Bush: “let’s do everything we can to change the game with reckless expansion of the war that we now realize we’ve pretty much lost, so we don’t have to admit that we’ve lost it.” ââ�¡â��

“The old saying is true: ‘Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you’re probably right’,” Steel says. ââ�¡â��

“My gut feeling is that this is going to be a big one.” ââ�¡â��

“People will spend 65 days in front of the TV, 41 days listening to radio and a little over a week on the Internet in 2007.” ââ�¡â��

Check it out: You are now officially reading an award-winning blog!

Thanks to the apparent confusion and/or sustained inebriation of a majority of public defender blog readers, The Imbroglio took top honors in The Rodneys, the First Annual Public Defender Blogger Awards, in the categories of Best Design and Best New Public Defender Blog.

I’d like to thank the academy…

Er, um, thanks everyone. I’m humbled, really. And thanks also for the nod to Fight ‘Em ‘Til We Can’t as a runner-up in the category of Best Title of a Blog That Reflects Something About The Job.

So now that I know that one blog looks good and another has a cool name, I guess I need to work on the content, you know, the actual writing. On that note, a special congratulations to The Wretched of the Earth for taking top honors in the Best Writing category and Best Blog That Deals With Actual Law Stuff. For my money, that’s the highest praise a PD blog could receive b/c great writing about the law and the practice of indigent defense are the most important and fundamental ingredients of a PD blog. So nice job, Wretched. You’re the top!

Finally, congratulations to all other winners and to all public defender bloggers. Like Skelly (winner of the category, Public Defender Blogger You’d Like To Be When You Grow Up) I hope there are dozens if not hundreds more of us in the running for these awards next year. [tags]awards, public defender[/tags]

So much for the big end-of-year reflection. Didn’t happen. Work is crazy and requires close to all of my real attention. Sure, I have time some evenings and weekends to do things besides work, but I find I don’t really have the mental energy or concentration to do much more than veg.

But all are not like me. I wish I had been able to put together an excellent 2006 review like Unblague or The Neutral Zone Trap put together. I wish I had compiled a list of thoughtful and thorny questions that deserve real consideration and debate, which is exactly what Seth did at The Suburban Ecstasies. Number three is my favorite:

What’s wrong with the illusion of satisfaction, if the only alternative is the reality of despair? No, really, what’s wrong with that?

I also would like to know, but in a gesture toward an answer, may I suggest we all watch “The Matrix” a few more times?

* Post title courtesy of: “Hello My Treacherous Friends” by OK Go, from the album “Oh No” (2002).

“Objects falling from space are almost an everyday occurrence.” ââ�¡â��

ââ�¬Å�The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public.ââ�¬Â� Sounds like a gov’t of, by, and for the people to me. NOT. ââ�¡â��

“ExxonMobil Corp. gave $16 million to 43 ideological groups between 1998 and 2005 in an effort to mislead the public by discrediting the science behind global warming, the Union of Concerned Scientists asserted Wednesday.” ââ�¡â��

Geographer Luke Copeland said “Arctic ice shelves are “not as sexy as polar bears, but these are very unique environments, and we just lost one of them.” ââ�¡â��