This is why I have never wrote anywhere except for here.

The only exceptions to that rule are where I submitted cross-postings of a few blog postings at Faith Writers and I also have an account at Nolan Chart, which is a libertarian site, to submit original writings.

This here is the reason, the story via St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

ST. LOUIS   •   Conservative talk radio host and commentator Dana Loesch sued the owner of the conservative website Breitbart.com Friday, claiming that although her relationship with the news and opinion aggregating website had gone “tragically awry,” Breibart.cοm LLC refused to let her work for the company or anyone else, forcing her into “indentured servitude in limbo.”

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court here, seeks at least $75,000 in damages, as well as a judge’s declaration that her contract had expired.

The suit says that difficulties managing the Breitbart “media ’empire’” or ideological conflicts or both had spiked the working relationship, creating a “increasingly hostile” work environment. When Loesch tried to terminate her work agreement in September, Breitbart refused and extended the agreement by a year, the suit says.

Breitbart.cοm LLC refuses to allow her work to be published and “sabotages” her attempts to find work elsewhere, the suit says.

This right here is why: because when you sign a contract, the person you sign with, basically owns you. The only way to get out of the contract is to go to court and ask a judge to release you out of your contract. Hence the reason for me never signing with anyone at all. Back when I was defending the right hardcore, I was asked to sign with someone once. It was not a huge amount of money, but the place seemed a bit shady at the time and I passed on it. I do not regret it either, because really, after my dealings with them, I never heard anymore about them. The site never came up and I asked about it. I was told they had “capital issues” and decided to not to put the site online.

Besides all of that; call it my independent spirit, call it my left leanings, call it my hatred of corporate shills; call it whatever you want to call it. But, when you are writing for a company of some sort, unless you are writing for yourself and have a LLC formed or something like that — you are a corporate writer. You are being paid by a company to spout talking points. This is why I shied away from that sort of a thing. I happen to be someone who has a rather quirky opinion on that.

Blogging was started by people who felt that the corporate ran and controlled media had a monopoly on the political, social and cultural conversation in this Country. People like Matt Mullenweg who basically took a piece of software that its original author abandoned and in open source terms, “forked” the software and created the software that about 90% of bloggers today use, including myself.  Oh, there are others, like Blogger, TypePad and few others; but honestly, from what I am told, and from what I have experienced with one; they for the most part, do truly suck. WordPress is great, easy to use, and best of all, it is free! All you need, is a host, that can handle the traffic; and you are golden.

Now here is the part, where I start sounding like an old geezer, and I am too; I am, after all, 40 years old. (Puts on old geezer wig and costume…) (said in best old geezer voice that I can muster..) Back in the good old days of blogging, in 2006, we didn’t have these new fangled gadgets like Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg and Reddit for promotion tools; the only we were linked to, is if we e-mail the blog authors and prayed to God that they even linked to us!

But, seriously, the rise in social media, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Reddit all make it very simply to promote a blog. The truth is, you really do not have to pay for promotion; well, unless you are like me, someone that everyone thinks is an creep, an asshole or worse and nobody wants to link to you, for whatever reason. Then you might have to pay for some promotion. Otherwise, today, all you have to do is find your target audience and use twitter, Facebook and the rest to promote yourself.

On the other hand; Blogging has also created a few unintended by-products. I will list them:

  • Blog Snobbery – This is as old as blogging itself. You always have your various classes of blogger. The big guys and the little guys. The big guys were little guys at one time and because of linkage and influence; and because they got in on the blogger scene early, they became huge. Well, when they did, they basically said piss on the little guys and never link to them and such. This causes hard feelings towards them, and gets them called snobs. The big guys forget that no blogger is a island and they got where they were, because of other people. Sites like Memeorandum, promote that sort of snobbery. Because some people feel that if you are not on that site, you are nobody, which is bogus. Because they are good deal of great political writers and other sort of writers that are never scanned by Memeorandum at all.  Also too, that blog snobbery stuff, it happens on the left and the right as well. I never, ever got any respect back in 2006, when I was all into the “hate Bush and the Republicans” thing back then. It mainly was because I was not partisan enough for them, and too, because I really was not big into the “Gay Rights” thing and because I was not much into the idea that abortion is cool thing either. On the right, it is because I just do not get into identity politics of the right. It sucks, and those who do it, hate me, because I won’t.
  • The Political Echo Chambers – This is one of the more depressing things about the political blogging scene on the left and the right. Take a quick scan of Memeorandum and you will see what I mean. All of the lefty blogger all talk about the same story and repeat the same thing. The right does it too. One only need to have the Memeorandum colors plug in for either Google Chrome or Firefox to see what I mean there. I did this on my old blog, for about 6 months or so, after Barack Obama was elected in 2008. I made some decent money at it, I also made friends with people; whom looking back, were nothing but backstabbing weasels. Finally, one day, I just decided that I just had enough. I got into blogging to tell the truth, not say what everyone else was saying and I just stopped the whole echo chamber thing.

