Welcome to Digby, who started the new year with his new left blog Hullabaloo. Digby isn't starting from scratch, he's been posting in the comments section of other big bloggers for months, and won the Koufax award this week for "Best Commentor."

Another liberal blog we just came across that we like a lot is The ReachM High Cowboy Network Noose (The Noose, for short) based in Oregon.

We also want to extend a special thanks to Patrick Nielsen-Hayden of Electrolite, Jay Caruso of the Daily Rant , Lisa English of Ruminate This, and Toby Sackton of Let It Begin Here. They have been extremely supportive of us in recent weeks, and we very much appreciate their comments. They also have great blogs, and if you are not already regular readers of them, you should be.

Hamster's back after his holiday vacation, he's a must-read every day for both news and views.

And congratulations to Skippy who reached 50,000 visitors today and always makes us smile.