Bummed: In New York, at least one team's baseball fans are bummed because the Yankees lost (today's second-most-cited blog phrase) and worse for them, the Mets are still alive.

Bummer: Politicos who thought this Foley thing might just fade away are realizing it did not and will not, fueled by further reports of the Florida Republican Congressman's sexual escapades with former pages (as an adult) and the resulting GOP meltdown and fallout that are being predicted and chronicled in today's most-cited news stories.

Bumming: But one of the day's poignant finds comes from a letter, veriified by Time magazine, from a Marine stationed in Iraq and written to his family, a lfrank letter now making the rounds of military officials and others, apparently, and in fairly stark contrast to the "stay the course" message being trumped in D.C. While strategists suggest dividing Iraq to make it a whole country, right-leaning bloggers are making hay of a Democratic National Committee Web-site "support our troops" photo of the wrong troop (today's most-cited blog post and since fixed).

Graphically speaking
In the run-up to next month's elections, Republicans thought they could manage the message with an emphasis on morals/values and the war on terror. Both, in strange ways, are certainly at the top of many agendas, but perhaps not with the message originally intended?...

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:03 AM

Couldn't help but notice one of the week's most cited news stories from Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly. It's a pretty interesting state-by-state chart that tracks median income growth (or lack thereof) over the past six years. How interesting...and curious...that the five states that show any growth are Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming and Rhode Island...and one of them (District of Columbia) isn't a state at all. Discuss.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:33 AM

Check any national color-coded weather map, and you'll notice lots of reds, oranges and yellows from Florida to Minnesota, meaning the ongoing 2006 heat wave is a coast-to-coast, north-to-south phenomenon. In fact, the phrase "power outage" is one of the week's most-cited blog phrases, as is "air conditioning." Even the blogger at The Sustainable Scoop, facing 110 degrees in an un-AC house and frying computer equipment that didn't work, finally broke down and bought one....but provided links to PlanetFriendly's AC alternatives just the same.

Is this what Al Gore is talking about?
Sure it's a big jump to link the ongoing heat wave to global warming (the message in Gore's docu-movie "An Inconvenient Turth"), but it's also one of those things that makes you go "Hmmmmmm....?"

A BlogPulse trend graph captures buzz on both topics: references to the heat wave, and references to global warming:

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:37 AM

Sometimes, you just gotta love technology. Like today, when BlogPulse's list of the most-discussed personalities in the blogosphere includes the name of "Yay Taylor," who isn't a person at all but rather a very common utterance among bloggers who typed a congratulatory "Yay, Taylor!" (or "yay! Taylor won...") on their blogs after singer Taylor Hicks (today's most-blogged personality) was crowned winner of "American Idol" Wednesday night. Yay, Taylor, indeed.

Hangin' with Harry
Harry Potter fans are in attendance today as well, as actress Helen McCrory appears as the day's burstiest person now that she's being replaced in the Potter movies (because of pregnancy) by Helena Bonham Carter. Carter will now play the role of Bellatrix Lestrange in the upcoming "Order of the Phoenix" flick. Teen frenzy ensues.

A piece of their minds
Offering opinions freely in the blogosphere is CNN's Lou Dobbs, whose editorial about working folks is today's fourth most-cited news story (and causes LiveJournaler punkiejeannien to have a Stephen Stills flashback). Internet inventor Timothy Berners-Lee, speaking at an Ediburgh conference on the Weblogging Ecosystem (where key member sof the BlogPulse team are organizers/presenters), also speaks up to warn against a "dark Web" of tiered access. Discuss.

Happy Memorial Day!
BlogPulse will continue to spit out data over the holiday weekend, and the Newswire blog will return next Tuesday. In the meantime, enjoy the holiday and whatever it brings...

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:23 AM

The nation's embroiled in a discussion about immigration policy and the growing Latino/Hispanic influence on the U.S.

A simple BlogPulse trend chart takes a look at blog "buzz" about two May-day celebrations: Mexico-inspired Cinco De Mayo and this Saturday's tradition-bound 132nd running of the Kentucky Derby.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:23 AM