Behold, a bleg. Our friend Phillip Anderson over at The Albany Project needs some help in getting to Denver's Democratic National Convention. The basic dynamic of blogging remains that bloggers are mired in abject poverty, in part because the same candidates and office-holders that court us so assiduously don't make that logical leap to buying an ad on our sites. Hint, hint.

That said, the blogging community rallied earlier this year to help send Robert Harding to Austin. I'd suggest that Phillip is quite deserving of the same effort to get to Denver. So, if you can spare some clams, please point your mouse to the widget immediately below. Thank you.

... meeting the crew of Rochester Turning, shooting the shit with Azi, finally meeting hand-crusher Liz Benjamin and driving back to the city with Michael, Paul and Phillip.

Especially the driving with the guys. I laughed so hard I think I broke my Poughkeepsie.

As much as I like having access to events and people who make what we call the status quo, it takes me a while to take in all the people's faces, rants, raves, ticks and tocks; especially if I don't know them on or offline.

Let's say is my way of being polite I like to ponder all the newness in an attempt to ... believe it or not ... make no knee-jerked judgements.

But they're coming.

On the other hand, meeting my colleagues and finally putting a face to the words I have been reading for months and/or years is always an immediately welcomed treat.

With other bloggers and journalists, I do get to be judgemental right away, no filters, no holds bar. I get to unleash the bitch and the momma immediately and with no velvet rope to hold them back.