The Pulitzer Prize Board has decided to include text-based newspapers and news organizations that publish only on the Internet to the 14 categories for which it makes awards.
Which reminds me. We need to open nominations for the Koufax Awards. As usual, thoughts on categories are sought, as the blogosphere (y!sctp) isn't static. My preferences are to add a category for global warming, though how that wouldn't end up with Real Climate I don't know, and a category for law.
Since I hope we get nothing done today other than track muddy footprints upstairs, downstairs, and in my ladies chamber, moving children's toys and instruments and art materials and boxes of books (loop: and boxes of books; goto loop) and dressers and winter clothing (shudder) and beds and bedding and tables and chairs and lamps and ... eventually light, from a moving van to a house, today is a good day to die. er, today is a good day to ineffectively attempt, without writing email and trying to get through dozens of aggressive spam filters and authentication schemes, to let prior Koufax winners and near-winners know that I'm asking for publication releases.
Basically, the 2002/2003/2004/2005 Koufax posts in book form, for people who read dead trees, possibly in the bathroom.
Let me know if you'd like a release form. Let me know if you've got a publisher to suggest.
As most of our readers know, October was our Koufax Awards Pledge Drive month. Our goal was to raise $2,400, which we estimate, given last year's requirements, will be the minimum we will need to purchase the dedicated bandwidth and server space to run this year's awards. As of today, we've raised $1,255. We extend our heartfelt thanks to the 49 contributors who have gotten us this far, as well as the dozens of our colleagues in the blogosphere who have championed our fundraising efforts on the front pages of their own blogs.
We still, however, have almost half of the necessary costs left outstanding. Thus, we will continue our pledge drive throughout November. To contribute, please click the links on the top of the main page for Paypal or Amazon. Our snail mail address can be found here.
In addition, we are beginning to take reservations for a limited number of ads on Wampum's sidebar during the Koufax Awards. We are planning on four traditional ads at very reasonable rates, as well as six text only ads, available at a reduced cost of $25 per 200 characters for one week. (For those kind souls who have already contributed this amount or more, please contact us if you would like to use that contribution to reserve that one of those spaces for your own use.)
If you have a favorite political or social cause you would like tens of thousands of caring, Progressive eyes to view from mid-December through mid-March, please let them know of the opportunity to advertise during the 2005 Koufax Awards. (As a general disclaimer, we here at Wampum do reserve the right to refuse ads for what we deem non-Progressive causes or candidates.)
Please email us for more information.
This year will be the fourth year in which Wampum (and Dwight's former home, PLA) are holding the Koufax Awards. While it's great to win the top prize in the awards, the best part of the event is the showcasing of hundreds of blogs, posts and commentors which are often overlooked, or too quickly forgotten in the lightning speed of cyberspace today. As the years have passed, the number of nominations have increased exponentially, with over a thousand nominees last year alone. Personally, while it means a lot more work, we here think this is a very good thing.
It does, however, impact the cost of holding the awards for our relatively modest blog and small "staff" (the cost of bananas for the Googling Monkeys alone is impressive.) This is the only time during the year we actually fundraise at Wampum, as the remainder of the time we're fully willing and able to cover costs for what we view as general babbling on our part.
This year, we're holding our fundraising drive earlier, for a number of reasons. One, we'd like to spread it out over a greater length of time, as not everyone is flush with cash at the same time of the month. Also, we don't want to compete with the holiday season, when wallets are already overstretched (even more so this year, with rising energy costs.) On our end, we'd like to plan for our added expenses up front, so we don't end up with unexpected disruptions like we did last year. Lastly, fundraising during the awards itself always has felt weird to us, as we fear that some might see an opportunity for vote buying by donations from nominees. By holding the drive in advance, we feel we can avoid any appearance of such conflict of interest, so to speak. If you want to rig the election, it will take a wicked large check to stand out in our easily distracted minds.
The awards have always meant to be fun and informative. This year, our plans are to hold them on my and Eric's end while joining in relief/reconstruction efforts along the Gulf Coast (where we had planned to spend December and January even before the disaster occurred). Our goal is to help to keep the pressure on, even if the media is engaged elsewhere with missing white women and the like.
While a few people have recommended we move to a more technical format such as the Wizbang Weblog Awards, with their limited, "committee" selected nominees and push-button (Freepable) voting, we believe that an open nomination and voting process, though cumbersome, is best in highlighting the great talent and diversity in the Lefty blogosphere.
If you're able (and we recognize a lot of people are strapped these days), we hope you'll consider dropping a few quid in the pot to support this year's awards. And remember, the nominating process opens in Mid-December, so start scanning your favorite blogs now for deserving posts, series and comments (yes, we've had a few already via email.)
via PaypalOr, our Snail Mail Address is 211 Marginal Way, Box 311, Portland, ME 04103
I know a lot of people dislike Paypal, so I'll be investigating how to set up an Amazon account. Any other suggestions are welcome as well.
