The Rest Of The Top Ten

I have no time for this anymore. Here is the rest of my top ten blog stories of 2009. If I get to them, I get to them.

1. The Flood
2. Republicans Implode
3. John Henderson, ATAC and Crime
4. The Mayors Race
5. More Media Turmoil (AJC Shrinks, Ben Eason out at CL, SoVo closes)
6. The Governor's Race
7. The Town Halls
8. The Eagle Raid

Feel free to discuss among yourselves.

Blog Stories Of 2009: #9 - Senate Bill 31

It is as insider baseball as it gets, but any bill which unites the Republicans of Peach Pundit, the libertarians of Jason Pye and SWGApolitics, the Democrats of Left On Lanier and Blog For Democracy and Clark Howard is worth noting.

The notorious bill allowed Georgia Power to bill current customers for the construction of future power plants.

SB31 was complex but the breakdown of hate was pretty simple: Republicans didn't like it because the math didn't add up, Libertarians hated it because it re-enforced a government sponsored monopoly, Democrats hated it because it exempted big business and Clark hated it because it screwed the consumer. This type of convergence is rarer than a blue moon in February.

And normally it would have sailed through committee and floor votes with little noise or commotion. This is just the way of complex bills supported by armies of lobbyist and the largest utility in the state work.

But not this time. Although ultimately SB 31 passed, the furor brought by the top blogs in the state generated a fierce public debate and ultimately forced the suits under the gold dome to answer some very difficult questions.

In previous years, a SB31 would have never made it off page 5 of the local section. Due to the diligence and passion of the Georgia blogs, it rightly emerged as a front page story.

Blog Stories Of 2009: #10 - Invasion of The Professionals

2008 saw the firing of Ken Edelstein as Editor of Creative Loafing. In 2009, the irascible scribe (aided by the seemingly tireless Jeanne Bonner) led a wave of professional journalists into the Georgia Blogosphere.

Along with Ken's Atlanta Unsheltered, former AJCer Jim Wallis began his lonely toil of wading though public records at Atlanta Unfiltered, the demise of GONSO led Lyle V. Harris to Maria Saporta's site and the newly emerged Like The Dew seems intent on scooping up every available writer in the southeast.

They struggled mightily at times - leading to the usual eyerolls from non-professional veterans - and viability is still an unanswered question, but given Jim has already broken several major stories and the others continue to publish mounds of content, hopes are certainly high.

Top Ten Blog Stories Of 2009

Before we ramp up to the hootenanny down on Capitol Avenue, let's first reflect on the strange goings-on of 2009. It was a weird one, bubba.

It is a tradition here at the Drift to discuss what I believe were the top ten Georgia blog stories (primarily political or media) in the the previous year. Number 10 will be up shortly. And stick around because number 1 is probably going to be a surprise.