• Slightly flustered, L. N. Rock and his colleague peer Adrianne George, both African-American bloggers, are rushing off to do an interview.As citizen observers and writers whose medium is the Internet, you’d expect they’d be interviewing some person of interest. Instead, in fact, the British Broadcasting Corporation is interviewing them.

• Rock and George are just two of many black bloggers who have come to the convention. They’re here to watch, write and talk about politics and African-American issues. Their audiences, and their notoriety, are growing.

• The importance of these blogs is that they are more about having an African-American perspective on things,” says Williams, whose blog title, Dallas South, signifies the kind of ethnic divide in his hometown, blacks and Latinos south of the river, whites to the north.

• He and other African-American bloggers say that while the Obama presidential quest isn’t the sole raison d’etre for their blogs, as the Democratic candidate became more likely to win the nomination their blogs took on new importance for African-American readers. “It propelled it to another level,” Williams explains.

• On Rock’s site, AfricanAmericanPoliticalPundit.com, he writes that he and his peers represent a “new breed of black media.” They are the “first group of black independent `credentialed-journalist’ bloggers to cover a major political party’s national convention,” he says.

Texas Democratic Election a Primary/Caucus Hybrid, requires an extra trip to the polls

February 7th, 2008 · 77 Comments

I’d like to thank Bryan who attended an Obama meeting last night, and Rep. Eddie B. Johnson who sent an email, for providing me with some information that I did not know. I was planning to early vote for the Texas Primary, but it looks like in order for my vote to fully count, I’ll need to get back to the polls on election night.

Click here for Texas rules on Democratic delegates.

I’m not going to give the full rundown yet, but let me give you the cliff’s notes version as I understand them so far:

• Texas has a two step process that is open to all registered voters.

• When you cast your vote in the Texas primary, in essence it’s only 75% of a full vote.

• 126 of Texas’ 168 votes will be allocated to candidates based on the ballots cast.

• 15 minutes after the polls close (7:00 p.m.) those who voted must return to their precinct.

• This “precinct convention” is how Texas will decide how to divide the remaining 42 delegates.

• The rules were originally put in place to insure that the Democratic hierarchy would have more say.

That’s it in a nutshell. I had never heard of this before, but then again a Texas primary/caucus has never mattered since I’ve been voting. Thanks again to Bryan and Rep. Johnson.

Did I ever tell you guys the story about my camera and the Texas Debate?

To make a long story short, the folks at CNN were allowing the photographers inside to take pictures of Senators Clinton (said it) and Obama before the debate. This was to be a 5 minute ordeal.

Well when the lady (CNN) in charge saw me get in line with my 4.1 megapixel Sony Cybershot, she said “Um, I’m sorry your not going to be able to go in there with that.” Yes, I was a victim of camera discrimination. The camera that took pictures of my sons birthday party and covered the Jena 6 rally was not good enough for the Texas debate.

So I need a new camera.

Anyway, any amount will help. If most of you would donate just $5 (I sound like public radio), we could make this amount in no time. You can use the chip-in widget below or in my sidebar to make a secure donation via Pay Pal. For those of you who would like to mail a donation, send me an email to shawn@dallassouthblog.com and I will give you the address to send your donation.

Thanks and God Bless!!!

That’s right, it’s been a  year since our last Dallas South Birthday Bash, and it’s time to do it again. We’ll be celebrating at Brooklyn Jazz Cafe next Friday June 6th (5:30 p.m.), the date of the first post for what was known as Dallas South Blog.

Dallas South is turning two years old, which makes it a teenager in internet terms. I hope that many from the Dallas South family can stop by next week to help us celebrate a wonderful year.

Since our 1st Birthday Party, Dallas South has covered the Jena 6, followed the Presidential Election, and been featured as a columnist in the Dallas Morning News.

NBC Nightly News, NPR, BBC, and the Chicago Tribune have all highlighted our little website. And none of it would be possible without you. I hope those of you who live in Dallas will stop by Brooklyn so that I can thank you for helping make Dallas South what it is today.

Click here to view the Evite for this event, or RSVP to me at shawn@dallassouthblog.com

Who: Dallas South and our viewing family

What: 2nd Anniversary Party

Where: Brooklyn Jazz Cafe

1701 South Lamar ST

Dallas TX 75215

When: Friday June 6, 2008

Why: Because there are like 6 gazillion blogs that never made it past 6 months.