Bill, Melinda and Bono...and Presidential Justifications

Microsoft founder Bill Gates (today's 11th most-discussed personality) and wife Melinda, along with rocker and activist Bono of U2, are capturing their share of blog buzz for being named Time Magazine's Persons of the Year for 2005 (today's most-cited news story). All three were singled out for their awareness-raising and philanthropic efforts to focus on foreign aid, foreign relations and Third World self-empowerment and recovery.

"Well, at least it wasn't Mother Nature..." observed PoliPundit. The blogger at FlynnFiles thinks Gates and Bono were singled out for the wrong reasons, and Fausta's Blog lists other "Person of the Year' recommendations from various bloggers.

President Justifications...or more of the same?
President Bush's weekend speech about progress in Iraq is also grabbing attention, with transcripts of the talk making it into today's list of top blog posts at least three times. Also among the top blog posts is this credibility-questioning attack by Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory (11th top blog post). Quite simply, he claims that Bush's defenders are "resorting to outright distortions and deliberate falsehoods about the Foreign Intelligence Security Act (FISA) in order to argue that the Administration's warrantless eavesdropping on U.S. citizens complies with the mandates of that statute." And he claims that right-wing bloggers have been recruited into the campaign. Professor Bainbridge (18th top blog post) chimes in with some perspective on the history of media "leaks."

What's on your mind this week?
As the holiday season nears its peak, what's on your mind: shopping or Christmas church services? BlogPulse Trend graph knows (note the weekend spikes):




Dave's on his way back
Today's BlogPulse Spotlight examines the comeback of Comedy Central comedian Dave Chappelle.