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The 2006 Koufax “Most Deserving of Wider Recognition” nominations have been posted. Thanks to some kind, pitying soul, a complete breakdown in quality control, and a deeply troubling failure in border security procedures, they include this blog — thank you! In order to get everybody’s Google rating or whatever up a little higher, here’s the list in full:

abyss2hope: A rape survivor’s zigzag journey into the open, Aetiology, Ali Eteraz, Alterdestiny, And Doctor Biobrain’s Response Is…, Angry Brown Butch, Anonymous Liberal, Antagony & Ecstasy, The Anti-Essentialist Conundrum, appletree, Archy, art crit, at the end of the boom, Axis of Evel Knievel, BagNewsNotes, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Bats Left, Throws Right, Being Amber Rhea, Blah3.com, A Blog Around the Clock, Blog of the Moderate Left, Blue Gal*, The Blue Republic, BlueNC, Bouphonia, The Brad Blog*, Brains and Eggs, A Brown Eyed Handsome Man, Capitalism Bad, Tree Pretty , Confined Space (quit, unfortunately), Conservative Truths, Digital Doorway, Dos Centavos, Down With Tyranny!, d r i f t g l a s s, ebogjohnson.com, Echidne* (hey, she won last year, no fair), elle, phd, eminism.org, Engulfed Cathedral, European Tribune, Existential Ramble, eye of the storm, F-Words, Fact-esque, The Fat Lady Sings, Feline Formal Shorts, Fetch Me My Axe (best blog name), The Fifth Estate, First Draft, thefreeslave, The Galloping Beaver, Gender 3.0, Good Times and Bad Times in Lost America, The Gun Toting Liberal, HAH!, Having Read the Fine Print (a.k.a. Black Amazon), The Heretik*, How This Old Brit Sees It …, Huck and Jim, Ice Station Tango, If I Ran the Zoo (highlights here), Ilyka Damen, I’m Not a Feminist, But, INTL News, Jane Awake, Jay Sennett, Karena, konagod, Larvatus Prodeo, Lawyers, Gun$ and Money*, The Left End of the Dial, LEFT IN EAST DAKOTA (the old all caps trick, eh), LesbianDad, Life From The Trenches….Literally, Life, Law, Gender, Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted), Lydia Cornell, Marisacat, McBlogger, Media Needle, Mercury Rising, Mock, Paper, Scissors, Musical Perceptions, Musings, Nation-Building, Newsrack Blog (ta da!), No More Mr. Nice Guy!, No Right Turn, Norwegianity*, The Oil Drum, Orcinus*, Packaging Girlhood, pass the roti on the left hand side, Persephone’s Box , phronesisiacal, The Primary Contradiction, Power and Politics, Progressive Gold, Progressive Historians, Prometheus 6, Puisi-poesy, The Quaker Agitator, Race Changers - working towards an anti-racist future, one week at a time, Rachel’s Tavern, Racialicious, Rants From The Rookery, The Reaction, Real Climate, Reclusive Leftist, Replace The Lies With Truth- , Rhetorically Speaking, Richard Dawkins.net, Scientia Natura: Evolution and Rationality, Scrutiny Hooligans, Sharanya Manivannan, Shrub.com, The Sideshow*, The Silence of Our Friends, Simply Left Behind, Skeptical Brotha, Sly Civilian, SoapBoxBlog, Sour Duck, Streak’s Blog, Street Prophets, Stump Lane, Super Babymama, Taking Steps, TBogg*, Temple3, this blog will self-destruct in five seconds, a.k.a. The Pime (disqualified: one name per blog), Thoughts From Kansas, Thoughts of an Average Woman (moved to The Crone Speaks), Tiny Cat Pants, Turn This Bus Around!, Truly Outrageous, uggabugga, Unapologetic Mexican, Unscrewing the Inscrutable, Vortex(t), Welcome to Pottersville, Woman of Color Blog, World O Crap, Wrapped Up Like a Douche (so that’s what they were saying), You Forgot Poland! (other best blog name), Zuky

There seems to be some mistake: the category is for “writers who consistently deliver, yet don’t receive the recognition they deserve.” By contrast, I pride myself on delivering inconsistently, and probably receive precisely the recognition I deserve.

Still, in the spirit of “winning is everything,” I’m shooting to get more than three votes this year. So I’m going to throw some some elbows, and here’s how: I challenge big-time competitors like Avedon Carol (The Sideshow) to go pick on someone their own size over in the “consonant level” blog nominees. (They’re not quite A-list, but B-, C-, D-list… consonants, get it?). Accordingly, I’ve marked blogs that I think are already widely recognized enough, dammit, with an asterisk. More seriously, I’ve marked in color the ones I’m familiar with and can already recommend.

Actually, of course, have a look at any of them — especially “fact-esque” and “The Sideshow,” my own nominees for “most deserving” (fact-esque) and “consonant-level” and “best overall” (Sideshow). Heck, if you have a couple of years, have a look at all of them. As ever, may the best blog lose so that I can win.

PS: Nell Lancaster, a frequent commenter here, is among the nominees for “Best Commenter“; don’t forget to vote for her whenever that finally rolls around.

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EDIT, 6/11: added plugs for fact-esque and The Sideshow, and link to my nominations post.

