared about? Check out our traffic. Someone cared enough about it to buy the site.
Precisely the point. Let’s see what happens to your invincible rates now.
“7. more links in the blogroll”
Email me a list Paulie.
“5. more authors, especially greens/leftists”
I’d love to take on more Greens/Leftists/Socialist. Suggest someone, who is dependable, and I’ll make it happen. This website is Google News Indexed, so any Green Party member should be interested in making this happen.
“That’s not really “breaking†anything. It doesn’t take a high standard to fetch a link from your own blog roll. ”
First off–the next election is in 1 year and 11 months…there isnt MUCH breaking news here. But we’ve broken news in the past couple days that Rep. John Hostettler would be speaking to the CP national committee meeting, and that Rep. Virgil Goode was supposedly ruminating a CP 2012 run. Both of these were first reported here, to my knowledge.
Also, liberal coverage would definitely help make this more of an “independent” site.
Well first of all, your niche is very small, so saying that you broke some news about a party no one cared about is like breaking the news that instant cake mix is deadly in Penny Saver.
Much of the inherent bias is gone with GE, but I mean, where are your standards now? It seems every week more and more recycled blog posts from Paulie’s blog or BAN are posted here. That’s not really “breaking” anything. It doesn’t take a high standard to fetch a link from your own blog roll.
I predict this trend will continue, deep into the election offyears and not reverse course until late 2009 at earliest.
You arent the first person to say so–so I’d love to hear about how we could improve it
Some things I would like to do
1. get rid of comment registration
2. more posts per page
3. more features in the sidebar (see next free voice for some things we can add)
4. a theme that shows author name when going to a post other than from front page
5. more authors, especially greens/leftists
6. ipr radio shows, videoblogs
7. more links in the blogroll
There’s some other stuff on old threads on the internal IPR group that has been discussed but never done – you should take a look and see if you like any of it.
If you raise my permission level to allow me to change some of these settings, I volunteer to try some of them out. If not, I can just suggest them.
“So it’ll still be poor quality?”
You arent the first person to say so–so I’d love to hear about how we could improve it Spence.
I assume you aren’t taking a potshot at our commenting methods, so im guessing it is the writing and reporting you have a problem with. We were the first website to break a majority of the stories sourrounding last year’s Libertarian Convention, and a number of stories since then (including a few in the next day or so) so I honestly am not sure where you get the idea that our standards for reporting are low.
Shows us how it should be done, Spence. Build a better website to compete with IPR.
All standards of writing, reporting, and commenting remain unchanged.
So it’ll still be poor quality?
Guys, I know we’ve had our fair share of disagreements back when ThirdPartyWatch.com was alive and well, but this is one blog I read every single day.
Paulie, your comments are the difference maker here, I think. Haha. Very informative.
As the news editor for the only independent weekly muckraker newspaper in Texas, I encourage everyone to put IPR in their bookmarks and flood this site with news, opinions and analysis of third party and independent campaign info.
I love this site.
The only thing I would change is just to make the headlines become more AP Style friendly.
(i.e., ‘single quote marks’ in a headline; 4 percent, not four percent; District 7, not district seven, etc.)
That’s just the editor in me, though.
In some bioregions they are also known as the Soylent Green Party.
A modest proposal, to be sure.
But how will the Baathist Greens dispose of all those bodies?
The Baathist Green Party condemns wastefulness. The bodies will be eaten, thus also reducing our reliance on captive farm animals and unnatural uses of land for agriculture.
But how will the Baathist Greens dispose of all those bodies?
That’s the real test to see how “green” they are!
UNCLEAN
The Baathist Green Party will cleanse all this filth with a swift sword. There will be many beheadings to reduce overpopulation, as a start.
Would you ask Eric Dondero what his thoughts are about the emregence of the Protestant Stalinist Party? Would he agree that the Catholic Trotskyist Party is more libertarian?
No kidding.
I figured that maybe through private email he would drop the deranged personality he was displaying everywhere.
I was wrong. The man is off his rocker. Mike Huckabee is a libertarian because he plays the bass and that’s “cool”. Im not a libertarian because im anti-war. Depending on what atmosphere you are in, you can be more libertarian than others—Rudy Giuliani in NY, he says, is more libertarian that Gary Johnson in NM—even though he admitted Johnson was more libertarian…
?
Although, for the record, I have been communicating with Dond*ro recently.
UNCLEAN
There is no truth to the rumor that the new owner is a member of the Catholic Trotskyist, Protestant Stalinist, Maoist Scientologist, or any of the other new revolutionary parties that have sprung up lately, but we hope that he will be converting to Catholic Trotskyism soon, amen. The other revolutionary parties are worse than the capitalist parties, including the anarchists, libertarians, conservatives and liberals of all stripes, because stalinism set back the course of socialist revolution and the merger of socialism and Christianity! The CTP holds out hope that the Protestant Stalinist Party will split into Lutheranist and Calvinist factions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinglish
Things will get a lot more complicated soon, however, as there are rumors that someone is about to start a movement known as the Mormon Maoist Party, and there is also talk of an Islamic Buddhist Bukharinist Party, as well as a Greek Orthodox Castroist Party.
