Inaugural Buzz is in the air with nearly 2.75% of all blog posts centering around Barack Obama's historic inauguration. After an unprecedented election, Obama will be sworn in as the first African-American President in U.S. history.

Posted by Jeffrey Akavan at 09:48 AM

In the wake of winning the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Senator Barack Obama was mentioned in nearly 20 percent of all blog discussions on Wednesday. In comparison, Senator John McCain was referenced by just 6.3 percent of all blog entries posted on November 5th.

Posted by Sandra Parrelli at 09:57 AM

With less than three weeks to Election Day, blogosphere buzz for Senators Barack Obama and John McCain is growing, especially after last night’s final presidential debate. Buzz levels for both candidates soared today, up significantly since the first debate in late September, with 3.50% and 3.25% of consumer discussion around Obama and McCain, respectively. As we count down the days to inaugurating our next American President, consumers will continue to turn to blogs to voice opinions and concerns about the candidates – and we’ll be listening. Stay tuned to www.blogpulse.com for further analysis around the 2008 Presidential elections.

Posted by Sandra Parrelli at 11:41 AM

It is difficult to remember the last time a political campaign was able to keep a secret and truly surprise us, but Senator John McCain’s selection of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate surprised virtually everyone, including bloggers. While there had been buzz around Mitt Romney or Governor Tim Pawlenty on the ticket, Palin wasn’t even on the radar. There seems to be consensus that the news brought a new buzz to McCain’s campaign, but we’ll know soon enough if his gamble pays off.

Posted by Sandra Parrelli at 09:57 AM

Blogosphere buzz spiked immediately following Senator Obama’s August 23rd text-message announcement to supporters declaring Senator Joe Biden as his Vice Presidential running mate. As bloggers reacted to the announcement, online consumer discussion soared throughout the night and into Saturday, with conversations up 175% and 1191% for Obama and Biden, respectively, compared to the previous day. As the race to the White House continues, it will be interesting to see how the Obama/Biden duo competes with the Republican ticket in the blogosphere.

Posted by Sandra Parrelli at 02:16 PM

Is blogosphere buzz an early indicator of our next U.S. President? So far, Senator Barack Obama is winning the blog buzz race over Senator John McCain, with nearly double the amount of overall buzz volume. Obama’s win as the democratic presidential candidate over Senator Hillary Clinton drove online buzz in early June, commanding 2.1% of overall buzz. McCain continues to trail Obama in buzz since April, with no significant spikes in consumer discussion.

Now that the race to the White House is officially underway, Nielsen Online will closely monitor and analyze how the candidates leverage online platforms to communicate and to attract voters. Over the next several months, we will provide trends and insights surrounding brand (candidate sites), social media, video and advertising. For an initial analysis around this year’s presidential candidates, check out our recent press release.

Posted by Sandra Parrelli at 11:05 AM

It hasn't been a week since the mid-term elections, and the divisive fear-mongering has started already, what with right-wing bloggers hinting that Al Quaeda is absolutely thrilled now that Democrats have swept Republicans out of majority control, a point refuted by Glenn Greenwald. Maybe everyone ought to take a deep breath and at least let the Democratic majority take office before they start speculating and spreading fear and loathing. Who knows? Maybe some real live international diplomacy and intelligent foreign policy might make a difference for a change...

BlogPulse, the book
OK, so there is no BlogPulse book, but over at the Data Mining blog, Nielsen BuzzMetrics' own Matthew Hurst created a close fascimile of one.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:14 AM

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:21 AM

Now that the Republicans have a sexual scandal of their own (involving homosexual undertones and the stalking of underage teen boys at that), do you suppose anyone will ask independent counsel Kenneth Starr to come back and dig the dirt all over again? Friday's abrupt resignation of Florida Congressman Mark Foley came as the result of the discovery of inappropriate instant messages and e-mails sent by Foley to 16- and 17-year-old high school boys who were part of the House Page Program. (Starr was the attorney who investigated the affair of former President Bill Clinton and intern Monica Lewinsky).

Foley chaired a caucus on missing and exploited children and helped write federal law that govern the kind of behavior he's now alleged to have taken part in. Off the Cuff blogger has some biting insights into the so-called political party of "morals and values." Then there's this no-big-deal defense from the GOP-leaning PowerLine blog. Other GOP leaders, some of whom knew of Foley's behavior a full year ago, are now being scrutinized too, including speaker Rep. Dennis Hastert and Rep. John Shimkus, head of the page program.

Maybe the runup-to-the-election question isn't which party can best protect Americans from terrorists...but which party can best protect Americans from its own Congress?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:42 AM

You gotta hand it to William Jefferson Clinton. For a guy who's an ex-president, he's certainly riled things up (and made his way to the top of the list of most-blogged-about people today) for his weekend interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace (No. 4).

And everybody's joining the discussion among today's most-cited blog posts, from Patterico's Pronouncements (Chris did ask the other side hard questions) to Glenn Greenwald's "cut and run" Senatorial quotes to Keith Olberman's assessment to insights from a former intelligence honcho/blogger known as Spook86.

A BlogPulse trend graph shows a little head-to-head Presidential bantering on the upswing:

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:15 AM

MSNBC commentator Keith Olberman and Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne are getting attention in the blogosphere today for zingers.

Olberman is among today's most-blogged-about personalities for today's top blog post, his 9/11 commentary (courtesy of Crooks and Liars) titled "This hole in the ground, Mr. President." References to the essay, in fact, show up five times among today's top 20 most-cited news stories. It's nice to hear well written, well thought out, non-screaming commentary on news programs again, you know?

Crowd control?
And Wynne is today's burstiest person for suggesting that "non-lethal" weapons being tested ought to be tried out on Americans first for crowd control just in case...you know...someone gets hurt. Hmmm....

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:51 PM

Who knows whether this weekend's "Snakes on a Plane" movie will turn out to be so good it's bad, or so bad it's good, but it's certainly earning a hefty share of blog buzz. Star Samuel L. Jackson (who hawked the flick in true Samuel L. Jackson style Tuesday on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show") is today's fourth most-discussed person in the blogosphere as a result, and the film's pre-buzz graphical line is certainly on the rise, no doubt fueled by the online ability to send a phone message to friends from SamJack himself:



Candidate says what?
Virginia Sen. (and GOP Presidential hopeful?) George Allen might not be so hopeful anymore, now that he's opened his mouth a little too widely (today's top news story). Discuss.

So long, "Fish Face"
It probably wasn't his best acting performance, but Actor Bruno Kirby's "baby fish face!" utterance during a game of charades in "When Harry Met Sally" certainly is memorable. Kirby (today's burstiest person) died this week of leukemia, and fans are mourning his status as an all-time supporting actor.

Tables turned?
One of today's most-cited blog posts, in the wake of momentus political/historical events, again comes from Glenn Greenwald, who looks at the impact of questioning the Commander-in-Chief, depending on which way one leans, politically speaking.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:58 AM

One of the most popoular blog posts for the past few days has been security expert Bruce Schneier's examination of last week's crackdown on liquids on airplanes. Author of today's 7th-most-cited blog, he writes: "None of the airplane security measures implemented because of 9/11 -- no-fly lists, secondary screening, prohibitions against pocket knives and corkscrews -- had anything to do with last week's arrests. And they wouldn't have prevented the planned attacks, had the terrorists not been arrested. A national ID card wouldn't have made a difference, either. Instead, the arrests are a victory for old-fashioned intelligence and investigation." Discuss (and bloggers are).

Michael J. Totten, in the middle of things again
World traveler Michael J. Totten is live-blogging again from the Middle East (today's No. 7 most-cited link), where kidnapped Fox News correspondent Steve Cetanni (today's' burstiest person) and cameraman Olaf Wiig (eighth-burstiest) have been kidnapped.

A new blogging tool
Today's most-used phrase is a reference to yesterday's releaase by Microsoft of a test version of Windows Live Writer, software that allows bloggers to use a single application to publish to a variety of blog platforms, including Spaces, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress and others. Bloggers are already testing it out.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:33 AM

It's a data kind of day, based on what's creating buzz in thh blogosphere, as in: AOL's release of users' data (today's top blog post) and competitor Technorati's udpate on blog data (fourth most-cited post).

Leopard vs. Vista?
But what's really got lots of computer users excited, given that today's two most-cited links are from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, where Apple's new Leopard operating system is being teased. The blogger at Born to do Dishes calls is "insane" (in a good way). Many are debating how Leopard will steal the thunder from Microsoft's still-delayed Vista operating system update for Windows. A BlogPulse trend graph indicates a definite spike in Leopard buzz.....



Whither Joe?
Defeated Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is today's second most-blogged person (and curiously, defeater Ned Lamont doesn't appear on the day's lists, even though pundits "blame" his victory on those darned bloggers. Electoral reactions rangefrom "poor Joe" to "don't go away mad, Joe, just go away."

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:56 AM

Two names and one issue pop out among political blog discussions today, all of them indicative, perhaps, of what may happen in the upcoming 2006 mid-term elections.

