May I just say

How much Gottalaff and I really do appreciate and thank all of you who stop by to check out what we're into every day. When I first started helping Cliff out with his blog, I told him that my ideal for any person starting a blog was to create something they would want to read. We'd read our blog, and we love the fact that we attract the kind of people who want to read it too.

But of course, there are always naysayers. We're not great legal minds dissecting government with a scalpel, Snark Kings**, a huge diverse community of resources or ultimate wonks. We're just a couple of gals who really care about making sure everyone knows the things that sometimes fall thru the cracks. To those of you that don't find our blog helpful or insightful, you have other options. I believe last time I checked there were a bazillion trillion megachurch million other blogs out there and I'm sure you'll be fine.

To the rest of you, thank you for stopping by and caring.

--Paddy

**Possibly Snark Princesses...

Trolls and other objectionable Commenters

By GottaLaff

It's time to re-post this Post-O'-Guidelines, since we seem to be having a new wave of trolls this summer. And good for us! Why good? Here's why:

Original post:

We know here at TPC that we are becoming more successful than ever before. How do we know that? Because we've seen an increasing number of trolls on our site.

This pathetic little band of drive-by and/or returning Commenters must feel awfully threatened, because they obviously feel the need to intrude on a harmonious family such as ours who have no interest in any of the illogical, ill-informed, baiting insults they fling around like ape feces (unless, of course, it's a genuine attempt at real conversation with at least a minimum of substance).

With that, here is a post I've been saving up. I found it at The Motley Moose. Here are some excerpts:

For many people, flaming and hostility are the only reasons to get online.

These are folks who suffer from a chronic case of assholicism.

Trolls.

troll
One who purposely and deliberately (that purpose usually being self-amusement) starts an argument in a manner which attacks others on a forum without in any way listening to the arguments proposed by his or her peers. He will spark of such an argument via the use of ad hominem attacks (i.e. 'you're nothing but a fanboy' is a popular phrase) with no substance or relevance to back them up as well as straw man arguments, which he uses to simply avoid addressing the essence of the issue.

It's much easier to criticise and inflame than it is to be creative and stimulating.

This is as true for the blogosphere as it is for the real world.

Not all trolls are loud, obnoxious and obvious though.

One of my favorites subset of trolls is one that does not fit this specific criteria.

The "polite" troll. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

These are usually the ones railing against opression and all about their right to spew whatever nonsense they are peddling that day.

They usually offer up blisteringly polite, well written 'snake under the rose' posts that are perfectly within the bounds of decency, but create unrest and dissatisfaction with cutting accuracy.

Disruptive people, who keep themselves just at the edge of acceptable behavior.

They can drive away the sane people just as much as the loud and obnoxious obvious trolls.

These are the posters all too often cry innocence and hide behind the very worthy excuse of open discussion, but are frequently just trying to stir up trouble.

Those are usually the ones accusing trusted and long time users of promoting censorship and trollish behavior.

Blogs have to walk a fine line though.

- Heavy handed mods find themselves with a dead community, because people do not want to be dictated to.

- Mods that exercise too little input also find themselves with a cobweb, because trolls come in and run people off. [...]

Kottke says a bit like so :

Much of the tone of discourse online is governed by the level of moderation and to what extent people are encouraged to "own" their words. When forums, message boards, and blog comment threads with more than a handful of participants are unmoderated, bad behavior follows. The appearance of one troll encourages others. Undeleted hateful or ad hominem comments are an indication that that sort of thing is allowable behavior and encourages more of the same. Those commenters who are normally respectable participants are emboldened by the uptick in bad behavior and misbehave themselves. More likely, they're discouraged from helping with the community moderation process of keeping their peers in line with social pressure. Or they stop visiting the site altogether. [...]

Gresham's Law

Gresham's law says that any circulating currency consisting of both "good" and "bad" money (both forms required to be accepted at equal value under legal tender law) quickly becomes dominated by the "bad" money. This is because people spending money will hand over the "bad" coins rather than the "good" ones, keeping the "good" ones for themselves.

Gresham's Law of trolls:

Trolls are willing to use a forum with a lot of thoughtful people in it, but thoughtful people aren't willing to use a forum with a lot of trolls in it.

Which means that once trolling takes hold, it tends to become the dominant culture.

