RANGER AGAINST WAR

Will Work for Awards

I am a jovial ranger,
I fear no kind of danger,
To sorrow I'm a stranger,
And so let mirth abound.
--Travel the Country Round,
Lesley Nelson-Burns
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November 4th has come and gone, but if you wanna work out some of that apres-voting malaise, visit the 2008 Weblog Awards and punch your ticket again. Yer 'umble scribes at Ranger Against War are nominated for Best Military Blog, and we feel this is our Ross Perot moment.

We've been a little off our game what with the heady political distractions, but we are back in the counterinsurgency saddle again. We will remind you that it was Ranger, before Obama, who was promising -- agitating -- for CHANGE.

If elected, we will advocate for everyone in the middle and upper tax brackets to receive a tax cut, and for those too poor to pay taxes, you'll get a rebate check. You can also drop your babies at any hospital, fire station or animal shelter, while still retaining their dependency tax exemption.

We will not surrender until we achieve total victory. Ranger defines Victory as criminal charges against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, et. al. [all]. He wishes to try their dogs as co-conspirators.

No bans on assault weapons. We will request pistols be limited to only hunting usage and restricted to 19-round mags. Ranger also offers a *valuable* free shooting lesson to anyone who votes (travel expenses not included.) A chicken in every pot and Peace in Our Time.

Here's how you do it:

Go here: 2008 Weblog Awards. Scroll down to the 44th post which nominates Rangeragainstwar. There is a green (+) sign under the nomination -- click on that green button. The ticker should click up one. That is all.

The nomination looks like this:

"A reasonable, informed mil blog from a counter terrorism subject matter expert. A liberal bent, but mostly middle-of-the-road:

Ranger Against War
rangeragainstwar.blogspot.com

Elissa Mann | November 17, 2008 10:16 PM | "

This award is adjudicated in two parts: By voting now, you are casting a vote to get Ranger into the finals. After the first week in December, they limn down to the finalist pool based on the support received by the nominees. At that point, we hope we'll be there to ask you a final time for your support.

Democracy is messy.

Labels: blog award, ranger against war blog award, vote for Ranger, web blog awards 2008

Mission Accomplished

Thank you very much!
Thank you very much!
That's the nicest thing that anyone's ever done for me
--Thank You Very Much, Scrooge (1970)

How 'bout them transparent dangling carrots
How 'bout that ever elusive kudo
--Thank You, Alanis Morrisette

I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks
--William Shakespeare
_________________

We won, we won! You like us! Thank you one and all for voting Ranger, Best Progressive Florida National Blog from the Florida Democratic Party Netroots Coalition. Our shameless grandstanding hit the target, and you got out the vote. Thanks.

We now know what it's like to win a contest based on votes alone. One knows one was the most popular, but not necessarily the best. (Well, in this case, the best.) So with Obama and McCain who are also fighting a personality contest, as we have no Solomon to mediate such matters (or any matter, for that matter.)

We'll just have to hope for Surowiecki's wisdom of crowds to prevail. In that vein, if anyone knows what the logo represents, please tell us.

At first glance it is a stylized Pacman. On second, it appears to be a blue and orange billiard ball wearing a yellow hardhat. Why a billiard ball would need a hardhat escapes us. Blue and orange are the colors of the University of Florida football team, which we must oppose out of reflex, hailing from Tallahassee as we do.

Labels: florida democratic party netroots coalition, florida netroots progressive coalition, florida progressive coalition blog award, ranger against war blog award, rangeragainstwar voted best blog 2008

The Agony and the Ecstasy

But it gets a little closer every day
and I will hold it in my hand before I die,
you know there isn't any way that we can lose
--So Close and Yet So Far, Agent Orange

The course of true love never did run smooth
--A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare
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We been robbed! At least, it feels like it, as we trudge on, increasingly feeling Hillary's pain. O.k. . . . no one ever said blogging was going to be a rose garden.

All our votes have been taken away, but so have everyone else's. The Florida Progressive Blogging Awards committee has decided that the race was just too darn close in six of the categories (including ours). They didn't say it was a tie, so somebody won, but apparently it didn't meet some undeclared spread.

So, they have stripped all the votes away and are starting from scratch today. And gosh darn it, being Florida, they will keep doing it 'til the right person wins. The delicious mystery is, we don't know who that person is.

The best we can do is to impress upon all of our kind readers to vote once again. You have six days. The contest is open through Sunday June 8, midnight. It's Florida, and the rules are different here. At least Katherine Harris will not be stopping the recount.

This has become a test of who has the staunchest reading audience.

Sorry to impress upon your goodwill and your forbearance, but please re-cast your vote for Ranger -- best national blog written by Floridians. There are only six categories, winnowed down to three contenders each. Voting should be easier, and you only need vote for us, unless you are motivated to vote for others.

We are in the Ranger spirit here, so we're tough. Ooo-rah. Once more, dear friends. Vote here.