Newly elected Alabama House of Representatives Patricia Todd is among them at No. 3 among today's burstiest people, the first openly gay legislator in Alabama (and "long past due," according to one blogger). Elsewhere, recently defeated Georgia candidate Ralph Reed, former Republican operative and former head of the Chrisitan Coalition and No. 7 among today's most-cited people, is also creating buzz, mostly because of his close ties to indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and what that association might mean for other Republican candidates this fall.

The first veto
President Bush's first-ever veto, of stem-cell research bill (today's No. 2 most-cited blog phrase) that would have opened doors for scientists is also on bloggers' minds, making up six of today's most-cited news stories and piggybacking on other articles hinting at a "growing conservative backlash" against the President on foreign policy and other issues. Dissent? Hmmm....

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:31 AM

When you read things like this, you don't know whether to laugh or cry (or run for public office on the "At least I'm not stupid" ticket). But Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is today's sixth-buristest person for saying this about why he voted the way he did on Network Neutrality, a legal effort to make sure the Internet does not turn into a tiered-service provider for haves and have-nots. In response, the blogger at Yourish.com created a PowerPoint presentation (today's No. 37 top blog post) that perhaps only Congress-people can understand about how the Internet works. (Disclosure: I've yet to get my own representative/senators to send me an e-mail in response to my communications at their Web sites, despite repeated requests to NOT send me a snail-mail letter and instead prove they know HOW to use the Internet by responding electronically; still waiting, still getting "Dear Susan..." franked letters 3-4 montsh later instead).

The Smackdown continues
Bloggers Glenn Greenwald (Nos. 1 and 4 posts today) and Daily Kos continue their smackdown of conservative bloggers who joined forces over the weekend to call for the lynching of the New York Times for a travel piece that included photos of Vice President Cheney's and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's vacation homes in Maryland. Turns out Greenwald pursued the facts (!!), and discovered that the Times called Rumsfeld's office, asked for and received Rummy's permission to take the photos.

Holidays in the dark
Seems as if quite a few folks spent the holiday weekend in movie theaters; among today's most-cited phrases in blogs are "went to see Devil Wears Prada" (No. 2) and "went to see Superman Returns" (No. 5), and Johnny Depp is today's No. 3 most-cited personality for his portrayal of Capt. Jack Sparrow (No. 18) in "Pirates of the Caribbean 3." Popcorn, anyone?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:37 AM

So in the spirit of the Fourth of July, (today's No. 23 top phrase) you'd assume (perhaps) that bloggers would be glorifying the principles of democracatic governance and the rights of a free press in an open, democratic society...and if so, you'd pretty much be wrong.

Because instead, you've got Business Week writing about bloggers "Polluting the Blogosphere" by being paid for product placement mentions in their posts (today's No. 8 top news story) and conservative bloggers nagging about a New York Times travel story that located the vacation homes of Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (as if either were surprises to anyone who hasn't been reading the papers for the past several years?). Blogger Glenn Greenwald points out that the same group of bloggers didn't have the same reaction to similar detailed household disclosures several weeks ago in a Times article about Bill and Hillary Clinton....and he offers has a few other cogent observations about defining real enemies vs. those imagined.

Michael J. Totten Marches On
Every once in a while, blogger Michael J. Totten's posts from his travels through the Middle East bubble to the surface, and they make for some of the best blog reading anywhere. Today's' No. 8 most-cited blog post, in fact, describes his discovery of an ever-elusive phenomenon known as moderate Islamics. He writes from Kurdish Iraq: "If all the world’s Islamists were like these mellow Kurdish Islamists there would be no Terror War and there would be no talk of any clash of civilizations. It’s no accident, nor is it merely a convenience, that the Kurds of Iraq are American allies." "Absolutely fascinating" is one blogger's review.

Celebrate your rights
And for one more moment of groundedness, today's No. 10 most-cited blog post provides 20 amazing facts about American voting. Happy Independence Day?

World Cup: All-European Event
Now that Brazil and Argentina have been ousted from the World Cup finals, it's an all-European affair: Italy, Germany, France and Portugal will battle it out for bragging rights. A BlogPulse Trend graph takes a look at current "buzz" about each of the four countries paired with the phrase "World Cup":

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:04 AM

Say what you want about all of of the others rumored to affect the 2006 and 2008 elections - immigration, health care, minimum wage, moral virtue and basic competence - the war in Iraq and the role of the U.S. military (today's 37th most-cited phrase) are issues that won't go away, and todays' blogosphere findings illustrate why.

Two new soldiers
While politicians like Sen. John Murtha and White House advisers like Karl Rove (No. 22 and 9, respectively among today's most-blogged-about people) debate the policy and strategy of war, two soldiers found dead in Iraq - privates Kristian Menchaca and Thomas L. Tucker - are the latest casualties and among today's burstiest names in the blogosphere. And bloggers simply hash out the right vs. the left positions (among today's top blog posts)...and nothing ever changes.

A BlogPulse trend graph shows an upward trend in conversation about the war, with fairly flat discussion about Iraq and "democracy," and occasional spikes about the insurgency in that Middle Eastern country.



Tangential...or not
Other hot items in the blogosphere today that are related to Iraq include the transcript of an embassy communique (today's No. 5 top news story) sent to Washington just before President Bush's surprise visit to Bagdhad last week, and a Time magazine excerpt of Ron Suskind's new book about terror plots in U.S. subways.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 03:03 PM

If Reader's Digest is right and laughter is the best medicine, at least some of today's most popular blog discoveries are taking time to poke fun at some pretty scary news.

The scariest seems to be the ongoing brou-ha-ha over the National Security Agency (NSA) domestic wiretapping program, the subject of at least six of today's top 10 blog posts and six of today's 10 most-cited news stories. Security expert and blogger Bruce Schneier manages to coax phone-company jokes out of his fellow bloggers to add some lightness to the conversation about the legality of the government asking phone companies for records of all phone logs. Such as..."I got a call from the NSA yesterday just to let me know that I could save money by switching to Sprint for long distance..." Pa-dum-pum.

Funny guy Al?
And look who's back in the spotlight? Former Vice President Al Gore's appearance on Saturday Night Live pushed him to No. 4 among most-blogged personalities, and a video of his opening speech (delivered as if he'd been elected in 2000) is captured in today's top phrase and fifth-most-cited link. Reviews range from "I heart Al Gore" to to "too scary."

Blogging vs. MSM
Blogger and entrepreneur Mark Cuban gets some discussion going about the different between mainstream media and blogging.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:06 PM

Talk about seismic shifts? A few seem to be taking place today in the blogosphere. To wit:

PowerLiners' advice for Bush
Blogger John Hinderaker of the right-leaning PowerLine blog has strong (free) words for President George Bush about immigration, today's No. 5 most-cited blog post. Which suggest that the president's low poll numbers aren't because of bipartisan frustration with his performance but that some Republicans think he isn't acting Republican enough. There's a difference. Gateway Pundit is just one of many who picks up the free advice theme, and Mahablog offers some different insights about what's happening to the red-state frame of mind. "My jaw will drop if this comes true," the assessment of Hinderaker's advice from Scylla & Charybdis, is echoed by Michelle Malkin's "when pigs fly" metaphor. Which might apply to this news, too.

Congressional minimum wage?
Another item that's catching traction in the blogosphere (but fairly absent from mainstream media sources) is Sen. Hillary Clinton's recently introduced bill that would tie the nation's minimum wage to Congressional pay raises. Did Hillary just do something awesome? asks Daily Kos in today's No. 8 most-cited blog post. It's a short bill, and reaction so far ranges from "brilliant" to "jujitsu."

Cultural notoriety
Today's list of most-blogged personalities contains a strange combination...burstiest of which is USA Today reporter Leslie Cauley, whose Thursday article about the NSA's huge database of personal/business phone calls is causing consternation on Capitol Hill (and today's No. 35 most-cited news story). Then there's Chris Daughtry, whose boot off of "American Idol" this week ranks him second in blog buzz only to President Bush.

Have a laugh on Mother's Day
This YouTube video (one of today's most-cited links) provides a hilarious behind-the-scenes look at snapping the perfect photo for Mom on Mother's Day. A BlogPulse trend graph agrees.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:20 PM

It's hard to tell we are today in the time-warp continuum, with today's No. 31 most-cited news story a tale of the Russians warning of a new Cold War (which is regressive, is it not?) while President George Bush is fast-forwarding us to WWIII already (today's most-cited news story). A LiveJournaler hearkens to the words of Marshal McLuhan as part of a big-picture assessment, while tmesis blogger falls back on the "it just got worse" reaction.

Please pay attention
So while the blogosphere takes an international view of the state of international affairs, let's turn to the Scotsman.com, which provides fodder for today's most-cited blog post: a pronouncement by the Vatican's official astronomer that the theory of creationism has pagan roots and is another good reason why science and religion don't always mesh well in popular culture. "I can't believe I just read this," writes one fairly astounded blogger. The Flypaper Theory blogger's equally floored.

