Kevin had this to say:

That leads me to a complaint I've seen floating around that needs to be addressed. It's no secret that Wizbang is a conservative blog, nor is it a secret that it's highly ranked in Technorati and the TTLB Ecosystem. Over the past three years I've tried to keep that label well removed from The Weblog Awards. The Weblog Awards were never intended to be, nor have I ever purported them to be a "conservative" event. Call me an idealists, but I do believe that it's possible to engage in such competitions in a spirit of openness to all political leanings. I think the 2005 edition of The Weblog Awards proves that. Conservative bloggers who may have grown accustomed to a dearth of liberal nominees and finalists in The Weblog Awards should probably divorce themselves of the notion that liberal blogs will (or should) stay away because they have their "own" awards (The Koufax Awards). Again back to the bit about everyone being invited...

Denigrating the apparent victories of several liberal blogs in major categories, is in my opinion, childish. I didn't hear any teeth gnashing in 2004 when Powerline won the Best Blog category, nor should there be a hue and cry when (it appears) that DailyKos will win that award this year. Maybe there's not a lot of audience overlap between those two blogs, but the fact that each won the top award is testament to their reach and influence. The same goes for winners in other categories. Their votes are no different that anyone else's vote, it's just that they have more of them. As a Survivor fan I'm reminded of a familiar refrain in the final tribal councils, "that was the game I was playing." The Internet is a big place and there's lots of places to pick up support. I saw it all this year: forums, mailing lists, community sites, grassroots organizations, etc. Collectively this kind of exposure is a good thing for the blogosphere, and at the end of the day "exposure" is what The Weblog Awards is really about.

Yeah Wizbang is a Conservative Blog, but it is also one that was extremely supportive of me when I got started. I find myself dissagreeing 100% with most of the stuff Wizbang posts, but Kevin and Jay Tea is particular have been very supportive of me nonetheless. I did not politic for a nomination this year, nor did I really promote the idea of my nomination or ask for votes. Part of this was because of my gruelling schedule with Grupo Utopia projects, part of it was just not feeling too competitive. Since losing most of my blog earlier this year, I have been lukewarm at best in blogging. I honestly do not think that I qualified to win. My writing has been sporadic, and I have not really been a player this year on the blogging scene.

I am making some efforts to correct that, and hopefully 2006 will be the year ISOU sees a major resurgence in popularity and readership. I know the formula, it is just about finding time to do it.

Even with all of this, some people thought highly enough of ISOU to push for me as a finalist, and I finished the voting with a respectable 9th place. So it is not a bad thing to be considered one of the top 10 blogs in Latin America. I am grateful for the work the people at Wizbang put into the Weblog Awards, and honored to have had a chance to participate again this year. So ignore the bullshit Kevin, and thanks...

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