Just voted Steve. Go get 'em.

I highly recommend voting for Jesus General in this category!

Gads Steve, you block me from posting on a thread I was heavily engaged on, then you want me to click a nod in your direction?

Just kidding, man. You know I think your blog is the best, and will vote as such.

But really, an emailed note explaining the banishment might have been nice, especially one explaining why Nina was blocked.

Sorry, I can't vote for you because all I can see is an empty grey box when I go to your link page. I have emailed the weblog award people about this because I have no idea how to reach the correct webpage.

POA -- Greetings my friend. I didn't delete anything (to my knowledge)....please email me offline so I can understand what is going on. I'm in Geneva now and have not been watching the comments.

Steve

done.. it appears to be just a numbers game.. not sure if quantity and quality equate that much... i doubt it, but i appreciate your site and those who post here quite a lot regardless..

CathiefromCanada -- Same thing happened to me. I got a gray screen at first, because (I think) of the high traffic on the website.

But I pushed "refresh" and it worked fine.

All the best,

Steve

We just voted for THE WASHINGTON NOTE! you are still pretty far
back but gaining ground FAST.

You got my vote Mr. Clemons. TWN is continually one of the most informative, prescient, intelligent, and balanced blogs in the "blogsphere".

All the best in 2009.

Currently TWN is one vote behind "Right Wing News". That`s too
bad, isn`t it?

I urge the European readers of The Washington Note (it`s
morning here) to vote right now!

Looks like TWN now has 10 votes more than Right Wing News,
but it`s still 4 votes behind Pandagon, 9 behind Just One Minute
and 14 votes behind Protein Wisdom.

Let`s beat them!

TWN has my vote. All the best in '09!

Well, it`s easy to post on this thread, but I was repeatedly
blocked on the "TWN on the road" thread an hour ago.

Is it related to threads, or to words contained in the message?

I wonder what happens if i write: Israel, Gaza, Hamas?

Strange. The post the was blocked contained links and pasting
of a letter from Australian Jews protesting against the attack on
Gaza, and saying that Israel broke the ceasefire, not Hamas.

Since it was blocked there, I`ll try to paste it here:
Gaza Media Statement
Posted on Friday, January 2, 2009 at 08:22PM by IAJV |
Comments Off | Email
The following statement reflects only the views of those
signatories whose names appear below. Signatories of other
statements or authors of articles and blogs on our IAJV website
are not to be taken as endorsing this statement.

***

We are Australian Jews who join thousands in Israel and around
the world condemning ongoing Israeli military attacks on Gaza.
Together with Israeli peace group Gush Shalom, we condemn
the current war as "inhuman, superfluous" and "abominable".

While Israel has the right to protect its citizens and to demand
an end to the crime of Palestinian rockets that target civilians,
this cannot be used as a pretext for the grossly
disproportionate military assault on Gaza because it was Israel
that violated the fragile truce on November 4, 2008.
Furthermore, Israel ignored Hamas' diplomatic initiatives to re-
establish the cease-fire since it expired on December 19.

The crude home-made rockets have caused relatively few Israeli
casualties. By contrast, Israeli bombardment has caused around
400 deaths and 2,000 casualties including a large proportion of
women and children. The bombardment has included civilian
targets such as a university, television station, factories,
mosques, ministry offices, parliament and refugee camps. Since
Hamas is a legitimate, democratically elected political party that
controls the government, security-related institutions are also
civilian targets including police departments and uniformed
officers.

History has demonstrated that military punishment has never
broken the spirit of a people or produced peace. On the
contrary, the assault on the population of Gaza will only inflame
hatred of Jews and of the State of Israel while doing nothing to
protect the lives of Israelis. Above all, it will undermine the
prospects of joining with peace-seeking Palestinians to
negotiate a lasting, just solution to the conflict.

The war on the population of Gaza comes after the Israeli
blockade that had already created a severe humanitarian crisis
under which the Palestinians suffered from lack of food,
electricity, medicines, hospital equipment and other basic
necessities of life. The blockade was condemned by the UN as a
violation of international law and, like the massive Israeli air-
strikes, constitutes illegal collective punishment prohibited by
the Geneva Conventions.

