Please Feed the Monkeys

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It's that time of year where we kindly solicit your vote to be recognized as one of Florida's best progressive bloggers.

Please vote Ranger Against War as the Best Writers in the Florida Democratic Party's Netroots Coalition Award. It takes but a moment:

You are required to vote for choices #1, 2, and 21 then you can skip down to question #10, the category in which RangerAgainstWar in nominated. [We can't help you in categories 1,2, and 21, but we can definitely campaign for #10. You know the drill: Definitely vote RAW on question 10, then scroll to the bottom and click "finished". Done.

Will work for votes. If we win, it'll light a fire under our patooties to keep up the good fight.

Ranger is a friendly but impassioned blog which solicits input from readers for direction and ideas. We are not dogmatic, and are always willing to learn. That is our ideology, our raison d'etre: We'll tell you what we know, you tell us what you know, and we can come to an accord.

If cultured civic debate is becoming a lost art, maybe we can resurrect it here. It's not all about ego, and it'd be very lonely if we were only voices in the wilderness.

Thanks in advance for your time and your readership.

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N.B.: As reader Publius points out, the survey will be invalid unless you tick off a choice for #1, 2 and 21, in addition to Ranger's category -- BEST WRITER -- question #10.

So you are only required to vote for #1, 2, 10 and 21. We want yer vote (no one else paid us to shill for them.) In this case, it IS all about us, ahem.

Will Work for Awards, II

Do I want too much
Am I going overboard to want that touch
I shout it out to the night
"Give me what I deserve, 'cause it's my right"
--Passionate Kisses, Mary Chapin Carpenter

Enough about me, let's talk about you;
What do you think of me?
--Legacy, Janis Ian

He is a modest man, who had a good deal
to be modest about
--Winston Churchill, on Clement

What's with all these awards? They're always giving out awards.
Best Fascist Dictator: Adolf Hitler.
--Annie Hall (1977)

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You live, you learn. There's NO WAY on God's Green Earth Ranger would be considered for the militarily conservative "Best Blogger Award" -- his "Hooah quotient" is not high enough.

But we at Ranger are still feeling wanderlust, seeking the next certificate telling us we're o.k. It is a wild and woolly frontier, the world of blog recognition. Basically, one toots one's own horn, canvassing neighborhoods and smiling a lot. It is all about who likes you. There's no accounting for taste.

All we want is a wall of trophies like we fancy the Great White Hunter Cheney has; a modest "I love me" display. Small enough recompense, right? In truth, we're really nothing if not humble at Ranger, and you can take that to the bank (though we don't know what you'd get for it.) There may be more polished and more sophisticated, out there, but we do aim to please, amuse if at all possible, and see the bigger picture.

So we're at it again, asking for your votes. This time, we are entering The Bloggies. We figure we've got a real chance here. Just look at the psychedelic Crystal Blue Persuasion tendrils on the banner and you know this a place Ranger could call home.

The Bloggies have established categories like "Food" and "Arts and Crafts, but no "Military" category, per se, so we figured we'd burst in on the scene in the wide open "Best Topical Weblog" category. They don't ask you define the topic, which is good.

This is a fun and easy contest in which to vote. Click the link, and submit three of your favorite blogs (one being Ranger.) That's it -- then word verification and "submit". A moment of your time, and we'd be eternally grateful.

You have three days in which to accomplish this task, if you choose it. Contest closes Monday, January 12, 10 p.m. EST.

Ranger approves this ad.

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.