I don't think anyone listens up there on the hill...no matter which side of the aisle they are on.

So, how can the representavies of the people be their voice if those representatives have no ears to listen to the people with?

Bill, it sounds like we simply need to elect new legislators next year -- ones who will be more receptive to blogging, among other nice-to-have qualities.

How sad and disappointing. You offer a magnamious gesture to the TN republicans and they diss you. Well don't feel too rejected. They are unaccustomed to dealing with the plebians and probably don't want to exchange ideas with or listen to the complaints of the unwashed.

They probably have lost respect for you now Mr Hobbs since they find lowering oneself to the level of ordinary citizens to be demeaning. Only the lobbists' opinions matter and you reveal yourself as one who is on the outside since you are obviously unaware of how things are done among the ruling elites. Bless your heart.

Republicans in the General Assembly are not accustomed to thinking or writing on their own. Most of the work they do is presenting bills that are written by business interests and then voting them into law.

They are probably so redneck and backward they don't know what a computer is, much less a blog. How could they write their opinions in a blog when they don't know what they think until they're told by the lobbys.

What would it be like for them to talk with the people about Mexican illegals? Obviously the people don't want Mexicans pouring into our country but businesses do. You have shown yourself to be insensitive to their siutation Mr Hobbs. They will probably never forgive you.

Good work Bill.

They'll all have blogs sooner or later. Just like websites and email. Blogs are a whole new ballgame though as we know.

I was also recently inspired by Rep. Campfield to send similar emails to 16 state Rep's in Georgia.

I was going to try to send to all 180 but I got burned out after 16.

Out of those emails that I did send, I heard back from one legislator, Ron Forster.

He called me and said he would like to get himself a blog going.

We worked together and set him up a blog here.

He has made two posts but I'm afraid that he is now kaput.

That's the thing about blogs. They take work. And all the things you say about them too, interacting with the people, putting their thoughts and beliefs in writing, etc.

So yes it is sad. And like you say, it's only delayed, only a matter of time.

What's just as sad is the state of blogging in the United States Congress.

I know of 6 members of the United States Congress who have a "blog", at least they call them blogs, I call them fake blogs, they are very weak attempts at blogs. It shows that the word blog is seeping it's way into the United States Congress, and they will all eventually have blogs or be laughed out of Congress. But they should have all had blogs a long time ago.

The one shining exception is a Democrat. U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Detroit, Michigan. Regardless of his politics, he is the undisputed leader when it comes to Congressional blogging.

See Rep. John Conyers most excellent blog with reader comments here.

As I say, if I were king of the world, I would make it the law that every elected official have a blog and file daily reports on their blogs for the people. I would make it the law that they allow reader comments on their blogs.

The response you received from your effort is truly pathetic and sadly typical. The blogs will play a big part in putting these arrogant slackers back to their rightful place as obedient and responsive servants of the people. It's just a matter of time.

This is hilarious. You offer to host blogs for your own benefit and you are shocked when they all do the obvious thing and decline?

Blogging is a fad you are obsessed with. Wake me when a blogger wins a Pulitzer.

Um, Sherman - please show me where I offered to "host blogs for my own benefit."

I offered to build the blog and pay for hosting and a separate URL. It would not be a sub-domain of this blog, but a completely separate blog, run at cost to me, with no direct benefit to me other than it would help the party I favor better communicate with the people of Tennessee. And I would send traffic to that blog from my own, and work for free promoting the blog's existence in order to build its traffic.

The truth is, I offered valuable assistance for nothing in return, in an effort to help the people of Tennessee and improve the public dialog.

Blogging is a fad? 8 million Americans have blogs, and 32 million Americans read them, and both numbers are rising at a skyrocketing pace.

Mark it down: one day, all successful news media will distribute their content via a blog platform that allows reader/viewer interactivity in a variety of forms including comments and reader-generated original content.

After that, the day that a blogger wins a Pulitzer is inevitable as all journalism - professional and grassroots - will be blogged journalism.

In the meantime, please show me where I offered to host blogs for my own benefit. I'm waiting. Tick tick tick....

Keep your chin up, Bill!

Legislators will get there. Their constituents will make them. Here's a great resource for checking out current legislative bloggers -- http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/NALIT/blogs.htm. Also, I'm biased here, but check out Utah's legislative website -- www.le.state.ut.us -- to see a good example of how a legislature can make its process more transparent to the citizens. If the URLs I posted in this comment don't appear as active links on your site, will you please tell me how I should have done that?

Speaking of blogging as the future of journalism is not all that meaningful. It isn't how news is reported but the truthfulness and quality of the reporting that matters.

Al Gore is already changing tv news reporting by making it interactive thur his tv channel and I suppose the public will respond to that.

Blogging, as used by Hobbs is to spread propaganda and the rightwing talking points. With blogs the Hobbs of this world can jump on the bandwagon and hype the Tom DeLays of this world. Just what the world needs.

If I didn't know better. I'd think yeula was an instigator.

The issue I'd see with promoting and hosting candidates would be the conflict of interest. It's one thing to say "I'm a citizen journalist" and yet another to add the elipsis and say "...but my views will be in no way colored by the people I'm throwing my support to" and bringing them into your fold definitely loses some measure of objectivity from a journalist's perspective.

It's deciding to be a journalist or an activist. Yeulah actually had one point right. Blogging wouldn't be getting the attention it did if national media reporting wasn't so slipshod as to render it unbelievable. Blogs are a sympton of the disease in mainstream journalism.

By the next election I predict the majority of these Republican State Representatives will have blogs. Voters will not tolerate being kept in the dark now that a new technology allows them to have a voice in their representation.

Newspapers no longer fulfill their mission to present the news. Television and radio stations have become "infotainment". Blogs are what newspapers and television news used to be.

In Farragut, Tennessee in Knox County we just had a Mayoral Election. There was a television blackout informing people of the election. One station had no reporting, another had two 2 minute interviews with the two Mayoral candidates. The last station had two ten seconds blurbs on where voting was held.

The result was a record election where 16.6 % of the registered voters voted. The highest turnout in Town history. Then all the television stations extolled the record turnout. Many registered voters were not aware there was an election.

There are now three blogs in the Town of Farragut.