One of the progressive blogosphere's founders, Jim Capozzola, of Philadelphia's own Rittenhouse Review, has passed. To give you some perspective, Jim started Rittenhouse Review about two weeks before Duncan Black (aka Atrios) started Eschaton.
I met Jim at Drinking Liberally here in Philadelphia, and while I did not know him as well as Susie or Duncan, I will miss his wit, humor and intelligence.
As with Steve Gilliard, I find myself once again asking, why do the good die young, while the evil stay to further poison the world?
Susie Madrak of Suburban Guerrilla:
He was a great writer who won a Koufax award for what is one of the liberal blogosphere’s seminal pieces, "Al Gore and the Alpha Girls: The Enduring Power of Cliques in a Post-High-School World." (You really should read it, the whole thing.) Here’s an excerpt:
Not long ago a newly found colleague, if I may call him that, lamented the harsh tone adopted by many webloggers. (He did not put this comment directly to me, but we both knew he well could have.) My response was that webloggers, some of whom I find smarter, more eloquent, and more perceptive than a sizable portion of their professional counterparts, do not share the punditburo’s status anxiety and do not join with the punditboro in enthusiastically casting aside whatever principles they might have in a craven effort to curry favor with their colleagues.
Brendan:
Life isn’t fair.
A fucking pile of shit scum sucking traitor like George W. Bush commutes the sentence of scum sucking traitor Scooter Libby while good guy, and personal acquaintance, Jim Cappozola has to go and die.
Jim was a local Philadelphia blogger, the publisher of the Rittenhouse Review one of the first generation of bloggers. I knew him from Drinking Liberally here in Philadelphia, where he’d make fun of my tattoos and hyperactive personality in that snide tone that always made me laugh. I didn’t know he’d been sick, and figured his absence was rooted in the same bleak cynicism about politics as we know it today, that he’d just given up on things the way I am. His blog had been sporadic of late: again, I figured he’d hit a despairing patch.
Skippy from Booman Tribune:
jim's was one of the very first blogs to populate blogtopia, preceding both duncan, as susie notes, and markos, as well. it was jim's early support of skippy's blog on the rittenhouse roll that lead to others noticing our work.
it is ironic that on this day when steve gilliard's blog has been continued by others, we also put jim capozzola to rest. blogtopia has lost another unique and important voice.
in accordance with julia's suggestion. we suggest everyone pop by all the blogs we've said hello to.
I like Julia and Skippy's suggestion, let's all continue to support each other. Visit three blogs today in honor of Jim and all those who started us down this path but can no longer continue the journey with us. And, let's all of us support each other a little more.
Rest in peace, Jim.