The Chicago Tribune, yesterday morning, couldn't stop beating on Barack Obama. They've been disenfranchised. They've been disappointed. They, as a collective whole, are thinking very seriously about spending the afternoon at home on the couch watching soap operas and eating Ben & Jerry's with a giant spoon. Barack Obama voted to protect telecom immunity, and it hurts. It hurts really really badly.

Ory Okolloh blogs at KenyaPundit, and also is a co-founder of political sites Ushahidi and Mzalendo. I heard her speak this morning at Global Voices Citizen Media summit on her blogging experiences. Throughout the Kenyan elections and the political violence there, she updated her blog very actively, sometimes every hour. Her blog became the center of controversy.

One of the leaders in the movement to reform copyright laws to catch up with the cultural and technological changes in our society has turned his attention to reforming American politics, and he's using these same new cultural and technological phenomena to help him achieve it. Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University* law professor and founder of the Creative Commons, and Joe Trippi, who made something of a name for himself working the Howard Dean campaign in 2004, have launched Change Congress:

Just returning from She's Geeky, I was so happy to see Learning how to use your new gardening tool: The Web at Gardening Tips and Ideas. Stuart presents well-thought out posts that usually teach me something new. This article, though, made me feel like I was living in past. His tips for using the web as a gardening tool?

And All It Took agrees with me: Ravelry EATS Time...  But in a good way!! After reading this, I quickly emailed the webhostess and begged to be slipped near the front of the line.  So far, this has been about the only benefit of being able to say: I'm the craft editor for BlogHer.  I got my invite within hours. I've been playing a little every week since.

I read last week from Global Voices that politicians in Ecuador have turned to blogs and YouTube to communicate with the general population, as cyber culture and internet cafes become more popular. It was fascinating to look a little bit deeper and to watch some of the video speeches and debates.

This week's look around the net revealed an eclectic assortment of interesting items. Bioneers began working on environmental, economic and social issues in the 1990s. Over 3000 people now attend the annual Bioneers Conference with another 7000 participating via satellite. This year's conference will be in San Rafael, California, Oct. 19-21. Of 16 plenary speakers for this year, nine are women.