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Welcome to the First Annual NQ Blogathon!

By SuperGalt on November 26, 2009 at 7:30 PM in Current Affairs

Thank you for supporting the First Amendment! Welcome to the First Annual NQ Blogathon!

My partner in crime, NonHyphenated American and I will be your hosts for tonight’s festivities.

Please do all your Amazon shopping via the links below: NQ receives a portion of your purchase price at no additional cost to you.

Shop Amazon and help NQ!

Special link for Black Friday sales, already in progress:

Shop Black Friday at Amazon and help NQ!

You can also click on any Amazon link throughout NQ or make a donation via PayPal. PLEASE use the PayPal button in the top right column, just to the right of Larry’s Florida sunbathing photo.

PLEASE NOTE: When you start on the blog and click on any link to Amazon, any purchases made during your shopping trip will be properly credited to NQ. Remember to always start your Amazon shopping here on NQ!

The First Amendment guarantees:

“…the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble…”

What better way to celebrate our liberty than by supporting NQ?

What is a ‘blogathon’?

A blogathon is a telethon for a blog. NonHyphenated American and I will be online live to urge folks to shop at Amazon and donate funds via PayPal. We are here to encourage people to announce their generosity in their comments. We wish for everyone to share in some festive holiday merriment and good cheer! And celebrate our liberty to express our views!

Please remember: When you click on the special links and buy products through Amazon, NQ receives a percentage of your purchase price.

NQ is a free public service generously provided by citizen Larry Johnson. The blog is an all-volunteer endeavor. However, it costs thousands of dollars per year in web hosting and administration fees — over $15,000 (!) — to run the blog. Your help is needed to keep this valuable and precious resource available for all to use. It is our hope to help defer some of the costs incurred by Larry.

I found NQ when I was desperate for an outlet to express my concerns surrounding the last general election. Now, NQ is needed more than ever, as a place for contrarian views. Dissent is healthy and necessary for our great republic to not just survive, but to flourish. Both NonHyphenated American and I welcome our fellow patriots to the First Annual NQ Blogathon!

Time: 8PM-Midnight Eastern, 7PM-11PM Central, 6PM-10PM Mountain, 5PM-9PM Pacific

Thanks everyone for your participation in the First Annual NQ Blogathon!

SuperGalt

All the work we here on NQ did during the campaign was never for not, it is the basis for the continued struggle to restore sensibility and justice to the body politic. We’ll get there, albeit this whole affirmative action experiment by force machination is a major detour…

An afterthought from my dear WONK, NonHyphenated American:

In thinking about dynamic and static organizations, the last election has been a real eye opener. A choice between an extreme conservative or liberal political view is not change. Party “leaders” and elections have been manipulated by spin doctors and photo ops. The public has no political voice because Americans don’t think that their voice matters. The “gridlock”¹ or inability of either political party to form a collective action is the new (or old) status quo.

Static organizations create gridlock out of fear of the unknown. What is known is that party extremes (conservative or liberal) drive inactivity in government. The public is frustrated and looking for a “change.” Having experienced the extreme politics of the recent past and current administrations, here’s hoping that people look behind door #3: moderation or a political voice from the middle.

There is much to be said for equilibrium and moderation. It would be a good thing for centrist politicians to emerge. Policies from the center can make the candidate stand out more than outlier policies. And looking ahead to a 2012, here’s hoping for more voices for people in the middle.

(1. Source: Aldrich, J.H. (1995) Why parties? The origin and transformation of political parties in America pp. 179-180)

Shop Amazon and help NQ!

Shop Black Friday at Amazon and help NQ!

Help NQ via a PayPal donation! PLEASE use the PayPal button in the top right column, just to the right of Larry’s Florida-sunbathing photo.

SuperGalt

Hey everyone!
NonHyphenated American

Hey SG,

Let the shopping begin!
SuperGalt

I think folks will start to meander on in soon…

I also think some people shopped already, when we put up the announcement of the event the other day…

Thanks to those who shopped early!

Thanks for helping let freedom reign!
Bronwyn’s Harbor

Thank you SO MUCH (!) to SuperGalt for doing this for the blog. It is astonishing, isn’t it, that it takes @ $15,000 a year to run this blog. So every penny we earn helps enormously.