Except for one thing: That's not going to happen here at TPC. As of January 1, 2009, I decided to make every attempt to delete/monitor troll comments if they are:

• Uncivil
• Pointlessly rambling
  
• Serve no other purpose other than to attempt to provoke a fight
• Redundant (ie: posting the same comment in several threads)
• Argumentative, simply spewing lies, without providing substance/facts
• Excessive in length (that goes for sympathetic Comments, too)
• Random, uncalled-for, irrelevant snottiness without regard to the content of that particular post
  

If I left anything out, please feel free to add to the list.

There are exceptions to all of these, of course. If a comment is longer than usual, but it's from a Commenter who adheres to protocol 99.9% of the time, we tend to be lenient. If a Comment is relatively innocuous, but simply annoying, that's no biggie either.

Freedom of speech is one thing. Spewing gratuitous hostilities in an otherwise congenial setting is another. That's superfluous and destructive.

Setting standards for an environment that nurtures friendly, respectful, and spirited conversation is paramount. Anything that crosses the line will hereby be deleted.

I'm done now.

Arianna Huffington's Keeping Her Eye On Lobbyists

By GottaLaff

Somebody should have done this a long time ago. It's about time:

Arianna Huffington announced today the launch of "LobbyBlog," HuffPost's eye on lobbyists.

In a release she says: "Stories about lobbyists undermining reform tend to pop up, make our blood pressure rise, then quickly drop off the media radar until the next outrage grabs our attention. Which is why we are launching HuffPost's LobbyBlog, an ongoing, consistently refreshed collection of the latest information on lobbying, lobbyists, and the tragic impact they are having on our lives." HuffPost's Jason Linkins will provide what Arianna calls "a heaping helping of attitude."

Knowing Arianna, she'll bring this to Keith and/or Rachel and we will have some good video to post.

DNC about to get louder on Obama agenda

By GottaLaff

I just posted about the NRSC video launch attacking President Obama. Now the DNC is about to get going on behalf of the Obama agenda:

The Democratic National Committee is about to crank up the speakers. As part of its campaign to sell President Obama's agenda, DNC HQ will double the size of its communications and research operation to make sure that even tiny, local pro-Obama efforts, like the weekend nationwide neighborhood canvassing for the president's budget, get a voice and some press.

That's the spirit. Effective rapid response would be swell. Big time campaigning, media blitzing... go for it. Hey, I bet we bloggers would be a welcome addition, right?

"It's going to be like a general election for president," says Brad Woodhouse, the new DNC communications and research boss. That means rapid response, regional media help, and party bloggers. One reason for the expansion is to take advantage of the Obama campaign's E-mail list of 13 million. The Obama campaign arm, Organizing for America, is also being folded into the DNC. The party, says Woodhouse, "has never before been used to pass a president's agenda."

Unity.

Fox News claims ‘magic negro’ text was "inadvertently cleared for air"

By GottaLaff

Just like some of the so-called "polite" trolls, Fox News [sic] is defending itself against the "magic negro" crawl message it displayed on New Years Eve. From my Troll post:

Disruptive people, who keep themselves just at the edge of acceptable behavior. [...]

These are the posters all too often cry innocence and hide behind the very worthy excuse of open discussion, but are frequently just trying to stir up trouble.

Those are usually the ones accusing trusted and long time users of promoting censorship and trollish behavior.

Sound familiar? It should:

Instead of offering an apology, Scott took the opportunity to attack Fox’s rivals:

Fox News VP of programming Suzanne Scott explains, “We received tens of thousands of text message submissions during our New Years Eve special, and this particular viewer submission was inadvertently cleared for air. At FOX we recognize our error as opposed to networks who allow their hosts to utter crude vulgarities to the public.”

Fox New has a history of allowing racially-charged language aimed at Obama and his family to make it on air and then claiming it was simply a mistake. In June, after a Fox chyron referred to Michelle Obama as “Obama’s Baby Mama,” Fox’s Senior Vice President of Programming Bill Shine explained it by saying that “A producer on the program exercised poor judgment in using this chyron during the segment.”

Amazing, isn't it, how Faux News and trolls offer identical "innocent" excuses while pointing the finger at anyone but themselves. It won't wash on the Tee Vee Machine, and it doesn't wash here in the Blogosphere.

