Koufax Winners Announced!

The winners of the 2005 Koufax Awards for the best blog in the Lft Blogistan are now known! You can read all the details here where you should write a comment thanking the Wampum folks for doing a great job.

This is the first time ever that any of my faves actually won! And not one, but quite a few of them. All the winners deserved to win, and all the finalists are also real winners, and heck, all of the semi-finalists are the cream of the crop and well worth checking out. I am glad to see a lot of science blogs getting nominated and even winning! Is that just a non-election-year phenomenon?

I am sorry to see that Chris Clarke did not win anything, but at least he got a great homage from the Wampum folks in the post linked above. Hopefully he'll win next year. I am not really surprised at the first three winners:

Best Blog -- Non Professional
Crooks & Liars

Best Blog -- Professional or Sponsored
Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo

Best Blog Community
Daily Kos

While they were not my picks, they certainly deserve it, and it is easy to see why they won. I really like the front-page line-up this year on dKos, especially the prominent coverage of science by DarkSyde.

Of the next four, I thought the contest would be really tight in the "wider recognition" category, and I am so happy to see that my fave, Echidne, swept the board. Glen, Digby and Jordan certainly deserve their prizes as well:

Most Deserving of Wider Recognition
Echidne of the Snakes

Best New Blog
Glenn Greenwald of Unclaimed Territory

Best Writing
Digby of Hullabaloo

Best Single Issue Blog
Jordan Barab of Confined Space

Well, in 2005 Iraq was same-old same-old so Juan Cole was not as interesting - are we saturated with Iraq news by now? On the other hand, the theocratization of America, especially the most visible prong of the Religious Right power-grab - the Intelligent Design Creationism - has been on the fore last year, with the Dover trial as the Big Event, so I am not surprised at all the Pee-Zee won - finally! He definitely deserves it. And Jesus' General was in great form all last year - congratulations! Shakespeare's Sister is my favourite group blog and Shakes has assembled such a stellar group last year, the victory is no surprise to anyone:

Best Expert Blog
Pharyngula by P.Z. Myers

Best Group Blog
Shakespeare's Sister

Most Humorous Blog
Jesus' General

The rest of the categories were not won by my faves, but they are worthy winners nonetheless - congratulations to all!

Best Post
Bag News Notes for Katrina Aftermath: And Then I Saw These

Best Series
FireDogLake for Plame coverage

Most Humorous Post
Dood Abides for The Wizard of Oil

Best State or Local Blog
Bluegrass Report and Tennessee Guerilla Women

Best Commenter
Georgia10 (on DailyKos)