The Crowbar

I joined Twitter almost exactly a year ago, but I don’t consider myself an expert on Twitter etiquette. Most third party analyzers accuse me of not engaging my users enough, which is probably true. Engaging every person who tags me for Follow Friday takes a lot of precious time that I often cannot afford.

The Follow Friday phenomenon is a great thing, Twitter users staking their reputation on you and vice versa. It’s an honor to be tagged. When I first started on Twitter I returned every #FollowFriday, but then it started taking away from my Twitter experience. It became too tedious and disingenuous, so I stopped – probably to my detriment, but I just couldn’t do it.

Then, along came Twitter Lists. It slowly dawned on me that I could use it to permanently and continuously thank all those who honored me with a Follow Friday tag.

Now, every person who tags me for Follow Friday gets added to my Follow Friday list. Then, every Friday I tweet the link to the members of my list, making it much easier for potential followers to add them. 

I also watch my Follow Friday list as a stream of tweets, as Twitter intended. It’s great to be able to do that for a specific set of Twitter users. 

It’s not perfect. Because of my method, a Twitter user I recommend for Follow Friday will not see a reply from me. But, that’s why I’m writing this post – so I have a way to tell them that I’m not brushing them off and that I’m grateful for the Follow Friday nod.  

if he wins, but he’d still be better than the heinous arch-liberal who formerly occupied the seat. Brown would be a RINO because he’s from Massachusetts, meaning he’ll face significant pressure from his leftward leaning constituency to vote with the conservative Democrats & liberal Republicans. 

In reviewing his campaign issues statement, he seems so center-right. But, as Obama has so skillfully taught America, politicians just tell you what you want to hear.

Brown is anything but a defender of liberty when it comes to health care. Brown has no problem with the unconstitutional government mandated purchase of health insurance present in RomneyCare & ObamaCare. From a Boston Globe profile:

Brown supported Massachusetts health care overhaul in 2006 and favors elements advanced in the congressional debate about a national overhaul. But he said he would oppose the bills now moving through Congress because they would help other states at the expense of Massachusetts.

His primary reason for opposing ObamaCare is that it’s it isn’t fair to Massachusetts?

Moreover, watch Neil Cavuto Challenge Brown for Supporting RomneyCare:

Brown totally avoided the question because he knows the truth would be damaging. Make no mistake, Brown is just another politician from Massachusetts. 

But, he is the best we can expect from blue-dominant Massachusetts.

In his staggering misinterpretation of Van Jones’ resignation fiasco, unhinged progressive David Sirota screeches on and on about RACISM and RIGHT WING HATRED and LYNCH MOBS, “crazies, tea baggers, Republican congresspeople and other assorted conservative freakshows.”

Does this guy leave any doubt in your mind that he deserves his position on the fringe of humanity?

Sirota is loathed to admit that Jones (and himself) are too fringe for the centrists to stomach. The centrists are Obama’s true concern if he wants to further his socialist agenda. Sorry, Sirota, Commie Truthers just have no place in the White House.

Sirota does leave us with some good news, though:

“Jones was one of the only movement progressives in a policymaking position in the Obama White House.”

One down, a few more to go. Here’s to heaving the rest of the Jones/Sirota-like extremists out the door.

At long last my new site is operational! Many more controversial & interesting posts to follow.

Ben

At long last I have assembled a list of top conservative blogs. It’s based on Technorati, Alexa, and Wikio rankings plus my well-honed intuition. It is subject to change if I happen to discover another blog and/or the rankings change.

1. Michelle Malkin – About
2. The Corner – National Review
3. Hot Air – About
4. NewsBusters – Media Research Center | About
5. American Thinker – About
6. Power Line – John H. Hinderaker
7. Red State – Erick Erickson | About
8. The Volokh Conspiracy – Eugene Volokh
9. Instapundit – Glenn Reynolds
10. Gateway Pundit – Unknown Identity
11. Marginal Revolution – Tyler Cowen | Alex Tabarrok
12. Big Hollywood – About
13. Ace of Spades HQ – About
14. Reason Magazine/Hit & Run – About
15. Weekly Standard/The Blog – Michael Goldfarb
16. Jihad Watch – Robert Spencer
17. Atlas Shrugs – Pamela Geller
18. The Jawa Report – Rusty Shackleford
19. Stop The ACLU – About
20. Right Wing News – About

Ten Worthy Mentions

• Althouse
• Iowahawk
• Patterico’s Pontifications
• Wizbang
• The Next Right
• Daniel Pipes
• The Becker-Posner Blog
• Protein Wisdom
• Jammie Wearing Fool
• Debbie Schlussel

For all you Universal Heath Care lovers out there, here’s a dose of the medicine you want to force everyone to take; from a UK’s DailyMail:

Despite the fact that around half a million children and adults in the UK are affected, treatment for the condition is woefully underfunded, according to the National Autistic Society (NAS).

‘The services and support available to people with autism and their carers are often hugely inadequate,’ says Caroline Hattersley of the charity.

The family wanted an official diagnosis, but were astonished to find [an Autism diagnosis] could take between 18 and 24 months because health services are so overstretched.

