By now, I'm sure plenty of you might have tripped over the Warblogger Awards sponsored by John Hawkins over at Right Wing News. And, as you may have seen, I was one of the judges for the inaugural competition, and later on today I'll be going over my ballot. I'd do it now, but the copy of the email ballot that I saved is on my laptop at home.
All I'll say now is that I had more than a few tough choices -- and at times I really felt constrained by the appellation of "warblogger," especially since I had more than a few favorites that fell outside that strict category. Look for something more this evening.
UPDATE: Ok, here are my picks. As John allowed, there were some categories where I chose not to cast a vote. It should go without saying that in most cases, the blogs I link to on the left are ones I reccomend, though I might not have chosen them as winners this year.
The Funniest Blog: Scrapple Face -- recent Janet Reno post clinched it.
The Most Bloodthirsty Blog: No Vote -- if Warbloggers seem bloodthirsty, it's for a legitimate reason.
The Best Original Content For A Blog: Joe Katzman, Winds of Change -- I had a tough time here. If I hadn't been restricted to Warbloggers, I would have picked Tony Pierce, something which admittedly didn't stop me from casting a vote for him later.
The Best Fisker: Charles Austin, for the never-ending series, The Scourge of Richard Cohen -- Charles may very well have won this category on the basis of sheer persistence alone. Few other "Fiskers" have been as dogged in pursuit of their prey as the good Mr. Austin of St. Louis, and that's what earned him my vote.
Best Female Blogger: No Vote -- why? Because every female blogger can stand on their own in this competition, they don't need to be "ghettoized."
Best Group Blog: Sgt. Stryker -- again, a choice I made because of the "Warblogger" tag. If not, I would have drawn straws between The Sarge's Platoon, The Volokh Conspiracy and Max Power.
Best Looking Webpage: No Vote -- when an answer didn't come to me right away, I passed.
Most Underrated: Patio Pundit, Martin Devon -- Martin is the man Duddy Kravitz could have been if Duddy hadn't lost his soul.
Favorite Editorial Writer Who's Not A Blogger: Russ Smith, NY Press -- been a long-time fan of this New York native, and had to cast my vote for him despite the fact I didn't think he had a realistic shot at winning. Mark Steyn was a deserving winner.
Most Missed: Matt Haws, Hawspipe -- the only blogger who I really missed is my current fantasy hockey nemesis. Vote might have gone elsewhere had Matt Moore, Joe Katzman, Justin Slotman and a handful of others not returned -- John Branch most significantly.
Best Linker: No Vote
Best Unknown Blog: No Vote -- Tom Inskeep's, Oh Manchester. . . could have gotten a vote if this hadn't been limited to Warbloggers. Steve MacLaughlin is another who more people ought to be reading, while the Hosemonster has become a new favorite as well.
Best Non-American Blog: Flit (Bruce Rolston) -- won my vote on strength of his coverage of the accidental attack on Canadian troops in Afghanistan by an Air Force F-16, as well as his continuous insistence of that a U.S. attack on Iraq was anything but imminent.
The Least Annoying Left Of Center Blogger: Cooped-Up (Jeff Cooper) -- since I don't find Jeff annoying at all, this was an easy choice. Matt Yglesias and Josh Marshall would have finished in the money if the rules allowed a larger field.
Most Annoying Blogger: No Vote
Most Overrated Blog: Brad DeLong -- by a country mile.
Most Annoying Celebrity: Ozzy Osbourne -- his ressurection via MTV is well past ripe. Just go away.
Name Your Favorite Member Of The Bush Administration Other Than Bush: Condi Rice -- the only winner I picked.
The Best Blog Overall (5 Selections Allowed):
Radley Balko, The Agitator
Tony Pierce, The Busblog
Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit
Virginia Postrel, The Dynamist
Stephen Green, Vodkapundit
My picks here are hardly original, but they're the ones I turn to most. I started blogging after reading Postrel, and I keep up with her despite her long absences from the genre. Balko and Reynolds are my first two stops every morning before I even read the papers, with Green not long thereafter. As for Pierce, there's just nothing else like him out on the Web. He makes me wish I lived in LA and took the bus to work. Just finishing out of the money: JMarshall, Ben Domenech, Robert Musil.
May I suggest getting a link to Rick Reilly up here?
Yep, that’s an oversight. He’ll be up sometime in the next few hours.
holy shit!
im totally flattered and flabbergasted. thanks so much!
Good call on the Best Female Blogger vote. In the same way, I don’t understand why women and men compete separately in sports such as billiards, bowling, and olympic events like curling, archery, etc. Doesn’t make much sense to me.
Oh, and thanks for missing me, but I’m back — sort of.
I second Tony’s comment. Thanks so much for the attention and the compliment.