CELEBRATE

It's my birthday and it took a long time to get out of City tonight so even though I have 82 unread emails in the inbox, I'm taking the night off from the drug war.

I had a feeling this was going to be a lucky year for me, I'm the same age as the year I was born. I love double numbers and I have to say it's been one of my better birthdays. I've heard from many old friends who have been long out of touch and I discovered quite by accident that Last One Speaks has been nominated for a Koufax award.

Pete is back from his holiday hiatus and I was happily catching up on Drug War Rant this afternoon. He is also nominated and I had logged onto the site intending to vote for him and TalkLeft, who I was certain would also be on the list. What a delightful present to see our own humble blog there as well.

Whoever nominated me, thanks a bunch. I've never been up for an award before and as trite as it sounds, I know we can't possibly win but it really is cool to find our name on that roster. I mean gee whiz, we were next to Lessig.

I use the editorial 'we' a lot here and it's because although the nuts and bolts of Last One Speaks is a sole enterprise, the content - if you'll excuse the pun - is a joint venture. The news here does not come from paid aggregators, (we operate on a zero budget). I gather and distill from listservs and two dozen newsletters. It's many voices of reason that raise one united call for change here and if I was giving an acceptance speech, I would be sure to thank Preston Peet for hosting all the folks breaking the news on the drugwar.com list and Jules Siegel for the same at NewsroomL.

Feeling lucky to be alive tonight and by the way, thanks for checking in.