That’s the motto at Steve Gilliard’s “The News Blog,” and it’s one of the rallying points online for doing just that.

But Mr. Gilliard won’t be there anymore; he died today at the age of 41, presumably from complications after his recent surgery. I didn’t know him personally, but I was always impressed with his writing, his outlook, and his energy. I extend my condolences to his friends and family.

Other reactions — from simple R.I.P.’s to essay length remembrances by Sara, Jane Hamsher, James Wolcott to name a few — from around the Internet: Atrios, Avedon Carol, Damian TPoD, digby, eRobin, Ezra Klein, James Wolcott, Jane Hamsher, Jon Swift, Julia, Lindsay Beyerstein, Matthew Yglesias, Nicole Belle and John Amato, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Roy Edroso, Sara, Steve Benen, the talking dog, Tom Watson. [May be updated; Jon Swift has another list.]

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UPDATE, 6/9: New York Times obit.

An occasional review of further developments in stuff I’ve written about before.

# Terraforming Today, October 19, 2002 — As I wrote in 2002, it’s been established for some time that phytoplankton “blooms” — surges of growth of marine single celled plants– can be caused simply by adding relatively small amounts of iron to areas of open ocean. (Iron is a trace element the organisms need to grow and multiply.) Much of the biomass that isn’t converted into plankton-eaters eventually settles to the bottom of the ocean. The questions have been whether this could result in significant net removal of carbon from the atmosphere — and even if it did, would it be a good idea? Now we can add another one: is it commercially viable as a “carbon credit” scheme? In early May, the New York Times’ Matt Richtel reported in “Recruiting Plankton to Fight Global Warming“:

In an effort to ameliorate the effects of global warming, several groups are working on ventures to grow vast floating fields of plankton intended to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and carry it to the depths of the ocean. It is an idea, debated by experts for years, that still sounds like science fiction — and some scholars think that is where it belongs. [...]

In Europe, where there is a market for carbon credits, it is now worth only $2 to offset a ton of carbon emissions. But not long ago, that figure was $35, and it is expected to rise again as the limits imposed under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming start to bite. Planktos believes that it can make a healthy profit if it receives $5 a ton for capturing carbon dioxide. [...]

….[but] one unresolved question is whether regulatory bodies will even endorse iron fertilization as a valid means of carbon sequestration that would be allowed under any so-called cap-and-trade system to limit global warming gases.

One objection to the “Geritol tablet” global cooling theory are that at least some of the biomass settling to the bottom of the ocean may wind returning to the atmosphere later on as methane or nitrous oxide, both of which are worse greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. Another problem is that large scale carbon and biomass dumps to the deep sea might well change the chemistry of the deep sea environment, disrupting ecosystems there.

Meanwhile, though, at least two companies — Planktos and Climos — are looking at the idea. Planktos is sending a ship, Weatherbird II, to the Pacific Ocean area near the Galapagos Islands to measure carbon uptake after iron releases.

# Wal-Mart wins another one, February 25, 2005; WalMartWorkersRights.org, July 17, 2005; Employee Free Choice Act, June 13, 2005 — Human Rights Watch (HRW) has published a study of Wal-Mart labor practices this month — Discounting Rights: Wal-Mart’s Violation of US Workers’ Right to Freedom of Association. From the introduction:

Wal-Mart is a case study in what is wrong with US labor laws. It is not alone among US companies in its efforts to combat union formation, following the incentives set out in unbalanced US labor laws that tilt the playing field decidedly in favor of anti-union agitation. It is also not alone in violating weak US labor laws and taking advantage of ineffective labor law enforcement. But Wal-Mart stands out for the sheer magnitude and aggressiveness of its anti-union apparatus and actions.

Between January 2000 and July 2005, even the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) found 15 labor law violations by Wal-Mart. The next closest “competitor” was Kroger — with 2. The HRW report describes a variety of illegal Wal-Mart anti-labor tactics in detail, including Discriminatory Hiring, Firing, Disciplining, and Policy Application; Union Activity Surveillance; “Unit Packing” and Worker Transfers to Dilute Union Support; Addressing Worker Concerns to Undermine Union Activity; Threatening Benefit Loss if Workers Organize; Interrogating Workers about Union Activity; Illegal No-Talking Rules; Discriminatory Application of Solicitation Rules; Illegal No-Solicitation Rules; and Confiscating Union Literature. There’s also a chapter on the Loveland, Colorado case I wrote about a couple of times back in early 2005 (see “Wal-Mart wins another one”.)

# ICJ: Srebrenica was genocide. Serbian police were involved… (yet Serbia cleared of genocide), February 26, 2007 — In early April, the New York Times’ Marlise Simons reported “Genocide Court Ruled for Serbia Without Seeing Full War Archive“:

Lawyers interviewed in The Hague and Belgrade said that the outcome might well have been different had the International Court of Justice pressed for access to the full archives, and legal scholars and human rights groups said it was deeply troubling that the judges did not subpoena the documents directly from Serbia. At one point, the court rebuffed a Bosnian request that it demand the full documents, saying that ample evidence was available in tribunal records. [...]

As part of its ruling, the court said that the 1995 massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, a designated United Nations safe haven in eastern Bosnia, was an act of genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces, but that it lacked proof in this case that the forces were acting under Serbia’s “direction” or “effective control.”

