While mainstream media has been paying lots of attention to bloggers this year, it's a welcome change to see it devote headlines to those who made it possible, like Ben and Mena Trott, the darlings of the blogosphere.

Movable Type, the blogging software used by more than 7 million bloggers, (including its simplified version, Typepad,) was created by Ben and Mena Trott in their bedroom. They named their little venture Six Apart, because they were born six days apart. Fast forward to the present, three years after they launched the company, and Six Apart has offices in San Francisco, Paris and Tokyo. Venture capitalist and blogger Joi Ito arranged for them to sell "a stake" in their company for $11.5 million. Mena is President, Ben is CTO, and neither has turned 30 yet.

Congratulations, Oliver. For three years he's wanted to be on tv, and he's finally getting his chance:

This Monday, February 21st - President's Day - I will be appearing on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, along with Patrick Ruffini (formerly of GeorgeWBush.com). Tune in to C-Span at 7:45AM...

Break a leg, Oliver.

Voting is scheduled to end today in the Third Annual Kaufax liberal blogging awards, hosted by Wampum . TalkLeft is proud to have been voted a finalist in two categories:

Best Single Issues Blog

and

Best Expert Blog.

It's a very tough race this year. If you'd like to vote for us, you can vote by scrolling down to the end of the comments section using the links above, or e-mail your votes directly to Wampum (If you vote by e-mail, be sure to mention the category, single issue or expert.)

Be sure to cast your vote in both categories. Your support in the final round of voting is greatly appreciated.

Origin and author unknown--somewhere in the Keys...

President Bush was invited to address a major gathering of the American Indian Nation last weekend in Arizona. He spoke for almost an hour on his future plans for increasing every Native American's present standard of living. He referred to his career as Governor of Texas, how he had signed "YES" 1,237 times - for every Indian issue that came to his desk for approval.

Although the President was vague on the details of his plan, he seemed most enthusiastic about his future ideas for helping his "red brothers." At the conclusion of his speech, the Tribes presented the President with a plaque inscribed with his new Indian name - Walking Eagle. The proud President then departed in his motorcade, waving to the crowds.

A news reporter later inquired to the group of chiefs of how they came to select the new name given to the President.

They explained that Walking Eagle is the name given to a bird so full of sh*t that it can no longer fly.

Please donate to Wampum who has done the extraordinary work of hosting the Koufax liberal blogging awards for three years. Their ISP shut them down today for excess use of bandwidth - voting was that heavy-- and Mary Beth and Dwight who run the site don't have the money to reinstate it and keep going. Nor should they have to foot the bill for the rest of us.

Julia at Sisyphus Shrugged has their paypal contribution page. Go, give.

[hat tip Digby.]

Now the right is going after Atrios by putting his photo in a gay singles online ad. As if he or Mrs. Atrios care.

But I care. I took the photo. And a user of Dating Tech Network and Gay Singles Online has appropriated my photo of Atrios and uploaded it to the network's server as their own.

I don't see a contact e-mail address for anyone other than members so maybe Dating Tech Network or Gay Singles Online will read this and remove the unauthorized use of my photograph of Atrios. Or they can credit TalkLeft.com for the photo.

Update: That was quick. It's an hour since I sent an emailto an address I found in the comments here and you can no longer access the page with the photo and false comments about Atrios. A registration page comes up instead. Mission accomplished. End of story. They must have banned my IP for overacessing the site. The photo and page on Atrios is still there.

[Also, I did not mean to suggest a conspiracy of right-leaning people were behind this attack on Atrios as opposed to one person with those views. It's just common sense that a liberal would not go after Atrios this way, if at all.]

Kevin Drum has a thoughtful piece on the politics of personal destruction ongoing in the blogosphere. I agree with his hope that scalp-collecting does not become the primary focus of blogs on either side, and I believe that it won't. It's already become tiresome and completely predictable. There's so much more to the blogosphere than "we got Eason" vs. "we got Gannon."

Yet, Digby makes a good point in noting that the left will never match the right when it comes to resources for causing destruction:

Janeane Garofolo and Sam Sedar of Majority Report and Air America Radio are blogging from Aspen and the HBO US Arts Comedy Festival over at ThinkProgress.

Eric Alterman is there too. From Altercation today:

I am staying in the St. Regis in Aspen for the HBO Festival of Comedy Arts, where I will be appearing on a Center for American Progress panel on punditry with Joe Scarborough, Joe Lockhart, Laura Ingraham, and Jeanine Garafolo on Saturday morning. I will also be doing a signing of When Presidents Lie and What Liberal Media at the Explorer Bookstore at noon on Saturday. It’s a really great place to be, even if you don’t bother with the slopes. ...

This is the brief from hell. Not because of the writing or research, but because of Tenth Circuit requirements on things like appendice, and this labor-intensive, highly technical mandatory electronic filing rule. I could be here all night. All of which means another open thread for you. Here's some things I would talk about, but the choice is your's.

• Jeff Gannon updates and Democrats demanding investigations. Americablog is all over it, and says: " The issue here is whether we might have a male prostitute (or pimp) asking questions of the president and being leaked internal CIA documents." Cable news will feature it as well.

• Congress' debating of the awful Real ID Act today

• LAPD's need for a new shooting policy in the wake of killing of 13 year old.

• The depraved scalping of the Idaho woman

I have a brief due today, so you're on your own. What's on your mind?

[Update. This thread has degenerated, it's being closed. Try the new one, and please, try a little harder to say something others might care to read.]

Congratulations to Peter Daou, of the excellent blogwire Daou Report. It's part of Salon now. Peter was the online communications advisor to John Kerry's presidential campaign. I always appreciated receiving his e-mail updates.

Maybe someone will pick up Memeorandum next, they deserve wider reading as well.

Say hello to The Next Left...it has great photos accompanying the entries. [via TBogg]

Scotus Blog got a bloglift and a new address, update your bookmarks.