Reid Lobbied Against Appointing Jackson

By GottaLaff

Ever wonder why we choose to post what we post? Once in awhile in Comments, we get a mild complaint or two. Well, here it is: We post what's out there, what's available to us, and, obviously, what we hope is interesting to readers.

Paddy and I also, for the most part, put up what strikes an emotional chord in us, for whatever reason.

We also try to amuse once in awhile, and ignore the "real" news, just for a change of pace.

One other thing I'd like to make very clear: We don't necessarily agree with the content of an article. If we don't add commentary, it doesn't mean we agree (or disagree) with it. We simply though it was informative or interesting. My opinions have often been mistaken for those of the author of an article.

With that, I'm posting something that I find a little boring, because there's very little out there today:

Just days before Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell President-elect Obama's U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, the Chicago Sun Times reports Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) called to "make it clear who he didn't want in the post: Jesse Jackson, Jr., Danny Davis or Emil Jones."

"Rather, Reid called Blagojevich to argue he appoint either state Veterans Affairs chief Tammy Duckworth or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan."

I'll be so relieved when Blago and the remnants of his polluted wake disappear.

Trolls and other objectionable Commenters

By GottaLaff

We know here at TPC that we are becoming more successful than ever before. How do we know that? Because we've seen an increasing number of trolls on our site.

This pathetic little band of 4 a.m. drive-by Commenters must feel awfully threatened, because they obviously feel the need to intrude on a harmonious family such as ours who have no interest in any of the illogical, ill-informed, baiting insults they fling around like ape feces (unless, of course, it's a genuine attempt at real conversation with at least a minimum of substance).

With that, here is a post I've been saving up. I found it at The Motley Moose. Here are some excerpts:

For many people, flaming and hostility are the only reasons to get online.

These are folks who suffer from a chronic case of assholicism.

Trolls.

troll
One who purposely and deliberately (that purpose usually being self-amusement) starts an argument in a manner which attacks others on a forum without in any way listening to the arguments proposed by his or her peers. He will spark of such an argument via the use of ad hominem attacks (i.e. 'you're nothing but a fanboy' is a popular phrase) with no substance or relevance to back them up as well as straw man arguments, which he uses to simply avoid addressing the essence of the issue.

It's much easier to criticise and inflame than it is to be creative and stimulating.

This is as true for the blogosphere as it is for the real world.

Not all trolls are loud, obnoxious and obvious though.

One of my favorites subset of trolls is one that does not fit this specific criteria.

The "polite" troll. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

These are usually the ones railing against opression and all about their right to spew whatever nonsense they are peddling that day.

They usually offer up blisteringly polite, well written 'snake under the rose' posts that are perfectly within the bounds of decency, but create unrest and dissatisfaction with cutting accuracy.

Disruptive people, who keep themselves just at the edge of acceptable behavior.

They can drive away the sane people just as much as the loud and obnoxious obvious trolls.

These are the posters all too often cry innocence and hide behind the very worthy excuse of open discussion, but are frequently just trying to stir up trouble.

Those are usually the ones accusing trusted and long time users of promoting censorship and trollish behavior.

Blogs have to walk a fine line though.

- Heavy handed mods find themselves with a dead community, because people do not want to be dictated to.

- Mods that exercise too little input also find themselves with a cobweb, because trolls come in and run people off. [...]

Kottke says a bit like so :

Much of the tone of discourse online is governed by the level of moderation and to what extent people are encouraged to "own" their words. When forums, message boards, and blog comment threads with more than a handful of participants are unmoderated, bad behavior follows. The appearance of one troll encourages others. Undeleted hateful or ad hominem comments are an indication that that sort of thing is allowable behavior and encourages more of the same. Those commenters who are normally respectable participants are emboldened by the uptick in bad behavior and misbehave themselves. More likely, they're discouraged from helping with the community moderation process of keeping their peers in line with social pressure. Or they stop visiting the site altogether. [...]

Gresham's Law

Gresham's law says that any circulating currency consisting of both "good" and "bad" money (both forms required to be accepted at equal value under legal tender law) quickly becomes dominated by the "bad" money. This is because people spending money will hand over the "bad" coins rather than the "good" ones, keeping the "good" ones for themselves.

