Hot Stuff: Video iPods, Tax Deductions (and White House Feet?)

You gotta hand it to Apple's Steve Jobs. When he speaks, people listen, and when he announced the new video iPod on Wednesday (today's top link), Engadget buzz (and Gizmodo speculation) took off like the latest Chinese space rocket.

The ability to download day-old TV episodes into an iPod for $1.99 certainly captured the attention of bloggers, who wrote about the development in nine of today's top 40 blog posts and three of the day's top 5 links. In fact, spikes in iPod buzz closely mirror recent product announcements about color screens (June), iTunes update (July) and the iPod nano (September). The early June spike for Jobs reflects Apple's switch to Intel chips.



Forget your dedutions?
Today's most-shared news story is a New York Times article about tax cuts...and not the ones for rich people. Seems a tax panel thinks that a flat tax is a bad idea and so are the popular (and middle-class) deductions for mortgage interest and health insurance. "Bad policy and bad politics," says American Prospect blog. Wampum figures it'll be as popular as Social Security reform. "Who's crazy now"? asks Suburban Guerilla.

Feet to the fire?
As special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald seems to wind down his investigation of who leaked CIA Agent Valerie Plame's name to the press, speculation heats up about who's being targeted. Is it Vice President Dick Cheney, wonders the Huffington Post (today's No. 2 top blog post). Insiders Karl Rove or Andy Card? wonders Talking Points Memo? Cheney staffer Lewis Libby? asks the National Journal. Is the investigation widening? wonders Raw Story. Is all this speculation making the President nervous? asks the Washington Post (today's third most popular news story).

Passings...
The title of today's No. 16 top link caught my eye: "the best obituary ever." Guess it depends on one's political persuasion.