Great Idea Folks!!!
Happy Birthday Big Fella!!!
Awesome idea, and Happy Birthday Steve, Go Mets!
Great idea, and will there be a way for us all to contribute $$$ to make this an annual thing?
yeah, is there a way to contribute?
And happy birthday, steve. You're missed all the time.
and thanks to Hubris Sonic, Jesse, Lower Manhattanite and Sara, too.
we're thinking about that...
All,
THANK YOU SO MUCH for this! 
Just got back in from a Mandatory Team Dinner off a fixed menu at some seafood shack. Running on fumes. Going to bed now.
Thank you all so much again.
--Jen
I think the thing to do would be collect money and keep the grants same value 500.00 but perhaps give more than one.
maybe with different requirements, all journalistic but one general,
one woman, one minority grant, one brand new blog within that year
the limit being only how much money we can raise. (and I am good at raising money!)
just a thought.
There will eventually be a way to contribute money. NetRoots Nation 2008 isn't till next SUMMER.
We probably will not make a way for people to contribute to this fund available till we start accepting contributions to our General Fund available, which will likely be about the same time we start running advertising.
I am not going to say when all that is tentatively scheduled for (it ain't soon.)
The last time I talked in comments about an internal plan (that time it was the faint possibility of bringing on another blogger) I had a regular seriously misinterpret what I was saying. Ain't gonna happen again. Nuh-uh.
But there will be a way, in time. Promise.
Just not right away. Months and months from now, way into next year sometime.
At which point, we will turn EVERYONE from my lovely the littlest gator to anyone else who wants to help raise funds, loose to bring in the money.
With the littlest gator in charge of Gilly's campaign. Because she's got the cutest little Gator mouth, does double-entry accounting, is a serious foodie, plus there's the whole alligator thing... No one's reaching in on a nine-foot alligator to try and steal the money, you know what I mean? No one.
I love the idea, but wonder if thinking bigger isn't possible. As SG often mentioned, we don't support our own the way the Right does. Why should a blogger working hard for the cause of a progressive majority settle for $500 which hardly buys a decent laptop these days? Hopefully Kos and the rest of the "caucus" will get on board, and let this turn into a real stipend so a bright young thing can actually pay the rent for a year. If Bill in Portland Maine can get $50K, why not the next SG? Cheers to the whole GNB crew!, now it's up to the rest of us to raise the $$ for the SG stipend...
Fantastic idea... as well as the contribution part. I have the feeling a lot of people are gonna be needing the extra cash, real soon.
and fuck the fucking yankees
I like the idea of a fund. This makes his a living legacy beyond a book (if it ever comes out). I like to think Steve would have wanted it this way instead of a plaque somewhere. But I'm not opposed to an additional something somewhere with his name on it-say a brick or a book donated in his name to his alma mater.
I'd like two funds: the award and an emergency fund for when a blogger gets in real trouble for his/her blogging. Double the award if possible to $1k so that the blogger could at least go on a short weekend trip somewhere to relax.
The emergency fund would allow a blogger to survive when the wingnut boss gets hold of the blog and decides to ax the blogger. Perhaps a new lock or two if Michelle Malkin comes to call. A new computer when the old Mac crashes. Whatever.
this is fantastic. many, many thanks...
Excellent idea, youse 4. And I'm with the other commenters for stretching this idea: A larger fund, more recipients, more prestige.... yeah, that pretty much was my desire after reading this announcement.
Kudos and I'll be watching for how to donate. My first idea's obvious: be looking for tangibles that would draw bids or donations (auction, raffle, whatever). Stuff like autographs and other cool gifty ideas as we head into the holidays, for example.
this is wonderful news & I'd also like to contribute; I cooked up his potato salad recipe the other day, so I kinda owe him...
Excellent idea, howevr you really really need to allow us to contribute, because while typing FTFY is satisfying on so many levels, cash for what Steve represented and believed in will be so much more so.
Happy Birthday, Steve. Still missing you.
I can't even tell you how often I read the news and find myself trying to imagine what Steve would have said to the latest. And with Giuliani in the race? It just ain't right that Steve is gone. It never will be.
Thank you all for putting together a fitting memorial. I'm looking forward to contributing. And if I could make a suggestion, a memorial tshirt of some kind mght be a good fundraiser. I'd buy one for sure. Maybe not using the picture on this post, though. I have a vague memory of Steve hating that picture, heh. I should dig back in the archives and see if I'm right about that.
I just raised my cup to Steve in salute on his birthday, and yes FTFYs. Thanks also to you guys for carrying on the fight. Grant is a great idea.
This is a wonderful tribute. Steve allways fetl that you should be able to make a living off of bloging...every little bit helps.
