If you haven't been following Atrios' count down to the Wanker of the Decade, you should get thee over to Eschaton, in time for today's esteemed winner of this coveted title (widely expected to be the Mustache of Understanding and Friedman Unit namesake, Tom Friedman.)
The nine proud runners up (Megan McArdle, Richard Cohen, Diane Sawyer, Jonah Goldberg, "Lord" William Saletan, Mark Halperin, Joe Klein, Andrew Sullivan, and Fred Hiatt) have been announced, with copious documentation, over the past several weeks in honor of ten years of Blogging the Baby Blue. The whole series is worth a considerable read; it reminds us that we owe Duncan Black -- who prisoners does not take, punches does not pull -- a great debt of gratitude for his relentless exposure of the narcissism, laziness, and hypocrisy of America's High Punditry.
When I first started putzing around the liberal blogosphere almost nine years ago, Daily Kos and Eschaton had similar formats, and both featured the brief musings of contrarian, very smart liberals, voices in the wilderness during the collective political and media insanity of the Dubya era and the invasion of Iraq, both had a small but growing loyal (or addictive) group of commenters who shared their rage. As I recall, there was a good deal of overlap. (And did you know that there was a time in summer 2003 when both comments systems were on that dreaded relic haloscan?) (Which Atrios, bless him, continued to use for another six + years?)
Needless to say, Markos and Atrios were always already very different in their aims and ambitions, and while Daily Kos, of course, soon (very soon, with the introduction of Scoop in fall 2003) morphed into the vast collective effort that it is today, Eschaton has remained remarkably similar in scope and format. But for those Kossians who are not or have not been regular readers, I encourage a regular trip over there (I still read it almost daily, although I have commented progressively less -- both here and there -- over the last several years) -- don't be fooled or turned away by the customary (and sometimes opaque) brevity of the references and links, as these are part of a body of "work" that includes a much broader and cohesive critique -- of the media, of the political culture, and in particular of Atrios' own area of expertise (with his Ph.D. in economics), the disastrous legacy of the demise of Keynsian thinking and the cruel, stupid, and shortsighted economic policies that Serious People have imposed the world over. (Also, too, his focus on transportation and urban planning.)
So take a gander by, and raise a Pony to one of the savviest, sharpest, and most original, pixelated voices that we have been fortunate to have had the chance to read these past ten years ...
-- Stu [or, as I have been for years over there "sdf (Stu)"]