And news from Down Under
Australian news doesn't hit the mainstream much, which is why the blogosphere's impact is so interesting sometimes. To wit: today's Nos. 1-2 burstiest people are both Australians the rest of the world probably never would have heard about without blogger reminders and memorials. Grant McLennan, co-leader of a band called the Go-Betweens (today's No. 25 top link), died over the weekend and is being memorialized by Aussies who loved him and his music. At No. 2 among bursty people is Australian journalist Richard Carleton, who died while covering the rescue of two miners trapped underground since April 25. Even viewers who weren't particularly endeared to his personality are mourning the loss.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 03:19 PM

It's not often that someone nudges into the No. 1-2 spots of the most-blogged-about personalities...spots usually reserved for President George Bush and the fictitious teenthrob Harry Potter. But comedian Steven Colbert has done it in a big way today, capturing No. 2 spot among BlogPulse's key people list for his "truthiness-inspired" speech at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night.

In fact, 18 of today's top 40 most-cited URLs/links embedded in blog entries refer directly to either footage of his roasting peformance or transcripts and news coverage of his biting commentary in front of the big whigs he lampoons nightly on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." Including the Prez himself, who apparently was not amused. Some of the one-liners from Colbert's talk make up four of the top five most-used phrases by bloggers.

When hackers attack
Elsewhere, some of the nation's right-leaning bloggers are recovering from a weekend denial-of-service attack that they claim was launched from computers somewhere in Saudi Arabia. The blogger at Urban Grounds has some pithy commentary on what's being called Internet Jihad.

Really?
Other curious discoveries in the blogosphere today...Daily Kos is hinting at a lobbyist-inspired sex ring in D.C.? MSNBC has some emerging scuttlebutt on the same issue. The Boston Globe's piece about hundreds of law that President Bush has tried to ignore/skirt is among the day's most-shared links, and Rush Limbaugh's guilty plea in a drug possession case in order to avoid prison is among today's top news stories.

Passings
Economics John Kenneth Galbraith, who died over the weekend at age 97, is today's burstiest person and is being remembered worldwide for his contributions to the study and knowledge of economics.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:28 AM

Oh sure, there's lots of unrest and frustration with today's political scene, and much of its capturedi n today's No. 2 most-cited blog post from Libercontrarian Nicholas Horianopoulos...about why he's' changing parties (again), this time from Libertarian to Independent. The comments are as insightful as Hornianpoulos' own disappointments.

Speaking of politics, we took a little BlogPulse poll, using the Trend Graph feature to track phrases that discuss the upcoming 2006 mid-term Congressional elections and the 2008 Presidential election. The Prez won.




Blasts from the past
Arthur J. Schlessinger, who served as an adviser to President John F. Kennedy, returns to the spotlight today (No. 3 most-blogged person) for this quote: "There is no more dangerous thing for a democracy than a foreign policy based on presidential preventive war," which is also today's fourth most-cited phrase in the blogosphere. Schlessinger made the statement in a Washington Post essay examining President Bush's final 1,000 days in office, today's 37th-most-cited news story.

Spy-ly speaking
Talking Points Memo has far more questions than "60 Minutes" had (today's No. 5 most-cited news link) for former CIA guy Tyler Drumheller, today's' No. 21 most-blogged personality.

Just for fun
Hey ladies! Always forgetting somtehing important when you grab the purse and run out the door? Thought so, which is why Gizmodo's RFID-enabled pursue is featured in one of today's most-read blog posts. It was developed at Simon Fraser University in Canada (RFID stands for radio frequency identification, a technology that uses tiny transmitters/receivers to track the movement or locations of items (or, what beeps when you walk out of a store with one of those tags that the clerk forgot to deactivate when you bought it. Hopefully). That piece links to another technology-enabled service, the Get out of Date Free card from SecureSingles, which sends you a pre-programmed bow-out message if your date's not going so swell.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:40 PM

Washington D.C. seems to be veritably dripping with leaks these days, as five of today's most-cited news stories have the word "leak" in their headlines. Coverage ranges from fired CIA agent Mary McCarthy (today's No. 5 most-blogged personality) to speculation that the Secretary of State has also been the source of leaks. Discuss.

Care to dance, monkey?
Some people are big-picture people, and that obviously applies to the creator of today's No. 10 most-cited link, Ernest Cline's Dance, Monkeys, Dance!" Anyone who attended grade school in the 1960s will remember the "ding!" sound from the film-strip format.

Got your agenda right here...
Other discoveries: The blogger at Angry Biscuit provides a bitey-tongue-in-cheeck (we think?) gay agenda for all of the "family" groups who have longed claimed there actually is such a thing. Dave Weiss' personalized tour of Microsoft's Macintosh lab has been among the most popular blog posts in the past few days, and TPM CAfe notes that no one's paying attention to bipartisan Congressional give-away of the Internet, which has led to a Save the Internet campaign.

Up, up and away...
And oh yeah: the phrase "gas prices" now has 49,701 blog results attached to it (and is the day's No. 24 most-cited phrase). Speaking of up and coming things, we turned to BlogPulse Trend Graphs today to gauge "buzz" about the upcoming 2006 Congressional mid-term elections and the 2008 Presidential election:

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 02:48 PM

Now that the long-rumored shake-up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is under way, pundits are beginning to speculate about who will replace the empty seats, particularly that of White House spokesman Scott McLellan, among the week's most-blogged-about personality. Will it be Tony Snow? Or others?

Will McClellan and the Wal-Mart smiley-face logo head into the reitrement sunset together? Among the discussions is biting analysis from Duckplops and some other bloggers' unanswered questions for the outgoing press spokesperson before he goes out.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:51 AM

You gotta hand it to this President of the United States: he likes to mix it up. Last week, he was being called the "leaker in chief" by others. This week, he's a self-declared "decider," (today's No. 5 most-cited news story) mostly because he's decided to keep Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (today's fifth most-cited personality) in place despite calls from six retired generals for Rumsfeld's replacement (and undoubtedly, we can only surmise, because the monker is so grammatically on par with his vast linguistic capabilities).

So here's a question: what would the President decide to do about the video featured in today's most-shared Web link...a video of graffiti artist Mark Ecko "tagging" (spray-painting) Air Force One? BoingBoing calls it "excellent faked video"...but Ecko's explanation is worth a listen.

Watergate deja vu
Someone with a strong opinion is writer Carl Bernstein, he of the 1970s Woodward-Bernstein duo who spearheaded journalistic investigations that led to the Watergate hearings and President Richard Nixon's resignation. His Vanity Fair essay calling for Senate hearings into the Bush Administraiton's policies (intelligence, war planning, domestic spying, competence) is today's fourth most-cited link. Discuss.

Star babies
The baby girl's name is Suri, and actress Katie Holmes and actor Tom Cruise are among today's most popularly blogged people because of the birth of their daughter...and because Tom actually said this (joking, one can only hope).

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:58 PM

The blog universe can be such a fickle place -- early in the week, liberal-leaning blogs were all over Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article about U.S. military plans for attacking Iran (since Sunday, it remains the blogosphere's top new story and most-cited link), while here at mid-week, conservative-leaning bloggers are all over the immigration rallies taking place throughout the U.S. But some of the best language on the debate comes from Hispanic blogger La Queen Sucia (today's No. 18 top blog post), who addresses point by point some of the issues raised in recently snarky e-mails she's received.

Which raises the issue: just what are the issues du jour over the past six months?A BlogPulse Trend Graph takes a look at some of them:




More language...about a boy's hat?
Gawker Media today recounts an e-mail exchange (today's No. 9 top blog post) among a group of New York parents over a lost-and-found post about a boy's hat. Garfield Ridge renames it the Park Slope Hat Spat, while a LiveJournaler might just prefer Amityville.

Phone jamming and other discoveries
The name of James Tobin appears among today's burstiest (No. 3) amid charges that some of the phone-jamming (for which Bush campaign operative Tobin has already been convicted) of Democratic call centers during the 2002 elections might have been directed from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Still speculation at this point.

Meanwhile, another country is looking at building another fence, the Engadget crowd reports that Microsoft's Vista has been successfully installed on a Mac (and Daring Fireball has more thoughts on Apple's Boot Camp Mac-to-Windows download), world traveler Michael J. Totten is trying to drive back into Iraq, and for beer lovers who also love ice cream, Ben & Jerry's is rolling out Black and Tan ice cream (today's No. 17 most-cited link). Fer real. Sold by the pint, one blogger points out.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:59 AM

Writer Seymour Hirsch, the reporter who uncovered torture at Abu Ghraib, is at it again (today's No. 2-3 buristest person) for writing a piece in the New Yorker (today's most-cited link and most-cited news story) that indicates the Bush Administration is promoting diplomacy on one hand but also developing plans for strategic bombing strikes against Iran in hopes of overthrowing another leader they don't like, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad (today's burstiest person).

Bloggers react
Once he gets through all the ramifications of such an undertaking The Belgravia Dispatch blogger asks a central question: could the current administration even carry out something as strategic as this (given its record for other "strategery," a la Katrina and neighboring Iraq and Social Security and immigration reform)? Is such a thing insane, asks the Gaelic Starover blogger, or does this administration have a thing against bearded Middle Eastern leaders, jokes Norbusiness? Regardless of one's opinion, Hersh's piece has generated quite a few of them, based on BlogPulse's Conversation Tracker.

