Remember, the Milbloggies are NOT a popularity contest.  The purpose each year is to recognize military bloggers for their contribution to blogging, news and information, and to the military over the past year.  Make sure to check out each winning milblog below, and you’ll see why they won this year’s Milbloggie Award.

Now, I’d normally write up an eloquent piece about the Milbloggies and each of the winners (which I will get around to), but I’ve been online all day monitoring the website and at this point, I’m not really making sense.  Earlier this evening I took a quick break to rock my 10-month old son to sleep, and it turns out I was holding a Mr. Potato Head.  

Anyway, I realize the posting time says 7:47, but that's because of other website problems. God, I love servers.  And by "love", I really mean if I ever see another server I'm going to stab it in the neck.  I figure there's at least a 99 percent chance that if I aimed at the server's blinking lights, I could permanently disable it. Rest assured, it was exactly 8:01 PM when I began posting this story.

As a reminder, each Milbloggie winner will be presented an Award at this year's Milblog Conference.  But none of the winners are required to attend in order to receive their prize.

As a final note, my blogging on this website may not be as frequent as I head for Mobilization station this week in preparation for another deployment. At this point, it's too early to tell how often I will be able to write or chat as I focus on my training and mission.  It has truly been an honor to interact with so many readers and milbloggers over the past couple years.  And I'm grateful for all the support so many of my readers have provided.

Now, prepare yourself...I hope none of you are afraid of being blown away by awesomeness, because all of the 2006 Milbloggie winners rock. 

Without further ado, the 2006 Milbloggie Winners are:

U.S. Army

Acute Politics

U.S. Air Force
 
Afghanistan Without a Clue

U.S. Navy
 
Doc in the Box

U.S. Marine Corps
 
SandGram

U.S. Military (Veteran)

Blackfive - The Paratrooper of Love

U.S. Civilian

Soldiers' Angels Germany

U.S. Military (Spouse)

Andi

U.S. Military (Parent)
 
Some Soldier's Mom

U.S. Military (Supporter)
 
Fuzzilicious Thinking

Click below to view the final standings in each category:

U.S. Army
U.S. Air Force
U.S. Navy
U.S. Marine Corps
U.S. Military (Veteran)
U.S. Civilian
U.S. Military (Spouse)
U.S. Military (Parent)
U.S. Military Supporter

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Remember, today’s the last day of voting for the 2006 Milbloggies.  Voting closes tonight at 8 PM EST.  I will be activating new member accounts throughout the day (and from 7 PM - 8 PM I will be activating within 5 minutes of registration), since we’re still experiencing problems with the Activation Email. Everyone who has voted really deserves an award for being so patient while I'm trying to fix these website problems.  I'll be honest, there’s a lot I still don’t understand about computers.  Apparently shaking your computer and screaming, “What do you want from me?!” doesn't fix anything. 

Well, on to Step 2...matches and gasoline.  I'm very technical.

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I’ve received a lot of email over the past week.  Although instead of the usual friendly emails like “You are my idol!” most of the email has been about website problems.  Or pretty much how they would like to strangle me with their laptop.  Keep in mind, this website is a one-man show and it has grown very fast.  Unfortunately, as the website has grown in features and usage, the infrastructure that supports it hasn’t been able to keep up as planned.  As a result, there are a few problems with performance and other technical things.  

Please understand, these problems aren’t around because it amuses me to hear you suffer, it’s just that I have a lot to focus on with my upcoming deployment.  I will be working with my technical staff over the next several weeks to get these issues resolved. 

Take my word; they’ll be working like mad scientists in the lab, re-inventing algorithms, strategizing, mixing and blending formulas, and whatever it takes to get these problems addressed.  With the amount of caffeine and lack of sunlight the Technical Staff will receive, they’ll either fix all the website problems and build a bigger badder Milblogging.com, or end up chewing each other’s faces off.  Either way, I call it progress.

As a reminder, Voting for the Milbloggies is still open until February 27th.

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(Human Event) Kit Jarrel, of the milblog "Euphoric Reality," penned a passionate defense of the eight troops, and appealed for donations to help support their families and pay for their legal defenses. "The seven Marines and Navy Corpsman…are innocent," wrote Jarrel. "I believe this with all my heart, and the upcoming courts-martial will vindicate these heroes."

Read the entire story here.

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Congratulations again to all the nominees that placed in the Top 5.  You can now vote for one milblog in each category.  This is the final phase so please participate.  Keep in mind, you must be signed in to vote.

(charts disabled)

The charts also include the results from the Nomination phase.  As of now, the charts are sorted by the number of nominations, but there is a column called “Votes” that displays the current number of votes.  The Voting will close on February 27th at 8 PM EST. To view the current standings at any time, click here.

Winners will be announced next week.  And each winner who does attend this year's Milblog Conference, will be presented an award.