We call for an immediate end to attacks on civilians by
Palestinians and Israelis. However, since Palestinians have no
means of self-defence against the most powerful military force
in the Middle East, we particularly call on Israel to end its brutal
assault on the vulnerable Palestinian people of Gaza and to
reconsider its rejection of the UN Security Council's call for a
cease-fire.

Israel has refused to accept Hamas' consistent offer of
negotiations since its election win in 2006. There can be no
solution to the conflict without Israel being a willing partner to
dialogue.

http://www.iajv.org/

Steve, POA and Nina - FYI:

I tried four or five times recently to post a comment at the thread
"TWN on the road". I got a message on the screen that the
comment had to be approved by the host.

Less than one hour after that, I succeeded in posting several
messages on this thread - even a part of the post blocked at the
thread below. And now I just tested the thread below: apparently I
can post anything I want there again.

This could be the same that happened to you, POA?
In any case, I just thought it was worth telling what happened to
me.

TWN is now above the four competing blogs I mentioned above -
currently it`s nr 4 on the list. Wake up, Americans, and vote!

Done Steve. Least one could do.

I've gotten blocked a couple of times ("host must approve" or some such, and then, gone) when I had several, up to five, links, in a comment???

No shout-out to Spunkmeyer? That's it... I'm not voting... (folds
arms)

Don (and Steve): I also had three links in the comment that was
blocked.

I voted early and I plan to vote often for the Washington Note as the best very large blog.

Spunkmeyer -- did you misread my post? I see your name there. ;-) steve

Get over it Spunky ;)

Spunky is there; and now TWN is among the top three!

No, this is not the same kinda deal, Paul. On the "death" thread, I cannot even access the thread. Immediately after I was chastised by a couple of posters for my obnoxious style of posting, I was no longer able to even access the comment section of that particular thread. When I would try to bring the comments up, I would get a Internet Exployer "Page cannot be found".

After a number of tries on my computer, I then asked Nina to access the thread on her computer, and she had no trouble doing so. She posted a short post explaining that I had apparently been blocked access to the thread. Subsequently, she too found she could no longer access the thread. We were definitely blocked. Real strange.

And this morning, I am still unable to access that particular thread. I get a "Page cannot be found". And it is the only thread that this is occurring on.

Paul, you cannot post three links. Two is the limit. If you try to post three, you will get the "host" message.

Ok, the three links issue explains my case. But your case is really
strange indeed. Perhaps you could try with a different browser (if
you have one). I guess it could perhaps work once, and then no
access, but it could be worth a try...

Or, as an experiment, you could try through this link:

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/01/watching_death/#comments

I just voted Steve. Fortunately it was no contest for me since I almost never read any of the other blogs that were on the list.

You might get competition next year from the new blog lineup over at Foreign Policy; it's quite an impressive collection.

Nice "magic" Steve... don't worry, I voted. But you knew that, right?

Could Steve's site have been hacked by someone miffed at POA?

The one he calls "monkeyboy", perhaps?

I found a way to get through to that thread, and without getting into the particulars online, have emailed Steve about it. I'm confident that Steve had nothing to do with the blockage.

Just call me paranoid, but the solution on my end ended up being the exact tactic I used to use to get through the blocking on that insipid little prick Nathan Tabor's website, "The Conservative Voice".

It would be easy to chalk this all up to some sort of technical "glitch", but the part that is inexplicable to me is that it occurred on Nina's computer too, and not to anyone else except her and I.

Gads.

Perhaps Steve's techi can figure it out, and the answer is quite mundane, technical, and non-threatening. But, just in case, I'm gonna put my tinfoil hat on this morning, and load up on garlic before I leave the house. You can never be too careful.

Captcha...."madrnu"

That cinches it, I'm goin' back to bed.

It's working now at 1115 EST.

You get my vote, even though you drive me nuts at times with your praise of certain sick old men, and even though it's clear that your Obama has given us a sign of things to come (more of the same) with his silence on Gaza (40 more dead this morning from tank hits on a UN school).

Still the best and most insightful blog.

Hope you advance a little further. All the best for 2009, even IF and just in case you do not win this race!

Obama hides while Palestinian children die. Punk'd by the Zionists. Shame.

I suspect the gray box thingy is a right wing conspiracy. They control the media, you know...

Good luck Steve!

Am I "all of you" or "ALL the others who happen by", hmmm. I'm feeling left out, but I'm a little low anyway....

