Sigh...

By Diane Silver

Instead of being a good blogger today and posting about the fate of nations, Paris Hilton, George Bush's stomach, his return to drink or return to near drink, I wrestled with my day job. Since February that day job has involved mostly magazine freelancing, although I am setting my sights on some book projects for the future.

Today, though, I wrestled, screaming (although not quite like ole' Paris screaming her way to the clink) with a 2,000-word feature that just refused to be subdued. I've almost got it pinned, but I haven't prevailed yet. Thus, no blogging. At least not today.

This is a tough story. It's the first one I've written on spec, as in on "speculation," which means I don't have a market for it yet. Thus, I find myself being super, compulsive, obsessive. Of course, I'm usually a tad obsessive about my writing, but this time it's even worse, but you don't need to hear me babble about that.

What I really want to do is put on my Mom's hat and write to poor Paris about the slings and arrows of life and how they can actually be a good thing. Maybe later.

And so it goes...

A New Venture: The Hope & Politics Group

By Diane Silver

I'm pleased to announce that we're starting a new venture in this corner of the Internet where hope and politics collide.

Today we're launching the first in what I hope will soon become a larger group of blogs. Together these blogs will be known, not surprisingly, as The Hope & Politics Group.

For those of you who are fans of In This Moment, don't worry. Nothing will change, except that you should soon be seeing more posts.

In This Moment will continue to feature original commentary and news from myself, Nancy Jane Moore and Pamela K. Taylor. However, In This Moment will also feature short descriptions and links to posts on the other blogs in the group. We plan to work this a bit like Josh Marshall does Talking Points Memo, which serves as a central home for several other blogs in his group. To put it another way, In This Moment will act as a clearinghouse for all the blogs in the Hope & Politics group.

The first blog to join the group is called Becoming The Change.

This is my baby because it explores an idea dear to my heart -- the idea that we can create a world based on authenticity, fairness, kindness, respect for others and peace. Becoming The Change is a political blog and community for people who refuse to bow to "realism." This is a home for dreamers, a place to get news, resources and create connections for those who can both envision this world and take action to create it.

Becoming The Change has been heavily influenced by Michael Lerner's The Left Hand of God and Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson's Cultural Creatives.

As I see how this new blog goes, I hope to eventually add a blog called The Equality Post, which will focus on the struggle for fair laws for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people, and The Truth About Kansas, which will focus on heartland politics and happenings.

At some point, I expect that we will be adding advertising. I know that some people hate this, but the hard truth is that the more money we all make off blogging, the more time we can spend doing it.