So which war are people discussing most? The war in Iraq? A possible war against Iran? The war on poverty? A war against immigration? A BlogPulse trend graph looks at the word "war" against those four entities: Iraq, Iran, poverty, immigration:



BlogPulse in the news
MSNBC's Dateline Mank Blog by correspondent Josh Mankiewicz looks at the popular celeb-sighting blog Gawker, which some celebrities think is akin to blog stalking. BlogPulse provides weekly data to "Dateline" for the blog segment.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 03:56 PM

Bad behavior seems to be today's running theme, what with U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney the subject of an arrest warrant for her run-in with Capitol police and Homeland Security official Brian J. Doyle (today's No. 2 burstiest person) under arrest for soliciting a teen for sex over the Internet (today's No. 21 most-cited news story).

As for the former, Georgia blogger Dignan, self-described "idealist and dreamer wandreing in a desert of cynicism," is so embarrassed by his elected representative that he's announcing his candidacy for her seat in Congress (today's No. 29 top blog post). The Palm Tree Pundit calls it "good news for embarrassed Georgians."

As to the latter, Captain's Quarters blog calls Doyle's arrest the result of "the gang that couldn't vet straight" and questions the appointee screening process at federal levels. Under a "Shadenfreude" headline, Mahablog examines a variety of troubling issues that arise when a top-ranking Homeland Security official gives out personal information so freely on his headlong visit to a sting operation.

"The Awesome Deferred"
A piece at Something Awful is today's 17th most-cited link for doing a little math about the cost so far of the Iraq War...and what $250 billion (with a b) could have otherwise purchased...such as 45 skyscrapers, full four-year scholarships for 7.2 million students, and $16,000 and a plane ticket to the U.S. for every adult in Iraq. Discuss. And remember this?

Springy stuff
What do a person's thoughts turn to as spring approaches? A BlogPulse trend graph has a few hints...

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:07 AM

There's a little something for everyone today, and that includes the weekend re-design of the New York Times Web site, the topic of today's second most-cited news story and primary source of today's news for bloggers. Gawker Media likes the eventuality of some of the new features; Apartment Therapy wonders whether readability has been sacrificed for design.

No more 4 a.m. alarms for Katie
NBC's Katie Couric, the belle of the "Today Show," is today's ninth most-blogged-about personality for announcing she'll jump ship to anchor the CBS evening news. Who will take Katie's place?

Apple in 30
Today's No. 9 top blog post from Engadget details 30 years in Apple products, from the original Apple 1 to today's MacBook Pro. You've come a long way. So have keyboards, the top 10 weirdest of which are featured today at fosfor gadgets.

The GOP: In flux
Now that Rep. Tom DeLay has resigned from Congress, he's not only today's most-blogged-about person, he's also the subject of six of today's most-cited news stories and his party is under examination for its emerging role as a religious party, at least according to commentator Kevin Phillips. And maybe even . Sen. John McCain is joining the bandwagon?

Feminism's many challenges
Among today's top blog posts is Dr. Sanity's re-purposing of an interview about the custom of female circumcision, and one blogger's reaction honestly questions just which culture is obsessed with what kind of thinking.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 04:46 PM

Good vs. bad, good vs. evil. They're concepts that arise in the blogosphere on topics ranging from the state of the economy to the state of U.S. foreign policies.

One of today's top blog posts, from Caterina, raises the issue of starting a company in this economy....good or bad? Even though the discussion emanated in California, it's resonating in Germany and and elsewhere.

Over there
No. 4 among today's top blog posts comes from former UN Ambassador Madeline Albright, who puts forth the theory that "good vs. evil" may make sense in general thinking but not as foreign policy by a major superpower. The Art of War blogger, obviously, disagrees. The Letter from Here blogger gets nostalgic.

Passings...
Country music's Buck Owens is among today's most-blogged people. He died at age 76 over the weekend from heart failutre.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 02:14 PM

When the South Dakota legilsature recently passed what's thought to be one of the nation's toughest abortion laws, a blogger named Molly gained early March attention with her educational campaign for women.

Today, the campaign steps up a notch, such that today's top blog post and two most-cited links refer to the efforts of Cecilia Fire Thunder, president of the Oglala Sioux Reservation in Pine Ridge, S.D., to offer her reservation as the site for a Planned Parenthood clinic as a way to skirt the state and federal laws governing abortion. Their activism is aimed at S.D. Gov. Mike Rounds and state Sen. Bill Napoli, who's being challenged for his personal definition of a "simple rape," (as if it's his to decide?). He's been Googlebombed because of his comments. "Don't mess with Fire Thunder," says the blogger at After School Snack.

Other blog discoveries
Not sure what to make of us, but maybe a bar's not the best place to get drunk in Texas? And at least Dick Cheney doesn't ask the hotel staff to remove the brown M&M's from the candy dish.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 03:24 PM

It's a day for big shifts in thinking, starting with Sen. Russ Feingold, a possible 2008 Democratic presidential nominee and today's No. 2 burstiest person for proposing a vote today that would censure President George Bush (today's top top news story and No. 3 top blog post) for exceeding executive powers and ignoring judicial oversight for the NSA domestic spying program. Brilliant at Breakfast is obviously thrilled to see a Democrat with a backbone; blogger Don Surber calls it more adolescent politics. What does a BlogPulse trend graph say about the "i-word" vs. the "c-word"?



Chile Breaks the Gender Barrier
From the stage of world leaders comes Chile's gender-shifting decision to elect Michelle Bachelet (today's No. 16 most-blogged-about personality) as its first woman president (today's No. 3 most-cited news story). "Wouldn't it be something?..." says a wisftul U.S.-based Magpie blogger. Former Yugoslav presidetn Slobodan Milosevic is today's No. 3 top person after being found dead in his cell at The Hague over the weekend, and former Iraq President Saddam Hussein is in the news because apparently thought about what might happen in post-war Iraq...perhaps more than his country's "liberators" did?

Speaking out
Two people are capturing attention for speaking out, including former British soldier Ben Griffin, today's burstiest person because of an interview in which he describes his moral decision to leave the British military rather than continue fighting what he calls an immoral "mess" in Iraq. And at No. 15 among today's burstiest people is Dr. Wafa Sultan, a Syrian-born woman whose criticism of Muslim extremists (today's No. 6 most-cited news story) is bringing her praise...and death threats. "Meet the voice of reason," says one blogger; the blogger at Sisu offers perspective and background.

BlogPulse News
The Olympics are over, Josh Mankiewicz is back from vacation, and his Mank Blog is back on MSNBC's Dateline, which receives weekly blog data from BlogPulse.com and Technorati in a blogosphere roundup.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:46 AM

They come and they go, these issues of government-endorsed warrantless spying (today's No. 16 top blog post) and abortion restrictions, (No. 27 top link) but some things just arrive out of nowhere with an element of surprise, such as furry-looking lobsters, the subject of today's most-cited news story. Scientists have named it Kiwa hirsuta, but the blogger at TowlerRoad calls it something else: "gayest lobster ever."

That spying thing
Blogger Glenn Greenwald (today's No. 6 top blog post) chimes in with more analysis of the Senate Intelligence's Committee's so-called follow-through on the NSA domestic spying program, and analysis of his analysis says more about GOP party politics than actual follow-through.

Activist women return
Efforts to ban abortions in South Dakota have resurrected Molly's blog back to the No. 5 spot among top blog posts, and it's topped by other women's pointed-tongue scrutiny of Sen. Bill Napoli's description of the kind of rape that would qualify for coverage under the bill. Discuss? Napoli's today's second burstiest blog personality, and it all occurs in the wake of International Women's Day.

Sneak Peaks
Todays' top blog post provides a Tech Crunch sneak peak at Google's yet-unlaunched Calendar, called CL2. "Pretty cool," says a search engine blogger. Why the fervor, asks Geek Rant? And today's No. 7 top link offers a sneak peek at Windows Live. GoogleBlogoscoped tried it out.

Passings
Photographer, writer, composer and humanitarian Gordon Parks, the first African American photographer hired by Life magazine, is being remembered today by bloggers. He died Wednesday at age 93. "A true renaissance man," eulogizes blogger Mark Hamilton.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:23 AM

"Crash" crashed the Oscars Sunday night, and buzz about who won (and who didn't) captured 8 of today's top 10 key phrases, while movie celebs dominated the most-discussed people list as well. Celeb-discussion included nods to host Jon Stewart (at No. 2, mixed reviews), best supporting actor George Clooney (No. 3), best actress Reese Witherspoon (No. 5), supporting actress Rachel Weisz (No. 7), best actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (No. 8), and actress nominee Felicity Huffman (No. 9). Not to be outdone, Tom Cruise, Jenny McCarty, Rob Schneider and Paris Hilton took home Razzy Awards in today's 33rd-most-cited news story.