I do appreciate everyone’s patience with all the problems we’ve had with the website this past week.  This was the first time I tried using an actual voting system, instead of the Favorites feature that we used for last year’s Milbloggies.  And leave it to me to make things more complicated.  The only explanation I have is I’m a Virgo.  As a kid, I used to organize things in file cabinets...for fun...rather than playing with the kids outside.  True story.

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Congratulations to all the milblogs that placed in the Top 5 of their respective category.  I will be posting information on the Voting Process later today once it’s all set up.

It should be as “easy” to Vote for a blog as it was to Nominate a blog.  Although, the hundreds of emails I’ve been getting, would suggest the nomination process was somewhat difficult.  You have my word, I’m “working diligently” with my technical staff to work the kinks out so this runs much smoother next year.  And by “working diligently”, I really mean sitting here at my computer with my fingers crossed.

More information to follow shortly..

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Nominations close Wednesday, February 21st, at 8 PM EST.  The Top 5 nominees in each category will move into the Voting Phase.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Wednesday, February 21st, 6:39 PM New Member Accounts: All new member accounts have been activated as of 8:45 this morning.  If you encounter any problems signing in, please let me know by sending an email to Milblogging@gmail.com. 

One of these days, this website is going to run smoothly with no problems.  I have been doing a little research, and originally I thought all these problems were technical in nature, like "low memory" or "network down", but it appears the website was just completely blown away by the super coolness of the Milblogging users.  So the next time you log on to the Milblogging site and try clicking a link...and it takes five minutes (sometimes ten) for the web page to load, don't get frustrated.  Be happy! And say to yourself "I'm Super Cool!

Wednesday, February 21st, 8:45 AM No cheating:  If you already have an Active account that works, please do not create additional Milblogging accounts so you can nominate the same blog more than once.  I already had to pull out my magnifying glass and handlebar mustache about six times in the past few days.  And it's not real difficult to spot the offenders, especially when you use the same first name, last name and password.  At least be a little more creative...Change up your first name to Teletubbie or something.  Shoot, add a number in front of your password.  Something.  Anything. 

Tuesday, February 20th, 7:45 AM Nominees:  The Nomination Standings charts now show all milblogs with at least one nomination in their respective category.

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Soon to Be, Charles, United States, Begins from my senior year of high school. Ends at..., 17 Feb 2007

Miss Ladybug, Miss Ladybug, United States, Contains posts supportive of the U.S. military and..., 17 Feb 2007

Freedom will be defended, Darkblue, Czech Republic, In depth daily news surrounding all U.S. Forces, R..., 17 Feb 2007

SargeCharlie, SargeCharlie, United States, Retired Army, well traveled,Vietnam Veteran, Conse..., 17 Feb 2007

Standing By, Jan Wesner, United States, An intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the life of..., 16 Feb 2007

Fuzzilicious Thinking, Fuzzybear Lioness, United States, News, rants, and musings about our military member..., 16 Feb 2007

Kilabe's Hive, Kilabe, United States, I can't believe he frickin said that., 16 Feb 2007

Well you know, this happened today....., Anonymous, United States, Where real life collides with our life.....most pe..., 16 Feb 2007

BostonMaggie, Maggie, United States, Conservative, pro-military, pro-victory blog with ..., 16 Feb 2007

A Proud Infidel, Marc, United States, "Only two people have ever willingly given their l..., 15 Feb 2007

Chic[k]pilot, Chicpilot, United States, A twenty-something chick instructor pilot looks at..., 15 Feb 2007

Afghanistan JAG, 1LT(P) Scott Delius, United States, I am a U.S. Army National Guard JAG officer deploy..., 15 Feb 2007

Welcome to Iraq, Patrick Finney, Iraq, My weekly update to friends and family about going..., 14 Feb 2007

Vôo Tático, Marcus Piffer, Brazil, Blog about military helos. Include real heliborne ..., 14 Feb 2007

Thucydides' Disciple, Pete, United States, I am currently in the selection process to become ..., 13 Feb 2007

Afghanistan Watch, Paul Marek, Not Specified, Canadians and NATO in the Afghanistan Conflict: Ne..., 13 Feb 2007

Neocon Express, Joe Gelman, United States, The Neocon Express is edited by Joe Gelman, a busi..., 13 Feb 2007

All That's Holy, Cheryl Lee Patrick-Nussberger, United States, A Fallen Soldier's Mother's Sunday Worship Experie..., 07 Feb 2007

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(Fox News) The photo, which shows what appears to be a weapon, about 3-feet long, resembling a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher, was taken by Michael Yon, a writer and photographer currently based in Iraq. He photographed the "weapon" in 2005 as he was cataloging a huge cache of munitions discovered by Iraqi police under a barn in Mosul and later destroyed by the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment.