Gresham's Law of trolls:

Trolls are willing to use a forum with a lot of thoughtful people in it, but thoughtful people aren't willing to use a forum with a lot of trolls in it.

Which means that once trolling takes hold, it tends to become the dominant culture.

Except for one thing: That's not going to happen here at TPC. As of January 1, 2009, I decided to make every attempt to delete troll comments if they are:

• Uncivil
• Pointlessly rambling
  
• Serve no other purpose other than to attempt to provoke a fight
• Redundant (ie: posting the same comment in several threads)
• Argumentative, simply spewing lies, without providing substance/facts
• Excessive in length (that goes for sympathetic Comments, too)
• Random, uncalled-for, irrelevant snottiness without regard to the content of that particular post
  

If I left anything out, please feel free to add to the list.

There are exceptions to all of these, of course. If a comment is longer than usual, but it's from a Commenter who adheres to protocol 99.9% of the time, we tend to be lenient. If a Comment is relatively innocuous, but simply annoying, that's no biggie either.

Freedom of speech is one thing. Spewing gratuitous hostilities in an otherwise congenial setting is another. That's superfluous and destructive.

Setting standards for an environment that nurtures friendly, respectful, and spirited conversation is paramount. Anything that crosses the line will hereby be deleted.

I'm done now.

Diversity: Obama Taps First-Ever Blogger to Be in Cabinet

Whoa. We've penetrated the inner sanctum. Scarborough is going to freak the f' out. heh

Peter Orszag, the man who President-elect Obama has tapped to be his director of the Office of Management and Budget, (as first reported by National Journal and confirmed by ABC News) is currently director of the Congressional Budget Office, where he has maintained a blog since December 2007, ABC News' Brian Hartman points out.

The "Director's Blog" is fairly dry stuff -- policy papers and references to testimonies and speeches he's given.

(snip)

But that's not the point. The point is that the director of OMB has Cabinet rank. Which means that for the first time ever, there will be a blogger in the Cabinet.

Happy Alaska Blogger Photo-O'-The-Day

By GottaLaff

Celctic Diva's Blue Oasis is happy:

For the Alaska Community and beyond...




WE WIN, AGAIN!!!!!!

We're happy, too, Celtic Diva! Congratulations to all of you!

Who writes your favorite blogs?

Check to see if it's a man or a woman writing here. Our results?

We think http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/ is written by a man (76%)

Oh well. h/t Scout.

VIDEO-- Rachel Maddow: What's wrong with pajamas?

By GottaLaff

Comedy Binky Barbie is blaming bloggers for her bad press now. Surprise! I'll have you know, I don't have a basement, although I believe CBB may have been projecting just a tad since that's where her poll numbers are.

I'll have you know I, as an evil blogger, will gladly take responsibility for the downfall of CBB. And I'll have you know, we bloggers lerve Rachel even more after seeing this:


For the record, I don't wear jammies when I post. I reserve them for when I dine out.

Margaret and Helen's excellent blogging adventure

By GottaLaff

I heard about this blog on the Stephanie Miller show. It's hosted by two older women with more stones than Gramm-pa McCain will ever have. Go. Now. Sample:

Look. I called Governor Palin a bitch. Some of you didn’t like that word and I really don’t care. I’ve been around the block a few times. Hell, in dog years I’m already dead so a little word like bitch is hardly cause for concern in my world. But when a crowd starts yelling “terrorist”, “kill him” and “Arab”… well that is entirely different and it’s time the guys driving this Straight Talk Express started using their heads for something other than hat racks. If you watch Palin doing her little performance at those rallies you quickly realize that she is either too stupid to see or just doesn’t care that her dog sled is going down a slippery slope. We can’t put that in the White House. We just can’t.

But McCain has only himself to blame. He brought that pitt bull in lipstick down from Alaska and turned her loose on the lower 48. This is what you get when you begin to pander to the fears of the most ignorant among us. Lesson learned: if you lie down with Palin, you’ll get up with fleas.

That’s all until the debate. Thanks for stopping by. I mean it.

We heart Margaret and Helen.