The ruling raised some eyebrows because details of Serbian military involvement were already known from records of earlier tribunal cases. For instance, evidence showed that in late 1993, more than 1,800 officers and noncommissioned men from the Yugoslav Army were serving in the Bosnian Serb army, and were deployed, paid, promoted or retired by Belgrade.

These and many other men, including top generals, were given dual identities, and to help handle that development, Belgrade created the so-called 30th personnel center of the general staff, a secret office for dealing with officers listed in both armies. The court took note of that, but said that Belgrade’s “substantial support” did not automatically make the Bosnian Serb army a Serbian agent.

However, lawyers who have seen the archives and further secret personnel files say they address Serbia’s control and direction even more directly, revealing in new and vivid detail how Belgrade financed and supplied the war in Bosnia, and how the Bosnian Serb army, though officially separate after 1992, remained virtually an extension of the Yugoslav Army. They said the archives showed in verbatim records and summaries of meetings that Serbian forces, including secret police, played a role in the takeover of Srebrenica and in the preparation of the massacre there.

I’ve meant to write about this in its own post, but couldn’t figure out what else to say beyond spluttering in disgust. So rather than lose sight of it altogether, I’m just putting down a marker here. It seems to me there’s a back story waiting to be reported on this. One involves the “controversy” of whether Serbia and Montenegro could be held to account under international law, since this “rump Yugoslavia” was not strictly the former republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in and of itself. A second, deeper controversy involved some judges’ 1996 opposition to the whole idea of holding nations — rather than individuals — accountable for genocide:

In [Judges Shi Jiuyong's and Vereshchetin's] view, the Convention on Genocide was essentially and primarily designed as an instrument directed towards the punishment of persons committing genocide or genocidal acts and the prevention of the commission of such crimes by individuals, and retains that status. The determination of the international community to bring individual perpetrators of genocidal acts to justice, irrespective of their ethnicity or the position they occupy, points to the most appropriate course of action. Therefore, in their view, it might be argued that the International Court of Justice is not the proper venue for the adjudication of the complaints which the Applicant has raised in the current proceedings.

A remarkable view for a judge on the International Court of Justice! This view didn’t prevail in 1996, but it was co-authored by a judge (China’s Shi Jiuyong) who was among the majority finding against Bosnia this February. As before, it seems to me that justice for Bosnians and Srebrenicans has foundered on legal pedantry and shortsightedness.

# Starbucks Challenge, November 20, 2005 — Just got a comment to this post alerting me to the documentary “Black Gold,” by Nick and Mark Francis, about Ethiopian coffee farmers and their struggle to get a decent price for their crop:

Tadesse Meskela, the representative of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Southern Ethiopia, seeks to circumvent the global commodity exchanges by tirelessly traveling the world selling premium grade coffee directly to coffee roasters who will pay more for his high grade product and who support the idea of paying farmers a living wage. He returns the profits to the cooperative members who use the extra income to build the schools and infrastructure needed to develop their communities.

At the Cancun conference, one African delegate explains, “Trade is more important than aid.” Seven million Ethiopians are dependent on aid and Africa exports a smaller percentage of world trade today than 20 years ago - only 1%. If that figure only doubled it would represent 70 billion dollars, five times the amount of aid the continent receives.

# Send some good thoughts Steve Gilliard’s way, March 9, 2007 — Mr. Gilliard is not getting better; a post-operative “system-wide infection” has him back in the ICU at his hospital. In addition to good thoughts, consider visiting his web site and clicking through on some ads, donating some money, or buying some of his handsome “Fighting Liberals” or “We Fight Back” t-shirts, coffee mugs or other items.

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NOTES: “Recruiting Plankton” item via Enrique Gili (”commonground”), who also linked my 2002 post (thanks); Human Rights Watch Wal-Mart report via Jonathan Tasini. Gilliard via digby and Avedon Carol.

The 2006 Koufax nominations are now open at “Wampum,” which hosts this extravaganza annually. As the announcement states,

The Koufax Awards are named for Sandy Koufax, one of the greatest left handed pitchers of all time. They are intended to honor the best blogs and bloggers of the left. At the core, the Koufax Awards are meant to be an opportunity to say nice things about your favorite bloggers and to provide a bit of recognition for the folks who provide us with daily information, insight, and entertainment. The awards are supposed to be fun for us and fun for you.

Categories are explained in more detail in the linked post. The explanatory blurbs and introductions below are written as if new readers might check this out — which I hope they will, because I’ll link to this from my nomination comment at “Wampum”. Herewith my nominations for 2006:

Best Blog —The Sideshow (Avedon Carol), The Carpetbagger Report (Steve Benen), Balkinization (Jack Balkin et al)

Sideshow and Carpetbagger two are definitely among my “go to” blogs, sifting an incredible range of news and writing for the nuggets that sum it all up that day, and adding either sharp, quick commentary and sometimes essay-length analysis along with it. Balkinization will be introduced in more detail below; overall, it runs away with my personal nominations list.