As U.S. military officials linked Iran to the Iraq weapons-supply chain on Sunday, Yon scanned his photos from the Mosul horde and decided to post the photo to his blog, www.michaelyon-online.com, prompting hundreds of responses to what it could possibly be.

Read the entire story here.

Hat tip to my buddy Bouhammer.

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Read what bloggers are saying about the Milbloggies:

- Blue Collar Republican
- gwot dot us
- Airborne Combat Engineer
- Soldier's Angel New York
- SandGram
- The Flight Deck
- Gazing at the Flag
- Acute Politics
- In the Company of Soldiers
- GX Online
- American Soldier
- OPFOR
- A Soldier's Mind
- Andi's World
- Blackfive
- Badgers Forward
- From My Position...On The Way!
- Iraq War Today
- My Life as a Military Spouse
- Bouhammer
- Soldier's Angel - Holly Aho
- Cold War Veterans Blog
- One Marine's View
- Instapundit.com
- Murdoc Online
- Andrew Olmsted
- Bear Creek Ledger

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This just in:

- For a complete list of rules and up-to-the-minute information on the Milbloggies, refer to the Milbloggies page here.

- you no longer need to be a registered member or signed in to view the Standings.  As a reminder, the Top 5 in each category will move into the voting phase on February 22.

- the email server is still experiencing intermittment problems. And because of the backlog it’s possible some emails will not be delivered. If you have signed up for an account or requested your password, please send an email to Milblogging@gmail.com and I will activate your account and/or send your password.  In the meantime, I will be manually activating all new accounts throughout the day so you are able to sign in.

- don't forget, if you nominate a blog, feel free to let other visitors know about your support for that particular blog. To leave your comments, scroll down to the Actions section of the Milblogging Listing, then click Add/View User Reviews.

Thanks again for everyone’s patience.  I wish I was so awesome, that I could just  fold my arms, give that blink-and-a-nod--and all these website problems would be gone. 

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The website is reportedly having problems. The server had a meltdown which is causing problems with email and other features.  If you have tried to register an account or recover your password and didn’t receive an email, please let me know by sending an email to Milblogging@gmail.com.

Things are going to be fine.  It might take a few days to sort things out, but rest assured, hundreds of highly trained monkeys are currently working on the problem.

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The Milbloggies Award recognizes military bloggers for their contribution to blogging, news and information, and to the military over the past year.

Overview

1. A military blog can be nominated ONLY once by the same registered user.  However, a user can nominate as many military blogs as they wish.  All nominations must be submitted online through Milblogging.com by 8:00 pm EST on February 21, 2007.

2.  The top five nominees in each branch and country category will be announced on February 22nd and those nominees will move into the Voting Phase beginning February 22, 2007.  The Voting Phase will close on February February 26, 2007.  Instructions on voting will appear on the website on February 22, 2007. 

3. Nominees may be military blogs the branch categories and countries in the Milblogging.com database.  Learn more about the categories here.


4. To nominate a military blog, you must be signed in or a registered user (just like last year).  Registration is quick and free and you will not receive any SPAM.  This helps maintain the integrity of voting.  To place you nomination, simply click on the listing in the Milblogging.com database, and click the Nominate button at the top of the blog profile.  You can reivew the milblogs you nominated at any time, by signing in and clicking Manage Favorites.  Click the link that says View Milblogs Nominated by You.

5.  Winners will be presented awards at the 2007 Milblog Conference on May 5, 2007.  Winners are not required to attend the conference in order to receive their awards.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Feel free to leave your comments below or send an email to milblogging@gmail.com

You can also discuss and chat about this year's Milbloggies with other members in the Discussion Boards.

To keep updated on rules, standings, and more, go to the Milbloggies Home Page.

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I’ve created a widget that you can add to your blog. It’ll keep you updated on what’s going on in the military blog world.  You know? Milblogs in the news, new milblogs, and other cool stuff in the milblogosphere.  So go ahead and grab it by clicking Get Widget, then add it to your blog.  You can see a "live" example of the widget on the right sidebar (scroll down).

It's hot.

Pretty soon, your readers will be saying there’s something different about your blog...They're not quite sure what it is. And they can’t put their finger on it, but it’s fantastic.  At which point you’ll need a box of tissues to wipe away the tears of joy.

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(USA Today) Political junkies know there's been a huge buzz in the blogosphere over two bloggers hired by John Edwards' presidential campaign. Michelle Malkin and others on the right led the charge after Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan were brought on to the campaign, saying that their past blogging showed they are anti-Christian.

Last night, Marcotte resigned from her post as an Edwards blogger. She blamed:

"Bill Donohue and his calvacade (sic) of right wing shills (who) don't respect that a mere woman like me could be hired for my skills, and pretended that John Edwards had to be held accountable for some of my personal, non-mainstream views on religious influence on politics (I'm anti-theocracy, for those who were keeping track).

Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, had helped lead the charge.