H/t: Kerry for photo

Michelle Obama, Blogger

By GottaLaff

Michelle is such great First Lady material. Now she can add blogging to her talents (and we all know that blogging takes an enormous amount of talent, wit, knowledge, insight, intelligence, good looks... somebody stop me):

Turns out that she's been contributing a post to BlogHer about once a month. Her topic today is "Fighting for Equal Pay." The posts are well-written, but they're a bit too campaign-language-y. That said, the BlogHer community seems to be pretty psyched about the posts, and more posts, I am told, are in the works.

Here's hoping that the campaign lets Michelle Obama be Michelle Obama -- as opposed to "Michelle Obama."

"A bit too campaign-language-y"? Um, don't look now, but her husband's running for president.

Awesome Alaskan blog devoted to Obama and all things anti-Palin/McCain

By GottaLaff

A terrific comment from the equally terrific Mudflats blog. The blogger was at the anti-Palin rally that you can read about here, and watch in the video here:

Thank you mudflats. Thank you ten wonderful women who got this going despite threats (yes, threats) from opponents on the right. And thank you all you wonderful demonstrators who walked with me in front of the library yesterday. It was a truly uplifting experience. BTW, one person actually went around with a clicker counting everyone. At the time of the count, there were 1496 protesters and 93 Palin supporters.

Now to business: We have work to do in the next 2 months.

1. I would love these rallies to go viral. This one started a week ago with 10 women over coffee and grew to a huge rally. All you out in the battleground states can you do the same? Non-battleground states, too. I have heard some hints of this on the blogs, but would love to see it spread across the land. Get involved. If you are a loser at organizing (as I am) look for someone else’s and join it.
2. Write to newspapers all over the place. My local paper has a once per month policy that I’ve already used up so I am writing to newspapers all over the battleground states. The nice part about this is that you can write one really good letter and send it hundreds of places with cut and paste. Google a state name and the word newspapers and one of the first links is a list of all the papers in the state and their web sites.
3. Contribute what you can. This is too important to hold back. Alaska is awash in money from royalties from these obscene oil prices. The legislature has seen fit to give Alaskans a $1200 “energy rebate”. Mine is going to the Obama campaign. I’ll be adding some more of my own money, too. Every dollar helps.
4. Find your local Obama or Democratic Party office and ask them how you can help out. I am volunteering time when I can. They can all use your help in a number of ways. If anything puts us over the top it will be this army of Obama volunteers.

Please, please, please do what you can. Our country is in serious trouble and needs your help.

I will make every effort to link to this blog as often as I can. I'd like us to help them succeed.

Paging, Party Of One Your Table Is Ready

Oh great huffy puffy purveyor of all morals that are catholicy Bill Of The Donahue** is winding up his faux outrage wurlizter again.

Over 120 blogs have been credentialed as members of the media for the Democratic National Convention; those who have received credentials are allowed to cover the Convention at the Pepsi Center. While most of them offer legitimate commentary, some do not.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue is protesting two of the blogs:

“The list of credentialed blogs include radical sites like The Daily Kos. Worse are blogs that feature anti-Catholic and obscene material. The two most offensive are Bitch Ph.D. and Towleroad."

Which my sensitive ears heard as "Burp, months no attention, belch blat, me and the Virgin Mary are annnnnngggrrrry!!! Growl.... need media exposure to pay for holy water fountain at the manse!!"

Funny, the RNC doesn't have it's list of credentialed blogs up on the site. Hmmmm.

**Soon to be appearing on a FAUX show in your area!!!

Blogger Power! Fox News snubbed again

By GottaLaff

All together now: Awwww Neener nanner:

Coveted assignments for presidential debate moderators were handed out last week, and guess who was left off the list ... again.

After suffering the bitter, and unprecedented, blow during the Democratic primary season of having candidates refuse -- twice -- to appear in Fox News-sponsored forums when bloggers raised hell about the news organization's lack of legitimacy, Rupert Murdoch's news channel was again left off the list of news anchors tapped to moderate the must-see TV events in the fall.

Let me rub that in a little more. I'm sure nobody here will mind, am I right?

But the snub means that once again Fox News will be denied the chance to leave its imprint on the all-important debates. It won't be able to build its brand on the back of Democrats who have injected extraordinary passion and interest into the White House run.

That passion and interest has helped boost ratings for Fox News' cable competitors, while Fox's numbers have remained stagnant. Meaning, the unfolding presidential campaign has been a ratings dud so far for Fox News and its unofficial year of woe.

