CrimeLynx, which hosts the TalkLeft Newsfeed, is moving to a new server today. Until the changeover is complete, the newsfeed may not appear and TalkLeft may load a little slower. Thanks for your patience.

We're shocked. And delighted. We just got back from a great dinner with a friend of 30 years that we hadn't seen in the last six months. What a great suprise to learn via Atrios that the 2003 lefty blog winners, courtesy of Wampum Blog, have been announced.

For the second year in a row, TalkLeft has won the best single issues blog!

Thanks to all of you who voted for us. We were sure we had no chance given the excellence of the other blogs nominated in the category, and we are thrilled. This is the way to cap off a great night. Our congrats to all the 2003 Koufax Award winners and nominees.

Best Single Issue Blog

The voting for Best Single Issue Blog was the closest of any category. This was the Florida of the Koufax Awards. Our first count resulted a an absolute dead heat between Bob Somerby’s incomparable Daily Howler for coverage of the media and Jeralyn Merritt’s Talk Left for coverage of Criminal Law Issues. Those two blogs could not be any more different but they are both excellent.

After scouring the three different email accounts where votes were sent, the tie was broken and a winner decided by almost the smallest of margins.

For the second year in a row, the Koufax Award for Best Single Issue Blog goes to Talk Left by Jeralyn Merritt. Congratulations, Jeralyn, and thanks for all your great work. Nobody does it better.

Here's a list of all the winners (via Hamster):

Bump and Update: CrimeLynx went down today and is being moved to a new server. The newsfeed will return when CrimeLynx is settled in its new home.

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We are grateful for the numerous blogads TalkLeft has received. But we don't want our blogroll and favorite sites lists to be at the bottom of the site. So, we've moved the blogrolls to the left side of TalkLeft, right under the newsfeed. Hopefully, that will make them more visible. If you think it was better the other way, let us know.

Quite a few readers have written us tonight to say they are unable to post comments. We've been banning IPs of spammers, and may have banned too broad a group so we'll try to fix it. If you didn't post an ad for a diet pill or other medication, you haven't been banned. We haven't banned anyone for content in weeks. Thanks for your patience.

[Looks like we banned a blank number--which blocked everyone. If you are still having problems, send us an email.]

We're reading:

Saved by a Hair in LA Weekly--Kevin Cooper gets another month at life.

Lou Dubose, also writing for LA Weekly, says the real question about Bush's military service is how did he get into the Guard in the first place?

Hesiod of Counterspin reports on Drudge's Kerry reports and says it's not true that the media was investigating the story. Here's one article backing up Hesiod's claim

Drudge claimed that half a dozen news outlets were investigating the allegations against Mr Kerry, but most of them denied doing so last night. Leonard Downie, executive editor of The Washington Post, mentioned by Drudge, said: "This is the first we've heard that we're working on a story that we're not working on." A reporter with Time magazine, also cited by Drudge,
said that the weekly magazine was as puzzled by the story as the rest of the world."

John Edwards will be on the Tonight Show tonight. Last night on the show, Dennis Kucinich played "The Dating Game" and won a date with actress Meg Tilly.

TChris is back this weekend. We got a third shot of cortisone in our wrist yesterday for our DeQuervain's Tenosynovitis --it's the last and final one before it either gets better or we have to do the surgery--so we are very grateful that TChris has been so generous with his weekend time. We are going to snowshoe in the mountains instead of type, but we'll check in and write a little over the weekend.

TChris says it's not necessary, but we'd like to share some paypal donations with him anyway--so any donations this weekend that end in $.11 will be passed on to TChris. In lieu of contributions, comments are fine.

If any of you have any experience with DeQuervain's or the surgery for it, please share your info in the comments. Thanks.

Calpundit does Friday cat blogging, we thought we'd try something along those lines--a little humor on Fridays. Here's today's entry, courtesy of Deb in Chicago:

John Aschroft was visiting an elementary school. After 15 minutes of speaking, he asked the class if they had any questions.

Robert stood up and said, "Mr. Ashcroft, I have four questions:

1) How did President Bush win the election with fewer votes than Al Gore?
2) Why are you using the Patriot Act to limit civil liberties?
3) Why haven't you caught Osama Bin Laden?
4) Where are the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?"

Just then, the bell rang. The kids ran out to play.

Upon their return, Mr. Ashcroft said, "I'm sorry we were interrupted. I will answer any questions you have."

A little girl named Julie stood up and said, "I only have two questions:

1) Why did the bell ring twenty minutes early?
2) Where's Robert?"

A big thanks to our guest blogger TChris who filled in for us this weekend. He wrote some great stuff, we hope you will scroll down and read it. We have court this morning and will return this afternoon.

TChris has graciously agreed to guest blog here this weekend. We look forward giving our wrist a rest, but will post sporadically as well. It will also give us a chance to read what everyone else is writing about, and do some linking.

Our congrats to How Appealing's Howard Bashman who is leaving his law firm today and establishing his own firm.

Effective at the close of business today, I have resigned from the law firm of Buchanan Ingersoll, where for the past three years I have served as chair of the Appellate Group, to open my own law firm focusing on appellate litigation. My new law firm will open for business on the morning of Monday, February 2, 2004. Early Monday morning, I will provide here at "How Appealing" my new office address, phone and fax numbers, and other contact information, and I will also link to a press release that explains the reasons for my move. For now, you have my word that this is a move that makes perfect sense from every conceivable perspective. Regular programming is scheduled to continue here today and into the foreseeable future.

For readers who use CrimeLynx to do their legal research, the site is back up after four days of downtime due to a server meltdown. The newsfeed will return over the weekend or Monday. We are going keep using different hosting companies for CrimeLynx and TalkLeft so they don't both go down at the same time.

Bump and Update: The voting won't go on much longer, so if you haven't voted on your favorite blogs, please take a minute now.

Update: We don't stand a chance in the best blog category, so no need to vote for us there. There's an outside chance for best single issue and best expert. You can vote at the site or by sending an email. Email Mary Beth or Email Dwight.

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Bump and Update: If you haven't voted, please do. In all the categories.

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The 2003 Koufax Awards. Made possible by Wampum Blog--Dwight Meredith and Mary Beth Williams. The semi-finalists have been winnowed down. The finalists have been announced. Thanks to your votes, TalkLeft is a finalist for three awards:

• Best Blog
• Best Single Issues Blog: Criminal Law Issues
• Best Expert Blog: Expertise in Criminal Law

Last year TalkLeft won for Best Single Issue blog. The competition is fiercer this year, with so many great blogs nominated. But that's the category we'd most like to win again. We hope you'll take a minute and go over and vote for your favorites in all the categories.

You can vote by leaving a comment at the above award category links--or by sending an email. Email Mary Beth or Email Dwight.

A huge thanks to Dwight and Mary Beth for devoting so many hours to make this project come together once again. Truly, it's an honor just to be nominated when all of the nominated blogs are winners.

Update: The links to the site and comments where you vote seem to be loading very slowly--probably due to the response. We suggest voting by e-mail.