Ha! Figured it out. Here's the Amazon.com Donate button:
Well, that didn't work
How about Amazon Donate Page
Best Blog by a Non-Professional/Sponsored Blog
Best Blog by a Professional/Sponsored Blog
Kevin Hayden, of the American Street has posted the winners of the first annual Perranowki Prizes. Those prizes are in addition to and complimentary of the Koufax Awards (Ron Perranowski was a relief pitcher for the Koufax era Dodgers).
Please go by, take a look, and thank Kevin for helping to promote a feeling of community among lefty bloggers and readers.
On another subject, Kevin has graciously designed an icon to award to the Koufax winners. It is very handsome. He emailed it to me. If the winners choose to do so, they are welcome to post it on their blogs in recognition of their awards. The problem is that I have no idea how to post the icon. It is in the form of a picture. Help, please.
The voting for the 2004 Koufax Awards is closed. I have out the calculator and the green eye shades. The winners will be announced in a couple of days.
Thanks to all who particpated.
Update: Hey guys, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but really, you can quit posting votes now.
2nd Update: Okay, it is clear that nothing I can say will stop you folks from posting votes. The votes may not count but what the heck, if you have something nice to say about one of the finalists, have at it.
The posts that follow will complete our listings for the finalists in each category of the 2004 Koufax Awards. Please vote once in each category for one of the listed finalists.
The listings for the first group of categories begins here with the individual categories listed below the linked post.
I apologize once again for the delay in posting the remaining categories. We noted today that a few blogs with significant vote counts had the vast majority of their votes coming from only one IP address. Now, my wife and I use the same IP address and having two votes from that address would not sound an alarm. It is harder to ignore a couple of dozen votes from the same address. We then had to check for multiple votes from the same IP address in other categories.
We have made some judgments as to which votes to count and which to exclude. Those judgments made a difference in the list of finalists in a couple categories.
If anyone has any complaint about our choices, appeals may be instituted by sending a letter, regular mail, to our offices. Please address the letter to Wampum, 1000 Iceberg Lane, Antartica. We will give your appeal all due consideration once we receive it.
With that unpleasantness behind us, please scroll down to the categories and vote by leaving a comment or by sending an email. You might want to say something nice about your favorite as I often quote comments in announcing the winners.
Let's all try to have fun and not take winning or losing too seriously.
We have narrowed a very competitive field to eleven finalists in the category of Best Single Issue Blog. Those eleven each have a reasonably narrow focus but, taken together, encompass a broad range of issues. The single issues of the finalists can be as broad as economics, the media, or the Middle East. It can also be as narrow as the criminal justice system of a single state or, indeed, the machinations of a single politician.
Each is deserving of being a finalist. Congratulations to all eleven. Please vote once for one of the following:
Confined Space (Workplace Health & Safety)
The Daily DeLay (Tom DeLay)
The Daily Howler (The Media)
Brad DeLong (Economics)
Grits for Breakfast (Texas Justice System)
Informed Comment (Middle East)
Media Matters (Media)
Orcinus (Domestic Terrorism)
W. David Stephenson (Homeland Security)
Talk Left (Criminal Law)
Trish Wilson (Family Law)
Leave a comment or send an email to record your vote.
There are millions of blog posts each year. From that huge number, about 100 were of such high quality as to attract a Koufax nomination for best post. We have now narrowed the contenders to just 11 individual posts.
Normally we do not list more than 10 finalists in any one category but the huge number of very good efforts as well as a multi-way tie left us with the option of including too many or too few finalists. Since we are liberals, we naturally chose the most inclusive path.
I highly recommend that you take a while and read each of the listed posts in one sitting. It is quite an experience to take in the variety and quality of those posts all at one time.
Once you have read them all again, please vote once for one of the following:
�Wounds That Don't Heal� by Richard Cranium at The All Spin Zone
�The African-American Blogging Thing� by Antigone at XX
�Just Go..." by Riverbend at Baghdad Burning
�And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink� by Jeanne d'Arc at Body and Soul
�Picking the Bones of the Raw Diet Debate� at Dogged Blog
�Evolutionary Theology� by Digby at Hullabaloo
"A Very Old Story" by Digby at Hullabaloo
�If America were Iraq, What would it be Like� by Juan Cole
�Timeline of Terror Alerts� by Julius Civitatus (with help from Biltud) at JuliusBlog
�A Dog Chasing A Car� at Suburban Guerrilla
�Exit Interview� at TBogg
Each of those is truly excellent. Please do not split your vote and if anyone says that the choice is clear (and I know that someone will say it about each of those posts), I will laugh out loud.
Below is the list of finalists for the 2004 Koufax Award for Best Expert Blog.
The thread for voting in other categories begins here and then scroll down for other categories.
We have eight finalists for Best Expert blog. Their expertise is in a variety of areas including law, economics, journalism, science, domestic terrorism, workplace issues, and the Middle East. While it is hard to compare across different areas, we must do so to determine a winner. Please vote once for one of the below:
ACSBlog (Law)
Confined Space (Workplace Health and Safety)
Brad DeLong (Economics)
Informed Comment (Middle East)
Media Matters (Journalism)
Orcinus (Journalism and Domestic Terrorism)
Pharyngula (Science)
Talk Left (Law)
The bad news is that it is very hard to choose among that group. The good news is that they are all deserving candidates.