I saved my "I voted" sticker from Nov. I can use it again! Yay!

Just voted - Good luck!

Do I now sense some movement?

This needs to be real Mr O. This is the test that Biden, unwittingly, was talking about.

Steve, you're going to have to work hard to keep up with Stephen Walt. The line on Obama some appointments:

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/node/14935

I voted -- no shoutout required, or desired. I'm a below the radar kinda guy as you know...

Following up on Dan's comment, see also:

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/node/14944

Glad to see Richard Haass brought into the administration, if that proves true. He's long been one of the Republicans I've wanted to see in a Democratic administration.

Some of the other names in there... I'm not so enthused about...

My grades on the rumored appointments Walt discusses:

Ross to handle Iran: terrible, terrible, terrible news. It's as though to apologize for having the effrontery to talk to Iran, Obama decided to send the worst possible person to do it. One might hope that if any deal actually gets done, Ross will provide credibility in presenting it to the hawks. But it wishful thinking that a deal will get done, and Ross will probably use the position to engineer negotiation failure and propaganda victories to prepare the public for aggressive action from the US and/or Israel. Only a hardline neocon like Bill Kristol could have been worse. D-

Haass to handle Arab-Israeli issues: it could have been worse. It could have been Ross. Haass and Indyk favor the "Syria track", which I interpret as a plan for turning Syria into Egypt, thus giving the Palestinians one less real friend, isolating them further, limiting their options and forcing them to accept a crappy deal on Israel. It's also a tactic for pressing forward with a "rollback" of Iran. C-

Holbrooke to handle India-Pakistan: I would have been very concerned if he had been given Russian or Middle East responsibilities. But this job actually seems like an intriguingly good use for him. B+

Slaughter to do policy planning at State: I like Slaughter as an individual. She is thoughtful, and a good listener. She is a good person, and not a fanatical ideologue. However, she is a defender of one of those Concert of Democracies ideas, and leans toward liberal interventionism of the Beinart, Ignatieff, Berman school of thought. That's worrisome in my book. B-

Overall grade: C

So, who wants to try to make lemonade out of the neocon lemons Obama is serving up on Iran/ME. Not me. Not Moon of Alabama:

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2009/01/obama-prepares-iran-attack.html

I just voted and it shows TWN at 508...and Bitch PHD at around 638.

"My grades on the rumored appointments Walt discusses..."

Yes, Ross, Haass, Holbrooke, Slaughter (and Panetta) are all interesting choices very much in keeping with the centrist (and very conventional)approach to foreign policy that Obama will clearly be adopting. I can't help but wonder whether this is the team Obama's most ardent supporters thought they would be getting.

Obama is revealing himself more and more every day. First we got his FISA vote; then we got his political love affair with Rick Warren; and now we get Ross, Haass, Holbrooke and Slaughter to join with Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.

I guess that's what "change you can believe in is all about."

I must admit that I'm perplexed that no one has mentioned Obama's choice for Surgeon General. Did anyone see Sanjay Gupta coming? It shows that Obama can really be "off Broadway" when it comes to the vitally important jobs.

I confess my prediction for Surgeon General couldn't have been more wrong.

My money was on Dr. Gregory House or Dr. Hawkeye Pierce.

ps: Steve is currentky in second place, trailing by 104 votes. I know it's cheating, but I'm asking friends, family and neighbors to vote for the Washington Note even if they don't read the blog.

You have my vote, Steve.

Steve,

TWN is now in 2nd place. Yippee. Do we get invited to the party when you win?

Now the bad news.

Israel's amen corner, in the White House?

JTA:
Dennis Ross said the United States should back a cease-fire in Gaza only if it ensures that Hamas "can't rebuild." "We want some stability," said Ross, a former top Middle East negotiator in the Clinton administration, in a talk at Temple Beth Ami in Rockville, Md.

Foreign Policy:
Former U.S. Mideast peace envoy Dennis Ross is said to be in negotiations for a possible role as U.S. special envoy on Iran, plus possibly a more expansive portfolio

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/

Also did everyone read the article about the deaths of 60 family members in Gaza?

Anyone ever heard of the "International Fellowship Of Christians and Jews"? I just saw one of the most sacharin, misleading, and despicable ads I've ever seen on TV, during Olberman's show on MSNBC.

