[Updated below]The finalists have been announced in all the major categories at the Weblog Awards.
Congratulations to Raw Story for making the finals along with Huffington Post, Michelle Malkin, Andrew Sullivan and others in the "Best Blog" category (yeah, I know, Raw Story isn't a blog, but who cares?) and also to Raw's managing editor Larisa Alexandrovna, whose blog At-Largely also made the short list in "Best Political Coverage".
Congrats also to Mike Golby, whose Y BLOG ZA has made the finals in the category "Best Middle Eastern or African Blog" (where he's up against Iraq The Model, among others).
There are other familiar names on the list (such as Talking Points Memo, Captain's Quarters and Hullabaloo), and I was disappointed but not surprised to note that Chris Floyd's Empire Burlesque and Arthur Silber's Once Upon A Time were not among them. Oh well. Too much unvarnished truth is clearly a very dangerous thing.
Voting begins tomorrow, and I hope you will support Larisa and Mike and any of your other favorite bloggers who happened to make the cut.
UPDATE: the finalists in the "ecosystem categories" were announced after I started writing this post; I was astonished and very honored to find out (via a comment from The Wendigo) that this frozen blog has been selected as a finalist in one of them ("Best of the Top 6751 - 8750 Blogs"). Readers of Jon Schwartz will be pleased to learn that "A Tiny Revolution" is also a finalist (for "Best of the Top 2501 - 3500 Blogs").
By the way, WP is classed as a "slithering reptile" in the ecosystem, while ATR is an "adorable rodent". And with that out of the way, I'm humble to say Thanks again for your support and Please support your favorite bloggers.
Voting begins tomorrow, as I understand it, and runs for about a week. You may vote once per day per category. And if I ever find out more, I will share it.