The Orthodox National Jewish Anarchist Party (ONJAP) is verklempt about all this mamzer mishegoss.
Don’t be a statist. Lizard men are real. I heard about it on Alex Jones.
Although, for the record, I have been communicating with….
Uh oh.
Stop thinking small. The new Owner will make Reverend Sun Myung Moon seem like a Sunday picnic in the park.
We are a REAL party. We intend to run a candidate for President on the Colorado ballot in 2012.
Most hilariously true comment in the history of this site.
I would NEVER wish for Dondero.
Although, for the record, I have been communicating with Dondero recently.
Worse than Dondero?
Have we been bought out by a lackey of Reverend Sun Myung Moon?
Soon, you will only wish it was Dondero.
Do NOT compare my boss to Dondero,lol.
Ah crap… is it Dondero?
It’s much, much worse than that.
I predict the new owner is a lizard man from the movie “V”.
You have 24 hours or the price goes way up.
Hah, considering it!
Are you sure you’re not ready to pay him to take the site back?
GE leaves and this place CRUMBLES.
There is no truth to the rumor that the takeover is just a straw purchase by the diabolical Revolutionary Randian Rastafarian April 1st Movement. Complete fabrication. Utterly rediculous (TM). People who spread such rumors should be tortured with rats and impaled.
I demand a recount and proof of natural born citizenship of the new owner.
The Maoist Scientology Party hearby DENOUNCES the denouncement of Trent Hill by the Protestant Stalinist Party.
Trent Hill, whether he wills it or not, is a revolutionary general of our Lord L. Ron Hubbard and his retroactive servant Mao Zedong!
May Comrade Hill’s heels soak in the blood of the suppressive bourgeois heathens of Catholic Trotskyism and Protestant Stalinism.
Since IPR is too much of a slave to pig capitalism to post our press release, we will post it ourselves:
NOVEMBER 17, 2008 (Berkeley, Calif.) — The Protestant Stalinist Party of America (PSP) today announced that comrade Yuri Titov won election as President of the United States of America, receiving 99.9% of all votes cast in the November 4, 2008 general election in the United States.
“Our congratulations to comrade Titov,” said Beatrice Bassingworth, General-Secretary of the Party and Chair of the Central Committee. “Unfortunately, due to the machinations of the imperialist insects in the Democratic, Republican, Green, Constitution, Libertarian, Socialist Workers, Socialist, Boston Tea, Objectivist, Prohibition, Reform, Pacifist and New American Independent Parties, comrade Titov’s vote total was suppressed.”
The PSP has announced its intention to file suit in Toledo Traffic Court seeking to block the certification of Ohio’s electors on the grounds of electoral fraud. It will also seek to have comrade Titov’s 1979 Ford Fairmont released from impound where it was placed due to non-payment of parking tickets.
For more information on the PSP, visit protestantstalinistparty.blogspot.com
# # #
The Protestant Stalinist Party is America’s largest political party with more than 38 million registered members. Since its founding in 1685 it has represented the rights and dreams of American workingmen and workingwomen in a spirit of peace, international solidarity and class equality. The current General-Secretary of the Protestant Stalinist Party is Ms. Beatrice Bassingworth.
Trent Hill, you are DENOUNCED.
We are a REAL party. We intend to run a candidate for President on the Colorado ballot in 2012. We are a party in formation.
“The Protestant Stalinist Party demands immediate satisfaction or it will denounce Trent Hill as a fascist insect and agent of parasitic capitalism.”
DENOUNCE ME!
A *real* website of a REAL party.
Jeez, at least I could agree with half of Catholic Trotskyism…
Haha. If he comes up with a website that actually represents that supposed party, I’d be happy to post a press-release.
The Protestant Stalinist Party demands immediate satisfaction or it will denounce Trent Hill as a fascist insect and agent of parasitic capitalism.
OH PLEASE DO NOT.
I’m writing all this up now.
=(
The Maoist Scientology Party hearby denounces the new Protestant Stalinist Party’s website as a vile tool of the Dark Lord Xenu and his psychiatric minions!
Woe unto them! May Tom Cruise in his wisdom smite them clean of thetans!
BREAKING NEWS!!!!!
The Protestant Stalinist Party is proud to announce their new website:
protestantstalinistparty.blogspot.com
The Maoist Scientology Party’s website will arrive even sooner!
May the Lord L. Ron Hubbard strike down this blasphemous suppressive persons and their false psychiatric minions. Woe unto them!
May they join their lord Xenu under the impenetrable forcefield of exile for all time!
Blessed is the Lord Hubbard and His prophet Tom Cruise! May the Maoist Revolution live forever in their name and clear away all Thetans!
Amen.
“Things will get a lot more complicated soon, however, as there are rumors that someone is about to start a movement known as the Mormon Maoist Party, and there is also talk of an Islamic Buddhist Bukharinist Party, as well as a Greek Orthodox Castroist Party.”
