Well... The Right Place got skunked (since we do, in fact, stink around here - well I do anyway - this seems rather appropriate), but a number of sites near and dear to our hearts earned well-deserved spots as finalists for this year's Weblog Awards!
The Right Place would like to congratulate all of the finalists, particularly those we either nominated or seconded and anyone on our blogroll.
But, only one in each category can win, so good luck to you all!
Mr. Right hereby offers his official endorsement to the following worthy candidates and pledges his support. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect those of my blogging partners, who are free to offer their own recommendations and endorsements as they see fit! Honorable Mentions are other nominated blogs I am familiar with in a given category that are very worthy.
Voting began Monday, December 5th and continues through the 15th. You are permitted one vote per category per day.
First things first...
With These, It's Personal
BEST OF THE TOP 5001-6750 BLOGS
Joust the Facts
Our very own Dr. T.M. Ergin, aka "Giacomo", needs your support! The strongest of all endorsements possible for a blog so good, I asked the blogger to join me here! Folks - I am begging you - go vote for Joust the Facts - do it now, and do it again every day until the voting ends! After all, if you like this blog, you should be reading his, too, shouldn't you? If not, then start by checking it out now. It is a good-looking, very well-written blog. Once you have seen it for yourselves, be certain to go out and vote for the Doc! Thank you and God bless you!
BEST OF THE TOP 501-1000 BLOGS
WILLisms
Honorable Mention: Vince Aut Morire; Generation Why?; MacStansbury; Reasoned Audacity; Think Sink
As good as the rest are, especially up-and-comer Generation Why?, this is no contest! Even if I didn't consider Will a friend, which I do, his blog is awesome! Well-written, heavily researched, all manner of charts and graphs and it looks great, too! This is another one of my strongest endorsements!
BEST OF THE TOP 3501-5000 BLOGS
File It Under...
Honorable Mention: Garfield Ridge
Like Joust the Facts and WILLisms, FIU receives my strongest endorsement! What is this blog doing this low in the listings? It is a travesty! Again, my judgment may be colored by an online friendship that has developed with Hoodlumman and Rob, but go and take a look at their blog! They deserve this award, folks! Their blog is funny, thought-provoking, and it looks great! The only thing that may hurt them here is being up against Garfield Ridge, which has a strong following among many Ace of Spades readers, and is another very good blog. Good luck, FIU! I will be voting for you as much as is permitted!
Best of the Rest
BEST BLOG
Michelle Malkin
Honorable Mention: Captain's Quarters; The Corner; Hugh Hewitt; LGF; Mudville Gazette; Power Line
So many of these are SOOOOO good, but Michelle has been, far and away, the one place to turn to this past year when you need to know what is up and you need to know now! Every last one of the blogs I have listed here are powerhouses that I wouldn't ever want to do without.
The shame of it all is that they and Instapundit are probably going to beat each other up so badly splitting the same audience, that the biggest bag of horseplop on the Internet, DailyKos, will likely slip through and win it with a concerted effort from a motivated leftist voting bloc! Do we really need to nominate these leftist sites in the same categories? Ugh!
BEST NEW BLOG
WuzzaDem
Honorable Mention: Atlas Shrugs; Basil's Blog; Common Sense Runs Wild; Decision '08; Merri Musings; Soldiers' Angel Holly Aho
Some excellent blogs here! Basil and Holly Aho have done so much good this past year (Basil with blogging tips for his fellow bloggers and helping to start the open trackback explosion and Holly Aho has been a true inspiration with her work on behalf of our troops), but how can I ignore one of the funniest blogs I have ever read? Flip a three-sided coin, but I feel that I have to go with what I think is the best blog rather than the most noble blogger, so John gets the nod by a nose!
BEST GROUP BLOG
RedState
Honorable Mention: The Cotillion; Publius Pundit; Sound Politics
A tough call. In the end, I felt I had to go with the best source for hard political news, since that is my primary interest, but The Cotillion is an excellent conglomeration of some of the very best women in the blogosphere. You really can't go wrong with either choice!
BEST HUMOR/COMICS BLOG
Hog on Ice
IMAO
Honorable Mention: Beautiful Atrocities; Cox & Forkum; Day by Day (by Chris Muir); Iowahawk; Protein Wisdom; Scrapple Face; Six Meat Buffet
Now you are talking about a category near and dear to my heart! What a field! Any of the above are deserving, so are many that didn't even make the final cut (The Nose on Your Face; Point Five; Caption This!; The Therapist; Blame Bush!; etc.) and some that were nominated in other areas instead (File It Under...; WuzzaDem).
For me, it came down to an almost impossible choice: Steve H. vs. Frank J. & the crew. Both have made me nearly fall out my chair laughing on too many occasions to count, and if you give Steve any points at all for being the chief culprit behind this year's best spoof, Huffington's Toast, well...
In the end, I just didn't want to make a choice - so I'm voting for both on alternating days! Feel free to pick one or the other if you prefer, but I just can't!
BEST CONSERVATIVE BLOG
PoliPundit
Honorable Mention: Ace of Spades; The Anchoress; Ankle Biting Pundits; The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler; La Shawn Barber's Corner; Belgravia Dispatch; Blogs for Bush; Commonwealth Conservative; The Jawa Report; Just One Minute; Right Wing News; Right Wing Nut House; Say Anything; Debbie Schlussel
Ummmm... Wow! Just wow! Is all of the above a valid option??? I could happily do without this choice!