Call these propagandizing schills, and tell them what you think of nations that starve and bomb children.....

1-800-388-4200

And here is a paragraph from AIPAC's website....

"Those statements echoed President Bush's steadfast support of Israel's defensive operation in his weekly radio address this past Sunday and similar comments by several advisors to President-elect Barack Obama"

Now, mind you, the "several advisors to President-elect Barack Obama" part, on the actual site, is actually a link....

http://www.aipac.org/19712.asp

......to this single paragraph (that cites Obama and his "advisors").....

"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing." - Sderot, Israel, July 23, 2008. [Reiterated by Obama senior advisor David Axelrod, December 28, 2008.]"

Uhm, now, correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't "several" mean, uh, "more than ONE"?

Now heres the deal. I know damned good and well that people in Obama's camp read this blog. So what the hell is the deal? Have you people given AIPAC permission to imply that Obama is on board with Israel's latest slaughter? Is it OK with you that AIPAC is citing the "similiar comments" of "several advisors", then failing to provide the quotes, or naming the people supposedly uttering these words of support for murder, war crimes, and shitting all over the Geneva Convention?

I have to assume that its alright with the Obama camp for AIPAC to market war crimes in Obama's name, and lie about the amount and degree of support "several" of Obama's "advisors" are giving Israel. Or, is AIPAC telling the truth?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

uh, POA, PEBO couldn't give less of a crap about you, me or other similarly inquiring minds. Doncha know. I thought that was your line? My dear wife keeps telling me that I'm too hard on Obama's inscrutable silence, but it's going to take an awful lot of brilliant diplomatic kicking a bit of Israeli ass for me to concede she's right.

Everybody keep voting TWN. Obviously we have to take out PHD Bitch!

Would someone please tell me, step by step, how to vote? Every time I click on TWN to vote I just get sent back to this blog. I see others of you have voted successfully and are even tracking how Steve is doing in the polls. For the life of me, a blogger too, I can't figure out how to cast my vote! Maybe its the page design or maybe I am just slow.
THANKS for any help.

Nina, if it works, several circular symbols with the names of the
blogs should appear on the site Steve linked to. You click on The
Washington Note circle - done. Then a new page will show up
with the current status of the respective blogs in the competition.

Not rocket science, and you`re not slow. Something must be
wrong somewhere - perhaps there was to much traffic when you
tried.

nina, you are clicking on under where it says 'finalists'.. you need to look above where it says 'finalists' and wait for the page to load..

Steve:

POA is your "friend"? Do you condone his hateful and empty rhetoric? Why are you publicly begging him to vote for your blog? so you can earn more money or improve the quality of discussion?

I don't get it. I certainly expected more from you and from TWN.

I'm surprised that you countenance the antagonistic and shallow shooting galleries that your comment threads have become.

Sorry - you haven't earned my vote.

Gads, Varanasi is full of vinegar this morning.

He musta ate a couple little Palestinian kids for breakfast. Don't worry, though, he only eats the ones with bad genes.

You've got my vote – and my full gratitude for this outstanding
blog!

Steve:

I voted....and I see one can vote every 24 hours ...so I will again...and again. Good luck, Steve! This is one of the best, most informative blogs IMHO. You have an inside-track ....to everything! And, I wonder at your many travels. Wow. And love your doggies. I haven't participated as much lately as I'm writing a book and must get it to the publisher asap. I didn't notice "Carroll"'s name among those you listed....someone whose posts I always followed...and agreed with. Highly informed. But POA practically speaks with my own voice. Agree with....and enjoy....nearly everything he writes. So glad he's here. Honest man...with courage. Happy New Year! Sandy

POA is courageous?! HAHAHA

Dare I ask, why?

I didn't know that anonymous, hateful and unbalanced rants on a blog constituted courage!

surely he deserves the bronze star for unemployed and aging cranks who blog in their underwear.

My guess is he's replaced his old meth habit with a starring role on TWN.

Bravo! Bravo!

sandy - thanks for the kind words.. it's mutual..

Hmmm, someone was blathering about antagonistic and shallow posting earlier. Who could that have been?

Someone said something about voting once a day. Is
that true? Er, twice I guess if you have a home
and work computer. ;^)

I voted for TWN and ur doin well-4th place narrowing in on 3rd...Bonne Chance!