"Hot Town, Summer in the City
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty. . ."*

Timelines now available for purchase!

Thanks to Lefty and roxy317 for all their hard work on getting the back end working so these wonderful timelines can be automatically delivered.  Currently Ilona's timeline on PTSD is available as an comma separate values (csv) file (readable by excel) for purchase, with more coming in the very near future.

"Don't clog my tubes!"

Greyhawk and Luaptifer recently attended DemocracyFest.  What is DemocracyFest?

DemocracyFest is an annual educational and inspirational festival for the progressive grassroots. DemocracyFest gives grassroots progressives the knowledge and skills they need to take our country back. Participants return home to their communities with renewed commitment, and new skills to help them making a difference.

By now, most everybody in in the blogosphere knows of the, now infamous, speech senator Ted Stevens, who happens to be in charge of regulating the internet, gave where he referred to the internet as a series of tubes.  While at DemocracyFest greyhawk, with a little help on the graphics from roxy317, was able to debut a great new coffee mug that pokes a little fun at this concept.  If you haven't seen it yet, or would like to purchase one for yourself please visit cafepress for more details!

In May, Cho was invited to give the keynote speech at the Wisconsin Associated Press Editors Annual Meeting in Racine. Her talk focused on Citizen Journalism and our ePluribus Media collaborative effort. But like every ePluribus Media activity, many hands joined it to make it work: Susie Dow, Aaron Barlow, wanderindiana and Roxy317 all helped. Our brochure was tucked in the front of the packet every registered Wisconsin Associated Press editor/participant received.

Cho and Aaron continue to represent ePluribus Media at Punch Sulzberger News Media Leadership Fellowship program at the Columbia School of Journalism. The goal of bridging the gap in understanding between citizen journalists and more traditional news media remained before them, but they were impressed by the attempts that the others in the program are making to insure that news reporting becomes a two-way street between journalists and readers. They are becoming much more aware of where the commercial news media sees itself heading and are seeing how citizen journalists can interact with them more readily. The program continues in October and, perhaps, January--when Cho and Aaron will present a more formal report on their participation.

The Ohio News Bureau: A Pioneering Outpost for ePluribus Media

As the first state news outpost in what it hopes will be many more to come, ePluribus Media is proud to announce the formation of its Ohio News Bureau.

Located in Columbus, the state capital, ePluribus Media's Ohio News Bureau is headed up by John Michael Spinelli, a seasoned Ohio Statehouse correspondent and columnist who contributes stories on issues big and small, mainstream and underreported about Ohio.

Promising to play an equally important role in the presidential elections of 2008 as it did in 2000 and 2004, the battleground state of Ohio, with its 20 Electoral College votes, will unlock the door of the White House to the candidate who can win the hearts, minds and votes of Ohioans.

To reach the Ohio News Bureau with stories, leads or ideas, send an email to OhioNews@epluribusmedia.org.

Google Search on the Journal and Timelines!

... and add Community to your Search Results

Upcoming summer events:

Yearly Kos will be held in Chicago August 2-5, and compliments of the hardworking susie dow, wanderindiana, standingup, Ilona, roxy, kay shepherd, leftylimblog, left coast, adam lambert (clammyc), land of enchantment, and Timroff, we have a table and are listed as an exhibitor. Lots of ePMedia folk have volunteered their time -- Kay Shepherd will be podcasting; Land of Enchantment will be taking photos, Timroff will reprise his great candidate interviews; Ilona will be on panels and hopefully signing copies of her books; Dania, kay shepherd, timroff, LeftyLimblog and Mrs. Lefty, JeninRI, standingup will be at the table, so stop by, say hi and meet up with your ePluribus Media counterparts. We are looking forward to seeing commentaries, interviews and podcasts from the crew.

Hard on the heels of YearlyKos in Chicago, a troop of ePluribus Media folks -- Bronxdem, Carol White, Standingup, Cho, Luaptifer, Ilona, BarbaraS -- are treking down to DC for the Media Giraffe for the "Journalism That Matters: The DC Sessions" a two-day convening of editors, publishers, writers, researchers, academics, students, entrepreneurs, public advocates, independent and "citizen" journalists intent on defining and launching "The Next Newsroom Prototype" using open dialogue, break-out task groups and circle-round sharing of ideas and solutions.

