Linkie winkie

I wanted to take a moment to call attention to a few great blogs on my blogroll who I believe deserve a lot more attention than they get. There are so many outstanding writers out there who (IMO) should rank much higher in the TTLB Eco-system than they are. Their traffic may be in the double digits, or it may be in the low thousands but in the very humble opinion of this blogstress, their traffic should be much higher. As it stands, the political blogosphere (as I noted in my prior post) is a very crowded place, and it’s hard to stand out in a field of so many. Here are, in no particular order, bloggers who stand out to me (for what it’s worth):

— Ed Driscoll: First, his cool blog design alone makes visiting his blog worth it, but it’s the content that will keep you coming back. He’s smart, he’s witty, he’s talented, and his blogposts are not confined to one particular subject – not only that, but he has the ability to write succinctly about a topic without going on for several pages (unlike some people I know. Ahem). Read more about Ed here.

— California Conservative: Cal may very well hate me now, as I haven’t guest posted there since, oh, forever ago but that won’t stop me from giving high praise to one of my favorite left coast bloggers. And I’m not just saying that because he was kind enough to ask me to blog there last year. Not only does he write well, but he’s got a stellar cast of blog contributors there who are never at a loss for subject matter. Another great thing about Cal’s blog is the he doesn’t just focus on national issues, but issues that are important to the state of California as well – I think it’s important to take the time to cover issues important to your state as well as nationally and it’s something I know I need to work on doing, because – as they say -everything starts locally. Read more about what the California Conservative blog is all about here.

— Dana R. Pico at Common Sense Political Thought: Frequent readers of this blog know Dana mainly from his sometimes spirited participation in the comments section here at the ST blog, but he also shines at his own blog. With writing as good as his (not to mention well-researched) it is simply criminal that he does not have tons more readers than he does now. I’ve been proud to see him get some recognition at the popular Red State blog, and hope that it continues. Read more about Pico and co. here.

— Amy Proctor: Probably the most underrated female blogger in the blogosphere. Scroll through some posts there and you’ll see why I say that. I first found out about Amy’s blog when I started contributing to the California Conserative blog, of which she is also a contributor. Go here to find out more about Amy.

— Kobayashi Maru: Deep thinker, well read, and always insightful. Who is KM? This page will tell you.

— Greg Tinti at The Political Pit Bull: Some of you may have noticed that I have frequently linked to Greg this week – that’s because he’s always on the ball, is another blogger who writes succinctly about the important topics of the day, and he lightens up the atmosphere at his blog by blogging about non-political things from time to time, which I think is important. Greg was a guest blogger this summer at Outside The Beltway, which is a high compliment in and of itself. If Greg has an “about me” page, I don’t see it, but if what he writes is any indication, he’s a guy most of us would buy a beer if we ever met in a social setting.

— Brian at Iowa Voice: I have repeatedly said that Brian, who has been a longtime friendly supporter of this blog, is the most underrated blogger in the blogosphere and I maintain that today. Brian blogs from (obviously) Iowa and rumor has it that he’s not too popular with liberal bloggers in his home state, which should tell you something Brian’s “about” page is located here.

— Cavalier X: My friend Cav is one of those rare bloggers who posts only a few times a month but makes them well worth the wait. He’s so well-written that G. Gordon Liddy himself interviewed Cav last October (if I remember correctly, the issue was global warming). If you listen to the interview, you’ll note that it’s Cav who sounds like the host, because he’s the one who is controlling the flow of the convo – that’s a sign of someone who has a strong grasp of the topic matter who doesn’t miss a beat when he gets on a roll. I should note that I have a soft spot for Mr. X because he was the first blogger I know of who linked to me during my early blogging days when I had my blogspot address when the title of my blog was “Prezeedential Aspirations” – don’t know what he saw in my blog in the early days (check the ST 2003 archives and you’ll see what I mean) but I appreciate his longtime support nevertheless. But soft spot or not, Cav is a guy who you should take notice of. On his homepage there is a place where you can subscribe to be on his mailing list – that alerts you to new posts. If you like what you see there, I encourage you to sign up for the new posts email alerts. They are worth it. No “about” page for Cav, but what you don’t learn about him from reading his posts you can find out by checking the comments sections of various posts here.

— Blog For All: Click here for a little insight into who Lawhawk is, and what he likes to blog about. Top notch stuff there, and I’m trying to overlook the fact that he’s a Yankees fan

There are more, but that’s the short list for now.

To my readers: If you like what you read at any of them, please bookmark the ones you like or add them to your blogroll and visit often. If you’ve been visiting this blog any length of time, you know I would not recommend your visiting a blog that I didn’t think was worth the click.

To fellow bloggers: I know how incredibly frustrating it can be when you feel like you’re giving your blog 110%, doing all the right things, tracking back like crazy, etc, only to see it passed over or go unrecognized in favor of a more well-known blogger. I’m not a ‘well-known blogger’ by any stretch, but I have seen my visits increase alot in the last year, so I guess I’m doing something right, and I hope my posting this brings a little more traffic in the direction of the bloggers I linked above.

Ok, so now that you’ve seen the linkie(s), here’s the winkie: