Steve Gilliard, 1966-2007

If you look on the left column of my blog under "favorite lefty blogs" you will see a link to "The News Blog". It was operated by an amazing blogger named Steve Gilliard. He went into the hospital this spring for heart surgery and ended up having a stroke, which I thought he was recovering slowly from. However early this morning he passed away.

He had an incredibly strong voice. If he thought someone was full of shit - even a fellow progressive - he had no problem letting the world know. Usually he was right. He was funny, smart and incredibly knowledgeable. He knew a lot of military history which gave him a unique voice in the blogisphere. He also loved food and soccer. During the last World Cup after reading Steve I could tell Eduardo things about World Cup teams that even he didn't know.

One thing that I loved about Steve is that although he could be a bit on the pessimistic side he was convinced that the Bush Administration would not make it until the end. He was sure they were going to implode. His stroke happened right before the District Attorney story exploded. I have thought many times about how much he would have loved the story and am sure his take would have been unique, just like his take on the war, New York City, restaurants and hundreds of other topics.

While in the hospital he was desperately missed in the blogisphere, knowing that his voice will never be there again is very, very sad.

Here are the tributes to Steve I have read so far - it is one way of seeing how many people he touched:
Jane, Firedoglake
Digby
Atrios
Athenea, First-Draft
John, Americablog
Crooks and Liars
Meteor Blades, Kos

Update - more tributes:
The Rude Pundit
Jesus' General

Update II: I don't need to keep adding to the list. Check out this blog search from blog posts published today. It is incredible how many blogs {literally hundreds} have posted tributes to him. He really was loved.