Lightning Round--Gigantic, Blowout Blogroll Amnesty Day Edition

Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (who kindly made this graphic) explains what Blogroll Amnesty day is:

Today marks the three-day weekend celebration blog-burst of b.a.d., or blogroll amnesty day for short, and literally dozens of participating blogs will be participating.

Each blog will celebrate the unity of progressive infrastructure amenability by posting links to a handful of smaller blogs, thus giving exposure to diverse voices thru-out blogtopia, and yes, we coined that phrase!

Skippy also points the way to Jon Swift's riveting post on the bloody history of Blogroll Amnesty Day.

If any blogger wants to be on my blogroll--stylishly referred to as The Illuminati--just shoot me an email and most likely, you'll be added right away. Being on my blogroll could get you as many as three hits a year, likely all from me. It's an offer you can't afford to pass up.

I do my best to pitch several of the blogs I love in a regular feature here at IST called...

The Lightning Round!

Usually I pick five or six really good posts from blogs that don't get the traffic I feel they deserve. This doesn't mean that I don't link to big blogs (I have a real weakness for Shakesville). Mostly, I pimp for the blogs I know and love (and blog on). That's a list that's growing all the time.

So, here's a gigantic, blowout Blogroll Amnesty Day Edition of tLR:

Born at the Crest of the Empire: Mikevotes put together a rundown of news from Iraq.

Ave Cassandra: Kristen Hannum grabbed the vitally important issue of single payer health care and made it her own. In this post she looks at the discrepancy in polling about voters' attitudes toward a single payer health care system.

Gord's Poetry Factory: Gord writes about the practice of rendition, the death toll in Iraq and the misinformed populous who have no idea how many Iraqis we've killed. The post includes a two part BBC documentary on renditions.

Oliver Willis: Oliver's take on the great Democratic debate on Thursday. Key observation: "The match was mostly a draw but I would give a slight edge to Obama if only because the exchange on Iraq echoed 2004 way too much with Sen. Clinton replacing Sen. Kerry in the equation."

Hope and Onions: Godammitkitty covers the testimony of Attorney General Michael Mukasey before the Senate Judiciary Committee. It's torture to Mukasey to this guy twist reality.

Monkey Monk: Dr. Monkerstein reviews Alexandra Pelosi's documentary Friends of God. Monkey's the most prolific dude around. Lately he's been dropping additional science at Winter Reading Challenge where he recently reviewed Naomi Klien's Shock Doctrine.

Vagabond Scholar: Battochio, who's name rules planet Earth, weighs in with another installment of Right Wing Cartoon Watch.

Morning Martini: In Star Wars, Yoda watches young Skywalker struggle because his mind is just never on what he's doing now. "That is why you fail," Yoda tells Luke. Well, recast that a bit and you have Pissed Off Patricia similarly telling the Bush Administration why they fail.

Rising Hegemon: Res Ipsa Loquitur looks at the murky politics of footwear. You know, how we enslave the world but it's worth it because our shoe costs stay low. Such a deal.

And finally, what would a Lightning Round be without shameless self-promotion? Check out the new blog on the block from Kvatch, the frog who brought you Blognonymous, Ragebot! I'll be posting there regularly, and so will some other fantastic luminaries of the blogosphere. Come on by.