Creativity in Legos, on film
As someone who has wrestled with more than her share of Lego creations in the endeavor known as motherhood, let me congratulate the winners featured in Tech Blog's Top 10 Strangest Lego Creations, today's ninth-most-cited link (and I thought the helicopter thing was hard). Equally creative is today's No. 2, 4 and 7 most-cited links, the opening credits to "The Simpson's" acted by real people with real nuclear plant smokestacks and scaneed grocery-store babies. D'oh! says MorgansMinstrel at LiveJournal. Too much time on someone's hands? asks an otherwise impressed Laist blogger.

Leakbusters?
When the news leaks out, and it's rarely good, who's the White House gonna call? The FBI and CIA, apparently, according to today's most-cited news story from The Washington Post, which is threatening news reporters with espionage laws for "leaks." Conversation is already fairly hefty.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:34 AM

The next political wedge issue may be brewing now in the state that ranks, populationwise, No. 46 among 50: South Dakota, where legislators are pushing through a bill that would ban most abortions (today's burstiest phrase) for the state's 770,883 residents.

News of the bill's passage is found in seven of today's top links and six of today's most-cited news stories. State Sen. Julie Bartling, the bill's sponsor, is today's burstiest person, followed at No. 2 by Kate Looby, director of the state's only abortion clinic. "The Supreme Court has been loaded and they are ready," observes one LiveJournaler. The Centrist blogger invites all South Dakotans to Massachusetts as an alternative. Funny, says the native New Wisdom blogger, how a state can move into the future and past at the same time.

Did Bill O'Reilly REALLY say that?
Media Matters is today's No. 12 most-cited news item for featuring Bill O'Reilly's newest (and verbatim) proposal for an Iraq war policy: "the only solution to this is to hand over everything to the Iraqis as fast as humanly possible" because "[t]here are so many nuts in the country -- so many crazies -- that we can't control them." Isn't that this? Is he, as the Moderate Left blogger suggests, embracing his inner liberal?

Issues in perspective
A BlogPulse trend graph highlights what's on blogger's minds when it comes to the day's pressing issues:

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:50 AM

When mean-spirited, anti-gay protesters show up at the military funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, who you gonna call? The Patriot Guard Riders, that's who, and they're the subject of today's second-most-shared link among bloggers. As one of the group's cycle-ridin' leaders (and burstiest blog person) Don Woodrick explains eloquently: “The most important thing we can do is let families know that the nation cares. When a total stranger gets on a motorcycle in the middle of winter and drives 300 miles to hold a flag, that makes a powerful statement."

The bikers are showing up, sometimes thousands strong, to drown out protesters and shield families from protesters organized by Fred Phelps, a so-called minister at a Kansas church who organizes tasteless protests at military funerals. Good for them! says one blogger of the bikers' efforts. Another LiveJournaler calls the guys on wheels "patriotism at its finest."

Re-classifying once-public documents
When does a public document become secret again? And who decides? That's the discussion taking place, based on a New York Times story detailing a massive re-classification of once-public documents at the National Archives by government intelligence agencies (today's top news story). ChangeLog puts the effort in the same category as 1984. "This is not how democracy works," insists Shakespeare's Sister. Norwegianity chalks it up to more scary tactics from "Republican Bizarro World." It took a few pages of blog comments to find one (Discarded Lies) that called the move much ado about nothing.

Dead parrot, anyone?
Find out why I can't contain my excitement at the BlogPulse Spotlight blog.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:35 AM

If the Bush White House thought that trying to keep Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident under wraps would work, they were absolutely wrong. Cheney is today's most blogged-about person, and his (ahem) athletic skills are stealing the the show from now-withdrawn Olympic skater Michelle Kwan (No. 3) and snowboarding gold-medalist Shaun White (No. 4).



Moreover, nine of today's most-cited news stories and seven of the day's most-shared links deal with the hunting accident, in which Cheny shot 78-year-old attorney Harry Whittington in the face and chest (today's second and third most-cited phrases) while quail hunting. By comparison, a web site offering coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics ranked No. 14 among today's top links. Blogger analyses of the Veep who couldn't shoot straight range from "birds of mass destruction" to "holy shades of schadenfreude."

When bloggers dissent
One of the week's most popular blog posts so far comes from Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory, who examines the "liberal" and "conservative" labels and how they play out in the blogosphere. Interesting reading for anyone curious about political influence that's spilled over into the blogosphere.

Did you remember Valentine's Day?
If you forgot your sweetie on this Hallmark day of days, check out today's No. 27 top link from GlassGiant.com: a web site where you can make your own romance novel cover and share it. Says one LiveJournaler: "It's just like being published, without all that annoying writing..."

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:59 AM

What is there to say when the morning headlines report that the Vice President of the United States (today's most blogged-about person) shot a hunting buddy with buckshot while quail-hunting? It's today's top news story and most-cited link. Plenty, if you ask bloggers, who've used everything from Elmer Fudd references (check out the poetic comment) to the term "cheneyquidick" to analyze what happened...and to wonder why the incident wasn't acknowledged for 24 hours? Katharine Armstrong, the owner of the ranch where the shooting occured, is today's burstiest person.

Pillar...of information
Also attracting attention is former CIA analyst Paul Pillar (today's seventh burstiest person), who's now going public with his assessment of the Bush Administration's use of pre-Iraq War intelligence, saying it was "cherry-picked" to justify a war (today's No. 14 top news story).

Kwan's Olympic hopes dashed
You gotta give her an award for integrity and grace: U.S. Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan (today's No. 3 most-blogged-about personality) promised she'd withdraw if she couldn't perform at 100% in Torino, and she did just that over the weekend, opening a door for Emily Hughes (second burstiest person) on the U.S. team. The blogger at Peacebang awards a gold regardless, while another blogger isn't as kind.

Anticipation?
Having watched 12 inches of snow fall on the Baltimore area Saturday and Sunday, I had to wonder: how many folks were thinking of a "snow day" today? A BlogPulse trend graph takes a look:

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:53 AM

How curious, don't you think, that at a time when the U.S. is waging war ostensibly to spread democracy around the world, one of the fundamentals of democracy itself ("right to free speech" is today's 38th-most-cited blog phrase) seem to be in the crosshairs of international and national discussion.

The right to speak up is discussed in several contexts, such as the messages that civil rights leader such as the Rev. Joseph Lowery (today's No. 11-12 burstiest person) and former President Jimmy Carter delivered earlier this week at the funeral of Coretta Scott King (today's most-cited phrase). Some observers were offended that pointed political messages were intermixed with tributes...and delivered to an audience that included President George Bush. ThinkProgress provides today's No. 5 top blog post, which is video of the standing ovation that Lowry received.

Cartoon perspective
Columnist Amir Taheri is today's fourth burstiest person for an editorial he wrote in the Wall Street Journal Online that explains the Muslim underpinnings...or lack thereof...for outrage over cartoons portraying the prophet Muhammed (today's No. 6 top news story) in the Middle East and elsewhere. Other notable personalities: editors at the New York Press who walked off the job this week (today's No. 3 blog post) when their publisher refused to publish the cartoons.

What is the NSA REALLY doing?
Even Republicans are curious now, which is why Rep. Heather A. Wilson is today's No. 2 burstiest person, now that she's called for a full-scale investigation of the Bush Administration's domestic spying program at the NSA (today's third-most-cited news story). Fear of political failure, writes the LawandPolitics blogger, is the great motivator. Other bloggers offer their assessments of the heightened NSA scrutiny, and a BlogPulse trend graph looks at what bothers people most these days:



AIDS cure?
Today's second most-cited news story tells of a possible AIDS breakthrough, and comments are already starting.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:51 AM

When is an editorial or political cartoon offensive, and who defines offensive? The issue is boiling in the blogosphere today, over European cartoons (today's No. 7 top news story) that have angered Muslims around the world (today's No. 8 top phrase) and a Washington Post cartoon that has angered the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Blogger Michelle Malkin, in fact, has taken up the issue in several to-ranked blog posts today.

DeLay's successor
No sooner had Ohio Rep. John Boehner (today's 14th burstiest person) been elected as the new majority-party leader of the House of Representatives than the scrutiny started from various camps.

When you're No. 1, everybody takes a shot
During the week that Oscar nominations were announced, parodies of the much-nominated film "Brokeback Mountain" also made appearances on BlogPulse, including Mighty McPilgrim's "Broke Mac Mountain" (a computer funny and today's 30th most-shared link) and "Brokeback to the Future," (today's most-shared link) which features clips of old "Back to the Future" episodes.

That was some FAST backpedalling
President Bush swore Tuesday night that the U.S. is addicted to oil. Two of the country's high-level bureaucrats/departements swore just a day later that, well, it's not quite true. Especially if you don't want to upset those Middle East countries that like selling the U.S. their oil.

Oscar buzz
Today, BlogPulse trend graphs look at buzz for this year's Oscar-nominated directors:

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:40 PM

The charges have already been dropped, but the damage has been done over anti-war activist and Gold Star Mom Cindy Sheehan's arrest (today's top news story) for "unlawful conduct." Her crime? As a ticketed audience member, she wore an T-shirt to President Bush's State of the Union speech Tuesday night that read: "2,245 Dead. How Many More?" Cindy's version of the events appears several times among today's top blog entries and most-shared links, at Daily Kos and on Michael Moore's web site.

