BLOGGING:

ONE MORE DAY TO VOTE:

Only one more day to go over at the Canadian Blog Awards where Molly is one of the finalists in the 'Best Political Blog' category. It's not too late. Go on over, and help Molly go for the gold. Last year I came in number 5. This year...who knows. It's all up to you. Do you want the Liberals and the Conservatives to rule forever on the blogosphere as well as in the real world ? If not...VOTE MOLLY.

"I have read this message and I approve of it"- Mollymew, for the committee to elect Mollymew.

FOUR MORE DAYS:

That's right...just four more days of voting in Round 2 of the Canadian Blog Awards. Molly made it into the finalists again this year, but this poor helpless little cat living at the edge of nowhere in Winnipeg Manitoba needs your help if she is to "go for the gold". Help Molly beat out all those dastardly conservatives, liberals and social democrats. Go to the CBA, search out 'Round 2', find the 'Political' category, and help push Molly over the top. It will give you such a good, warm feeling if you do. It'll be great for my ego-boo too.

CANADIAN BLOG AWARDS:

MOLLY'S IN ROUND TWO:

Well, Round 1 of the voting is over at the Canadian Blog Awards, and in the 'Best Political Blog' category Molly's Blog has once more made it into the finalists. This year I placed 6 out of 10, and Round 2 of voting will go on until December 19th. So get out your clicking finger, and go right over and help Molly out by voting for her in Round 2. Here's how it's done...

♦Go to the Canadian Blog Awards website

♦See the section 'Round 2 Ready'

♦Click 'round 2 is up for voting

♦Go to 'Political' and click

♦Find Molly's Blog on the list and click,click,click,click for her as your first choice.

It's that simple. So her a poor cat out and Vote For Molly. Free virtual beer for all my supporters.

Disclaimer; Well it looks like I was wrong in my opinion that follows. It "seems" that there will indeed be a "Round 2" for the 'Best Political Blog'. After some bizarre gyrations the final count seems to have elected 10 finalists (though I might be wrong about that). Molly came in at # 6 out of ten. 'Informed Vote', the largest entrant, seems to have gathered an astounding 78.1% of its votes from lower ranked votes. As expected Molly was not the 'second, third fourth, etc.' choice of very many people. 'Informed Vote' perhaps lacks colour, but the blog's "reasonableness" made it quite popular as an alternative. All things to all people perhaps ? Happily 'Calgary Grit' the only other finalist from last year besides Molly in the running also made it into the top ten. If I'm right about this complex process there will be a Round 2 happening soon, hopefully with a single vote rather than the complex, byzantine system that the CBAs used in Round 1.

BLOGGING:

CANADIAN BLOG AWARDS-I LOST, I THINK:

The results of the first round in the ' Best Political Blogs' category are now in at the Canadian Blog Awards. In an eerie replay of last year Molly's Blog once more came in 5th, with 82 votes (5.4% of the total). Voting seemed to be a lot more sparse this year, perhaps because of the more than slightly strange voting system (see later). It seems that 'Informed Vote' was declared 'The Winner' with 218 votes (14.3% of the total), and as far as I can determine there will be no "Round 2" as, if any candidate (and no other) gets above 9.1% that person is declared "elected". I might be wrong. I'll see in the next couple of days. 'Informed Vote' has no clear political perspective, but, if I were to hazard a guess, I'd put him as small l liberal. The right wingers, as I have mentioned before, waged a serious campaign this time around (they had the plurality of nominees), but only one candidate made it into the top 5. 'Strictly Right' with 117 votes (7.7% of the total) is of the mouth-frothing, water-fearing, Indian-hating variety of conservative that any serious political strategist in said party seeks to have banished to somewhere where they can do the least harm. Barring that send the head to Ottawa or Lethbridge for fluorescent antibody diagnosis. Number 3, 'Broadsides' (with 93 votes-6.1% of the total) is some sort of "house-feminists" for, I believe, the Toronto Star. Seems like a harmless enough vague lefty, but what I see from her blog says that she is very much a one note orchestra. Number 4, 'Daveberta' is also a vague lefty from, of all places, Alberta. Looking at his blog I get the eerie feeling that he got a lot of "second votes" because of his professed inability to choose between the Liberals and the NDP. I wonder how many "second votes" I got. probably close to zero.

Anyways, I think that the voting for the 'Best Political Blog' is over and that 'Informed Vote' is the winner. The author of that blog seems like a reasonable enough fellow, and I guess he deserves to win. If I'm wrong, and there is a second round you can be sure that I'll be campaigning again. In the meantime, for your amusement, here is the "explanation" of the system of voting that the Canadian Blog Awards used this year.

