The Ugly Underside of Wizbang's 2004 Weblog Awards

Voting in Wizbang's 2004 Weblog Awards is now open with great new navigation. Unfortunately, as the saying goes "politics is a contact sport" and there appears to be a lot of less than pretty behavior going on behind the scenes of this year's blog beauty pageant.

First in the Best Overall Blog category Daily Koz is significantly trailing LGF and Kos supporters are insisting that a high number of their vote refresh pages are hanging like chads in a Miami-Dade midterm election and they also note the number of Hugh Hewitt Religious extremists present in the polling. Liberals insist this presence is akin to throwing garlic at a gay, campy Anne Rice vampire and could be the deciding factor by keeping supporters of the Kos-of all things hyphenated movement away from the polls this year.

In the Best New Blog category Kerry Spot supporters have already filed an injunction to prevent the counting of late absentee ballots sure to come in from The Diplomad voters, their readership being comprised of many State Department employees currently stationed overseas. Also, the ever erudite Bill of INDC is rumored to have pointed out that Wizbang's slow reading, gun toting Red State readership could easily mistake Kerry Spot for Kerry Shot and overwhelming support the selection out of ignorance and confusion. (ed note - INDC competing against KS because of KS's NRO affiliation seems a bit of an unfair challenge but that's just me. I voted for Bill.)

The Volokh Conspiracy is facing a similar meta-media challenge from The Corner in the Best Group Blog and Blogs for Bush, currently in third, is thought to be benefiting from confused swing voters drifting over from the Les.GayTrans.Blog category who may have totally misread an old Kos post alleged to have dismissed Blogs for Bush as "simply a bunch of girls."

Jumping down to the Humor Category Scrappleface and lmao are jumping ahead of a group of highly creative, original if less mainstream blogs led by Protein Wisdom, IowaHawk and Treacher. Some observers suggest that is either the funniest thing they've seen relative to the two respectively formulaic and adolescent leaders all year - or just a sad commentary on the relative lack of sophistication of the blogosphere itself. (ed. note - As reporters, much like the NYT's, obviously we have no opinion of our own on the matter.)

In a surprising developing story Texas conservative lawyer/blogger Beldar is said to be considering joining the ACLU in its lawsuit against Wizbang which calls for immediately moving all offshore and minority-based blog categories to the top of the page.

As "Best Liberal Blog" is a relative concept, well, let's just say I'm "moving on." Two stand out female bloggers, A Small Victory and SondraK are leading in the Culture category. It's unclear if this an indication that women are simply better monitors of the culture than men, or if voters are misinterpreting the category altogether and thinking it has something to do with a yeast issue.

Ace is currently leading in the Best of the Top 100 category but, curiously, Allah who really isn't "in the house" at present is surging, prompting some to wonder if this is a sympathy vote and will his wife take up the chair should his name claim the seat. There are many fine entries across the categories and all can participate here. In closing, please consider supporting The Cranky Neocon in the Best of 1000-1750 category because, well, because he's my friend and putting up with his cranky ass is hard enough as it is. Much to his credit,  The Gleeson Bloglomerate is making a very strong showing in the category and is either an emerging talented blogger sure to benefit from this result, or a large family of obsessive compulsives redundantly voting for themselves in great numbers.

Good luck to all entries. There are some fantastic blogs represented. And Wizbang deserves tremendous credit for putting together and hosting this initiative. One can only imagine that it must take an incredible amount of work.

Update: My bad for not realizing blog pal Pajama Pundits is nominated and leading in her category - Top 3500 - 5000 Blogs. PJP has a great fresh new look that makes you want to jump right into bed with her blog in a total platonic and work friendly manner, of course. Consider giving PJP a look and your support.

Comments

[daisy]

Dan ...

Great post. I checked out some of your favorites ... and I see your points. Think I'll link to it, although I had a little different take on all of the "Awards" ... Looks a lot like a big ol' marketing contest to me. I see some nominations that make no sense otherwise.

If you care to offer thoughts re: the DC name poll I've got going, I would like them. If not, that's okay. I am interpreting silence as a vote for the status quo.