December 21, 2009
The Winners of the 3 Quarks Daily 2009 Prize in Politics
Tariq Ali has picked the three winners:
- Top Quark, $1000: Glenn Greenwald: Greg Craig and Obama's worsening civil liberties record
- Strange Quark, $300: Black Agenda Report: The Great Black Hajj of 2009
- Charm Quark, $200: News From the Zona: Republican Virtue and Equality
Here is what he had to say about them:
Glenn Greenwald's well-argued and well-written critique of Obama's record on civil liberties with trials for some and not for others is my choice for the best piece. Interesting to note that the honeymoon with Obama has not lasted as long as the liberal love-affair with the Clintons. More was expected of Obama which is why disenchantment levels are much higher as this piece demonstrates.
Glenn Ford's 'The great Black Hajj of 2009' continues the tradition of black dissent at a time when black politics are in decline. The opportunist wing of Afro-American groups appears to have won out temporarily and the rainbow alliance consigned to the dustbin, while advancement through the Democrats is the rage. Ford's anger is understated but a good sign that there are many out there who might stay at home on election day in 2012 rather than countenance an administration on its knees before Wall Street with the motto: 'What is Good for Goldman Sachs is good for America'--caving in to the lobby system on health reforms and fighting a 'just war' in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
News from the Zona is a useful description of the differences between cold war liberalism and its successor. The lip-service (and not just that) to equality in the former was related to the needs of the system at the time. When communism collapse this was no longer considered necessary and neo-liberalism became the new mantra...till the Wall Street Crash of 2008.
Congratulations to the winners (please contact me by email, I will send the prize money later today--and remember, you must claim the money within one month from today). And feel free to leave your acceptance speech as a comment here! And thanks to everyone who participated. Thanks also, of course, to Tariq Ali for doing the final judging.
The three prize logos at the top of this post were designed, respectively, by Carlos, Matthew Daniels, and Jennifer Prevatt. Our thanks to each of them. I hope the winners will display them with pride on their own blogs!
Details about how the 3QD prizes work, here.
Posted by S. Abbas Raza at 12:00 AM | Permalink
Comments
By accident, I scheduled this announcement to be posted a day too early! Oops. Oh well, no big deal. You learn the results a day earlier than planned.
Posted by: Abbas Raza | Dec 20, 2009 12:14:32 PM
Good picks by Tariq Ali and fabulous logos. Congrats to the winners.
Posted by: Ruchira | Dec 20, 2009 12:45:17 PM
Very warm congratulations to all winners!
Posted by: Dredd | Dec 20, 2009 1:11:17 PM
Dear Mr. Ali,
I remember well how you told the world that India should look to its own Muslims rather than Pakistani outfits after the Mumbai attack. I did not appreciate that. You seem to me to be overly apologetic for what the ISI props up in the name of security interests. Moreover, you and the left put much too much faith in regional negotiations as a panacea. The forces that ISI has backed are intent on disrupting any such process because its outcome can't be trusted to meet Pakistan's so called legitimate security interests; these forces have to be met with force. And it's better that it be NATO's force rather than India's that wields the counter-force. Your track record is not so good, either. You were one of the suckers who bought the utterly corrupt, retrograde and demonic Milosevic's story that he was protecting the principles of socialism and public ownership against the IMF; of course no one was benefitting from the privatization of property more than he was.
I do not understand what your standing among Western leftists is based on.
Posted by: Lakshmi Rhone | Dec 20, 2009 2:52:40 PM
A prize for Mr Gathman! Woohoo!
Posted by: weaver | Dec 20, 2009 7:00:10 PM
This is the letter I wrote accepting the 3rd place prize.
Dear Abbas, I'm the writer of News From the Zona, and I just learned that I won
third place in your 3 Quarks Political Blogging contest. I'm very excited! The last time
I won something was for a speech I made in the eighth grade to the Optimists Club. The prize I won then, much to my chagrin and embarrassment, was an album of patriotic songs, sung by John Wayne. My parents, on the way home, even as they were assuring me that I
did well, were laughing, because apparently my face betrayed what I thought about being presented with John Wayne's album of patriotic songs by the local head of the Optimists.
