Hello to all and a Happy New Year.

A year has come and gone and many interesting things have happened. We had some fun meetups here in New York City; countless networks of women popping all over the net in response to 'where are the women bloggers'. We had a wrathful pie fight courtesy of DailyKos. We also had an awesome first time at BlogHer.

Then came Plamegate, Cindy Sheehan's protest, the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, the swearing in of John Roberts, one corruption scandal after another in Capitol Hill, the stalling of Plan B by the FDA, John Murtha's call for withdrawal from Iraq, the not so subtle Spygate, a call to Impeach both Bush and Cheney, and to cap it all off, a third Justice Sunday from the US's extreme righ; just a day before the hearings start on Judge Alito's consideration to the Supreme Court. That's the hearings to confirm a man who, in his earlier years as a White House counsel, outlined a plan to strike down Roe vs. Wade.

And so we're here.

When I first thought of BlogSheroes with Nichelle Stephens, we looked at it more as an opportunity for women bloggers to network personally through meetups. Organizing monthly events and having people come to them regularly though, is job all to itself.

Then Henry Copeland of BlogAds gave me the opportunity to put together and manage a feminist bloggers ad network.

When we first spoke, the idea was that, once the sites were clustered with this network interface, presto! the advertising would begin. This being an experiment that started last year and has yet to show any return proves that women, and especially feminists, need a different approach to not justpromoting themselves but creating sustainable support systems that are in line with our political values. That's why, even though I still feel the meetings are needed, I believe that the explosion of women networks and the success of BlogHer point me to what my gut instincts have been telling me all along : We need to focus on feminist bloggers as a different kind of new media writer, more different than just progressive or liberal bloggers.

This site does not have all the answers but it hopes to work to discover most of them among the communities of women and men who call themselves not only progressives but feminists as well. It is an exciting second beginning and I hope you all decide to stay with us and help this project grow.

If you're personal or political values are counter to our mission, please feel free to send me an email to admin@blogsheroes.com with the subject DELETE MEMBERSHIP. All deletions will be granted immediately upon request. If you want to keep up with what is happening at BlogHer, please go to www.bloger.org. They are putting the finishing touches on their brand spanking new community site and you all will have an opportunity to pick-up the discussions you had here during BlogHer 2005.

And to all who are staying on :

Thanks.
Gracias.
Merci.

This is going to be one interesting new year.

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