You gotta wonder: would charges have been dropped if another woman, a certain Beverly Young, a Congressman's WIFE, hadn't been removed (but not arrested) as well for wearing a "Support Our Troops" T-shirt? Young is today's burstiest person; Sheehan is nipping at the President's heels again, literally and figuratively. Blogger Glenn Greenwald calls it like he sees it: "completely disgraceful." Says another blogger: "tactical mistake."

Let's just hope they don't start dancing in iPod commercials
Sen. Ted Stevens, 82, bragging about his iPod? Weirder things have happened on Capitol Hill, I'm sure, but some bloggers think it's time all Senators who are called to vote on issues such as copyright laws and new technologies at least understand what the heck they're talking about. Hence, iPac Action (today's No. 30 most-shared link) is asking bloggers to donate cash to buy iPods for Congress.

Oscar Buzz
Over the next few weeks, BlogPulse will deploy its trend graphs to track buzz about the 2005 Oscar nominations. Today, a look at the men nominated for best supporting actor...



...and the women nominated for best supporting actress.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:02 AM

"Embedded reporters," a defining practice of the ongoing war in Iraq, took a very personal turn over the weekend when ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt (today's two burstiest people) were seriously injured in a roadside bomb explosion (today's 10th-most-cited news story) while on patrol with Iraqi troops near Bagdhad. The Moderate Voice blogger provides perpsective about the dangers of journalism and Woodruff's friendship with the late reporter David Bloomfield, a print reporter who died of a lung blood clot in 2003 in Iraq.

Muzzling scientists?
So over the weekend, my husband and I decided to take a mid-winter January walk through downtown Cincinnati, supposedly the coldest winter month. We saw: outdoor market vendors selling wares in 60-degree weather, people picnicking in parks, teens lobbing Frisbees in T-shirts and a line out the door at an ice cream parlor. So why is the Bush Administration trying to stifle the scientific opinions of NASA scientist and global warming expert Dr. James Hansen (No. 8 among the day's bursty people and the subject of the day's most-cited news story). Ambivablog sees bureaucratic danger ahead, Will Robinson. Only in New Mexico sees shades of Big Brother, while Kaseido lumps the latest saga into the ongoing Bush war on reality. A BlogPulse trend graph shows a definite spike in interest about global warming during the 2004 hurricane season:



BlogPulse on Dateline: BlogPulse is a regular data contributor to NBC's "Dateline," and Josh Mankiewicz' Sunday Mank Blog looks at what bloggers buzzed about last week...namely, Oprah Winfrey's truth take-down of A Million Little Pieces author James Frey.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:49 AM

Remember when blue staters, distraught at the results of the 2004 U.S. Presidential election, swore they'd move to a free-thinking, more liberal Canada? Not any more, not since Conservative Stephen Harper (today's third most-cited person by bloggers) ousted Liberal Paul Martin in Canada's parliamentary elections this week.

The web site for Canadian election results is today's No. 17 top link). and the CBC's Canada Votes 2006 site comes in at No. 37. Blogger Brian Maloney at RadioEqualizer looks at the impact of Canadian bloggers and talk radio on the election and the electorate. Watersblogged wonders if a U.S. network would use Shakespearean metaphors (as the CBC did) to cover an election? And a LiveJournaler compares the results to "a live grenade" down Paul Martin's pants.

U.S. conservative blogger Michelle Malkin gives sole credit for the Liberal meltdown to Minnesota-based Captain's Quarters Blog, while Captain's Quarters predicts "Canada is about to erupt." Time will tell....

But wait! A curious blogosphere juxtaposition is today's 12th-most-cited news story from the Christian Science Monitor, "Triumph of the redistributionist left," about emerging victories by American liberals on issues of federal spending, foreign policy and fiscal responsibility. Really? Says the unabrewer blogger: "The right is no longer on the right."

Bush posing with Abramaoff: the enigmatic photos
South of the Canadian border, U.S. Republicans can't seem to run away from former lobbyist Jack Abramoff fast enough, and the President is looking for distance, too. Bush originally said he really didn't know the guy, but now that photos of the two together are emerging (today's fourth-most-cited news story), White House officials are blaming it on "coincidence" (No. 22 top link) and routine get-togethers at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (as if just anyone gets invited to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for parties).

Attack of the...octopus?
Glow-in-the-dark pigs have been replaced this week by a giant squid that attacked a submarine...the topic of today's seventh-most-cited news story.

Passings...
Today's burstiest person is popular Manila DJ Ernie Baron, who died this week.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:47 AM

Former Vice President Al Gore (today's fifth most-blogged personality) keeps making speeches that pop him into public consciousness again, and this time, his lambasting of the Bush Administration over its domestic spying program is the fuel that's stoking the blog fires (and ranking as today's most-cited news story). On the federal Martin Luther King holiday, he noted that Dr. King himself was wiretapped by the FBI after being declared "dangerous individual.

In fact, today's top blog posts feature several references to Gore's speech and the topic of spying. Crooks & Liars provides highlights as today's No. 4 blog post, the Los Angeles Times editorializes about the perils of unchecked power, Think Progress hints at that pesky old "i" word again and the Zogby Poll announces "i"-related opinion results.

Women rule, literally
Two women took charge of countries this week: President Michelle Bachelet in Chile (today's 10th most-cited person) and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia.

The 2007 war?
Today's 17th most-cited link among bloggers is an essay by Harvard historican Niall Ferguson, speculating on the potential causes of the War of 2007. Prediction or history repeating itself, the bloggers wonder?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 04:19 PM

From the "people/stuff you've probably not heard about before" department comes a few tidbits from today's blog discoveries.

Unknown hardware:
From the time it was hinted at in 2005, the Optimus keyboard has drawn plenty of curious interest, and as the source of today's most-shared link, it may soon be a commercial reality. Starting Feb. 1. Engadget has the scoop on this multi-task keyboard development from Russia-based Art Lebedev Studio. ShaolinTiger calls in the "best keyboard in the world." The BlogPulse Spotlight provides more analysis.

Unknown general:
Identifying himself only as "General Wager," a Vietnam vet has a few choice words for Sen. John Murtha at a town hall meeting...and then walks out when Murtha responds. Michelle Malkin provides a link to the C-Span video (today's No. top blog post). Discussion leans mostly right.

Unknown privacy invasions?
Did you know that cell phone records are for sale? That's the top of today's most-shared news story, from the crime reporter of the Chicago Sun-Times. MediaGirl.org calls it "Big Brother: Free-market style."

Unknown men
Also among today's blog disucssions are the names of two men, recognized for vastly different reasons. First is Hugh Thompson, a Vietnam vet (and today's No. 26 burstiest person) who died of cancer last week. He's best known as being a 24-year-old helicopter pilot who intervened and helped put an end to the slaughter of the residents of the village of My Lai. MarineCorpsMoms offers a tribute. Also on the list is 100-year-old Albert Hoffman, the Swiss inventor of LSD, and the subject of a New York Times article that's today's No. 4 top link.

The joke's on you?
For topical grins, check out today's No. 18 top link titled "Dean's Song," appropriate with the start of today's confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Judge Samuel Alito. But if you're looking for the best blonde joke ever (the subject of today's top blog post), I get the feeling the joke's on you. You can keep clicking, and clicking, and clicking, and....

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:42 AM

It's pretty well known that the Chinese government often censors bloggers or blocks the URLs to blog sites it doesn't like. But is MSN Spaces is on the act, too? That's the question raised in today's most popular blog post, by Rebecca McKinnon, founder of Global Voices Online, at RConversation, "Microsoft Takes Down Chinese Blogger." She provides plenty of details about how certain phrases, words are blocked by servers, linking the take-down to MSN Spaces.

Blogger reaction? "Microsoft serves the great red firewall," observes blogger San Bei Ji. "Is globalization exporting censorship?" asks a MetaFilter discussion (and the conclusion: yes). Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble's not happy either and has offered the Chinese blogger space on his own blog, risk-free.

Nervous nellies in D.C.
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff is the blogosphere's third most-discussed person today after pleading guilty on Monday (today's No. 2 top news story) to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy -- and agreed to cooperate with investigators by spilling the beans, apparently, on leglislators who succumbed to his donations and influence. ThinkProgress outlines the issue in a post called "The House That Jack Built" (today's No. 8 blog post). So far, former Speaker Tom DeLay and Ohio Congressman Bob Ney have been linked to Abramoff:



Read the comments at WizBang!'s recap, and you'll discover that many folks hope BOTH parties learn a lesson, clean house and adopt federal term limits for Congress.

A Soldier's Father Speaks: A Life Wasted?
Today's 20th most-cited news story is a touching essay by the father of a soldier who died in Iraq. "Though it hurts, I believe that his death -- and that of the other Americans who have died in Iraq -- was a waste. They were wasted in a belief that democracy would grow simply by removing a dictator -- a careless misunderstanding of what democracy requires. They were wasted by not sending enough troops to do the job needed in the resulting occupation -- a careless disregard for professional military counsel.

