Y'all may not know this, but I'm a blogger-- a bona fide member of the New Media.

We bloggers, since we never step far away from our laptops, are always chatting over IM and tossing around hare-brained schemes. Some of them-- a blogger shooting day at the range, for instance-- haven't yet come to fruition. Others-- all of the ideas Kos has come up with-- haven't yet worked.

But we on the right side of the blogosphere know that if we're going to have a properly Vast and Powerful Conspiracy, it needs fresh ideas and electoral wins. Hence, our new project-- Rightroots.

Here's how it started:

As you all probably know, the left-side of the blogosphere has endorsed a slate of Democratic candidates and as of last night about 11:59 PM, the "netroots" had managed to already raise $386,968.31 for them.

Time and time again, Republicans have asked, "Gee, why can't someone on our side do the same thing for us?" In fact, I was asking myself that question a little less than 3 weeks ago and it occurred to me that if no one else was going to put this together, then maybe I should do it.

A committee of bloggers, including myself, chose 18 candidates for the House and Senate this fall-- 18 candidates who we felt had the best chance of helping the GOP hold Congress and enact conservative policies in the future.

And don't forget Hugh's Big 10 Senate races while you're at it, four of which are on our list.

Rob Bluey, also on the committee, explains a little bit about how the choices were made:

You'll notice that no incumbents were identified and no Republican primary challengers are in the mix. That's a decision we made based on fundraising totals for incumbents and the long-term outlook for primary candidates. Governors, who are subject to different campaign-finance laws, were also excluded. Many factors went into who was ultimately identified as a Rightroots-approved candidate, and anyone not on our list shouldn't feel slighted.

But here's the real point. The Internet gives us the opportunity to contribute to candidates quickly and easily. Our mission with Rightroots was to streamline that process as much as possible so that you could feel good about plunking some change in the jars of these guys without too much hassle. All 18 are on one page, and all contributions are processed by one organization-- ABCPac, which was kind enough to host our hare-brained scheme.

We waded through a long list of House and Senate races, poll numbers, cash-on-hand figures, and platforms, and decided that these 18 candidates are ones our readers can contribute to and know they made a difference. In some of these House races, it doesn't take a lot of money to be the difference between a win and a loss.

So, hop on over the Rightroots and chip in a bit for the Big Ol' Conspiracy. You'll be glad you did.