Hi. My name is Thomas Krehbiel and I'm an ordinary software developer living in Virginia.

This project grew from humble beginnings. Some time ago, out of curiosity, I did a little research to see who among the Virginia blogosphere was endorsing presidential candidates for 2008. I discovered that quite a few were, including some of the bigger names in the blogosphere. I also wondered about local races. Again, quite a few were openly supporting candidates at the state and local levels. Many blogs exist solely for the purpose of raising up or tearing down local candidates (Eg. Raising Kaine, Bloggers 4 Sayre, GoodbyeKen, Albo Must Go, to name a few).

I remembered that the same phenomenon occurred during the 2006 Senate race: Many top Virginia blogs were openly campaigning for Jim Webb or George Allen. A couple of prominent Virginia bloggers were even paid to do so. Some have since moved on to paid positions in government. I wasn't around to see it, but this blogging trend apparently stretches back to the 2005 Virginia governor's race as well.

I find this trend disturbing.

Thomas Jefferson famously lobbied for an educated citizenry, and political blogging is a great tool of education. But it can also be a great tool of propaganda, and it doesn't take much to cross that line. Politicians are now wise to this as well. As political blogs have become more and more prominent, politicians have been trying harder and harder to steer the medium in advantageous directions.

The fingerprints of politicians in the blogosphere are everywhere. Hardly a week passes without a "live blog" or "blogger conference call."  Attorney General Bob McDonnell courted Sic Semper Tyrannis with an exclusive "roundtable." Earlier this year, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling hosted a "Blogger Day" in Richmond. Even Governor Tim Kaine threw an invitation-only party at the Governor's Mansion for the Democratic bloggers who helped his 2005 election campaign.

And what does it all lead to? One example came when Del. Bob Marshall planted some questionable information in a blog comment on Not Larry Sabato. Now it isn't surprising that a politician would try to take advantage of the blogosphere, but it is surprising that established bloggers seem willing and even eager to hand over their keys and let politicians run the show. After Del. Marshall wrote his comment, it was picked up and repeated without question -- almost verbatim -- by several prominent bloggers.

It has been said that political bloggers are "citizen journalists" -- an antidote to the biased corporate interests of mainstream media. But with so many bloggers partying with, endorsing, or even working for the political establishment, they signal their desire not to reform corrupt media, but to simply replace it with a new media corruption. Political bloggers and elected officials are moving closer to a day when they might be indistinguishable from each other, and goods and services will flow freely between the two.

That is undoubtedly a boon for the interests of both politicians and bloggers.  But unfortunately, the non-blogging citizenry is left out in the cold. A voter turning to what should be a wealth of knowledge on the Internet cannot hope to find objective information within a political blogosphere that is held spellbound by our elected leaders, to say nothing of the lack of factual accountability.

This leads me to BlogNark.  My goal with this site is to document instances when political bloggers aren't looking out for the interests of the people of Virginia, either by design or mistake. I will be doing this by examining spin and misinformation, and tracking blogs which endorse or support candidates or elected officials. My intention is to stick to state or local issues -- there are plenty of national fact-checking sites already.

I admit this is a lofty goal. Objectivity in a political arena is not easy to maintain. Clearly, all humans are biased in one way or another, and of course I am no exception.  It is my hope, though, to show only a bias against elitism and bad information. For the record, I am not affiliated with either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party and have no intention of doing so -- I would probably register as an Independent if I could.

One final note: "Ethics" has been a popular subject in the Virginia blogosphere lately, with at least two new blogs (God Save VA and Blogging Ethics) popping up claiming to monitor Virginia blogging ethics. It might seem like this site is another in the same genre, but I will be concentrating only on verifiable information, and will strive to leave ethical judgments to the reader.

Let the research begin!