"But their deaths will not be in vain if Americans stop hiding behind flag-draped hero masks and stop whispering their opposition to this war. Until then, the lives of other sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers may be wasted as well."

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:10 AM

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.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:30 AM

Big Brother? Are you there?

Recent revelations that President Bush used executive powers to approve domestic spying on U.S. citizens by the National Security Agency (NSA) dominates blog buzz. In fact, eight of today's top 10 blog posts discuss the issue -- with far-ranging reactions. And today's most-cited news story, from Newsweek, gives the entire affair a not-so-original name: "Snoopgate."

In today's top blog post, for example, Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly asks bluntly: "What kind of program is so intrusive that even Republicans, even with 9/11 still freshly in mind, wouldn't have supported it? At Defense Tech (No. 4 blog post), reactions from current/former intelligence workers range from "mildly creeped out" to "completely p'd off" (caution: offensive language). The Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal Online raves about the presidential powers (No. 5). Talking Points Memo (No. 6) provides evidence of Congressional concern in July 2003. Atrios/Eschaton (No. 7) quotes from a 2004 President Bush speech that contradicts (imagine that!) the President's current explanations. PowerLine bloggers (No. 8) trust the President. The Volokh Conspiracy (No. 9) provides legal background and tenatively thinks Bush's order "probably violated" federal law. Ameriblog (No. 10) wonders who's defining "terrorist" when gay/lesbian meetings are being monitored.

Put on the Big Apple walking shoes
Also in today's top blog posts is an entry from GOP and the City, which details some of the financial ramifications associated with the transit strike in New York City. The union behind the strike, TWU Local 100, has its own blog, and it's today's No. 7 most-cited blog.

Spying or striking?
A BlogPulse trend graph shows nearly equal concern for both issues:

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:32 AM

It hasn't even popped up in the blogosphere yet, but dontcha wanna bet that JibJab's Year-End Round-Up 205 mini-movie (and its companion (pardon our language, but the title really IS Farting Elves)), will soon be among the most popular pass-around videos on the Internet? Buzz is already starting...

All things cute...
Sure, there's plenty of discussion about what Iraq's parliamentary elections will mean to the future of everything (Iraq the Model is today's No. 3 top blog). And course, there's continued consternation about the U.S. government spying on its own citizens. But today's most-shared web link is about cuteness, from Cute Overload.com, where folks scour the 'net for "only the finest in cute imagery." Like little squirrels and puppies and kitties and baby deer. If you like stuff with fur and feathers, you'll love this. Your typical reaction can be an understated "cute!" or a more dramatic "someone pass me the sick bowl."

Seismic shifts
President Bush finally admitted that pre-war intelligence was less-than-solid (today's No. 4 top news story). Reactions? "It's about damn time," says Brian Mathes. Or as The All Spine Zone sees it, "accepting responsiblity means never having to say you're sorry."

Holiday buzz
If you're wondering who's winning when it comes to holiday buzz buildup...only BlogPulse knows....and the findings are pretty surprising.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:17 AM

Enter The Air Marshalls
A grim sort of landmark was passed in Miami yesterday — U.S. air marshals shot and killed a man for the first time since they've been a fixture on American flights. CNN's take is our no. 2 top link, and the man, an American citizen named Rigoberto Alpizar, is our no. 3 burstiest person. By all appearances, the air marshals acted exactly as their procedures specify, and some bloggers seem to be saying Alpizar was asking for it: "If a man claims to have a bomb in his bag, ignores orders from federal officers to freeze, and then reaches into his bag, he deserves to be shot. More importantly, said officers have a duty to shoot to prevent the reasonable likelihood of harm to themselves and others. That there was no bomb is sad but irrelevant," wrote Outside the Beltway. Now that the initial confusion has passed, mASS BACKWARDS is looking forward to the backstory, which he suspects will follow a pattern: "Get ready now for the interviews from the family of the deceased describing what a nice, young man he was. Or how he had recently stopped taking his medication, or that he was acting out of desperation brought on by the racist economic policies of the Bush/Rove cabal, or ________ [insert sob story of your choosing here]." Ok, we're ready.

An Unexpected Soldier In The War On Christmas
Though they control the federal government and a majority of the states, Christians somehow also are a persecuted minority in the United States (who compose almost 80 percent of the population) and their winter holiday, Christmas (which also is a federal holiday) is under constant attack. Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Dennis Hastert and others have been railling aginst the expression "Happy Holidays," instead of "Merry Christmas," because when you include people who celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa in your generic seasonal greeting, that somehow hurts Jesus. But guess who the latest ultra-leftist East Coast secular elite Christmas-hater is? Why, President Bush. In today's top link, The WaPo details how the White House sent out greeting cards this month that with people a happy "holiday season." Listen to this response, placed high up in the story: "Bush "claims to be a born-again, evangelical Christian. But he sure doesn't act like one," said Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com. "I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it." Bloggers are certainly reacting to this, too. "Granted, he's spearheaded a war that's killed untold thousands, which is as Christian a thing as you can do, but that "holiday" thing is nearly unforgiveable. He'll have to start an Inquistion or something to make up for it," is the bitter rejoinder from Pandagon. Now, now! That sort of rhetoric clearly goes against the holiday spirit.

And Then There's The New Variety of Coke...
Other picks from today's BlogPulse report include a story about Coke's new product, a coffee-infused cola, which, it seems, you should've patented after you invented it during that all-nighter before your sophomore chemistry final... Vitriolic patriot Michelle Malkin has a roundup of encomiums to our fighting men in the Pearl Harbor attack, which was 64 years ago yesterday... And the word of the year for 2005 was "podcast," which we approve of — at least they didn't pick "holla."

Perfect Gifts For The Bloggers In Your Life
This year you probably have more than a few bloggers on your Christmas — er, Holiday — List; short of more readers, more bandwidth, or a whole new computer system, what should you get them? Permit us to suggest a visit to The BlogPulse Gear Depot, where you'll find ideal presents for lefties, righties, geekoids and... ah... are there other kinds of bloggers?

Posted by Philip Ewing at 04:48 PM

Democrat Howard Dean is today's third most-blogged-about personality and retired Gen. Wesley Clark's op-ed piece in the New York Times is today's No. 21 most-shared link...and both are getting attention for offering their own ideas and strategies for winding down the invasion of Iraq intelligently and with as little life lost as possible. Conservative bloggers, including Captain's Quarters and Michelle Malkin (among today's top blog posts) don't like Howard; Malkin resorts to "Howard the Coward" name-calling in her defense of endless "stay the course" lectures from the White House. This, of course, in the week when the government received failing grades from the 9/11 Commission on instituting recommendations to keep the country safe (today's 15th most-cited news story).

Movements afoot
Tidbits from here and there: more TV shows are now available as iPod downloads, reports Engadget (today's No. 6 top blog post), and an University of Kansas religion professor is stirring the pot by proposing to teach Intelligent Design as part of a religion class on "mythologies." And guess what the 2005 word of the year is? Podcast. (Last year's was "blog.")

On the gridiron
The National Football Season is getting to the stage of being interesting, so we plotted a BlogPulse trend graph comparing blog buzz about the division-leading AFC teams....

...and buzz about their division-leading NFC counterparts...



We admit it; we're biased...go Bengals!

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:16 AM

On the same day that President Bush delivered yet another major speech about "staying the course" in Iraq, four hostages from a group called Christian Peacemaker (including Norman Kember and James Loney, among the week's burstiest personalities) were held by insurgents. So which phrases resonate most with bloggers: "exit strategy" or "withdraw troops," vs "stay the course" or "support the mission" in Iraq? The November "exit strategy" bubble is no doubt influenced by Rep. John Murtha's comments calling for a timetable for withdrawal.



Canadian Liberals get hosed
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin is on the outs, based on this week's no-confidence vote in his scandal-torn Liberal Party. Dust My Broom sees possible trade/U.S. influence in the goings-on, and a LiveJournaler notes that Americans could learn a thing or two from the Canadian 36-day election cycle.

A kiss is...more than a kiss
Speaking of Canada, that's where a teenage girl died this week from a deadly reaction to peanuts...after her boyfriend (who'd eaten a PBJ hours before) kissed her. Christian Desforges is among the week's burstiest people and has triggered plenty of media coverage about peanut allergies.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:56 AM

Judging by today's blog discussions, you'd think that nearly everyone in Washington D.C. is or has been involved in clandestine, secret, closed-door, anonymous-source meetings, and has been doing so for a long time.

Washington Post editor (and Watergate reporter) Bob Woodward is today's burstiest person and third most-discussed personality for revealing that one of his sources (still unnamed) told him Valerie Plame/Wilson was a CIA operative almost a month before now-indicted Lewis "Scooter" Libby allegedly told New York Times reporter Judith Miller. Is special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald a bumbling Clousea? wonders Wizbang blog? Will the late admission tarnish Woodward's reputation? wonders The Moderate Voice. Promethus 6 points out that Libby's been indicted for obstructing justice, not leaking anyone's name. Which raises the point: who WAS Woodward's source (hmmmm...where have we heard that question before?)