Best Blog — Pro Division — Talking Points Memo

Far and away. Between this and the above three, you see close to half of what I look at each day. (UPDATE, 1/17: ineligible! …because it won last year)

Best Blog Community — KnoxViews

A while after East Tennessean R. Neal ended his own blog (”Southknoxbubba”), he came back with “knoxviews”, but as the category nomination indicates, it was a different kind of site: a blog community where multitudes could sign up to add their own posts to the front page feed. (Full disclosure: I’m a member– having grown up in Oak Ridge, TN — albeit an infrequent contributor.) To my mind, it’s a huge success: the site is lively without being overwhelming. While contributors’ interests run the gamut,, the site is a particularly good resource for any and all interested in Tennessee politics. The tenor of most contributors’ politics is generally but by no means exclusively leftish; the key thing is that while there are inevitably exceptions to the rule, political arguments generally remain well-spoken and polite.

Best Writing — Jim Henley (”Unqualified Offerings”), digby (”Hullaballoo”), Roy Edroso (”alicublog”), Marty Lederman (”Balkinization”), Scott Horton (”Balkinization”), James Wolcott (Vanity Fair), Teresa Nielsen Hayden (”Making Light”)

Here’s 50% of the rest of what I look at each day. 3 semi-amateur, 4 professional, 1 libertarian, 2 humorists, 2 lawyers, 1 editor, all excellent writers.

Best Post —There are so many, of course, but looking through my “worth reading” posts and others, here’s a list of some that impressed me last year:

• Ticking Bombast (Jim Henley, “Unqualified Offerings”) — a discussion of the “ticking time bomb” fallacy, later extended and revised for Reason Magazine.
• I am a Muslim (Aziz Poonawalla, at Daily Kos) — a typically constructive, thoughtful rejoinder to “I am a Jew” (also worth reading) by practicing Muslim, Howard Dean supporter, and committed Texan Aziz Poonawalla.
• This is no fun (John Cole, “Balloon Juice”) — an (ex-)Republican looks back in anger at what’s become of his party.
• Why I blog (Teresa Nielsen Hayden, “Making Light”) — A manifesto for writing about stories that matter, whether the professional media or public relations firms do or not.
• Katrina and the common good (Boyd Blundell, “After the Levees” at TPM Cafe) — Why Katrina was a tipping point for the Bush White House, and what that says about America.*

Best Series — The Talking Dog interviews

…with people knowledgeable about “legal issues and related matters associated with the ‘war on terror.’” Actual, valuable journalism, committed by one of us nasty bloggers. The last interview of 2006 was with Trevor Paglen; links to previous ones can be found at the end of that post or in the sidebar.

Best Single Issue Blog — Balkinization (law), Global Guerrillas (security, terrorism)

Balkinization has become nothing less than a profound service to civil society in the United States, by providing timely, understandable legal and constitutional analysis of issues of the day. While I’ve mentioned Lederman and Horton in particular, all the contributors, including of course founder Jack Balkin, are able and eloquent writers. See an earlier post for an introduction to Global Guerrillas.

Best Group Blog — Balkinization

See above. Relevant to the “group” part is that contributors often take up each other’s posts for further comment in post form.

Most Humorous Blog — alicublog (Roy Edroso)

Edroso deserves a medal for reliably skewering right-wing bloggers and writers like Glenn Reynolds, Jonah Goldberg, Stanley Kurtz, Ann Althouse and others. His “more in contempt than in anger” tone and his refusal to let right wingers get away with putting every single cultural item on a conservative/good to liberal/bad scale are two of the characteristic features of his writing. I can’t really explain or analyze why (I think) he’s funny. He just is. Go read him.

Most Humorous Post — Again, sifted from my “Good for a grin” and “Heh. Indeed” posts:

• Meet the Press in Hell (World O’Crap) — Russert: Mr. Satan, let’s start with you.”
• Without all of you my career could never have gotten this far (Roy Edroso, “alicublog”) — “What bargain? Who are you?”
• Hard Core (T.A. Frank, “Showdown ‘06″, Washington Monthly) — on people still supporting Bush:“…the image that comes to mind is that of a pot left accidentally on a burner, leaving only a strange, ugly clump. “You’ll never pry me loose,” it says. “I’m your base.”
• I’m Offended (Chris Bertram, “Crooked Timber”) — all-purpose “bad other culture” post, e.g., “To those who say that our side has also erred, I agree: there have been errors of judgement. But if anything our mistake has been to do too little and too late.”

Most Deserving of Wider Recognition — Fact-esque

Not sure it’s right to say eRobin “plod[s] away in wilderness, or is yet to be discovered,” but I don’t think she’s as widely known as she deserves to be. Her blog combines excellent political and issues analysis with a signature dose of activism — how, where, and when you, the reader, can do something about what you’ve just read. (Full disclosure: eRobin nominated me for this category, too; thanks!)

Best Consonant Level Blog — The Sideshow (Avedon Carol), The Carpetbagger Report

The category is for moderate-sized blogs which have not yet, or perhaps are happy not to, reach the ranks of the “A-listers.” As I said above, these two are definitely among my “go to” blogs. I should also say that (1) I find myself thinking “I should write about that” and find these two have beat me to it, but also (2) Ms. Carol, in particular, has often linked to items of my own.

Best Expert Blog — Schneier on Security, RealClimate

Bruce Schneier writes clearly about security — from private to national — which often means he’s skeptical of current U.S. policies. RealClimate is “climate science from climate scientists,” and is as valuable in its way as “Balkinization” is for legal and constitutional issues.