We have ten finalists in the category of Best Group Blog. A group is defined as two or more regular posters. There were many other deserving groups, but we had to draw the line somewhere.
Congratulations to all of the finalists. Each is deserving of being a finalist. Which group was the best in 2004? Please vote once for one of the following:
There is some serious talent in those groups.
One of the most welcome developments of 2003 was the explosion of good lefty blogs. There was a time when I could read most all of the good lefty bloggers each day. That day is long gone. It is now impossible to keep up with all of the smart and insightful writers even on a weekly basis. One of the joys of hosting the Koufax Awards is that I gain exposure to some of those new voices.
More than fifty blogs have received nominations for Best New Blog. I apologize for the delay in listing those nominations. It would have been relatively straightforward to just post links to each nominee. Instead, I decided to try to include a brief description of the blog, recite its tag line or link to some of the better posts. That was a lot of work. I hope you enjoy it. Make some more room on your blogrolls. The nominees for the 2003 Koufax Award for Best New Blog are:
Alicublog is the work of Roy Edroso. Among his many fine posts you may want to read Dear Diary, These Kids Today, The Mother of All Photo Ops and Tremors.
Back Pages is the blog of Australian writer Christopher Sheil. Sheil is a teacher of economics, law and social policy at The University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney and Boston University. His blog focuses on �current affairs, history and other matters of special or momentary interest.�
Baghdad Burning is a new blog by an Iraqi writing from Baghdad. Riverbend writes about Iraq the war and the occupation from a perspective unique to the blog world.
Berry�s World is the domain of Keith Berry. Among his notable posts are Why Does the Rest of The World Hate America, Flash Forward to Election Night, Hardball Style, I�m Not that Old, I Tell Ya, and My Interview with Kevin McCullouch.
Big, Left, Outside is �Al Giordano�s Countercoup for authentic journalism and a free press.�
The Blogging of the President is a blog designed to �document the role of the blog in the presidential campaign of 2004.� The site is dedicated to Teddy White, author of the Making of the President series.
Brian�s Study Break is the work of Brian Ulrich. Brian is a Ph.D. Candidate in Islamic history at the University of Wisconsin. The main focus of Brian�s Study break is the �Islamic world, defined in its broadest sense.�
Broken Windows is a new blog covering all things New Orleans. It includes �prose and poetry, photos and rants.�
Carpe Datum is the work of Observer, a science teacher.His take on global warming, Stupid Conservative Myth # 5 is not to be missed. Fossil Fuel Alternatives is also excellent.
Cereffusion is the work of Chris Simpson. According to his blog, Chris is �an independent hip-hop loving, Dean voting, hipster with a goatee (okay, so he shaved it off ) & a Triple 5 Soul record bag trying to make his way on the mean streets of New Hampshire.�
Margaret Cho is an actor and comedian. When I emailed asking for a good post to link to, I received a reply from her agent. How many bloggers have agents? I want one too. Her agent informed by that all the posts are �masterpieces.� She is not far from right. I was sent a link to this one.
Chun The Unavoidable has been nominated in this category. A representative post from Chun is The Parmenides.
Colorado Luis provides �political and social commentary with altitude�, the altitude being the Rocky Mountains. Among Luis�s notable posts are Red Meat for the Tancredistas and Gale Norton Under Fire. Luis also is fond of beer blogging.
Corrente is the group effort of Lambert, Leah, Tresy and the Farmer. They did an admirable job willing in for Atrios last summer and have continued the good work at Corrente.
Crooked Timber is a group blog created by Henry Farrell. Henry gathered together twelve very smart people, mostly from the academy, including a number who were already blogging stars in their own right to form Crooked Timber. Politics, philosophy, sociology, economics and other matters are discussed at a high level on a daily basis.
Damfacrats began publishing last August. In a short time, it produced enough quality material to have received nominations for Best Post for three separate entries. Links to those posts may be found here.
The Decembrist is a fine new blog by Mark Schmitt. Mark is Director of Policy and Research at the Open Society Institute and was formerly the policy director for Senator Bill Bradley. One of Mark�s excellent posts is The Grand Bargain.
Dohiyi Mir is where NTodd says his piece. His piece is often hilarious. See, for instance Queer Eye for the Deposed Guy. NTodd also addresses issues in a serious way. See for instance So What Now.
The Dolphin is a Santa Barbara blog that invites contributions of original articles �on issues of local or national importance.� It is run by a Wes Clark supporter but is not affiliated with his campaign. The entries appear to be divided into the categories of the Body Politic, the Arts, Clark Notes, Santa Barbara notes and Apercus.
En Banc is a group law blog. Law students or soon to be law students Chris Geidner, Greg Goelzhauser, Jeremy Blachman, Nick Morgan, PG, and Unlearned Hand provide insight into the legal issues of the day.