Memeorandum has collected a huge number of links to blogs where this is all being discussed. Those who wanted to see the bloggers go are cheering:

• "Milblog" BLACKFIVE says "ding dong the witch is dead."

Read the entire story here.

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(2007 Milblog Conference) The Venue for the 2007 MilBlog Conference will be The Westin Arlington Gateway. Our cocktail reception Friday, May 4 (8:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.) will take place at the hotel, as will the conference on Saturday, May 5 (8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.).

The Westin Arlington Gateway is only a couple of blocks from the Ballston Metro Station and only a few miles from Washington DC. If you're flying into Reagan National Airport, you can easily hop on the Metro and take it directly to the hotel.

We have reserved a block of 50 rooms -- 25 singles and 25 doubles -- at a room rate of $139 per night (plus hotel taxes). The rooms are first-come/first-served. Once the 50 rooms have been filled, attendees will still be able to book rooms at the $139 rate on a space available basis.

Click here to make your reservations. If you receive a "sold out" error message when trying to make reservations, please call the hotel directly (703.537.4253) and speak with Ms. Allyson Themel. Our room rate will be good until April 10.

Please note that the start time for the conference on Saturday has now shifted from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.

Stay updated here.

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If you’re gonna milblog, there’s a great new service called Freedom Blog Network. I wish I could take credit for coming up with the idea, but Anthony Cavella came up with it first.  I guess when you spend all your free time rescuing orphan squirrels, it’s hard to do much else.   Speaking of which, sorry for the time off last week, but the little tiny squirrels thank you for your patience.  All 8 pounds 6 ounces of them…in their little tiny diapers, with their tiny, little, fat, balled-up fists pawing at the air…

Anyway, there are a bunch of websites that offer blogging services, but the Freedom Blog Network is the only one dedicated to milbloggers. 

More from the Freedom Blog Network:

Let me first start by introducing myself, my name is Anthony Cavella. I am a fellow MIL-Blogger and have been blogging at A Soldier’s Mind for the past year. Since I began blogging I quickly realized there isn’t much support for MIL-Bloggers. The MIL-Blog support that is available is usually spread all over the internet on tiny websites. It is for this reason I have started the Freedom Blog Network.

Read more here.  If you need a milblog, sign up here.

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(CHICAGO SUN-TIMES) Matthew Currier Burden has a Web site he says gets 15,000 hits a day.

He looks forward to the day he can shut it down.

"I'd love nothing more than to not have to do it anymore,'' said Burden. For that would mean, the Chicago area man said, that "no more of my friends will be dying.''

The site -- www.blackfive.net -- works as a kind of electronic clubhouse for soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Started by Burden, an Army veteran who served in the first Gulf War, the site includes words and pictures posted by servicemen and -women, ranging from descriptions of battle to laments of boredom and homesickness.

Burden calls it "an oral history of the people involved."

Read the entire story here.

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(Defense Tech) “The digital rights crusaders over at the Electronic Frontier Foundation are suing the Department of Defense, "demanding expedited information on how the Army monitors soldiers' blogs," according to an EFF statement.

EFF filed its suit after the Department of Defense and Army failed to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests about the blog monitoring program...

According to news reports [ahem, ahem], an Army unit called the Army Web Risk Assessment Cell (AWRAC) reviews hundreds of thousands of websites every month, notifying webmasters and bloggers when it sees information it finds inappropriate. Some bloggers have told reporters that they have cut back on their posts or shut down their sites altogether because of the activities of the AWRAC.

Well, not exactly. Most of the bloggers I've talked to dialed back their sites because of a more broad suspicion about blogging within the military community -- and unclear regulations about what can and can not be written online.”

Boing Boing is also covering the story.

Read the entire story here.

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(Forsyth County News) Watada is just the latest in a line of losers abandoning their men, their mission and the rule of law. The left calls this "dissent." The rest of us call it what it is: Desertion.

Many military observers say they smelled a rat when they first heard of Watada's story. Watada graduated from Hawai'i Pacific University in 2003, joined the Army shortly after, went to Officer Candidate School and incurred a three-year obligation. Wrote Navy Officer Robert Webster:

"This guy graduated from college and then joined the Army, going to Officer Candidate school, after we had already started the Iraq campaign just to claim it was an 'illegal' war when his unit is called to go. Smells funny to me. In my mind, either the Army gave a commission to an idiot not aware of current events or he planned this all along."

Soldiers making calculated political statements against their own troops? Wouldn't be the first time -- cough, cough, John Kerry. Idiot or schemer, Watada deserves a stiff, strong penalty for his lawlessness. An excellent proposal put forth at the military blog Op-For (op-for.com):

"Relieve him of operational duties and send him to work at Walter Reed, to handle the in- and out-processing of wounded veterans."

Yes, where the real heroes are.

Read the entire story here.

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