Billmon

Billmon is the pseudonym of a prominent American who wrote commentary on various political and economic issues of the day from a left-wing perspective. His blog was called "Whiskey Bar". [Rubin, Daniel "Blinq | As blogger burns out, his fame fades, too." The Philadelphia Inquirer. Knight Ridder Tribune Business News(wire service). Washington: Apr 15, 2006. pg. 1. ProQuest document ID: 1021264571 Text Word Count 711 Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1021264571&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=76566&RQT=309&VName=PQD ProQuest by Subscription. retrieved July 20, 2007.] Wellen, Russ [http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_russ_wel_061221_surf_veying_the_prog.htm "Surf-veying the Progressive Web."] OpEdNews.com, December 21, 2006 at 07:50:55. retrieved July 20, 2007]

Career as a blogger

Billmon was one of the earliest participants in what is now the largest political blog on the internet, the Daily Kos. For several years, until January 2007, his name appeared at the top of the list of Kos Alumni on the Daily Kos frontpage.

"Whiskey Bar" came into being in the aftermath of the American invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003. Billmon first gained widespread recognition among regular blog-readers when, in May 2003, he submitted a lengthy post composed exclusively of quotes from various Bush administration officials on the perceived threat posed by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. It was linked to by many fellow-bloggers, and it would go on to win the 2003 Koufax Award for best individual post.

The actual name of the blog "Whiskey Bar" is taken from a line from Bertolt Brecht's "Alabama Song," quoted at the top of the blog.

In the following 12 months, Billmon established himself as one of the leading bloggers on the left. He wrote extended pieces on domestic politics, the Iraq war, and the US economy. Billmon's previous incarnation as a financial journalist gave him a distinct advantage when he posted on economic matters, as this was an area not well-covered by most political bloggers.

The 2003 Koufax Awards gave Billmon due recognition. These awards are the quasi-Oscars of the left/liberal blog community, and each year they are given out, virtually, in various categories. They are named after Sandy Koufax, a famous baseball player and a lefty. In 2003, Billmon won three Koufax awards, for Best Writing, Best Post and Best New Blog. His writing was described by the judges as "clear, concise, insightful." OpEdNews said he "may have done more to bring respectability to blogging than anybody."

Billmon's own response to this description was as follows: "Clear? I'd like to think so. Insightful? Is always in the eye of the beholder. Concise? Not even close."

During its first year of existence, the Whiskey Bar allowed readers to post comments on each blog entry. As the blog became more popular, Billmon managed the comments with some care, deleting abusive and nonsensical postings as they came in, and sometimes engaging in exchanges with his readers. He also adopted a sardonic, cynical 'barkeep' persona in his posts and comments, though this was generally secondary to his analysis and commentary.

Managing the comments became more difficult as they continued to grow in number, and at the end of June 2004 Billmon [http://www.moonofalabama.org/2005/01/moa_census_summ.html#c3469709 announced] that he would be closing them down, writing that

over the past few months I've noticed a definite deterioration in the quality of the conversation here at the bar. Trolls I can usually give the bum's rush pretty quickly - at least most of the time. But I'm seeing more and more stuff on the threads that strikes me as marginal at best....- people who seem to get their main kick out of insulting or picking fights with the other patrons; people who don't have anything particularly intelligent to say, and aren't very articulate about saying it....That's generally what the on-line world is like, I know, but for a time Whiskey Bar seemed to inhabit a different space: a bit more thoughtful, more intimate, less raucous, and - maybe most important of all - less crowded.

One commenter noted at the time that he would miss the unique and international discussions that the Whiskey Bar had come to host, with their "tone tipping toward darkness and cynicism, but taken as a whole not quite bereft of hope, a casual and informative gathering of the sometimes grizzled veterans of this strange, strange time." [http://www.moonofalabama.org/ Moon of Alabama] , a companion site set up by fans, was soon established to fill this gap.

Billmon continued posting his analysis and comments, with some periods of inactivity, over the following two and a half years.

On December 28, 2006, Billmon stopped blogging at The Whiskey Bar, [Rubin, Daniel "Blinq | At Whiskey Bar, was it last call?" The Philadelphia Inquirer. Knight Ridder Tribune Business News (wire service). Washington: Jan 3, 2007. pg. 1. ProQuest document ID: 1188517391 Text Word Count 755 Document URL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1188517391&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=76566&RQT=309&VName=PQD ProQuest by Subscription. retrieved July 20, 2007] and the URL www.billmon.org became unavailable.

A great deal of his material up to May 2006 is reproduced on Wayback Machine, the Internet Archive.

Miguel de Icaza, a Billmon fan, made a backup of the site which is [http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2007/Jan-06-1.html available at his blog] .

Late April 2007, a more or less complete copy of Whiskey Bar re-surfaced on [http://whiskeybar.org/ whiskeybar.org] . The site has no search function or monthly archives listings, and no pictures, but posts go back to early April 2003.

On July 31, 2008, Billmon returned to Daily Kos to post a diary entry in regard to John McCain entitled [http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/7/31/142834/892/240/560121 "The Great White Hope"] .

References

External links

* The Whiskey Bar (inactive) http://www.billmon.org/
* [http://billmon.dailykos.com/ Billmon's Diary at Daily Kos]
* [http://www.billmon.org/archives/000172.html What A Tangled Web We Weave, the WMD quote post]
* [http://wampum.wabanaki.net/archives/000785.html The 2003 Koufax Awards]
* [http://blogs.philly.com/blinq/2006/04/bartender_ill_h.html Profile of Billmon in Philly.com ]
* [http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/daniel_rubin/20070103_Blinq___At_Whiskey_Bar__was_it_last_call_.html Farewell to Billmon in Philly.com ]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.billmon.org Whiskey Bar on The Wayback Machine]
* [http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2007/Jan-06-1.html Miguel de Icaza's backup (web)]
* [http://tirania.org.nyud.net:8080/billmon.zip Miguel de Icaza's backup (directly)]