Well barring some small miracle in the final tabulations... it looks like In Search of Utopia has come in second place in the 2006 Weblog Awards, for Best Latino, Caribbean, or South American Blog. As expected, Babalu retains it's crown as the winner in this category. Babalu is a well written, attractive site, that despite being almost singularly focused on Anti Castro themes, has a strong Right Wing following. I knew it would be an uphill battle to unseat them, but we did very, very well...

We lost by 133 votes... (about 5% of the total votes cast in this category), so forgive me if I feel like we won! This was a great moral victory for In Search of Utopia, we took on the best Right Wing Blogs in Latin America and came in a very close second. One more day of voting and who knows what could have happened. After the first day of voting, we were in ninth place...

But the rules are the rules. We went into this thing hoping to do better than last year, and we did, by several magnitudes. Much of the thanks must go to Jesus General. His strong final hour endorsement added many, many votes and I am grateful for his friendship and support.

I am also grateful to the many members of my fraternity and sister sorrority (Phi Beta Sigma and Zeta Phi Beta) who read my blog and took the time to vote, as well as to all my friends in progressive blogging and all the Ticos (Costa Rican's) who supported me. You are all much loved and appreciated. I especially want to thank Brother Greg Brandon of Los Angeles, the President of my Phi Beta Sigma Grad chapter, for his support and calls to arms on the part of the Brotherhood.

I am sure that if I receive the honor of reaching the finals again next year, that this years effort will be instrumental in an even better showing...

I want to take this time to congratulate the owners of Babalu on their threepeat, and offer congratulations to all the winners in all the categories in this year's awards. I also want to congratulate all the finalist. The Weblog Awards have become an important way for many blogs to get exposure. I hope that the blogs participating in this year's contest will benefit from that exposure by increased readership, AND the opportunity to find out who is in their neighborhood.

I read all of the nominated blogs in my category this year, and must say that I was impressed, even if we disagreed politically. There is some great stuff being produced out there. I take this as an opportunity to improve In Search of Utopia. I have many plans for 2007, including improving local coverage and providing some coverage in Spanish.

I also hope to reach out, as I have in the past, to people on the Left and Right, do some networking, and get back to my roots as a Centrist Progressive. The last year has seen me very busy with Life and Work, and many times I simply took the easy way out and had fun with my Nigerian Spammers, or teased some of my old time readers with pictures and stories from exotic Costa Rica. When I did delve into political dialogs, my words were mostly those of anger, based on where I saw our country going. I am hopeful that 2007 will be a year of healing for all of us, and that we can get back to working together for America. I intend to do my part, by reaching out more.

I often pick on Wizbang, probably at times unfairly. (Long History there). But I want to congratulate Kevin A. for improving the Weblog awards every year. I am honored to have once again been named as one of the Elite Blogs. I am not going to cry about not taking first, instead I am going to celebrate the progress I have made.

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Posted by: talk_truth2power at December 16, 2006 11:28 AM

Posted by: David Scott Anderson at December 16, 2006 01:00 PM