I've never been optimistic since.
Be that as it may, I'm happy that my post on Republic virtue - a topic unfashionable
since Robespierre's time, but badly in need of revival - has received some circulation.
Posted by: roger | Dec 20, 2009 7:29:11 PM
roger, congrats to you and the others. I've only won one thing too -- a lottery deciding dorm rooms in my junior year in college. Since then, distinctions have failed to pile on, but I keep hoping. Loved your post, and look forward to following your writings.
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Dec 20, 2009 8:18:21 PM
Dear Winners!
Congratulations! Well deserved.
I've never won anything--not even the lottery for dorm rooms!
Needless to say I'm SO JEALOUS!
I love Tariq Ali--and I consider this a great honor and gift for the three of you to have him judge your writings!
Happy New Year and Happy Holidays. And may all of you keep on keepin' on.
Maniza
Posted by: maniza | Dec 20, 2009 8:36:21 PM
Congratulations to the winners. As a fellow finalist, I was honored to be considered alongside each of you. I'm a fairly regular reader of Glenn's, and the other two of you are now on my usual rounds.
Best,
Jim H.
Posted by: Jim H. | Dec 21, 2009 12:12:14 AM
Congratulations from a fellow finalist.
Glenn Greenwald, you're the guy on the left I trust the most -- even more than Paul Krugman -- so I'm really happy you won the Top Quark.
You other folks: never heard of you before, but am now very glad I have, along with the other semi-finalists.
Abbas and the other 3QD editors: your competition has brought bloggers we never knew about into our ken, and for that we thank you profoundly.
Tariq Ali: thank you for all you think and write, including what you wrote about the Quark winners.
Bravos all round,
Evert:
Posted by: Evert Cilliers | Dec 21, 2009 4:51:14 AM
Glenn Greenwald has written the following on his own blog at Salon:
"The excellent academic and political website, 3quarksdaily, gave out prizes this weekend for the best articles of the year in politics, philosophy, science and other categories. The prizes for politics were judged by historian and scholar Tariq Ali. This post of mine on Obama's civil liberties record and the multi-tiered system of justice being created for "War on Terror" detainees was chosen as the top prize winner, which includes a $1,000 award. Thank you to 3quarksdaily and Ali for this selection."
Posted by: Abbas Raza | Dec 21, 2009 11:38:34 AM
I did not notice until now that one of the designers of the prize logos is Carlos. Is this Carlos the Commenter?
Posted by: Ruchira | Dec 21, 2009 12:49:07 PM
Yep!
Posted by: Abbas Raza | Dec 21, 2009 12:56:02 PM
Wow, Carlos - very nice work!
Posted by: Ruchira | Dec 21, 2009 1:42:18 PM
Dear 3QuarksDaily Folks,
All of us at Black Agenda Report are honored by your selection of "The Great Black Hajj of 2009" for the Strange Quark award. It's wonderful to be recognized by one's peers. But to be picked by Tariq Ali is - fantastic!
Sincerely,
Glen Ford, Executive Editor
www.BlackAgendaReport.com
Posted by: Glen Ford | Dec 21, 2009 1:54:32 PM
Dang it, I see I called myself a finalist in my congratulatory comment above.
I meant to say semi-finalist.
Exit red-faced and squirming with embarrassment.
Evert
BTW, I read all the finalist posts, and the semi-finalists, and the work was amazing.
Posted by: Evert Cilliers | Dec 21, 2009 7:46:28 PM
As Abbas noted, I wrote about this award on my blog, but wanted to come here as well to thank this site and Tariq Ali. I also read many of the other nominees and winners and am privileged to have been in such excellent company.
Glenn Greenwald
Posted by: Glenn Greenwald | Dec 22, 2009 1:07:37 PM
Congrats to the winners.
Keep up the good work Glenn!
Posted by: Nathaniel Frentz | Dec 22, 2009 9:08:36 PM
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