I loved that photo when I first saw it.
A beautiful and fitting memorial to SG! And yes, if donations were possible the number would be far higher than $500.
FTFY's!!
that is a beautiful idea. a fitting memorial to our gilly.
you guys are holding the torch very high.
good on you.
wait you mean steve was balck..and male...im shocked.
Happy Birthday to Gilly! This is a really fantastic thing you all are doing. I hope to be able to contribute.
I loved that photo when I first saw it. -- snoozer
I like the photo a lot, too, snoozer, if my wording made that unclear. I just have a memory from way back of Steve complaining about it, and it always makes me sort of chuckle ruefully that it's ended up being the one used on memorial posts.
Really, I do need to go digging and make sure it's the same one he complained about -- it's quite possible I'm wrong. Maybe none of that matters anyway, though. It's the remembrance that counts.
Well, that just f-ing rocks. He would be so damned proud of what you guys have put together.
You know, I still have TNB bookmarked...can't seem to want to delete it. I notice that most of the blogs still have it in their blogroll, and I don't for a second think it is a matter of just bad housekeeping.
I'll double that grant. Anybody else want to play the NPR game with me?
If we are any good at this we should have 50K in a week.
When you think small, you act small. Let's take Steve up on his dare and think big.
This is wonderful! Deeds and words.
Hey everybody,
Long time no chat. What an outstanding, dynamic way to extend Steve's legacy. If the rest of us outside of the Group News Blog were simply content to treasure our memories of Steve, I can't help but feel he would be pissed. Now we all can contribute to something positive in his name. How incredibly fitting it is that some deserving soul, who may never have interacted with Steve, would be assisted in his name.
Steve's presence still looms large -- as it should. He has been on my mind a lot recently as I just launched my own tiny blog. While I do not pretend to possess Gilly's writing skills, I am frequently inspired by his courage and passion.
My brain clearly needs the exercise. I can't believe that I fucking forgot that Steve and I share a birthday.
AF
Great idea, and a happy birthday Steve! Like everyone else, I miss him and keep thinking W2S2? (What Would Steve Say?)
I missed your birthday, big guy. And I sure do miss you, Steve. I miss what your commentary would have been on Giuliani's current antics with Faux and Rupert and Judith Regan. I miss your commentary particularly the most recent police shooting in New York: a mentally-disturbed man shot dead by cops when all he had was a hair brush, not a gun. I'm well and truly sorry you are gone, dude. I think that by this time, Keith Olbermann would have picked you up as a commentator on Countdown. Please come back to us and soon.
What a wonderful idea, guys. Thank you so much.
delurking
Happy Remembrances, to all, and to Steve's family.
I think the grant idea is great, but would like to join the chorus for making a donation. At least get it to the point where it could help support a nice new laptop and some net access.
-Rob
Good show. I never had the resources to contribute to all the good folx out there, but I learned a lot from Steve, and made damned sure I sent him some bux whenever he needed it. Be happy to help you guys out, too, in my own meager way. Great idea.
Guys,
Delurking long enough to tell you this is a great and wonderful way to remember Steve.
I sure do miss his writing!
SP
I think everyone's support is so lovely, But i also think the 4GNBérs may be right to start small and work up to other things. Keeps things simple and straight forward.
as said before though, once they are ready to go to the next step I will be thrilled to jump in and support the finding of funds etc.
hugs
tlg
I would be very happy to contribute something in memory of Steve. I'm sure many others, who don't comment much or ever, like me, feel the same.
Punkster,
Ditto.
What the GNB people here have put together is such a living-growing-dynamic thing. Roots sunk deep in the Gilly-soil (almost wrote Gilly-soul but it has become its own, magnificent self. And for that I am so grateful.
And I, too, can't take down my link to TNB.
Maybe after a year. Maybe something quietly formal and ceremonial, like the Matzevah (the unveiling of the headstone a year after a loved one has passed).
But not yet.
Wonderful Idea. Just let us know when we can contribute.
Another person missing Steve every single day.
So good to see his nice photo on here!! What a wonderful way to remember Steve... just perfect!! Great birthday gift for him and for the deserving politcal journalist(s). My heart smiles
I hope everyone leaves their links up forever and his writing is read many times over as well.
Great idea GNBers!!!
I still can't believe that Steve is gone. The grant is a great way of honoring him!
I'm late getting to this thread, but very willing to contribute to this excellent cause.
Thank you all so much again.
Lindsay Beyerstein took that pic--on a chilly afternoon right before the winter when he got sick...at the Beergarden in Astoria.
I remember when he first got that sweater, and I complimented him on the color, and he then always wore that whenever we went someplace....
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