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How are the results tallied?
It's easiest to understand this by just watching how the votes move on the results pages, but here are the detailed rules for the count.

1) In each round, each ballot not assigned to an elected candidate is assigned to its highest-ranked continuing candidate. (A "continuing" candidate is one who has not yet been elected or eliminated.)

2) If no continuing candidates are ranked on a ballot, it is assigned to its highest-ranked elected candidate, if any, or otherwise counted as a vote for "none of these" continuing candidates.

3) If any continuing candidates have a number of votes exceeding the threshold (defined below), they are declared elected.

4) If the number of continuing candidates does not exceed the number to be elected, all of them are declared elected. To finish the process and arrange so that each winner represents the same number of voters, a final series of transfers is made (by the usual procedure below) from the candidate with the most votes to candidates with less than a seat's worth of votes. This transfer is performed for each candidate with more that that number.

5) If any candidates have a number of votes exceeding the threshold, the candidate(s) elected in the earliest round, and then the candidate with the most votes among those, is identified. Some ballots assigned to this candidate are split into a fraction (defined below) that stays assigned to that candidate and a fraction that will count toward continuing candidates in subsequent rounds. Only the ballots most recently assigned to the candidate in the round in which s/he won, and only those that have a valid next choice, are subject to splitting.

6) If no candidates exceeded the threshold in this round, the last-place candidate is eliminated.

7) This process repeats until it is finished.

If the election is an "instant runoff" for a single winner, rule 5 has no effect, and the process stops immediately if any candidate reaches the threshold.

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If the above seems "clear" to you you are either 1)very much smarter than I am or 2) a lawyer or 3)on some sort of drug that I would never even consider trying at any time. This sort of thing makes the proportional representation system that was last proposed for BC seem like the very essence of clarity. None the less I wish those who got more votes that I did well, except for the "Rabidly Right' candidate to whom I suggest a new business plan of opening up a B & D bordello complete with WW2 uniforms. There's a lot of money in them there hills.

BLOGGING:

CANADIAN BLOG AWARDS-WHERE HAVE ALL THE WINNERS GONE:

Once more Molly's Blog is in the running for the annual Canadian Blog Awards under the category of 'Best Political Blog'. If you like what you see here go on over to the blog site, click 'Vote 2009', go to 'Political' and, of course, vote 'Molly's Blog'. Voting will end on December 12th, and finalists ( the top 10) will be chosen for the second round. Last year Molly made it into the top 5 finalists, but came fifth out of five. Help me better that result this year.

A question, however, has come to my mind. The vast majority of the blogs listed on the Canadian Blog Awards are either Conservative or NDP. When I compare this year to last only Molly's Blog and the 'Calgary Grit' (ie Liberal) blog amongst last year's finalists have been nominated this year. This seems rather anomalous to me, as the other three finalists still have existing blogs. When I look at the nominees I am under the impression that there has been a serious "push" amongst the conservatives to put their names up for voting. I doubt that the over-representation of conservative bloggers amongst the nominees is reflective of what is really happening in the Canadian blogosphere.

What do you think ? In any case I couldn't think of a greater insult to Sneaky Stevie Harper and his crew than for a tiny anarchist blog to beat his true believers. So go on over and Vote Molly at the Canadian Blog Awards if you are tired of the lies of our present government.

BLOGGING:

YET ANOTHER REASON WHY MOLLY SHOULD WIN:

As Molly has repeated ad nauseum before on this blog, Molly's Blog is in the running for the 'Best Political Blog' over at the Canadian Blog Awards. If you like what you see here and need yet another reason to vote for Molly consider the following. The CBA seem to be pretty much an anglophone affair. the 'Best French language Blog' category had so few entries that voting there was put off until round 2. For the large number of Conservative bloggers who have been nominated this may not be a bad thing. They do, after all, tend to have heart attacks and strokes when they turn their cereal boxes around in the morning. As far as I can determine Molly's Blog is the only entry where posts in French and translations from same appear (sporadically enough I must admit ). According to the 2009 Canada Year Book there are still 22% of the Canadian population who list their first language as French. While 22% of the posts on this blog are not in French, the small number that are posted here are indeed better than 0%. Thus...I conclude that Molly is the only real Canadian amongst the nominees, and you should therefore vote for her. Do it now while the spirit moves you. Consider that many of the Conservatives would be pleased as punch to betray their country and have it join the USA. patriotism is not mindless support for invading a foreign country on the other side of the Earth. It may, however, consist of preserving aspects of our nation that make us different from the only country that has ever invaded Canada in history. Think about it, and vote Molly. That's it for the night. See you in the morning.