Drug War Rant is the work of Pete Guither. Pete �looks at the front lines of the drug war, with news, analysis, and the occasional rant.�
The Early Days of a Better Nation is Ken MacLeod�s blog. Ken is a Scotsman, a novelist, a programmer and has a master�s degree in biomechanics. His writings have won the Prometheus Award and he has been a finalist for both the Arthur C. Clark Award and the Nebula Award.
ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES contains the opinions of a minor Greek Goddess. For instance, I thought the recent post entitled Fighting Fat�The Bush Administration Approach was particularly good.
A Fistful of Euros is a group blog with eleven contributors (plus guest bloggers). The blog focuses on economics and culture from a European perspective.
The Fulcrum is �tilting the world a little more to the left.� Among the posts doing the tilting is The Cause of the Decline of American Morality and Conflicted Shopping.
Steve Gilliard's News Blog hs been nominated in this and a number of other categories. Steve is a Daily Kos alumnus who eschews permanent links. His post I�m A Fighting Liberal from December 3, 2003 has been nominated for Best Post.
Matthew Holt is the man behind the Health Care Blog. Matthew has long experience in the health care sector. Among his more notable posts are QUALITY: Why doesn't evidence-based medicine happen in practice?, POLICY: More on uninsurance, TECHNOLOGY: Dump the stent, have a by-pass, Why Wall Street hates health care services but doesn't know it, and POLICY: Oh Canada.
It�s Still the Economy Stupid is an econoblog started by Mary Beth, Matt Stoller and Angry Bear, but now run by Teddy. A recent excellent post of Teddy�s Ten Rules of Investing in the New New Era.
Jar of Pencils is the work of Claire Ann and Marijka, two women sharing the same office and blog. It is an eclectic mix that works.
Just a Bump in the Beltway by Melanie Mattson provides �politics and culture from the left side of the page.� Among Melanie�s notable posts is Language, Religion and Politics, which was nominated for Best Post.
Patriot Boy holds forth at Jesus� General. One example of his humor is My own deck of Bush [holy] cards.
Luz Paz, Musings From the Heart of Aztlan, by my favorite anonymous Californian labor attorney/Metiza activist. Luz Paz is nominated for best post as well, but there's so much good stuff not often addressed in the white-male dominated blogosphere. Settle in with a marguerita and an Indian taco and open up the archives from the last five months.
Kicking Ass is the blog of the Democratic National Committee. It is manned mostly by Jesse Berney with backup from the DNC Research folks. Kicking Ass represents an opportunity to discuss issues directly with the party. Jesse also makes it a lot of fun.
Killing Goliath is a group blog with five authors.
The Left Coaster is �an outside-the-Beltway perspective on current events, politics, media, and the arts.� It is a group effort by produced by Steve Soto, Mary, Duckman GR, Cal Pol Junkie, Matt Davis, Paradox and Pessimist.
Left I on the News is �a leftwing view of the day�s news and the way it is presented in the media.� It is produced by Eli.
Lotus � Surviving A Dark Time consists of �thoughts, commentary, and a nonviolent, radical left perspective on the news from an ordinary individual struggling to keep hope alive." That individual is Larry. I particularly like the idea of Larry�s quote of the week. This week�s quote is from Joseph Comstock, MD, �Commerce carries, commerce brings, commerce exchanges, but labor produces.�
Chris Mooney is a freelance writer living in New Orleans. He was one of the originators of TAPPED When he worked at The American Prospect. Chris often writes about the intersection of science and politics.
Obsidian Wings is a group effort that spans the ideological spectrum. From right to left, you may want to read one of Moe�s posts, I have No Idea, one of Von�s posts, So I Sit in Snuffy�s Diner and Katherine�s superb post, The Disappeared.
Open Source Politics is a group effort that was the brain child of the Cowboy, Kevin Hayden. OSP�s mission statement says that it �was founded to promote active discourse among progressives. We firmly believe that the strength of every democratic nation comes from government of, by, and for its people.� In order to do that, Kevin has brought together more than forty excellent writers who bring insight, skill and perspective to the dialogue. It is presented in a daily magazine format.
Passenger Pachyderms is the work of Nichole. Her tag line is �What I see, when I feel like telling you about it. Observations from a sometimes writer and usual lefter.�
Rodger Payne is an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Louisville. Among his notable posts is Howard Dean and the progressives.
A Perfectly Cromulent Blog is produced by Pete Vonder Haar. It focuses on �pop culture related smart-assery.� An example is his post entitled Soon, �Gay Divorcee� May Take On a Whole New Meaning.
Poison Kitchen is Patrick Taylor�s blog. The name �Poison Kitchen� refers to "the nickname Adolf Hitler gave to the muckraking journalists of the Munich Post. Sadly they have been almost forgotten.� A few of Patrick�s notable posts may be found here,
here and here.
Political Aims is the blog of Amy Sullivan. Amy is a writer based in Princeton, NJ and Washington, DC. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and Harvard Divinity School, and she is currently pursuing a doctorate in sociology at Princeton University. Among her notable posts are A Liberal Call to Arms, Can Public Policy Save Teenage Girls?, and The Liberal Reaction.