Super Sleuth Shout Out! If you haven't heard, Carol White's press credentials have been renewed, and her review of Aaron Barlow's new book, "The Rise of the Blogosphere," was recently quoted in the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Special thanks to cedwyn for all of her editing help!

Stories you may have missed. . .

Voter Suppression Mark Johnston: Voter suppression in America may have affected our last five federal elections. The voter suppression efforts uncovered so far have been aimed at suppressing minority votes or those who traditionally vote for Democratic political candidates.

Iraq Contractors: Raw Data From CENTCOM Susie Dow digs deep into the CENTCOM data on civilian contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan that she received in response to her FOIA request. Take a look at what is there, but more importantly, at what is missing.

Palast, Progressives and Investigative Journalism ePluribus Media Staffwriters: Mark Johnston, Standingup and Aaron Barlow: Investigative journalist Greg Palast, one of the most vigorous of all progressive reporters and winner of six Project Censored Awards, originally brought story of the "caging lists" from Duval County, Florida to widespread attention in his report for an October 26th, 2004 BBC Newsnight program.

Voter Caging: Is this Tool still in the RNC Arsenal? Standingup: Shawn Reinschmiedt, Christopher Carr and Rich Beeson were party to emails identifying voters who could be challenged during the 2004 elections, and have recently been appointed to key RNC posts. This movement of RNC troops should be noted and followed.

Hans Von Spakovsky: Right choice for FEC Commissioner?Adam Lambert: Hans von Spakovsky, only recognizable to a small percentage of Americans, has over the past two decades had a tremendous impact on our right to vote. Why would a man whose career has been dedicated to voting rights be challenged so vigorously for a position on this country's highest Election Board?

Book Reviews:

Going Down the Tubes? Aaron Barlow reviews The Cult of the Amateur. Andrew Keen sees the amateurism so powerfully expressed through the Internet today as destroying whatever culture we have left and us amateurs simply as 'Your muddled masses yearning for something free, The wretched refuse knowing nothing more.' Real knowledge, he argues, rests with the specialists, not the rest of us. Phfooey!

Breaking News: How the Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else Aaron Barlow, ePluribus Media contributor, brings us a review of a new history of the Associated Press Breaking News. This look back at more than a century and a half of reporting will be of interest to citizen journalists, for it shows what journalism can be, when at its best.

Transforming the Political Dialogue - A Call for Reason Carol White: That this book is not a typical campaign biography is really too bad. Would that every candidate wrote a biography of this quality! Reading it made me seriously consider enrolling in the ranks of the Draft Gore movement.

Op-ed

The Medium is the Process; The Process is the Message What's changing as the page changes paper and finality to screen and plasticity? Concentrating on Citizen Journalism and education, Aaron Barlow explores how both writing and publication are growing into their new possibilities, making process - and not product - their goal.

Volunteer Opportunities

ePluribus Media is growing! Traffic is up, registrations are up, and volume on the Journal has doubled. Due to this recent spike in operations, ePluibus Media is currently hiring for multiple positions in the organization.

Pay is low, ah, okay, monetary reimbursement is non-existent and the hours are long, but the rewards are great! So, if you have time you can donate, and you want to help out ... leave us a note in the comments ... or send us an email at ePluribus Media Volunteers.

If you don't have any time to spare, you can still help ePluribus Media's collaborative Citizen Journalism by donating a few dollars to keep the servers humming and the FOIA requests going. Or, if you can't do that, when you visit the site, click on a few of the ads! We get a few pennies for each click. And if you have shopping plans, consider doing all your Amazon shopping through our link since as part of the affiliate program, ePluribus Media gets a few pennies on each of your purchases.

No matter -- whatever it is you do, thank you for all your efforts!

*Song lyrics from Lovin' Spoonful's Summer in the City.