Crikey, 18 to 24 months? And, this is not just ANY family, this is the family of wealthy singer/actor Keith Duffy (Boyzone), his daughter, Mia, has Autism:

For Lisa and Keith Duffy, it was a heartbreakingly long wait before they heard their daughter Mia speak for the first time… Mia has autism, a developmental disorder which affects her ability to relate to people and situations.

Ahh, but that’s not all, here we have another example of just how crappy socialized medicine is in the UK, Parents Forced To Wait A Year For Autism Diagnosis:

Health boards have been branded “compassionless” for forcing hundreds of parents to wait a YEAR to find out if their children have autism.

Experts say the earlier children are treated, the better they will respond.

But NHS Dumfries and Galloway have Scotland’s longest waiting time of 15 months for 61 children who have been referred for assessment.

In Ayrshire & Arran, youngsters face waiting up to 14 months, while 100 kids are caught up in a year-long backlog in NHS Lanarkshire.

Greater Glasgow is next on the list, with a waiting time of 10 months for more than 80 children.

Bill Welsh, president of the Autism Treatment Trust, said: “Early diagnosis is absolutely vital. Taking a year to make a diagnosis is crassly inefficient and compassionless.

“The worry aside, the child may be inhibited from gaining communication skills they should learn at an early age.”

Evelyn and Iain Lindsay face waiting until next year to discover if their son Ben suffers from autism.

They have been told that three-year-old Ben is 87th on the list.

Evelyn said: “We are being left in limbo.”

This is the promise of Universal Heath Care, coming soon to America, to be left in limbo while faceless bureaucrats decide everyone’s fate.

But, hey, at least everyone will be covered, right?

An old but fascinating post by Simon Owens at Bloggasm. Owens compiled some interesting facts from 2007 and noted the trend that top liberal blog readership is declining while top conservative blog readership is increasing.

I wonder what the stats for 2008 were? I suspect the trend continues even now.

UPDATE: Patterico has recent evidence that this trend has indeed continued.

The following list is based on Technorati rank, Alexa.com rank, and educated guesses on my part. The list is in descending order of influence. Enjoy!

3/27/2009 UPDATE: Missed Krugman’s blog and Americablog. They have been added. WashingtonNote and Oliver Willis dropped off the 10 worthy mentions list.

