Fox in the Henhouse

Que sera sera
Whatever will be will be
The future's not ours to see
Que sera sera
--Que Sera Sera, Pink Martini

So Thank you very much
It's really nice to know
That you enjoyed the show
--Thank You Very Much,
Kaiser Chiefs

Mirror mirror on the wall
Who is the top choice of them all
there was a rumble tumble, five minutes it lasted
the mirror said, "You are you conceited bastard!"
--La Di Da Di, Slick Rick
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We would like to warmly thank everyone who took the time to vote for Ranger in the Florida Netroots contest. We did not win, but we were close runners-up in three of the four categories in which we ran.

As you know, Ranger Against War is neither fish nor fowl; we stand for common sense in the midst of a partisan, polarized world suffering a dearth of it. As example: the Veterans for Peace Interim Director declined our request for shared links today on the basis of his "being bothered by" our non-agenda: "I certainly like the name of your blog and it's got some good stuff on it, I have to say I'm bothered by the first couple posts on it." The posts questioning that most excellent adventure, The Arab Spring.

In other words, we don't toe the rah-rah party line that change is always good; we are not knee-jerk liberals. That meddling in the Middle East is perhaps not to our benefit. That maybe liberalism is not the end game for everyone, and our being meddlesome is just that. The Vets for Peace response reminds me of something one of Ranger's more conservative associates said recently: "I believe in freedom, but there has to be some limits placed." A-yeah.

But back to the non-win apologia: Lisa read the winning Best Post this weekend and really had a laugh at the entry considered the finest piece of writing a Progressive state blogger had to offer: Charlie Crist: Once and Future Governor. At best, it is a sycophantic encomium; more precisely, a solid piece of 11th grade journalism.

In addition, the person tapped to run the contest was also competing in it (and a few categories, against RAW), something about which we will protest to the Florida Democratic Party. We know they will be glad to hear from us.

We generally take to the high road, but this really beats all. Schadenfreude? Picayune? Not so much; just an honest assessment. (Skim a few graphs of the winning entry and see what you think.) We can only imagine the earnest author, Mr. Schorsch, won 53% of the vote (we never got an actual vote count) because he is a member of the StPetersBlog. 'Nuff said.

Well, anyhow, you did your best and we did ours. Florida? It's a swamp with two outposts of some mild progressive activity -- St. Pete/Tampa and Miami/Lauderdale. But it's a pretty politically incestuous world down there, and us? We are on LPOP in Tally town.

Florida is not a hotbed of Netroots activity, and every time Lisa has attempted to enter some activity on behalf of the local Democrats they come up wanting.

We're chuffed even getting to 2nd in this contest which seems to decide every time Ranger enters that his categories need a run-off about which he is never made aware. Such is life on the range.

We'll just be carrying on, thanks.

Exercize Your Franchise!

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Alms for the poor!!! Eleventh hour appeal!!! If you just returned from Ladies Night, before you pop the top on that cool, hoppy IPA, please consider doing your netizen duty.

This is the last TWO HOURS of the last day to vote for your favorite blog, RangerAgainstWar (or one of your favs) for Best Blog in several categories in the 2011 Florida Netroots Democratic Party Blog competition.

Deets here: Will Work for Votes.


Down and dirty: It will take one minute of your valuable time. Here's how to do it --

VOTE RAW for categories #1, 10, 19, 20. Vote for someone else in the asterisked categories (#2, 11, 14). (Yup, even liberals are not immune from arbitrary bureaucratic arm-twisting.)


That's it, finis. Many thanks, friends.