You’ve stumbled upon the finest blog you will ever read, creator of the #7 Most Viral Youtube of the 2008 campaign as named by Politico. I’ve been a blog entrepreneur and writer since 2004, called “the sharpest tongue in the blogosphere”, and have been interrupted many times. For a quick and dirty version, see this cover story from the Cleveland Free Times.
I am a former attorney registered inactive with the Ohio bar since 1994. I’ve worked in democracy development and politics in over a dozen countries, mostly with the National Democratic Institute and projects like them, including the West Bank & Gaza, Kosovo, Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Kygryzstan, Latvia, Croatia, and the UK since 1997. I’ve consulted on political campaigns from Clinton Gore 1992 & 1996, Tim Ryan 2002, the British Labour Party in 1997, 2001, & 2005, to voter protection for John Kerry in 2004, and numerous campaigns in between, at every level. You can see my LinkedIn profile here. I’m also currently and since 2006 a volunteer DJ at WRUW FM 91.1 Cleveland, Ohio’s premier college radio station. (see below for correction)
The blog history is a bit more complicated.
After my first blog, OhioCountdown2004.blogspot.com, I was invited to the front page at MyDD, and in less than a month Jerome Armstrong booted me for being too centrist (Jerome haters, you have a home here!). I then started DemocracyGuy.com (now defunct - see the Wayback Machine if you must), which led to numerous blog projects that would be interrupted.
Starting in fall, 2005, I was paid monthly to blog at BuckeyePolitics.net, and ClevelandScores.com, both entrepreneurial blog projects by Bullz-Eye Publishing, an online men’s magazine. BuckeyePolitics became the premier blog in Ohio politics in less than 2 months.
Too fast and too hot for some, because in January, 2006, a US Senate candidate decided to spread around my 2001 criminal conviction, and freaked out Bullz-Eye, who pulled the plug. Democracy Guy lasted until June, 2006 when the Cleveland Plain Dealer decided, in response to the repeated hounding from said US Senate candidate, to take a shot at me based on the 2001 conviction. I took down DG to take a rest…you’d need a rest, too.
In the meantime, I was a principal creator and founder of Meet The Bloggers, a collaborative public affairs project among Ohio bloggers. Thanks to the June, 2006 Plain Dealer article, MTB’s other players also decided I was too hot to handle in September, 2006. I took more time off, crawling out of my whole carefully, to blog sporadically at Ohio’s current political blog of record, BuckeyeStateBlog.com.
That brings you here, which Scene Magazine recently named Best New Blog in Cleveland, 2008
So why all the interruption?
Well, in November, 2001, I was arrested for soliciting a police officer posing as an underage person online. WEWS Channel 5 in Cleveland coordinated the entire production, had cameras at the arrest and the jail waiting for me, and made me Pervert Of The Day for an entire 24 hour news cycle. In August, 2002, I plead guilty to a minor felony, served 4 months probation, paid a fine, did community service, regular therapy, and am not required to register or report to any list. Never happened before, and hasn’t happened since. Never touched anyone, and never hurt anyone but myself and those closest to me.
Despite this incident being a long time ago, and so factually minor the judge in the case was as lenient as he could possibly have been, some people think this is relevant to my credibility as a blogger, my worth as a person, and my value in the marketplace. I don’t.
This doesn’t stop the college radio station I volunteered at for 2 years from kicking me out because some lunatic sends an email. Nor does it stop the BBC from taking pot shots at me. Nor does it stop employers from using my conviction against me when they feel like it. Some bloggers also think they are breaking some “news” by bringing up a 7 year old incident whenever they disagree with me. I put it here for you to decide for yourself. Bottom line, I survived it. Many would not have. That should tell you all you need to know.
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