Within FDL, emptywheel, in my view, has some of the best deep analysis - I view them as like a "research group."

TPM draws because it's a news site first and foremost. And Josh's brand of thinking is something intellectuals tend to appreciate - a kind of quirky humor. Josh follows the topics or issues that he deems important, rather than everything under the sun.

Kos, to my mind, is more politically "activist," whereas TPM is more cerebral in some ways. And FDL is very community oriented (which Josh is not).

HuffPo is too large for good discussions in my view.

It all depends on what fits for you.

Many of us just keep coming back here. I've followed Josh since he was just a guy and a blog. And I did it initially because I simply loved his ability to pick out a salient issue or event and just bore down, deeper and deeper, in terms of his reporting and his analysis.

emptywheel does something similar to Josh, but somehow can keep many issues running and she interacts with her little community of "followers," whereas Josh doesn't really interact on threads at all - and does everything via email.

I'm not sure what you were asking. Or if you'll come back here. Hope some of this helps.