Top 20 Liberal Blog/Op Websites

1. Huffington Post | wiki | about
   Founded: May 9, 2005
   Founder(s): Arinna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer
   Editor: Roy Sekoff
   Note: Originally competed with Drudgereport.com but that didn’t work out so well so it morphed into a left slanted news/opinion site.
   -
2. Democratic Underground | wiki | about
   Founded: January 20, 2001
   Founder(s): Democratic Underground, LLC
   Editor: David Allen
   Note: DU and the internet are very mum on who actually founded it, it is known for the extreme vitriol of some members. There is also scant info on David Allen. Odd that for such a popular site there is surprisingly little public info available. I’d like to know more about Mr. David “Mysterious” Allen.
   -
3. Daily Kos | wiki | about
   Founded: May 26, 2002
   Founder(s): Markos Moulitsas Zuniga
   Editor: Susan Gardner
   Note: Major conflict erupted on the site between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barry Obama during the the 2008 US election primaries.
   -
4. The Daily Dish | Andrew Sullivan | wiki | about
   Founded: September 2001
   Founder(s): Andrew Sullivan
   Editor: Andrew Sullivan
   Note: Sullivan says he is libertarian conservative, but he endorsed Obama in the 2008 election and Forbes ranked him the 19th most influential liberal.
   -
5. Talking Points Memo (TPM) | wiki | about
   Founded: November 12, 2000
   Founder(s): Josh Marshall
   Editor: Josh Marshall
   Note: The site was a big pusher of the manufactured scandal of the firing of nine US Attorneys who were inappropriately protecting Democratic interests. TPM won a Polk award for it’s efforts.
   -
6. Think Progress | wiki | about
   Founded: February 28, 2005
   Founder(s): Center for American Progress (CAP)
   Editor: Faiz Shakir
   Note: Thinkprogress.org is the friendly face for the hard left CAP think tank.
   -
7. The Conscience of a Liberal | Paul Krugman | about
   Founded: September 17, 2005
   Founder(s): Paul Krugman
   Editor: Paul Krugman
   Note: Krugman is also one of the most influential liberal economists. Krugman favors Keynesian economics, using the shaky school of thought to justify bad policy: direct economic intervention through governmental deficit spending.
   -
8. Crooks and Liars | wiki
   Founded: August 2004
   Founder(s): John Amato
   Editor: John Amato
   Note: One of the first political Vlog sites.
   -
9. Wonkette | wiki
   Founded: January 2004
   Founder(s): Nick Denton, Ana Marie Cox, Choire Sicha, Alex Pareene, David Lat, Ken Layne, John Clark Jr, Jim Newell, Megan Carpentier, Sara K. Smith, John Fruhlinger
   Editor: Ken Layne | also
   Note: Wonkette is significantly more vitriolic than most of the popular left wing blogs. For example they “jokingly” wished for Chief Justice John Robert’s death when he was hospitalized in July 2007.
   -
10. Glenn Greenwald | wiki
    Founded: October 2005
    Founder(s): Glen Greenwald
    Editor: Glen Greenwald
    Note: Glenn took a hard left turn in 2005, which he blames on the Bush administration, Karl Rove and the Valerie Plame affair.
    -
11. Washington Monthly | Steve Benen | wiki
    Founded: January 25, 1999 (thecarpetbaggerreport.com)
    Founder(s): Steve Benen
    Editor: Steve Benen
    Note: Washington Monthly is a political mag founded in 1969, but, as of August 24, 2008, The WM website/blog is the new home for lefty blogger Steve Benen, formerly of thecarpetbaggerreport.com.
    -
12. Kevin Drum | Mother Jones | wiki | MoJo wiki
    Founded: January 24, 2003
    Founder(s): Kevin Drum
    Editor: Kevin Drum
    Note: Like John Kerry, Drum was for the Iraq war before he was against it. He was previously at Washington Monthly. Before that Drum blogged at is own site, Calpundit.
    -
13. Pharyngula | wiki | about
    Founded: June 19, 2002
    Founder(s): Paul Zachery “PZ” Myers
    Editor: PZ Myers
    Note: Myers was expelled from the screening of the Movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. An active atheist, Myers blog has the tagline, “evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal.”
    -
14. Matthew Yglesias | wiki
    Founded: January 10, 2002
    Founder(s): Matthew Yglesias
    Editor: Matthew Yglesias
    Note: yglesias.blogspot.com was the original home of Yglesias’ blog. The Harvard grad was editor of the Harvard Independent prior to venturing into the blogsphere.
    -
15. Firedoglake | wiki | about
    Founded: December 2004
    Founder(s): Jane Hamsher
    Editor: Jane Hamsher
    Note: Hamsher co-produced Natural Born Killers and has worked closely with Glenn Greenwald.
    -
16. AMERICABlog | wiki
    Founded: April 2004
    Founder(s): John Aravosis
    Editor: John Aravosis
    Note: Americablog outed gay conservative Jeff Gannon (James Guckert’s pseudonym) in 2005 and disrespectfully published Gen. Wesley Clark’s cell phone records in 2006. Aravosis is also a gay rights advocate.
    -
17. Feministing | wiki | about
    Founded: April 2004
    Founder(s): Jessica Valenti
    Editor: Jessica Valenti
    Note: Feministing was started while Third-wave feminist Valenti was working for NOW to give a voice to the younger feminists who were being shut out by the older ones.
    -
18. Truthdig | wiki | about
    Founded: November 29, 2005
    Founder(s): Robert Scheer, Zuade Kaufman
    Editor: Robert Scheer
    Note: Barbra Streisand and 299 other people protested Scheer’s firing from the LA Times in November 2005 right before he and Kaufman started Truthdig.
    -
19. Informed Comment | wiki
    Founded: April 21, 2002
    Founder(s): Juan Cole
    Editor: Juan Cole
    Note: Cole was denied a teaching appointment to Yale in 2006 because of his controversial viewpoints on his blog.
    -
20. Digby’s Hullabaloo
    Founded: January 2003
    Founder(s): Digby (pseudonym)
    Editor: Digby (pseudonym)
    Note: Her real name still unknown, “Digby” of Santa Monica, CA showed up in person in June 2007 to accept an award on behalf of the progressive blogsphere at the Take Back America Conference in DC.

10 Worthy Mentions

• Open Left | wiki | about
  Founded: August 8, 2007
  Founder(s): Chris Bowers, Mike Lux, Matt Stoller
  Editor: Chris Bowers
  -
• John Cole’s Baloon Juice
  Founded: January 2, 2002
  Founder(s): John Cole
  Editor: John Cole
  -
• MyDD Direct Democracy | wiki | about
  Founded: April 18, 2001
  Founder(s): Jerome Armstrong
  Editor: Jonathan Singer
  -
• Shakesville | wiki | about
  Founded: October 5, 2004
  Founder(s): Melissa McEwan
  Editor: Melissa McEwan
  -
• Atrios’ Eschaton | wiki
  Founded: April 17, 2002
  Founder(s): Duncan Black
  Editor: Duncan Black
  -
• Pandagon | wiki | about
  Founded: November 26, 2001
  Founder(s): Jesse Taylor
  Editor: Amanda Marcotte
  -
• Talk Left | about
  Founded: June 1, 2002
  Founder(s): Jeralyn Merritt
  Editor: Jeralyn Merritt
  -
• Democrats.com | about
  Founded: September 27, 2000
  Founder(s): Bob Fertik, David Lytel
  Editor: Bob Fertik
  -
• The Brad Blog | wiki | about
  Founded: January 24, 2004
  Founder(s): Brad Friedman
  Editor: Brad Friedman
  -
• Obsidian Wings | about
  Founded: November 26, 2003
  Founder(s): Hilary Bok (Hilzoy)
  Editor: Hilary Bok (Hilzoy)