The reason it’s expensive is because we need a powerful server with excellent 24/7 support staff who understand how WordPress is programmed. That combination is very difficult to find. Then we have additional costs, including our recent software upgrades.

STAY TUNED for the new comments feature to be installed in the next few days. Because we are a popular blog, with 600,000+ comments in our archives, the comments program authors have had to go back to the drawing boards to come up with a way to permit us to use their terrific software.
SuperGalt

You’re welcome.

Special thanks to you, Larry, the authors, and my friends that comment here! You guyz prevented me from jumping off a cliff about the election shenanigans. I would have regretted joining all those Obot lemmings already down in the abyss!
NonHyphenated American

Thanks for your comments, Bronwyn’s Harbor. We look forward to the new features.
http://deleted BuzzisbackLatte

I’ve purchased from Amazon tonight and will continue to come through the NQ site to do more before Christmas!

Thanks for the blogging!
NonHyphenated American

Thank you BuzzisbackLatte for supporting the NQ blogathon! Happy shopping!
SuperGalt

Yeah, what NonHyphenated American said.
Bronwyn’s Harbor

THANKs, BUZZ!!!

Can you believe it costs Larry over $15 grand a year? So every penny really helps.
SuperGalt

Maybe Michelle will donate her party gown of 40 and you can auction it off?
NonHyphenated American

Yes, SG. She can donate ALL the proceeds to a woman’s coop in India.
NomNomNom

http://photos.state.gov/galleries/india/13974/clintonhindiajuly09/7.html
she should try SEWA
http://rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

Hey – sorry to be late to the party, but I DID buy a bunch of gift cards last night – and I have more shopping yet to do!
~~JustMe~~

OMG 15,000 to have the blog up and running! I have donated when I can but never thought it would be so much to keep the blog alive. This is one place along with Uppitys that I need daily to keep going forward.

Do Experian have affiliates? Asking as I purchase fligts quite often through the year wanted to throw the idea out there???
Portia Elizabeth

A few little ditties to put us all in the spirit –

To be sung to the tune of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
Have yourself a frozen margarita.
Have some salsa, too.
Taco chips with dip are a good choice for you.

Have another frozen margarita
While you shop online.
Buying all your gifts this way will work out fine.

Through the years when you shopped with care,
Running here and there for naught.
All your gifts got returned next day
No one liked the way you bought.

Refill that big mug with margaritas.
Aren’t you feeling better now?
Click to buy, they’ll just exchange it anyhow.
And have yourself a stress-free little Christmas now.

To be sung to the tune of “The First Noel”:

The first Friday after Thanksgiving Day
Is a rush to the malls to grab bargains and pay.
Getting up at four in the dark and the cold.
Just to fight for a toy for your 5-year-old.

Drive around for a park, stand in line at the store.
Then you hear that the toy’s not in stock anymore.

No sleep, no toys, no patience for this.
Go back home where you log on for shopping bliss.

To be sung to the tune of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”:

Oh, you don’t have to pout.
You don’t have to cry.
You don’t have to go out.
I’m telling you why.
Santa Claus is online this year.
Sleep until ten.
Wear your PJ’s all day.
You can stay in
And still do okay.
Santa Claus is online this year.

There’s lots of bargain shopping without going to the mall.
No need for all that hopping from store to store for all.

With PayPal or card
You’ll finish your list.
It’s not even hard.
How could you resist?
Log on for shopping this year.
Bronwyn’s Harbor

Thank you!

Also: Since we are a somewhat controversial blog — i guess (?) — we don’t get much advertising from companies .

Then there’s that ad companies can’t fit us into a particular slot. We’re not Michelle Malkin and we’re not Talking Points Memo or Daily Kos, etc., etc. Our POVs are rather unique to us and to our readers, I guess.

Any ideas for how we can attract advertisers are always welcome. I regularly write to companies whose products i thin would attract customers, but often don’t hear back.

And I tried the Commission Junction (CJ) ads — we got accepted by some very nice companies like Hewlett Packard, Apple, and Adobe — but none of our customers purchased their products so I ended up taking down all those ads. (CJ is like Amazon — we only make money if we sell a product, not for advertising it.) Actually, it was fine to take those down since it was more work for moi Also, their ads required download time from other servers, and slowed down the opening of our home page.