WhooHOO! It's about time.

Congratulations, my Gadfly, True North, Non-Right-Winger! I can't wait to vote for you, and will encourage all the friends and family (I constantly badger/ harrass to read BRADBLOG regularly for REAL news) to do the same.

Now, how do we get you a Pulitzer?

Well Brad, this is not bad news to end the year on. Congratulations!! Happy new year and get well.

You deserve it Brother. I frequent many of those nominated, but when it comes to saving our democracy by telling the truth about the process...YOU WIN HANDS DOWN!

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brad,
Well, as you've ALREADY won the very prestigious "JOAN AWARD FOR TRUTH, JUSTICE & THE AMERICAN WAY" several years running, winning THIS one (as you should of course) would just be the icing on the cake.

Joan - I accept. Thanks! (Always happy to take whatever I can get!)

CONGRATULATIONS Brad, on a well deserved nomination!!

Happy New Year to you and all of your loyal readers/activists

You know, it's only because of your brilliantly choleric moderator....

Don't you?

Congratulations! I'm glad to know that my favorite blog is a finalist for Best Liberal Blog.

In honor of the nomination, here is a little song for you!

Love me, I'm a Liberal

May you have a very happy and healthy New Year!

Hava Happy New Year ... Much Deserved Recognition !
~

HAPPY NEW YEAR, BRAD!

YOU'VE BEEN THE BEST BLOG FOR ME FOR FOUR LONG, AMAZING YEARS - PROVIDING AMAZING, CUTTING-EDGE STORIES WITH DETERMINATION, WIT AND RESPECT FOR THE GOAL OF ACTUAL DEMOCRACY.

TOUCHEE.

THERE IS NOTHING MORE ESSENTIAL IN ALL THE NEWS THAN THE REVELATIONS THAT OUR ELECTIONS HAVE BEEN STOLEN BY MEN WHO MAKE MONEY IN THE ILLEGAL WARS THEY HAVE ILLEGALLY STARTED.

AND YOU, DEAR BRAD, HONOR US ALL BY PULLING BACK THE CURTAIN ON A DAILY BASIS.

THANK YOU.

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

P.S. Don't --- DON'T -- get on any small planes.

My heartfelt congratulations, Brad! They're simply acknowledging the obvious, but it's good to see nonetheless. My Czech acquaintances recommend hot buttered rum for the flu - it may not make the recovery any faster, but it makes the ride a little smoother. As for the carpal, I'm stumped on that one (well, I'm not down to stumps at the ends of my arms quite yet, but it feels like that's in the cards. A good friend of mine just had both wrists done surgically - I'm keeping an eye on him, and if his results are good then I think I'll go for it, too. Will keep you posted.

I wish you good health and even greater success in this new year, and I can hardly wait to vote on the 5th.

Congrats, Brad! I guess we still have a day or two until DHinMI puts this into proper pragmatic context in a front page piece on the website that shall remain nameless. But don't let that diminish the glory. You've earned it! Now heal, partner.

I'm extremely proud to be in your company, Brad.

Happy New Year!

What Melissa said. It really astonishes me to be in the company of such great bloggers. Thanks for the link, sweets, and see ya on the red (oh let's make it blue) carpet!

you are not the first who ive heard have issue with the term "liberal". why is this? liberal, according to webster is, "tolerant; broad-minded. favoring reform or progress". so why do people whom i would call liberal, as i call myself liberal, seem to resent this title? im new to this whole left-wing (is "left-wing" acceptable or does that have some connotations i am not aware of as well?) blog scene. please enlighten me.
also, congratulations on your nomination.

Anyone with a stubborn tendency to seek the truth in the face of all political pressure to make do with "the company line" is deemed "liberal" and that is a bad thing because "liberal" is coming to mean "society-debauching elitist crumb-thrower". It's very complicated. Some of us are looking for other ways to talk about this stuff, while still trying to stay as faithful to reality as we can.

okay...that's just silly. seriously, y'all are grown-ups, right? sticks & stones? liberal means what it means. it's a good word. so what if a bunch of morons can't read the dictionary & use it to mean something else? i thought we'd FINALLY moved past the whole "pc" thing of what is & isn't okay to call people. say it with me--im proud to be a liberal!! im a green, pagan, liberal, vegetarian, stay-at-home mom...pbbtt...

mj, I'm sorry for being so oblique. Seems you missed my point entirely. I, for one, don't think the "liberal" label is appropriate or helpful anymore. Since the misusage of language is such a popular tool for confusing the fuck out of everybody nowadays, I think we need to stop trying to align ourselves with a prescribed set of ideas, and express our ideas directly and truthfully without labeling them at all, since that only gives people who don't want to think ways to continue refusing to think at all.

Well, you have my vote, if it means anything, Brad.

i didn't miss your point. i just think it is silly & a waste of energy to worry about how you are labelled. sorry--i really don't think changing the word you use is going to change the way people who refuse to think think..trust me on this--my mom will think whatever she wants no matter what i say to her or what i call myself. she's a hard-core right-wing right-to-lifer who will tell you the sky is green & believe it with all her heart. i just saw a clip of a debate between al franken & ann coulter--do you see how a.c. doesn't actually hear what a.f. is saying? this is their self-defense. any person who is willing to think can get past a word. i was told all through my childhood that "feminists" were bad. yet even before i reached adulthood, i had become a feminist. because i was able to think for myself, i did not get hung up on the label. sure, call yourself "independent" if you want to. but don't tell the world that "liberal" is a bad word when it isn't.

Obviously, people shouldn't worry about how they are labeled. They should not label themselves. They should point out how stultifying to competent and cogent action labels are, whether they can avoid the labels being applied to them or not.