Procrastinating Since 1970 is the work of T.J. Griffin and Dagwood Reeves (who has been procrastinating since 1971). An example of TJ�s writing is I Am An Idiot� Let me Prove it to You. An example from Dagwood is The difference between calling for action and actual action.
Random Thoughts is Susan Nunes�s blog. Susan provides short posts linking to lots of very good stuff. I must say, however, that her thoughts do not appear to be random at all. Susan also has an excellent set of newspaper links (including some smaller papers) that I often use for surfing.
The Right Christians is the work of reverend Allen Brill. He writes on a number of topics many which seem to be at the intersection of religion, politics and law. Among his notable posts are his discussions of the Lochner era jurisprudence, the Bible and estate taxes, The Progressive�s Theory of Everything, Religion in America and his Survivor post.
The Rude Pundit is �proudly lowering the level ofpolitical discourse.� Among the posts generating the Rude One�s pride are here and here.
Sadly, No is a satirical examination of daily events. A couple examples of Sadly, No�s writing are Apparently, Ronald Isn�t The Only One Experiencing Memory Loss and The Trouble with Paul Johnson.
The Talent Show is an eye-pleasing new blog run. The talent may be appreciated by reading Biased Against Bullshit, Agricultural Technophobia, A slippery slope toward tyranny and Reason Triumphs Over Superstition.
ThinkingPeace �is the creation of writer, editor, and peace activist Michael Sky.� Here is one example of his writing.
Tikun Olam is Richard Silverstein�s blog. Richard is interested in the Middle east with a particular interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some of his more notable posts include The War in Iraq: Why It's Going Badly, After the Fall: Sadaam's Capture and Where We Go from Here and the more lighthearted Tom DeLay: from Termite Terminator to Middle East Expert.
Today In Iraq is quite aptly named. It provides daily coverage of what is happening in Iraq with lots of very good links, many of which are to sources I would not otherwise find.
Trogwatch brings you critical thinking �from our cave to yours.� An example is the post Fox vs. Satire.
Trish Wilson�s Blog is another example of the new crop of excellent sites. Her posts entitled Mass. Court Strikes Down Gay Marriage Ban and That AWOL "Mom" In The News Is The STEP-Mom are particularly noteworthy. Also see the Trish's nomination for Best expert blog.
The View From the Basement provides �independent news commentary from the US and Israel.� It is the work of Tamar Ron a �25-year-old native Israeli who grew up mostly on the east and west coasts of the US and currently resides in New York City.� She is currently a master's degree candidate in Medieval Jewish Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Whiskey Bar is where Billmon serves the drinks. Billmon is a Daily Kos alum who needs no introduction from me. For some of his better posts see the nominations for Best Post where eight(!) of his posts are listed.
World O�Crap has been nominated in a number of categories. One example of WOC�s work is Rock- Worshipping Cults Support Roy Moore.
[Note: I, MB, added a few which had come into my mailbox, with my own comments, just in case you notice a different voice introducing some new blogs.]
[Note: I corrected a bunch of html errors. DAM]
This is the first year we have included a Best Conservative Blog category. This category is, of course, informally known as the Drysdale. Inclusion of this category was suggested in comments.
So, who is your favorite right of center blogger. We need to narrow the list below to 7 or so. Help us out with a comment. The blogs nominated for the 2003 Drysdale Award are:
Asymmetrical Information, home of Jane Galt and Mindles H. Dreck;
Balloon Juice by John Cole;
Jay Caruso and Jane Finch used to run the Daily Rant. They now hold forth at Classless Warfare. Jane, being sensible, is ineligible in this category;
Just One Minute by Tom McGuire;
Ricky West and company at North Georgia Dogma;
The Light of Reason by Arthur Silber;
Unqualified Offerings by Jim Henley;
An Unsealed Room by Allison Kaplan Sommer;
VodkaPundit by Stephen Green; and
Eugene Volokh of The Conspiracy.
[Note: due to popular outcry, the title of this category has been moderated (literally) somewhat]
There were a lot of really good series posted in 2003. Below is a list of the nominations for the 2003 Koufax Award for Best Series. Let us know which ones you think should be the 7-10 finalists in this category.
The 2003 Koufax Award nominees for Best Series are:
Alas, A Blog for Ampersand�s series Constitutionality and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban located here, here, and here. Amersand has also been nominated for his series on The Wage Gap.
Hope Morrison writes at Appalachia Alumni Association as well as at Open Source Politics. Her series on Medicare has been nominated for Best Series.
A Skeptical Blog by Dominion has been nominated for his series Jim Bomford: Live in Fear of Homosexuals!. That series is in nine parts and may be located at one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine.
Ted Barlow, formerly at his own site and now at Crooked Timber has been nominated for his series of light bulb jokes. The light bulb warehouse is here.
The Bloviator is nominated for his posts constituting Cover the Unisured Week (scroll up).
The incomparable Jeanne D�Arc of Body and Soul is nominated for her series Looking for Alternatives located here, here, and here.