BLOGGING:

SNIFFING OUT THE POLITICOS:

As the whole world ( or at least that small handful of fans that I have) knows Molly has once more been nominated for the 'Best Political Blog' over at the Canadian Blog Awards. Last year I made it into the finalists, but I ended up as the fifth out of five. This year it's heavy duty campaigning, so get used to the nagging tone of my voice. If you'd like to vote for Molly just go to the CBA website, click on the Vote 2009 link on the masthead, search for the 'Political' category, click again, look down the list for 'Molly's Blog' and there you go.

Meanwhile I found it interesting to search down the political biases of the 47 nominations in this category. The largest number (15) were obvious Conservatives, of which only four or five were of the mouth frothing variety. Most were quite intelligent. I suspect that the large number of conservative bloggers nominated is because most conservatives feel the overwhelming need to yell more often than the rest of us. The next on the list were NDPers at 10, mostly from out west here. Sort of sad as all their best rhetoric and catchphrases have long since been stolen by the Liberals...or even the Conservatives. The category of "vague lefty" held 8 entries. What can I say ? NDPers in drag ? Likely to vote for the Green Party if drunk enough. There were 7 entries that I couldn't categorize, some of them because I had a hard time figuring what was at all "political" about their blogs. My ignorance I guess. The Liberal Party had a sad 6 entries. If the blogosphere were reflective of actual public opinion they would be in deeper doo-doo than they already are. There was one 'libertarian'. Or maybe she was conservative. I had a hard time typing her. Then, of course, there was our heroine , the brave Mollymew, sole anarchist in the lot. Hopefully hissing and spitting her way to victory. Vote for Molly if for no other reason than to flip the bird to the parties that the others favour.

BLOGGING:

IT'S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR AGAIN...

VOTE FOR MOLLY:

Yes, it's that time of the year again, and Molly is out on the hustings, kissing hands and shaking babies (or is it the other way around?). Yes, we're talking about the annual Canadian Blog Awards, and Molly is once more nominated and in the running for 'Best Political Blog'. Last year Molly made it into the five finalists, but I placed 5th out of 5. This year I intend to hit the podium. Better than the Olympics ! Better than the Grey Cup ! Watch Molly run. Help cheer her on. Here's how...

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

If you like what we're doing here why not 'Vote for Molly'. It's simple.

A)Go to the canadian Blog Awards Site ( http://cdnba.wordpress.com ).

B)Click on the 'Vote 2009' heading in the masthead.

C)Go down the list and click 'Political'.

D)Search out 'Molly's Blog' amongst the list and give it your number 1 vote. Check out the other blogs on the list to see if you'd like to name a second,third, fourth, etc. choice.

It's that simple. It's that easy. Do it now and get a customized 'Molly Hug'.

♥!♥!♥!♥!♥!♥!♥!

BLOGGING:

MEANWHILE ELSEWHERE IN THE BLOGOSPHERE...:

I figured I'd alert my dearly devoted fan(s?) to other neat new developments out there in Blogland. First of all Larry Gambone who has been writing great common sense anarchism for several decades now is busy moving his writings that were stored on the recently deceased Geocities site (cue funeral music) over to other places. Check out the process at the Porkupine Blog. Also Larry's recent collection of aphorisms. 'Rules to Rebel By' perhaps ?

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Also (cue drum roll please), here in Winnipeg, the throbbing, pulsating centre of the universe (whatyamean 'world class', we go for 'galactic class'), the Winnipeg Wobbly Blog has been running a series on 'Labour's November Martyrs'. Long before one section of our rulers sent young men to kill others in 1914 and the 'other side' did ditto, all over a dispute about who exactly gets to beat black and brown people over the back with a stick, November 11 was remembered in labour circles as the execution date of the Haymarket Martyrs. These were four innocent anarchist labour activists who were framed and killed on November 11 during the struggle for the 8 hour day. Their remembrance led to what is now known as 'Mayday'. Many others laid down their lives during this sad month as well. Read all about at the Winnipeg Wobbly Blog.