Another thing that bugs me about the whole political blogging thing; is that I have noticed that some people have to sell themselves out to be someone in the blogging world. I have noticed this on the right mostly. I have actually seen one blog, who I will not name here; actually write on his blog and I quote, “Good press can be bought!” I almost fell out of my chair when I read that. I do not know if he was being sarcastic or serious; but I thought to myself, “What a freaking sellout….” This is something that I have never done, changed my opinion, because some fat cat waved money under my nose. It has never happened and never will. My thoughts, opinion and worldview are not up for sale.

Everything, and I do mean everything on this blog; that I have ever written, was written because I happened to believe that thing to be morally right or wrong. I believe that the federal Government is not necessarily the “end all” of all what ails America. I disagree with the progressives that big corporations are what stops Americans for being all that they be. It is the Government that does this. It also is, in some cases,because of the people themselves. At the same time, I have supported Republicans and when they decided to lie to people, like me, who voted for them; I turned on them and decided that I wouldn’t support those who lie to their constituents. This did not happen, because some idiotic liberal fat cat waved money under my nose. This happened because I happen to agree with Patrick J. Buchanan, when he said economic patriotism and economic populism is dead. This is called having a moral compass and knowing the corporatists or crony capitalists are why unions were formed in the first place. Plus too, I am defending my family, the honor and legacy of my Father and my grandfather, who came here from the hills of Middlesboro, Kentucky and Dalton, Georgia to find work and make a better life for themselves and because the UAW and the organized labor movement, they were able to do just that. Most idiotic Republicans do not get that; which is their problem, not mine.

Anyways, back to Dana Loesch and the Breitbart clans. Dana does not much like me. She is a feminist and I do not have much use for those sort of women. I am a hardcore Fundamentalist Christian, although, I don’t always act like it, but I digress — and me and Dana had some interesting exchanges on twitter a while back. So, I just sort of avoided her. I just do not believe that feminism is a Conservative mindset at all. I am someone of the Phyllis Schlafly and Patrick J. Buchanan camps, when it comes to that sort of stuff. Which is why I do not get along with those types at all. Plus too, I am a hardcore defender of the Military and those who serve in the Military, irregardless of political stripe. Dana, as I found out; made some very nasty statements about her Father, and Vietnam, that I felt were totally immoral. I realize her Dad was not the greatest in the world. But, in my humble opinion, no one deserves to be told that they should have ended up on the Vietnam memorial wall. I don’t give a flying flip what they did to their kids. That, my friends, is just damned wrong.

As for Andrew Breitbart, I never much cared for the man. A long time ago, Andrew made some asinine comments about Ted Kennedy, on the day he died. I understand someone not liking someone like Ted Kennedy; but making comments like that goes beyond the pale. After that, I never gave the man much thought, until he died. I took no pleasure in his death at all. But, unlike some, I did not act like he was some sort of perfect being, nor did I join in the chorus of those on the right, who acted like he was some sort of Conservative god or something. As for those who bought Breitbart’s company. I was never approached by them, thankfully. I felt the buying of the company and continuing it and profiting off the name of a dead man was sick and morbid. Which is why I linked to them sparingly on my blog. I felt that the Breitbart thing should have just ended, when his life ended. Which tells me much about the morality of those involved in the thing.

…and those are my thoughts. All 1929 of them. 😀

Update: The Lonely Conservative says something that I believe many writers should read:

Note to new bloggers: If you think you’re going to work for anyone out there besides yourself make sure you get a contract and have it looked over by a lawyer. If our own side is doing this to our own side, anything is possible. Make sure you protect yourself.  I don’t think Andrew Breitbart would have treated his friends this way, but unfortunately, he is not available for comment.

I agree with that 100%. If something sounds and looks fishy, that it most likely is; which is what was the case with the person who contacted me. It just did not sound right, and the presentation sounded fishy. So, I passed and I am glad I did.