Chris Brooke of The Virtual Stoa is nominated for his Dead Socialist Watch series. The three most recent entries in that series, numbers 62, 63 and 64 are located here, here, and here, respectively.
Elton Beard�s Busy, Busy, Busy is nominated for his Shorter Series. I do not link to any specific post because you can just go to the site and begin reading.
Kevin Drum of Calpundit is nominated for his coverage of the Valerie Plame story as well as for his regular Friday Cat Blogging feature, the last entry of which is here.
Hesiod of Counterspin Central is nominated for his series The Bush Fedayeen Watch.
Damn Foreigner is nominated for the series on Maher Arar.
The Daily Kos is nominated for his How They Can Win series. That series includes entries on the campaigns of Lieberman, Dean, Edwards, Graham, Kerry, and Gephardt.
Daniel Davies, formerly of the D-Squared Digest is nominated for his Shorter Stephen den Beste posts (scroll up).
Gen Foods and Emma of Notes on The Atrocities are nominated for the Dossiers Project.
Sam Heldman of the dormant Ignatz is nominated for his series of posts on the judicial nomination of William Pryor.
Mark Kleiman is nominated for his series of Valerie Plame posts both on his own site and on Open Source Politics.
Deltoid by Tim Lambert is nominated for his series on John Lott.
Liberal Oasis is nominated for his weekly feature Sunday Talkshow Breakdown. A sampling of those entries are here, here, here, here, and here.
Teresa Nielsen Hayden of Making Light is nominated for her series on the missing or destroyed Iraqi Antiquities.
David Neiwert of Orcinus is nominated for his series Rush, Newspeak and Facism. That series can also be located at Cursor and in pdf ($5 donation requested) here.
Nathan Newman has three nominations in this category. He has been nominated for his series on the minimum wage, his series asking Is Growth Real? (located here, here, and here), as well as his series Why Unions?
Swopa of Needlenose is nominated for his coverage of the Valerie Plame scandal.
Charles Kuffner is the proprietor of Off the Kuff. Charles has been nominated for his exhaustive coverage of the Texas redistricting saga and for his series on the K-Mart Kiddie Roundup.
Pedantry is nominated for the series An Alternative To Normative Liberal Political Theory located here, here, and here.
Prometheus 6 is nominated for the series Startin' Stuff about reparations.
Jim Capazzola of The Rittenhouse Review is mominated for his series on former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt entitled Bye Bye Harvey. Those posts may be found here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The Slacktivist is nominated for Best Series for his Left Behind posts.
Talking Points Memo by Josh Marshall is nominated for his coverage of the Valerie Plame matter.
Rev. Allen H. Brill of The Right Christians has two nominations in this category. First, he is nominated for his posts on The Bible and Economics. Those posts are here, here, and here. Allen is also nominated for his series The Gospel According to Adam Smith found here, here, and here.
Mac Thomason of War Liberal is nominated for his coverage of Roy Moore and the Ten Commandments.
That is a lot of great stuff. Which of those series stands above the others?
Though many of the authors of the nominees for Most Humorous Post are also nominated below, this category seeks to recognize blogs which are consistently humorous while still being thoughful. Once again, we do need to narrow the field, but grap some popcorn and a beer, put your feet up, cover your keyboard with plastic, and expect to pop a rib or three laughing.
There are more than 80 nominations for best post. A number of blogs have received multiple nominations. For convenience, I have grouped the nominations by blog.
We have to somehow reduce the list below to about 7-10 finalists. I do not look forward to that prospect as there are a lot of great posts. Help us out by leaving a comment or sending an email letting us know which posts of 2003 were the very best of the best. Click "More" to see the list of nominees.
Continue reading "2003 Koufax Awards Best Post Nominations" »
Unlike other awards which seek to manipulate it's audience by building up to the "Bestest of the Best" title, we're going to cut to the chase and start at the top. Once again, the purpose here is to trim the field to seven to ten finalists, but as someone out there deemed each of these to be their favorite, each is worthy of a visit by Lefty readers.
The category seeks to recognize the best overall work across the entire year, in writing, focus, relevance, accessibility, etc. In other word, who do you consider indispensable?
The nominees this year are:
The nominations for the Koufax Awards closed at the end of last year. The response has been overwhelming with more than 600 comments or emails providing nominations. Many of those communications contained nominations for many or all of the 15 categories and some contained multiple nominations within each category. There have been thousands of nominations.
Mary Beth and I have sorted through all of the nominations. We are committed to a policy of linking to every blog, post or series that received a nomination. In the next couple of days, we will post a list of nominees for each category. With the huge response, it will be a minor miracle if I have not made an error and omitted someone. If you were nominated but are not on listed in the post, please let me know and I will try to fix it.
I have excluded the nominations for Wampum and PLA. Your efforts to sway the judges with shameful flattery have been duly noted and greatly appreciated.
After posting the list of nominees, Mary Beth and I will winnow the nominations to a group of finalists. There should be 7-10 finalists in each category. To decide on the finalists, we will consider the number of nominations, our sense of the consensus of the community, the natural break points in each category, and the comments accompanying the nominations. Comments (or email) left to this post and to the posts listing the nominations will also be considered. In close cases, we will consider whether or not a particular blog will be a finalist in another category with the intent to have as many different finalists as possible.