Best New Blog — Stop the Spirit of Zossen

S.S.Zossen is part of an unusual, entertaining site called “Stiftung Leo Strauss” that I first came across via Jim Henley (”Unqualified Offerings”). The signature items are rather well done Photoshop (or something) collages, and intelligent analysis of world events in an agreeably ironic, continental tone.** As with Henley, there’s a libertarian bent to analysis which often contributes to sharper critiques than you’ll find elsewhere. The blog actually started in late 2005, but I say it’s a 2006 blog.

Best Human Equality Blog — All Facts & Opinions (Natalie Davis), Andrew Sullivan

Although Natalie has recently been in more of a musical frame of mind, she’s a reliable and eloquent voice for gay issues, and particularly for full equality in matters of marriage and religious worship. Andrew Sullivan has been instrumental in teaching mainstream America about gay rights, particularly marriage rights. Sullivan has also been outstanding on what is perhaps the ultimate human equality issue — torture and other prisoner abuse. The difficulty with a “Koufax” for Sullivan, of course, is that he’s not “of the left” per se, and was in fact a rather caustic and even intolerant critic of the left during the run-up to the Iraq war, which he supported. I’ll leave it to others to decide how critical that history is to them.

Best Coverage of State or Local Issues — Free State Politics (Maryland), Jousting for Justice (Maryland), KnoxViews (Tennessee/East Tennessee), Facing South (Southern U.S./Gulf Coast/New Orleans)

Of these, only Free State Politics is completely focused on its geographic area, but local and state coverage is a signature feature of all of them. Knoxviews accomplishes that using the “swarm” approach; one or the other of its (generally) East Tennessee members will usually cover any interesting state or local news item, and will generally get quite a bit of comment about it. “Jousting for Justice” is also a blog community, but the lion’s share of local coverage is done by founder and Baltimore area activist Stephanie Dray. Free State Politics is a group blog of a number leftish Maryland bloggers. (Full disclosure: I’m a member; although I’ve contributed only a few posts so far, I think they’ve been worthwhile.) Facing South is the most successful blog started by an institution (Institute for Southern Studies) that I’m familiar with; above all, their coverage of post-Katrina New Orleans is second to none.

Best Commenter — Nell Lancaster

No disrespect to my other highly valued commenters here, but Nell contributes her on-point, informative comments at a number of other sites I visit as well, including Obsidian Wings and Unqualified Offerings; they’re often quite as good as the post they comment about.

Most missed — Fafblog!

Possibly the most brilliant thing ever to happen to the blogosphere. (Insert your own joke there.) The site is still live, but there haven’t been new posts since last July.

Lifetime Achievement — Gary Farber (”Amygdala”)

As I’ve mentioned, Gary has fallen on tough times lately, and I hope you’ll get in the habit of reading his blog and clicking through on some of the ads he runs. A blogger since December 30, 2001 and a Netizen long before that, Gary brings an indefatigible blog ethic to the table, with a great eye for both the important and the bizarre. His incredible breadth of knowledge of U.S. and world history often makes for particularly valuable posts on current events; his long experience in the “skiffy” fanzine scene and with the genre also make his blog a resource for anyone like me who loves science fiction and fantasy.

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* Some of my own 2006 posts that I think were pretty good: Remember Symbol Susan?; Judgment at Nuremberg; Darfur rally… “in the shadow of Iraq”; Lincoln v. Bush; How DINOs evolve, how they go extinct. For a listing of all of what I think are my better posts, go to “Selected Posts.”
** Leo Strauss is a German-Jewish political philosopher viewed by many as the ur-neocon; “Stiftung” means foundation; however, the blog and site are by no means a tribute to neoconservatism.
EDIT, 1/16: Zossen entry rewritten, footnote added.

Senator John Edwards on Poverty — from an R. Neal interview at “Facing South”:

It’s time to finish the job of welfare reform by giving low-income men the opportunity to work and challenging them to take responsibility for doing so. Welfare reform asked young mothers to join the workforce and gave them help to get there. Millions of poor women benefited, but poor men lost ground during the best economy we’ve ever had. In America today, there are communities where half the young men are out of work.

I believe that we should create one million ’stepping stone’ jobs over five years. A good job that will let people work their way out of poverty in the short term, and help them get experience so they can get better jobs in the future.

We also need to give America’s workers a real right to organize. Unions helped move manufacturing jobs into the foundation of our middle class, and they can do the same for our service economy.

Five Years of Attention Whoring — Pablo Shounin is the blogger formerly known as Sgt. Stryker, pretty well known back in 2001-2003 or so as a serviceman both willing and able to deliver sharp commentary on politics, current events, and other bloggers. This title to the contrary, I’ve noticed many posts by Pablo/Stryker over the years whose honesty, eloquence, and/or humor stood out. From “Five years”:

…my claims of liberal thought didn’t seem to matter as long as I was saying what people wanted to hear. I was “right on” and I routinely “nailed it”. Nevermind that half the time, I trolled low-rate Freeper posts and newer conservo blogs to find the latest material and mock it using Stryker’s Schtick. I was purposely using words and phrases in exaggerated prose to mock what I was seeing, while at the same time slipping-in an honest point. [...]

