Remember, LeftyBlogs.com is for local progressive political blogs with original content. Some questions:

• Um, but sometimes I write about my cat – is that OK? Sure, the blog doesn’t need to be completely about politics – but it should be mostly about politics.
• What do we mean, “progressive”? Well, ideology is always in the eye of the beholder. Blogs included in LeftyBlogs.com often disagree with each other a lot. That said, progressives generally believe in the power of people to organize themselves for the improvement of society, through government and other institutions.
• Wait – just “local” blogs? Yes, mostly. Our goal is to index blogs that talk regularly (but not necessarily 100%) about what’s going on in their local communities and states. If you’re all about Karl Rove, George Bush, and Iraq – well, you’re probably great, but there are plenty of other directories and aggregators for you. (We do have an upcoming ‘national’ category – but we’ve got a high standard for what goes in there. See the next question.)
• What is this “original content” business? The point of LeftyBlogs.com is to point folks to great commentary at the local level. If you’re just posting links, or doing the cut-paste-post thing from other sources, well that’s fine, but not useful to our audience.
• Can I get listed if my blog is brand new? No. Why not? Because we can’t verify that you’re mostly local, mostly progressive, mostly political, and mostly original. Blog for a couple of months, get used to it, and come back. We’ll still be here.

Of course, we reserve the right to accept or reject any submission. Blogs are free speech, but we don’t have to give you our microphone if you’re evil. (You know who you are.)

Above all else, we’re living by this rule: We’ll do whatever it takes to serve our audience. Our readers come first. Not anybody else, not even our favorite bloggers.