The Next Bloggers' Target: Going After 'Legalized Torture?'

Already taking credit for debunking CBS' sources about the President's National Guard service, some bloggers are inviting the blogosphere into what they hope could be the next topic not being covered by mainstream news outlets: legalized torture, or as the Obsidian Wings blog describes the phenomenon, "extraordinary rendition." Obsidian Wings is Wednesday's top-ranked link in BlogPulse.

Seems there's a movement afoot in Congress, and it's a movement attached to the bill implementing the 9/11 Commission report, that makes it OK to practice "extraordinary rendition," defined as the ability to send prisoners out of the U.S. to countries where torture for interrogation purposes is OK. The folks who author Obsidian Wings are asking bloggers to include links to the information, send emails to Congressman Edward Markey and write other representatives and ask for their opposition to the bill. "The press coverage of the CBS memos showed that blogs can break a story and have an effect -- and this story is about 100 times more important than Bill Burkett's shenanigans and CBS News' negligence," write the bloggers.

Whether it's pre-debate frenzy or just politics as usual, endorsements are the buzzword of the day. Wednesday's second-burstiest personality is John Eisenhower, son of former President Ike. John has endorsed Sen. John Kerry for president in this year's election, and his piece appears in the Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News, Wednesday's fourth-ranked link. Also endorsing Kerry? President Bush's hometown newspaper, the Crawford (TX) Iconoclast, Wednesday's 18th-ranked link.

Seems everyone has advice for the Prez and Senator on how to debate, which explains Al Gore's rise in rankings and "how to debate George Bush" references as Wednesday's top key phrase.

On the non-political front, there's good news for fans of Star Wars spoofs. Seems Mel Brooks is working on a script for Spaceballs II. Prison-bound Martha Stewart is getting some attention, and so is pilot Mike Melvill, who took SpaceShipOne into an acrobatic ride into space Wednesday as part of Scaled Composites' efforts to win the Ansari Prize for privately-funded space flight.

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Where are your TV priorities during debate AND football season? Check it out.