…things started to change right after the Iraq war started. I was involved in a chat with some other prominent bloggers that sent alarm bells ringing in my head and really started me on the path to seeing them in an entirely new light. … There was a lot of the typical tough-talk in the chat and I mentioned my hope that an “Alpine Redoubt” wouldn’t play itself out in Iraq. When asked what I was talking about, I said it was Eisenhower’s main fear that the die-hard Nazis would take to the Alpine mountains and launch a guerilla war that would last for years. The people in the chat replied that the only mountains in Iraq were in the Kurdish north and the Kurds wouldn’t fight us. So help me, these people literally thought I was talking about an actual flight to the mountains by Saddam’s followers. [...]

I know I’ll get tired of it eventually, but so far I still feel the need to let the world know what I think, as if it really matters. No, correct that: I still feel the need to let a close circle of people that I respect (note: over in the blogroll) know what I think and that matters to me.

I’m honored to be one of them.

For Thomas — riggsveda (”It’s My Country, Too”) responds to a comment of mine on an earlier post of hers (also worth reading) with an extended quote by Gore Vidal, which reads, in part:

The time has come to hold another contitutional convention. Those conservatives known as liberals have always found this notion terrifying, because they are convinced that the powers of darkness will see to it that the Bill of Rights is abolished. This is always a possibility, but sometimes it’s best to know the worst all at once rather than to allow those rights to be slowly taken away from us by, let us say, the present majority of the Supreme Court…

(I had suggested that a constitutional convention “would be more likely to produce a reactionary disaster than a step forward.”) Riggsveda continues:

I admit it: I’m sick of it all. When I hauled out my long-buried optimism about the possibility of reversing the aristocracizing of America during the last election, I was stunned that Bush was returned to office, and what I have seen on my local front as those near to me have involved themselves in politics has made me all but despair of any hope. [...]

Can the party be saved? Maybe. But to do so would require the kind of wholesale changes to the electoral system that would allow outsiders and poor people to campaign. In my neck of the woods, there is a concerted effort by the Democratic machine to rebuff all attempts to run for any office at all if you haven’t been vetted and approved by the county Commission. On a more statewide level, the attempts of Chuck Pinnacchio and Alan Sandals to run for office were deep-sixed by Chuck Schumer and Ed Rendell long before the primary ever got off the ground, so now I’ve got a Democratic candidate to represent PA in the Senate that was hand-picked by a New Yorker who ran the machine. This is not representative government. This is puppetry.

I got yer Geneva Conventions right here — Tarek (”Liquid List”):

Being forced to show proof is what this administration sees as the final battle. They defend and defer and lie and deceive and finally give in — on paper. And they say, “trust us.” The world cannot trust us any longer. The world simply mustn’t. We’re habitual liars, and we gladly smile in your face while suspending a mortally wounded man by his shackled arms from a jailhouse window until his heart stops as soon as you turn your back.

It’s Full of Stars — In South Africa for a conference and to visit historical archives there (be sure to read that link, too), Tim Burke took time to visit the Ithala game preserve:

For me the animals were secondary to the night sky, however. In mountainous or desert regions of the United States, you can still get very good views of the stars at night, but I have to say there’s nothing in the U.S. like the sky we saw in Ithala, in my experience. There are no lights besides the muted camp lights for many, many miles around the park, nothing at all. The camp is at elevation, and in the winter, the air around it is mostly clear, though occasionally the smell and sight of distant grass fires presents itself. Looking up at the Milky Way, undisguised by anything, with bushbabies making weird cries all around you in the trees, fills you with a kind of skin-prickling awe. I think I could have that sensation every single night and it would never get old or banal.

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UPDATE, 7/25: Avedon Carol (”The Sideshow”) also raises the idea of a constitutional convention (well, strictly, a reader of hers does); she sounds about as wary of it as I am.

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, as progressive blogosphere favorite Ciro Rodriguez went down to defeat against Henry Cuellar (DINO-TX-28), Chris Bowers at liberal supersite MyDD suddenly recognized a fairly important feature of the Texas Democratic primaries:

I’d like to point out that Texas apparently has an open primary system, where Republicans can actually vote in a Democratic primary, and vice versa. Given this, Ciro almost certainly won the day among registered Democrats, and at the very least would have forced a runoff in a closed primary. As someone who has always been an advocate of clsoed [sic] primaries, I submit this election as Exhibit A. As disgusting as it sounds, if Cuellar wins the Democratic primary without a run-off, it will be because of the Republican vote.

Well, how do you do — light dawns on Marblehead. Not saying I knew it before tonight,* either, but then I don’t make it my business to run a site where Olympian pronouncements about voter registration tallies, poll weighting schemes, and “viability” are delivered unto the unwashed masses on an hourly basis.

But if the open primaries problem really just dawned on the pros at MyDD and elsewhere, then Rodriguez’ loss isn’t just a defeat, it’s a debacle — firedoglake et al notwithstanding — more akin to doomed Union regiments storming the stone wall at Fredericksburg than losing a battle worth the fight. Not only were everyday Republicans free to foul the results, it should be remembered this was an internecine fight courtesy of Tom DeLay and the least favorable districts computers could draw. Talk about unfavorable terrain. No wonder “Democrats In Name Only” like Henry Cuellar have climbed out of the political ooze to take their place as DINOs in the swamps of American politics.

