Yair pointed me to this awesome blog of how the NYT people make their graphs. This blows away all other stat graphics blogs (including this one). Lots of examples from mockup to first tries to final version. I recognize a lot of what they’re doing from my own experience. Also from my experience it’s hard to get all these details down: once you have the final graph, it’s easy to forget how you go there.
Did you see Rob Kosara’s post on the people behind the NYT Graphics lab (http://eagereyes.org/journalism/glimpse-into-new-york-times-graphics-department)? It includes their personal blogs (and twitter accounts, where applicable). I like Matthew Block’s collection of blooper graphs (http://maps.grammata.com/bloopers.html).