Citizen Journalism Gets a Boost, Intelligent Design Gets Kicked, and the "I" Word Is Whispered...

It's apparent that blogging has matured quickly now that Dan Gillmor, former technology writer for the San Jose Mercury News, has now established the Center for Citizen Media (the content of today's No. 2 most-cited blog post). The center will have ties to both UC/Berkeley and Harvard and will promote the "emergent grassroots media" movement, says Gillmor.

Judicial smackdown on ID
In its first official legal test, the theory of Intelligent Design took a big hit from today's 25th burstiest person, U. S. District Court Judge John Jones, who ruled yesterday that teaching intelligent design in science classes violates the separation of church and state (today's No. 6 top news story)...and he did so with some harsh words for its proponents. "Breathtaking inanity," in fact, was his description of the former Dover, Pa., school board's decision to offer intelligent design as science. And it resonated:



The "I" Word
We're not making this up. In today's No. 12 top blog post from Think Progress, conservative scholars who appeared this week on Diane Rehm's NPR talk show hinted that President Bush is a candidate for impeachment (there it is...the "I" word) if he continues his presidential power-grabbing ways and wiretaps his own citizens. BlogsforBush uses the "but Democrats did it too!" excuse. But Think Progress is also today's top blog post, for pointing out that former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter kept judicial oversight in the mix and specifically ruled out domestic spying during their administrations.

In a similar vein, U.S. District Court Judge James Robertson is today's burstiest person for resigning yesterday from the court that's supposed to oversee/approve domestic spying requests, and he did so in protest of the President's executive order that OKs domestic spying by the NSA (today's top news story).

From the Spotlight Blog...
Today's BlogPulse Spotlight examines the reasons why Johnny Damon is today's third most-cited personality in the blogosphere, now that he's jumped the Red Sox ship and joined the Yankees. Also jumping off, but this time for good: Firefly-Serenity.