If this was a Fredericksburg level debacle, one is forced to contemplate a second explanation for the evolution of DINOs: their opponents may just be too small and too, shall we say, unskilled to defeat them. Not unskilled in policy prescriptions, political rhetoric, or Internet and database savvy, mind you, just in political tactics. Think of not-so-smart opossums attacking a brontosaurus or a T-Rex** — it makes no sense, they’re trampled and killed. Then think of smart opossums eating dinosaur eggs — that could work. Too late now, though — there are a lot of trampled opossums down in TX-28.

What should big-time liberal bloggers — the likes of Atrios, dKos, myDD, firedoglake, Gilliard — be up to in the first place? It should be dawning on them (and more to the point, their readers) at some point that, at least for now, they’re not giant-killers or kingmakers, except under very, very, very rare circumstances.

Instead, they’re catalysts for and harbingers of change — fairly slow, opinion-changing, community-building change. That’s a terrifically important, even revolutionary role. But it’s more about morale and spirit and direction than about full frontal assault — more Tom Paine than George Washington. And Tom Paine should be listening to Paul Revere and the rest of the B-list revolutionaries a little more often.

Now, of course if one of them reads this, they might say, “screw you, I’ll write about and endorse whoever I want.” In fact, well they should. But it’s another question whether their readers ought to follow them over every cliff, and ignore every candidate they do.

Learn about and donate
to Pennacchio 2006

I’ve mentioned Chuck Pennacchio before. He’s running for the U.S. Senate in the Democratic primaries in Pennsylvania. His chief opponent is Bob Casey, Jr., a guy who will be the American Heritage dictionary illustration of “DINO” if he’s ever elected. While the last I heard from MyDD about him was that Pennacchio wasn’t “viable,” I now see that neither was their favorite son, Ciro Rodriguez. Republicans titrated blogosphere donations with ones of their own, and they showed up in sufficient numbers for Cuellar to put him over the top. So either MyDD should admit “viability” isn’t an issue, or that they’re not very good judges of it in the first place.

If so, what’s left? Same as it ever was: saying what you’re for, finding candidates who are as well, and building from there. I’m not saying Ciro Rodriguez wasn’t such a candidate — he was. The point is, so is Pennacchio. The point isn’t whether you can guarantee either one will win — evidently, you can’t. But of the two, Pennacchio isn’t the one fighting on terrain mapped by an archenemy of the Democratic Party, Pennacchio isn’t the one campaigning in a system where essentially Republicans can affect the outcome of a Democratic primary, and Pennacchio isn’t the one who already had name recognition (Rodriguez is an ex-Congressman). His battleground is on better terrain than Rodriguez’ was, and he needs our help more.

Ironically, MyDD’s Chris Bowers rightly took the Pennsylvania Democratic party to task yesterday for not fielding candidates in every congressional district. It’s ironic because Bowers, Stoller, et al seem to have forgotten or never fully recognized what the point of that is: it’s not merely a way to force Republicans to spend money everywhere, it’s a way to contest their ideas everywhere. Likewise, in intramural fights, DINO Democrats need to be opposed everywhere, so they can either vocally and effectively defend where they want the Democratic Party to go — or go extinct in a fair fight with Democrats like Pennacchio. The Pennacchio campaign is for the sake of the party Atrios et al wish they had, not just for the thrill of shaking things up.

It’s high time bloggers and their readers gave Pennacchio a look — not because he might win, but because he should be heard, and that’s what bloggers can help out with. Natalie Davis recently posted a long, informative interview with him; check it out, and fix yourself a nice DINO egg omelette.

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* Bowers gets the details a little wrong, but the big picture right. The University of Texas’ Texas Politics site explains ‘open primary’ as follows: No permanent record is kept of which party ballot voters select or have selected in the past and voters are not required to declare a party affiliation. Hence, voters can vote in the primary of their choice. The effect is that people who would choose to register as Republicans in other states are more free to make the tactical choice of spoiling, excuse me, voting in a Democratic primary in Texas.
** In some imaginary Jurassic Park XXXVIII, if not in actual evolutionary history. Bear with me.

NOTE: “Light dawns on Marblehead” line and photo pilfered from The Poor Man Institute.
UPDATES, 3/9: crossposted at MyDD; 3/10: dKos; 3/13: discussed last week by Natalie Davis at blogcritics.org and her own blog “All Facts and Opinions“, with plenty of comments at both sites.
SOMEHOW RELATED, 3/16: Lindsay Beyerstein reviews Kos and Armstrong’s new book “Crashing the Gate”: “…there’s something missing from Crashing the Gate, namely, the gate crashing.”

Semi-retired blogger Semipundit tells a story in the comments section of a “No Silence Here” post (”Are bloggers burning us out?”):

Recently I was at a store of a big-box mega-retailer for whom I do some work (no, not that one, the other one). I dropped by the breakroom where some of the employees were having lunch; the network news was on the TV.

I sat down to have my coffee and do some paperwork when I noticed that they were watching intently a story about the possible indictments of White House operatives. File footage of Carl Rove was showing at the time.

