Update (11/28): Homeschooling bloggers are having a “best blog” contest, too.
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Nominations for the 2005 Weblog Awards close today, and voting begins December 1, 2005.
I’ve had very little time to read a wide variety of blogs this year. These days I read more business blogs than political blogs, but I still have a few favorites. I’ve endorsed blogs only from categories I read:
Best Blog — Captain’s Quarters: Last spring prolific blogger Ed Morrissey began blogging about a scandal in Canada called Adscam that involved government corruption. The Canadian government allegedly banned publication of the testimony of three key witnesses during the trial, but through an informant, Ed was able to feed information to readers. Canadians flocked to his site to find out what their government didn’t want them to know.
As a result, Ed gained recognition from the media and credibility with readers, and his reputation as a blogger-journalist was solidified.
Best New Blog (Established after November 19, 2004) — Performancing is a new group business blog that is a growing goldmine of information for the professional and hobbyist blogger. In this blogger’s opinion, Performancing is the best new blog of the year.
Best Group Blog — Polipundit: Not to slight the other contributors, but I read Polipundit mainly for Lorie Byrd’s commentary. She has a personal blog, but the group dynamic on Polipundit seems to inspire her best political writing.
Best Humor/Comics Blog — BlameBush!: Sometimes a little racy, Liberal Larry has done what most of us don’t have the talent to do: write parody so well that liberals and conservatives have a hard time figuring out whether he’s a liberal or a conservative, although his blogroll gives him away.
Best Conservative Blog — One of the hardest working conservatives in the blogosphere, Michelle Malkin is simply the best. Despite the nastiness she has to put up with, she’s out there day after day blogging, breaking stories, writing books and a weekly column, and speaking to sometimes hostile crowds. Michelle is the embodiment of the First Amendment.
Best Blog Design — Mom 2 Mom Connection is a good-looking blog. The design is engaging, simple, and clean. The effect is very calming.
Best Podcast — IMAO: Funny stuff! Frank J. and his group of podcast buddies — fiancée SarahK, fellow PM blogger Laurence Simon, spacemonkey, Right Wing Duck, and Harvey — put together a very funny, very non-PC show that’s too short and too infrequent for me, the mark of great entertainment. If you’re not into podcasting, let the IMAO podcast be your first foray into the latest online adventure.
Best Religious Blog — Evangelical Outpost: Joe Carter is an understated and underrated Christian blogger, although he’s been a Mortal Human for a long time. His readership should be at least four times what it is now. Read his blog!
Best Business Blog — For readers unfamiliar with business blogs, check out the PR/Marketing blogroll on my business blog for a few examples. The best business blog I’ve found is Entrepreneur’s Journey, hosted by Yaro Starak. Yaro is an entrepreneur and podcaster who runs a blog filled with useful and priceless free content. Peruse at your leisure.
Best UK Blog — Seeing that he’s the only UK blogger I read, I don’t know how much my endorsement means to Adrian Warnock, but he’s got it. 
Related post: 2004 “Best Blog” Endorsements
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OK. Here’s the deal: I regularly (nearly daily) check about ten blogs. La Shawn is first, then Michelle, Lucianne, LGF, Captain’s Quarters, Powerline, Tim Blair, Lileks, Fiordman and Drudge.
However, all of these wonderful folks link me hither and yon to a wide variety interesting and thought provoking sites.
There is a little blog you may have heard of that deserves the Best Blog award. It is called La Shawn Barber’s Corner. Check it out.
To move off-topic: I’m still holding out hope for a Rice/Barber ticket in ‘08.
You forgot about the best legal blog.
I found your blog last year in this contest. When I went to vote for Right Thinking, and checked out your blog. Been a fan ever since. Keep up the good work.
The blogger at Captain’s Quarters has a real name? I never saw an About section there.
Mmhmm , you left out a category
3 cheers for Captain Ed. Those of us in Canada owe him a huge debt of gratitude for keeping us up to date during those particular weeks of Adscam.
There is real power in blogging.
I’m waiting to see the finalist lists before I decide who I’m going to vote for in each category, but I think I’m going to go with Michael Yon for both Best Blog and Best Milblog.
Based on the quality of Yon’s reporting (both his words and photos) from Iraq this year, I think he may be the most important blogger of the past year, period. Truly mind-blowing stuff.
That’s just my opinion, of course. It’s really great that we get a chance to honor the bloggers we read like this.
Thanks for mentioning the homeschool blog awards. You’re great and are getting my vote for the best blogger ever. Thanks again.
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