Judy Miller's Recollections, Iraqi Voters, Blog Worth, Halloween Alternatives...and BlogPulse Teams with AOL

Before we get into the meat of today's blog buzz, an announcement: Intelliseek's BlogPulse.com data and analysis is being made available to AOL users under an agreement announced today by the two companies. Welcome, AOL, to the world of BlogPulse.com.

Judy Miller: The Scrutiny Continues
Now that New York Times reporter Judy Miller (today's No. 3 top personality) has written a personal account (today's second most-shared link) of what she remembers of the Valerie Plame case, and the Times has written its own piece of the coverage (today's top link), bloggers are chiming in with their own media reviews.

Jay Rosen at PressThink (today's No. 6 top blog post) isn't the only person to be a little put out that Miller's answer to the key quesiton of who identified Valerie Plame as a CIA agent is "I don't remember." Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine thinks the key (underplayed) news is that Miller's taking time off from the Times newsroom, and wonders if she'll ever return. The PowerLine bloggers think the whole investigation's much ado about nothing, Mark Kleiman has some theories of his own about why a name was leaked at all, Arianna Huffington thinks Miller's just a bad reporter and Editor & Publisher takes the strongest stance by asking the Times to apologize and fire Miller for "crimes against journalism."

BlogPulse's graphical feature shows buzz about Miller and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. The June spike coincides with Miller's jailing for initially refusing to testify and her eventual late September release from jail to testify.



The elections in Iraq
Iraqis braved 100-degree-plus heat over the weekend to vote on a new constitution, and bloggers at Iraq the Model and Hammorabi feature updates, photos and analysis from the polling places.

A Halloween Alternative?
An enterprising young blogger named copinggoggles has come up with a Halloween alternative called The Puca Project (today's top blog post). Instead of demanding candy or vandalizing, trick-or-treaters are encouraged to be nice-and-greeters by doing unconventionally sweet and unexpected acts on Halloween. "Awesome idea" says a blogger who lives near Park Avenue. "Go forth and spread the magic," entreats another LiveJournaler.

What's your blog worth?
If you've ever wondered what your blog is worth, Business Opportunities Blog provides the applet that comes up with a fair-market value. Delftsman and Liberalismo have already crunched the numbers.