One of the young women, a manager and a college graduate, turned to the others and asked, ‘Who is that man, and what is that all about?’ No one of the group of four others responded; a couple of them gave a ‘beats me’ shrug.

I told them I could explain it clearly, in simple terms, in one minute, which I thought I did. The young lady listened attentively, then responded, ‘Oh, OK. For a minute I thought something really bad was happening.’

So the answer to Silence’s question may be: if bloggers are burning anyone out, it’s only other bloggers. And we’re a cheap, renewable resource.

This is just a quick survey of recent posts from some of the interesting, specialized blogs I read now and then from my “specialty” blogroll — maybe you’ll start reading one or the other of them, too.

Schneier on Security — Those tiny little yellow dots you never noticed? They’re Secret Forensic Codes in Color Laser Printers: Many color laser printers embed secret information in every page they print, basically to identify you by. Here, the EFF has cracked the code of the Xerox DocuColor series of printers.

Mystery Pollster — Getting Past the Noise: Bush Slide Continues (10/19/2005): The bottom line: the President’s approval has fallen all year, declining about 1% every month since January. But since August we’ve seen a sharper drop. Call it the “Katrina effect.”

Lunar Development — Shall McArthur return?: “Russia has met all the engagements on transferring NASA employees to the ISS. Formally, we even do not have to return McArthur to the Earth,” Russia’s space agency Roskosmos senior official Alexey Krasnov said.[Moscownews.com] Karen Cramer writes that the story is connected to the Iran Non-proliferation Agreement as well.

Savage Minds — No more “Bushmen of the Kalahari.” Bushmen expelled from Homeland: All but a few of the Bushmen living in Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve have been forcibly removed from their homes in recent days in what spokesmen for the affected communities said is a final push by the government to end human habitation there after tens of thousands of years. [Washington Post, 10/10/2005] … Before forced removals started in the late 90s, there were over 2,000 Bushmen living there.

The Panda’s Thumb — Covering the “intelligent design” case in Pennsylvania with Waterloo in Dover: The Kitzmiller v. DASD case: The defense needs to defeat the plaintiffs’ arguments concerning both the purpose and the effect of the “intelligent design” policy. For the second, they are most likely to try to convince Judge Jones that “intelligent design”, and specifically the policy adopted by the DASD, are scientific in character, and thus have a place in the science curriculum regardless of any secondary effect they might have in the way of having implications for religious belief. DASD is the Dover Area School District, which is trying to enforce ‘intelligent design’ teaching in biology classes. The post is now updated with new developments every couple of days or so as the case proceeds.

RealClimate — Global Warming On Earth discusses the latest NASA Goddard Institute surface temperature data analysis: The 2005 Jan-Sep land data (which is adjusted for urban biases) is higher than the previously warmest year (0.76°C compared to the 1998 anomaly of 0.75°C for the same months, and a 0.71°C anomaly for the whole year) , while the land-ocean temperature index (which includes sea surface temperature data) is trailing slightly behind (0.58°C compared to 0.60°C Jan-Sep, 0.56°C for the whole of 1998).

Chris Mooney — Henry Waxman (D-CA-30) is Busy, busy on a number of Bush vs. science fronts, including avian flu, misinformation about sexual health on a government web site, and the ongoing Plan B “morning after pill” fiasco at the FDA. On the latter: The chronology ends with yet another resignation: that of Frank Davidoff, a former FDA advisory committee member who voted for the approval of Plan B and who wrote, “I can no longer associate myself with an organization that is capable of making such an important decision so flagrantly on the basis of political influence, rather than the scientific and clinical evidence.” (link added)

Blogrel — Return to Gyumri: What lessons could Pakistan learn from Armenia’s sputtering reconstruction process, which, 17 years later, has 3,500 families in the city still living in “temporary accommodation” - a euphemism for shacks, metal containers and disused railway wagons? [Guardian]

Effect Measure — You can’t stop a wrecking ball in mid-swing: As state and local health departments gear up to battle a possible avian flu outbreak, they face a sharp cut in funding from the Department of Health and Human Services. However, the loss could be fixed through funds intended to cover the costs of controlling a pandemic, added as an amendment to the 2006 Defense Department Appropriations bill.

Recording Katrina is a “collection of survivors’ stories and non-traditional reporting on the recovery effort in the Gulf” that eRobin (”fact-esque”) and I have been compiling.

Generally speaking, I think we both intend to get out of the way and let the stories do the talking, as opposed to adding a lot of our own commentary. I see this as simply an online repository of Katrina survivor stories, with a special interest in personal accounts — an oral/electronic history of the storm and its aftermath. For eRobin’s description, see her announcement in the “American Street” blog.

Tips, stories, and especially a few more collaborators — most especially ones with connections to the region — are welcome. You can leave suggestions as comments here, or e-mail RecordingKatrina@gmail.com.

The “artist formerly known as South Knox Bubba” is guest-blogging for the week over at “Facing South.”

Topics so far include thoughts on Hurricane Katrina, and a nasty situation in Tennessee’s Blount County involving racially motivated threats, local high schools, and the Confederate flag.

UPDATE, 8/30: Mountain Girl writes that he’s also set up a photo blog, RViews; if you go to the gallery area, there are bird photos and several from his recent trip west.

Meanwhile, in similar news, Paperwight says he’ll be back.