It's that time of the year again, and as always, I'm thrilled to announce our new additions to the ranks of Daily Kos Featured Writers.
Featured Writers allow us to bring promising and talented writers to a wider audience, showcasing their writing mostly (but not always) on weekends. This is the 9th year of promoting people to the front page, and I'm just as excited today as I was in 2003 when I first promoted the dearly missed Steve Gilliard, Steve Soto and Billmon. It's my favorite Daily Kos tradition!
At a time when few new voices are emerging from the broader liberal blogosphere, I'm committed to making sure that Daily Kos continues to elevate grass- and netroots talent. In fact, I consider it one of my most important responsibilities.
Without further ado, here's this year's class, plus their bios which will soon go up on our About page.
Shanikka
Shanikka is a middle-aged denizen of the California ‘Hood who some refer to as a whirling dervish since she’s always going a mile a minute. For more than 20 years, she has spent her working days as a lawyer while moonlighting as a lay philosopher, spiritual activist and—since 2004—political blogger.
After spending most of her career representing commercial and government clients, Shanikka now concentrates exclusively on pro bono service to clients in need. Her practice emphasizes the right of the poor, working and middle class to be secure in their homes. She is also known on her California home turf as a community activist and public official.
Shanikka’s blogging has evoked her steadfast commitment to economic and racial justice while addressing a variety of subjects. Law and legal ethics, housing, economic policy, religion and spirituality, womanism and politics are regular themes. Continuing the focus of her college years, she has emphasized the role of unconscious racism (particularly American anti-Black racism) in politics and society at large. She is conscious of the need to try and propose solutions when addressing problems.
Shanikka has been a regular poster at DailyKos since 2004 and was a panelist at Netroots Nation ’10 and '12. She was previously a front pager at My Left Wing and the editor of her own blog (now inactive), Ma’at’s Feather, named after the Egyptian goddess of truth, justice, and order. Just to keep it real when it comes to Ma’at, she works on keeping her heart light as a feather as much as possible in her spare time through gaming, vegetable gardening and being a doting wife, mother and grandmother. That being said, she loves nothing quite so much as a fierce night on the dance floor.
Dan (aka Mother Mags)
A true-blue DFH, Dan grew up in Pennsylvania and joined the Army after high school, serving in Germany and Vietnam. Courtesy of the GI Bill, he graduated from Penn State and then taught high school in his home state. Dan moved to Arizona more than 30 years ago and earned a doctorate from Arizona State University, on track to be a professor. Serendipity intervened and he fell into a job with an educational foundation, where he stayed 20 years. Dan has served on more than 50 boards and commissions – for national parks, museums, government agencies, universities, human rights groups, and other community organizations. Now semi-retired, and flunking retirement, he continues to teach, lecture, and publish on community development, environmental history, and sustainability. Dan lives in downtown Phoenix, but can often be found hiking and camping in the state’s majestic mountains and deserts. “Mother Mags” is a
tribute to the family dog, who passed away the week Dan signed up at Daily Kos in 2005. At least we were able to share Randy Johnson’s perfect game, and boy-howdy did we dance.
I
love "flunking retirement"!
Jon Perr (aka Avenging Angel)
Jon Perr is a technology marketing consultant and writer based in Portland, Oregon. He has been blogging about politics, the economy, taxes, health care, national security, foreign policy and other issues since 2004.
Jon has long been active in Democratic politics as an organizer and advisor. His past roles include co-coordinator of MassTech for Robert Reich (2002), recruiter of tech executives to support Al Gore for President (2000) and President Clinton's call for national education standards (1997), as well as field staffer for Gary Hart for President (1984).
An executive with over 25 years of experience in end-user software, web services and mobile applications, Jon now helps his companies with corporate communications, product strategy and marketing plans. He previously served on the management teams at Ximian (later acquired by Novell), Vendavo, Intellisync (later acquired by Nokia) and Claris (now FileMaker).
Jon’s writing also appears at Perrspectives and Crooks & Liars. His work has been cited in newspapers, magazines and blogs, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Salon, Slate, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Mother Jones, The Hill, Politico and other leading publications.
California, Arizona and Oregon? The West is representing!
In addition, we are promoting Armando back to Contributing Editor status. Er, re-promoting. We're able to do that because he's not a raving lunatic anymore.