*facepalm* What have I done?
promise that there will be a Catholic Trotskyist website soon
I promise there will be a Protestant Stalinist website even sooner.
I, as chairman of the Catholic Trotskyist Party, promise that there will be a Catholic Trotskyist website soon, even though I have repeatedly promised it for the past year without delivering. We are confident that the Catholic Trotskyist Party of America would contribute more posts to this site than the Protestant Stalinist Party. Things will get a lot more complicated soon, however, as there are rumors that someone is about to start a movement known as the Mormon Maoist Party, and there is also talk of an Islamic Buddhist Bukharinist Party, as well as a Greek Orthodox Castroist Party.
Haha. If he comes up with a website that actually represents that supposed party, I’d be happy to post a press-release.
We find these bourgeois preferences patently unfair.
Where’s your website? We’ll do a post, I promise.
Special message for one or more people at the end
And what percentage of cross-postings were done from the Protestant Stalinist Party website?
ZERO.
We find these bourgeois preferences patently unfair.
For those interested, cross posted articles from BAN accounted for 14.5% of all posts at IPR during the month of November, which was the month when we’ve done it most frequently because of Richard Winger’s great coverage November 4th,5th,and 6th. Removing November, the percentage dips to single digits.
I hope to continue spreading my holy and God-centered message of Catholic Trotskyism here, and hope this will be confirmed as God’s new website since the incredible weakening of TPW.
KEEP HOPING.
I have been in contact with the new owners through a telepathic trance (of which they may not even be aware) and they have confirmed to me the new site will be a shining edifice to the glorification of Protestant Stalinism.
Go find a new site, Catholic Trotskyist.
naw, I’ll just keep reading here (until BAN gets RSS, that is, at which point I’ll be able to read 45% of IPRs content a few hours before it gets copied and pasted here)
“oh well, some of us hoped”
Then read somewhere else. No one forces you to read this blog.
I don’t think it’s appropriate to disclose what the site sold for
I’m not doing that. I’m curious what people would have bid, just as something for future reference.
oh well, some of us hoped
Feel free to start a better site.
Congratulations to GE for such a great and open site. Congratulations also to Chris Martin (not the Coldplay singer, right?) On second thought, I am sure he will do a lot better job than Daniel Imperato. I hope to continue spreading my holy and God-centered message of Catholic Trotskyism here, and hope this will be confirmed as God’s new website since the incredible weakening of TPW.
All standards of writing, reporting, and commenting remain unchanged.
oh well, some of us hoped
I don’t think it’s appropriate to disclose what the site sold for, but the fact is, yes, I took a risk in accepting the offer. The company that made the offer took a risk, too — it could have (possibly) gotten the site for far less. All in all, I think the gain (versus the current bid) was worth the risk that it could have gone higher.
Now’s the slow season. =\
I don’t want to make you feel bad.
It wouldn’t make me feel bad. What’s done is done, and I think we did pretty well. But I’m just curious, as an educational exercise, what people would have bid. Is there a price above which you know you would not have gone?
getting this rolling the day TPW died.
One of the better birthday presents I’ve received 🙂
Paul, it’s hard to say. Unexpected things can happen in auctions. I don’t want to make you feel bad.
Definite congrats to GE, and naturally, thanks again for getting this rolling the day TPW died.
If I remember correclty the Buy-It-Now, was $6900, and starting bid was $1099.
in that range, of course, is where it would have fallen, I think.
Just for academic purposes, I’ll say, my logic was this…this site is the contributors. Its not worth much if they bolt. So for me, owning 51% of something valuable is better than owning 100% of something worthless.
I took the $6900 at kind of a starting point but then said I won’t be able to own more than 51% of the site, the rest will have to be used to keep ppl from leaving. So right there you drop to $3519 on the value of the site.
Then add the fact that I’m cheap and want a great value, and maybe $6900 was a little high in the first place…..I’d probably ended up thinking less than $3519
This could easily be worth more to someone else, than it was to me, so I didn’t expect to win.
It was sincere though.
George, #5 @ you too…and anyone else.
My strategy was the same as rdupuy’s. I’m surprised you ended the auction early. Congrats all around.
Of course, like most people I would have sniped the auction with my real bid in the last few seconds of the auction.
Out of curiosity only, since it is moot at this point, how high would you have gone?
Definately congratulations are in order.
I even exposed my interest and wasn’t asked for a counter offer.
Of course, like most people I would have sniped the auction with my real bid in the last few seconds of the auction. One cannot put a max bid early, because of all the people who bump it with fake ‘entered the wrong bid amount’ retractable bids…
but such is life on e-bay….
I look forward to the new ownership and continued improvements to an already excellent website.
Same here, and see about including me on some of those collaborations; I might be of some use.
I’d like to extend my congratulations to Jason too. We’ll be in touch, this isnt our last collaborative project. =)
Congratulations, Jason. You’ve done a good job.
If you need any information from me, just email me.