In the categories of Best Post, Best Series, and Most Humorous Post, some people have multiple nominations. It has been suggested that we limit entries in those categories to one per blogger so as to avoid having support for a particular blogger divided over a number of entries. That makes sense. We will consider the support for all nominated posts (or series) by a blogger when determining the finalists for those categories. Once the finalists have been selected, we will email any finalists with multiple nominations to permit him or her to select the post or series to be included.
Should you not be one of the finalists, you are encouraged to strike an attitude closer to �Wait until next year� than to �We wuz robbed.� There are many worthy nominees in each category and it is unwieldy to try to include them all as finalists. That is one reason we are linking to every nominee.
The winner in each category will be selected by the votes left in comments to the post naming the finalists (or by email if you prefer). We have contracted with Diebold to count the votes so there will be no audit trail. Motions for a recount are hereby preemptively denied. We hope to be able to announce winners in a couple of weeks.
Please remember that this is supposed to be fun for you and for us. Do not take winning too seriously. The idea is simply to recognize the good work of a lot of people. Posting of the lists of nominees should begin soon.
Didn�t some conservatives once argue that lefties have no sense of humor? Well, put down your coffee, I am about to explode that myth. What follows is surely the funniest post of the year. No, I do not fancy myself to be the blogger equivalent of Robin Williams, Richard Pryor or even Henny Youngman. I may not be able to write funny stuff but the lefty community is filled with comedic talent. I will link below to the posts that have, so far, received nominations for the Koufax Award for the Most Humorous Post of the year. Please click the "more" button to get to the links.
This listing does not mean that the nominations for Most Humorous Post are closed. If you know of or have written a post you think is funny, particularly if it was posted early in the year, leave a comment or send an e-mail and I will link to it.
Before I get to the funny stuff, there are a couple of details that need to be cleared up about the rules of the Koufax Awards. First, Best Group Blog is a new category and it is not surprising that there has been some confusion. Please be advised that John Lott and the Sock Puppets do not qualify as a group blog. A group blog requires more than one actual person.
Secondly, to qualify in the categories of Most Humorous Blog and Most Humorous Post, the humor must be intentional. Thus, Instapundit does not qualify for the former and the Kim Du Toit essay does not qualify for the latter. (I shamelessly stole those jokes from the comments. Thanks folks).
Now on to the nominations:
Continue reading "2003 Koufax Award Most Humorous Post Nominees" »
In the Post announcing the 2003 Koufax Awards, I wrote:
Those are the eleven categories. If there is another one that you think should be added (or retained, a couple have been dropped from last year) please let us know and perhaps we will add one.
The purposes of the awards include 1) having fun hosting them, 2) you having fun participating in them, 3) providing the opportunity for lots of people to say lots of nice things about lots of other people, 4) recognizing people who, without compensation, have amused us, informed us or made us think and 5) helping build a feeling of community on the left.
All of those purposes seem to be promoted by adding some additional categories. This post will identify the new categories.
That said, it is not feasible to add twenty or more new categories. Mary Beth and I already have more than 250 comments, an uncounted number of emails and eleven categories to manage. If twenty more categories are added, we will not be announcing the winners until July. I would like to limit the number of additional categories to four. That will allow the recognition of some additional people without expanding the awards to unmanageable proportions.
After reviewing the comments and emails, and considering what I think is best, I have decided on the following four categories:
Best Commentor
One consistent suggestion has been that the contributions of those who post on the comment boards of other people�s blogs should be recognized. Last year the Awards included a Best Commentor category won by Digby, now of Hullabaloo. I removed that category this year because it is very had to locate and link to the commentors.
Nonetheless, the community wants the category of Best Commentor and it is hereby added. When making nominations, please let us know where the nominee posts. If you are nominated for �Best Commentor� please send a link to a comment or two you would like to see recognized.
Best Right Of Center Blog
Many comments suggested an award for our favorite conservatives. As Jeanne put it:
How about "Best conservative blog"? There are so many bad ones, I'd like to show a little appreciation to the rare few who demonstrate some style and grace in the ways they disagree with us.
Most Underappreciated Blog
Many comments suggested an award for people who do not normally receive a lot of recognition. One suggestion was for the best blog with less than a certain amount of traffic. Others made different suggestions trying to design an award for which Atrios, Kos, Hesiod, CalPundit and the other heavyweights would not be eligible.
One purpose of the awards is to show appreciation for those who have done good work in the last year. Thus, I decided to to make the award for the �Most Underappreciated Blog.� My nominee is Ross of The Bloviator from whom I learn more things of greater importance than almost any other blogger. Please leave a comment or send an email with your nomination.