The Anchoress is a dear lady and a marvelous blogger! Rick Moran's Right Wing Nut House is fantastic! Ace of Spades is a must read! Right Wing News, The Jawa Report, The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, Ankle Biting Pundits... all among my regular stops, and the rest of this list is impressive as well!
What it all comes down to, though, is the blog that got me into blogging trumps the rest, so my choice has to be PoliPundit! Lorie Byrd is an indispensible inspiration, Jayson Javitz a statistics and economics whiz, Alexander K. McClure an extraordinary political race junkie with in-depth knowledge on a wide array of key contests, DJ Drummond a marvelous essayist and historian and PoliPundit himself a magnificent spokesman for illegal immigration control and a great tweaker of the screwball left's collective nose! What more could you ask for in a single blog?
BEST MEDIA/JOURNALIST BLOG
Steyn Online
Michael Yon: Online Magazine
Honorable Mention: Mickey Kaus; James Lileks (The Bleat); Donald Luskin (The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid); Oh, That Liberal Media; James Taranto (WSJ's OpinionJournal Best of the Web Today)
All very good, and you can easily make a case for Michael Yon, whose work on getting the real story out of Iraq is among the greatest causes going... but Steyn is consistently the finest right-leaning writer out there. Time to split the ballot again!
BEST CULTURE/GOSSIP BLOG
Knowledge Is Power (SondraK)
Honorable Mention: LLama Butchers
No contest! I don't read most of the blogs listed. The LLamas are good, but Headmistress SondraK is a blogging goddess!
BEST MILITARY BLOG
Argghhh!
Honorable Mention: Blackfive; Froggy Ruminations; Sgt. Hook; A Soldier's Perspective; 365 and a Wakeup
I listed the ones I know fairly well. I will be checking out the other nominees when I have more time. Many of these are good, but my loyalties presently lie with Castle Argghhh, which I have been frequenting more and more of late! In any event, a salute to all our military bloggers - who deserve our deepest respect and admiration!
BEST VIDEO BLOG
The Political Teen
Honorable Mention: MEMRI TV
A runaway! Ian's site has become absolutely indispensible!
BEST LAW BLOG
Stop the ACLU
Honorable Mention: Althouse; Confirm Them; Patterico's Pontifications; Professor Bainbridge; SCOTUSblog; The Volokh Conspiracy
Why? Simple - Is there a more important cause out there related to this topic? Not likely!
BEST OF THE TOP 250 BLOGS
MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
Honorable Mention: Balloon Juice; Belmont Club; Dean's World; The Indepundit; Outside the Beltway; QandO; VodkaPundit
For me, this came down to a battle between OTB and Beth's MY VRWC. In the end, I tilted to the lady with attitude, but both are very deserving and Rodney Dill, who is in charge of OTB's Caption Contests, is a terrific fellow and a constant presence around here. If OTB featured more Rodney, they'd easily get my vote!
BEST OF THE TOP 251-500 BLOGS
Betsy's Page
Honorable Mention: Baldilocks; Austin Bay Blog; Confederate Yankee; Ex-Donkey Blog; Nickie Goomba; Sister Toldjah
True, her blog isn't fancy, but I am voting on substance over style, and Betsy Newmark is easily one of the best there is! This is another very good crop, however, as the rest of those above are all excellent!
BEST OF THE TOP 1001-1750 BLOGS
Ranting Right Wing Howler
Honorable Mention: Dustbury; Girl on the Right; Rightwingsparkle
None of my regular reads are here, but Rightwingsparkle and Ranting Right Wing Howler are occasional stops. Both are good. RWS is taking some time off from blogging, so I'll lean RRWH for this one.
BEST OF THE TOP 1751-2500 BLOGS
Sean Gleeson
Honorable Mention: Conservative Outpost
I have to give the nod here to the man who created the Autorantic Virtual Moonbat!
BEST OF THE TOP 2501-3500 BLOGS
Byrd Droppings
Honorable Mention: Conservative Musings; Radioactive Liberty; Wide Awake Cafe
A sentimental choice to be sure, but I owe so much to Lorie, I just have to support her! Second choice would be tough, as rest of above are all solid picks.
BEST OF THE TOP 6751-8750 BLOGS
Molten Thought
Honorable Mention: BoreAmerica; Elephant in My Coffee
The Best Blogs Not Among the Finalists
The following all deserved a much better fate, but, like us, were squeezed out of the finals. I know that each one of you, like us, were nominated for at least one award. Congratulations and better luck next year! You are all winners in my book!
Brainster's Blog
Marathon Pundit
Musing Minds
The Nose on Your Face
Oh, How I Love Jesus
A Rose by Any Other Name
THIRDWAVEDAVE
NOTES: For the time being, I am not making any recommendations in the remaining categories. If I have the time later on, I may append this post with some more endorsements. Good luck to all of the highly deserving nominees!
Also, any Honorable Mentions not already on my blogroll due to some previous oversight, will get added next time I update it! Thank you.
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