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Finally, last but not least, the good folks down Ontario way at the Common Cause/Linchpin site have a new feature on their website (cue marching band music). Linchpin News is an online Twitter based newsfeed bringing the news of the class struggle fresh daily to your inbox. This one actually has great potential. There are other anarchist news sites, some of them with more sense than others, but none of them are Canadian. We need this up here in the frozen north. Another thing that I see about this new bouncing baby boy is that it extends its area of interest outside of the "anarchist movement" (with all its virtues and vices) and reports on the 'class struggle' (in the widest sense), not only when it has the big black 'A' tag on it. In the end anarchism will probably always remain the creed of a small minority, but the most important thing is whether a majority of the people begin to act in a libertarian way in practical actions to solve their problems. Check it out either at Twitter (follow it there) or at the Linchpin website. Tell 'em Molly sent you.

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Finally a word from out sponsor (cue Mr. Clean Commercial music). Nominations for the annual Canadian Blog Awards are now closed, and, like last year, it seems that Molly has been nominated in the category of "Best Political Blog". Voting will begin on November 29. Last year Molly made it into the top 5 finalists, but (weep, wail, moan, whimper) came in last of the five. This year I hope to do better. So here's the deal. When voting opens go over to the Blog Awards site and vote for Molly. You'd better do this or.... I'm going to give you the longest, most boring political lecture that has ever been given in human history. I mean it. Think I can't do it ? Just watch me. When I get going they could put that miserable sneaky prison maker Fidel, along with his slimy little brother Raoul and throw in that cheap Mussolini imitation the megalomaniac Chavez and when all three of the miserable old Stalinist coots had keeled over with massive pulmonary edema Molly would just be getting her second wind.

Wanna avoid a fate worse than death or Sarah Palin as President ? Vote for Molly. There's no other choice. Why settle for the best when you can get the bestest best.

PERSONAL:

HERE AT MOLLY'S BLOG:

I am long delayed in announcing the following, but "I didn't win" in the contest over at the Canadian Blog Awards for "best political blog". I came last of the five finalists. The winner was the Liberal blog Calgary Grit. The runner up was the Conservative Small Dead Animals. Others in third and fourth place were the non-partisan Bond Papers and Nunc Scio. Molly was actually amazed that she was nominated at all, let alone making it to the second round of voting, and she'd like to thank all who voted for her now. It is not surprising that a Liberal blog came in number one, and it is only slightly less surprising that a Conservative blog came in number 2 (though Molly wonders about whether many Conservative supporters have evolved enough to have opposable thumbs to type with). I'm sad that a non-partisan blog didn't win. yet it is totally amazing that an anarchist blog was in the running. Well, thank you once more.

I'm continuing my editing, though it may not be apparent on the surface. See later for more details.

Finally, don't forget to check out the latest at Molly's Polls...'Steven Harper Is...'. It's more or less for fun, but it has a biting point as well.

BLOGGING:

LAST CHANCE TO VOTE FOR MOLLY'S BLOG:

The final hour is drawing near. As has been mentioned previously here Molly's Blog was nominated in the Canadian Blog Awards for 'Best Political Blog', and in the first rouynd of voting she advanced to one of the five finalists. The second round of voting is drawing to a close. Please help a little anarchist calico cat win out over the Liberals and Conservatives. David versus Goliath big time. Vote for Molly !!!! See the above link to register your applause for this cause.

BLOGGING:

MOLLY MAKES IT TO ROUND TWO:

I followed a link today to somebody who visited this blog and found out something astounding. Molly's Blog has made it to round two in the voting for the Canadian Blog Awards "best political blog". To be honest I never thought I would get there, but I guess that some people like what I do. The other contestants in round 2 include the Calgary Grit (affiliation obvious), the Small Dead Animals (conservative), and two others that I cannot determine any affiliation for: Nunc Scio and Bond Papers. The latter is from a public relations and public policy guy in Newfoundland and Nunc Scio is quite non-partisan. If I wasn't in the running I'd vote for Nunc Scio. As to those who weren't nominated but should have been my vote would have been for Eugene Plawiuk's La Revue Gauche blog, an effort that I actually consider better than my own. Oh horrors- voting against myself !

In any case round two is nhow on, and you can vote once a week. Help a poor little meowing pussycat out and vote for me at the Canadian Blog Awards.

BLOGGING:

MOLLY MAKES THE SHORT LIST:

It's amazing what happens when you're not looking. Purely by chance I found out this morning that Molly's Blog has made the short list for the Canadian Blog Awards in the 'Best Political Blog' category Drop on over to see what else is on. If you like what you see here think of putting your pebble in the Molly urn ie vote for this blog. If nothing else you can tune in to what at least some think are the best blogs from up here in the frozen north.