Best Expert Blog
The fourth and final additional category was inspired by the comment of DavidNYC who runs The Swing State Project. David writes:
I want to suggest a new category: Best Specialist (or Specialty) Blog. This would be for someone who has a particular specialization (whether advanced degree, high-level job, or even auto-didact) and blogs primarily on that topic. This would be different from single-issue blog. Maybe another way to put it would be "Best Expert Blog". (For example, my blog, the currently on-hiatus Swing State Project, might be single issue, but it sure ain't expert.) My nominations for this category would be Prof. Juan Cole and Prof. Jack Balkin.
I think that is a great idea. Please provide us with your choices for Best Expert Blog.
Those are the new categories. We now have a total of fifteen categories. I will begin posting links to the nominees shortly. Please keep the nominations coming in.
The time has arrived to begin the nomination process for the 2003 Koufax Awards. This is the second year of the awards. In the fast moving world of blogs, that qualifies them as a tradition. The purpose of the awards is to recognize and applaud the best of the left. It is supposed to be fun for us and for you. Please take the awards in the spirit in which they are offered.
Mary Beth and I will be accepting nominations during the month of December. Nominations may be submitted either by comment to this post or by email to either of us. The email addresses are at the right. Each week for the next few, we will attempt to post links to nominated posts and blogs so that we may have an informed electorate.
Some categories recognize specific posts. We request that, if possible, your nominations for those categories contain a hyperlink. Someone has to locate the link and if last year�s experience is any indication, locating all of the links for nominated posts is a lot of work. Help us out if you can. If you can not, describe the post as best you can and I will try to hunt it down.
On that note, please allow us to emphasis that we encourage you to nominate your own material. No one knows your posts better than you. If you have written something you think is particularly good, please let us know about it. If you feel uncomfortable publicly nominating your own material, please send an email. The source of the nomination will be kept confidential.
Shortly after the turn of the year, Mary Beth and I will tabulate the entries and narrow the nominees to about five or six finalists per category. We will post those finalists and open the voting for the awards. We expect the award winners to be announced in late January.
As Mary Beth and I will be tabulating the votes, nominations for PLA or Wampum, although appreciated, will not be counted. That is a shame as Flashback Friday would win my vote for Best Series.
There will be 11 categories this year. Those categories (links are to last year�s awards) are:
Best Blog
Atrios won last year. The category seeks to recognize the best overall work across the entire year. Which lefty blog do you consider indispensable?
Best Writing
Jeanne D�Arc of Body and Soul won last year. The category seeks to recognize the best writing across the entire year.Best Post
Jim Capozzola of The Rittenhouse Review won last year with his post entitled Al Gore and the Alpha Girls. The category is intended to identify the one post of the year that stands above all others for originality, insight, and writing. This is one of the categories in which it is most appropriate to nominate your own material.
Best Series
The Best Series Sandy was won last year by Atrios for his exhaustive coverage of the Trent Lott controversy. The category includes both regular features such as Mary Beth�s Flashback Fridays (alas, not eligible) as well as the best coverage of a single issue (such as Atrios� posts about Trent Lott last year). This is another category where we want you to send us your best stuff.Best Single Issue Blog
Jeralyn Merritt of Talk Left was awarded the 2002 Koufax for Best Single Issue Blog for her coverage of all things legal. Blogs that focus exclusively or almost exclusively on politics, economics, law or other specific areas are likely candidates for this award.Best Group Blog
This is a new category and hopefully self explanatory. A group is defined as two or more regular contributors.
Most Humorous Blog
Fanatical Apathy by Adam Felber won the 2002 award for most Humorous Blog. Who has consistently made you laugh this year?Most Humorous Post
The 2002 Award for Most Humorous Post went to Jesse Taylor of Pandagon for his Peggy Noonan parody. What post this year made you laugh out loud? If you have read or written anything particularly humorous this year, please send us a link.Best Design
Ampersand of Alas, A Blog won in 2002. The category is self explanatory. If any of you creative types care to design something that could be posted on the site of finalists and winners of a Koufax Award, please send it to us. We would love to actually have something to award.
Best New Blog
Roger Ailes won last year in a tight race. This year figures to be even tighter due to the explosion of new, good lefty blogs. A new blog is one that first posted on or after July 1, 2003. If your blog qualifies, send us a link. The growth in lefty bloggers has made it hard to keep up with them all and we would appreciate the help.
Best Special Effects
The award of best Special Effects is intended to go to the blog that makes the best use of anything other than words. Flash movies, charts, cartoons, pictures, diagrams all are appropriate. Blah 3 won last year for its use of flash movies.
Those are the eleven categories. If there is another one that you think should be added (or retained, a couple have been dropped from last year) please let us know and perhaps we will add one.
Everyone should take the Koufax Awards in the spirit in which they are intended. Do not take winning or not winning too seriously. Last year, someone objected to the awards on the ground that they were a popularity contest. We plead guilty as charged. How could they be anything else since voting is involved?
The idea behind the awards is to recognize the contributions of a number of people who give of their time, effort, insight, skill and humor without compensation. It is a chance to say a lot of nice things about a lot of people. We hope to help build and promote a feeling of community among lefty bloggers. This is supposed to be fun for us and for you. Anything that makes it less fun is inappropriate.
Send us some nominations.