What's that? You want even more? Ohhh, well-l-l, okay:

Fox News has been taken down several notches, and the demotions can be traced back to the blogger-led debate boycott from 2007 and the repercussions it set off.

The point of that media pushback was to begin chipping away, in a serious, consistent method, at Fox News' reputation. The goal was to portray Fox News as illegitimate, to spell out that Fox News was nothing more than a Republican mouthpiece and that Democrats need not engage with the News Corp. giant, let alone be afraid of it.

In other words, bloggers wanted to badly dent the Fox News brand.

And we did! Go us! Let's throw in a couple of nyah-nyahs.

Bloggers, take a bow.

What, no gift basket? No swag bag? What kind of adulation is this?

H/t: AmericaBlog

Let's Talk About Sex(y) Female Bloggers!

By Paddy


And we are not on the list? Pikers.

Apparently it's the time of year where everyone chooses their favorite female blogger based on the always venerable quality of sex appeal! First off Playboy.com is asking you to help them choose the web's hottest woman blogger. The lucky winner will get the opportunity to pose for Playboy. Yep. Currently video blogger Brigitte Dale (who apparently is of legal age regardless of what her picture might suggest) is riding high (no pun intended) with 27% of the vote, amongst a group that includes Amanda Congden, Violet Blue and Veronica Belmont.

Meanwhile(!), via FishbowlLA comes word that the folks over at URLesque.com have chosen the twenty women bloggers they'd most like to see in a bikini. Amanda Congden also appears on this list, along with HuffPo's Olivia Zaleski and Jezebel's Tracie Egan, but topping it off is LA Times blogger Christie St. Martin. For those of you who would prefer a slightly less naked round-up, NorthxEast has just posted a list of its "Fifty Most Influential 'Female' Bloggers" included here are the likes of Ana Marie Cox, Michelle Malkin, Rachel Sklar and Arianna Huffington, who ranks second.

Note the linkage Clancy- you're set for a while.

John Sidney McCain hates me

By GottaLaff

John McCain, Town Hall Meeting, Merrimack, NH 12/29/07

I don't know what I could have possibly said or done to upset him.

Wait. Did he say, "We've got the cables?" He must have confused thems with the Internets.

John Cornyn senior staffer faked I.D., trolled blogs

By GottaLaff

Cornyn aide David Beckwith, aka "Buck Smith", is a blog troll. Snicker... giggle... bwahaaa... GUFFAW!!!

However, by Monday a new controversy had arisen around Beckwith, with his unmasking by Burnt Orange Report as "Buck Smith," who had been posting both there and at other sites since 2007 in support of Cornyn's campaign.

There have been so many delightfully embarrassing Republican stories today. A virtual plethora!

Glazer wrote, "Many of you have become familiar with user Buck Smith's abusive comments that troll the site, attack and personally insult users and writers, and impugn the integrity of our community, our Democratic candidates and our Democratic values. . . . In the interest of full disclosure, and in order to keep everything fair, and since Buck Smith has not disclosed who he is, we thought we would clue you in that he is David Beckwith, John Cornyn's senior staffer. We found out his identity because Mr. Beckwith's email on file with the site is the same email listed on the webpage for his high school reunion class."

"That's unethical at best," [Matt] Glazer explained to KVUE-TV in Austin, "because he was trying to do it as a paid staffer for the campaign. ... Buck Smith time and again comes in, makes fun of people, challenges them to a duel."

I'm sure Big Bad John Cornyn's people are being appropriately gracious and classy about this:

A Cornyn spokesperson, asked by Burnt Orange Report for comment, responded sarcastically, "I am shocked...next thing I know you'll be saying the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus aren't real either."

Well, that's just one person. Certainly, they don't condone this kind of unethical behavior.

The campaign had no comment on whether he condoned Beckwith's actions.

Happy trails, Buckaroo Blogger.

Gotta And I (Paddy) Will Be On Sirius's "Blog Bunker" At 5p EST

Really, what else could you ask of life than listening to us on the sat radio? No clue what we'll be talking about, but you can listen if you want by signing up for a free three day trial here, just make sure you cancel before the three days is up. No credit card required. It's the "Blog Bunker" on Indie Talk 110.