A BlogPulse trend graph tracks Woodward-related buzz in May (when Deep Throat's identity as the secret Watergate source was revealed) and now:



More secret meetings: oil execsToday's second most-shared news story details what some have suspected for a while: that leading oil company executives met with Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force in 2001, according to documents uncovered by the Washington Post, despite repeated denials from Cheney (today's top key phrase) and the execs. "No wonder we're running out of oil," comments the Sierra Club; the blogger at Thoughts of an Average Woman is outraged.

Google...again
But what's utmost on bloggers' minds? Google, of course, which this week launched Google Base (today's top blog post), a new service allowing users to load content (including free classified ads, job postings, etc.) to Google's database. "Yuck" and "ugly," says TechCrunch; a "major undertaking," says John Battelle at SearchBlog; "time will tell" says SearchEngineWatch.

Foreign media only?
>Can't help but notice that only foreign media, particularly the BBC, (today's 9th-most-cited news story) have been covering the use of "white phosphorus" (a flesh-burning agent, similar to napalm) by U.S. troops during the assault on Fallujah. We've found the chemical weapons, says twistedchick at Free Speech Zone...and they're ours?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:36 AM

When a Republican-dominated Senate begins to stand up to White House policy, and when Arianna Huffington has a late-night "chillin' " dinner with Iraqi Ahmad Chalabi, you know strange hook-ups are happening on the political front. It's all captured in the blogosphere today.

Revisionist spin for all!
The current wave of paradigm shifting comes at a time when President Bush's approval ratings are at all-time lows (today's No. 2 top news story) and observers are questioning Bush's war policies and spin (today's 4th most-shared news story) and what one op-ed writer (No. 8 news story) calls "scare tactics." Slate examines the new "I was wrong but so were you" thinking (No. 9 top news story). Republicans are responding (today's No. 9 top link) with a new video of high-ranked Democrats vowing their 2002 support for toppling Saddam Hussein and some conservatively righteous indignation (no pun intended, really). Revisionist reactions abound. (Shouldn't the core question be about which commander-in-chief knew the entire truth about WMD and other Iraq issues and did/didn't share it in 2002 before asking for Congressional support?)

Should we stay in Iraq or start to figure out how to leave with honor (hmmm...when have I heard that phrase before)? A BlogPulse trend graph tracks buzz. Note: the August spike coincices with Marine mom and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's visit to the Bush vacation ranch in Texas.



Drink up, kids!
lf you thought the folks at Jones Soda couldn't top last year's turkey-and-dressing-flavored cola, you were wrong (today's No. 14 top link). Potential taste-tester reactions to salmon-flavored soda range from an understated "ewwww" to a slightly more gastronomic "my guts are lurching" (from the aptly named Crusty Stinkersquirt) to a heady "oh, the prescience!" headline at iracane.com. (Thanks, but I'll stick with RC Cola).

Explain, please?
I want no-tax-but-still-spend Republicans to explain this (really? a fiscal hurricane?) and I want intelligent design's proponents to explain this.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:13 AM

If Tuesday's election results prove anything, it's that kids in Kansas and kids in Dover, Pa., may soon be taking very different science tests...or that intelligent design supporters may fleeting one-termers when it comes to their 15 minutes of fame. Discussion about the divergent votes in two states dominates the blogosphere today, capturing 12 of today's top links, two of the day's today's two top key phrases and throwing at least five school board members into the limelight among the day's 10 burstiest people.

Here's what happened: on Tuesday, the Kansas Board of Education adopted new science standards (today's top three news stories) that approve intelligent design -- the thinking that life evolved with the help of a higher power -- as part of a curriculum that sheds doubt on Charles Darwin's (scientifically accepted) theory of evolution. Also on Tuesday, voters in Dover, Pa., tossed off the school board an entire slate of candidates who had supported intelligent design. Foreign news sources seem as interested in the news as did U.S. media.

And here's the reaction: Panda's Thumb, today's top blog post, notes that incoming members of the Dover school board support intelligent design...but in comparative religion classes, not the science lab. As for the state from which Dorothy Gale hails, "What's the matter with Kansas?" asks blogger Joe Gandelman, who notes that the board's decision also redefines science "so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena." Pharnygula, in fact, says Kansas offspring will be taught the equivalent of "slippery twaddle." The Ratcliffe blog guessed correctly -- that the vote would just fuel the fires of the Flying Spaghetti Monster believers, who are back at No. 5 among today's top links (with more T-shirts! Halloween FSM costumes! Car magnets!). A BlogPulse trend graph also tracks the discussion:



Flip flops?
More than a few bloggers are pointing out that the text of the Texas' Tuesday-passed man-woman-only marriage amendment, if read literally, bans marriage altogether. Mother Jones raises the question. Also raising questions are reporters who want to know why the White House changed change the transcript of a White House press briefing from Scott McClellan saying "that's accurate" to Scot McClellan saying "I don't think that's accurate." Frankly, I don't think that's right.

And a little something for the brain
Don't forget to waste time checking out the Blue Ball Machine.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:18 AM

Technical and Internet innovations move to front-and-center today, including a sneak peak at Yahoo!'s new maps from Jeremy Zawodny (today's No. 2 top blog post). SearchViews likes the new features, including multi-point driving directions; Tom Rafferty is less-than-impressed.

Microsoft's Live
This week, Microsoft also pulled the veil off its new portal page, Live. The beta version has already inspired so-so reviews from Joel on Software (today's No. 4 top blog post). Gear Live wonders, "is Microsoft scrambling?" to compete with Google and OpenOffice.org? Other techie issues being debated in the blogosophere include bloggers' discovery of anti-piracy embedded rootkits in Sony BMG compact discs and the launch of Google Print, a scannable libary of 10,000 books.

Heck of a job, Brownie...
One more reason to be careful what you say in your work emails: they might come back to haunt you. Especially if you're former FEMA director Mike Brown, who's back in the not-so-flattering limelight (today's 12th-most blogged-about personality) because of the online publication of some of the e-mails he sent during and after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast (today's most-shared link) and No. 3 top news story). The Louisiana Congressman who got access to the emails posted them online. In a Sept. 4 exchange, a FEMA rep advised: "In this crises (sic) or on TV you just need to look more hard-working...ROLLL UP YOUR SLEEVES." During exchanges about breached levees, missing Superdome roof tiles and ice shipments, Brown jokes about his clothing and asks for dog-sitter recommendations. Read 'em...and yeah, sigh. (Then weep). Maybe those kinds of emails explain these kinds of poll results (today's No. 5 news story)?

Riots in Paris
Today's 7th-most-shared news story, about riots in Muslim and immigrant neighborhoods of Paris, are worrisome to bloggers because of what they portend for the U.S., as La Shawn Barber points out. Other perspectives come from Gateway Pundit, an American in Paris and Blogs of War.

Quicker BlogPulse results
BlogPulse's speed and performance underwent some significant tweaks this week, and bloggers have noticed.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:18 AM

The same conservatives who blasted Harriet Miers as a possible Supreme Court judge are welcoming President Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito, who is today's burstiest person among bloggers (ranking behind only Harry Potter).

Alito's nomination also consumes 25 of today's top 40 blog posts, with reactions ranging from Think Progress' crstyal-ball examination of America's future with Alito on the bench to PoliPundit's number-crunching about Alito's chances of being voted in or out. PowerLine bloggers are tallying votes, too.

A BlogPulse trend graph shows that Harriet Miers captured much more intense discussion throughout her brief nomination period:




Alito Analysis
The Volokh Conspiracy looks at the influence of religion (that is, Catholicism) on the Supreme Court, Blue Mass. Group takes a liberal's view of Alito's kind of law, and The Rude Pundit is well, mad AND extremely rude (no link; it's THAT rude). Taegan Goddard predicts an "epic battle" over the nomination.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:32 AM

It's Halloween today, and for those who want to have a little fun, today's No. 5 top blog post offers us a cornucopia of recipes for Halloween-themed dishes, such as Buttered Brains (using spaetzle) and roasted pumpkins seeds (for anyone who saves the pumpkin guts). Speaking of pumpkin guts, if you prefer a virtual pumpkin, carve one digitally at today's No. 13 top link. And speaking of OTHER guts, who knew "Saw II" would have such a great weekend at the box office? Halloween enthusiasts, obviously:



Indictment fallout
The Booman Tribune, (appropriately named as today's top blog post), offers one of many assessments of last Friday's indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Joining the discussion is former ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose Los Angeles Times column "Our 27 Months of Hell" (today's No. 10 blog post) discusses what's ahead for his now-outed wife. Other reaction ranges from calls for Karl Rove to be fired or resign while the investigation continues, to Don Surber's analysis of what he calls a "dumb case."

Curiosities in blogging
Bloggers did a curious thing over the weekend: attacked (No. 2. top blog post for Saturday) and chewed up (No. 4) a Forbes magazine article titled "Attack of the Bloggers" (Saturday's No. 19 top news story; registration required). From here, seems like PR pro Jeremy Pepper took the high-road perspective at WebProNews.

Blogosophere here and there
Prince Charles will try to talk some sense into President George Bush about Islam, the TaxProfBlog takes a look at oil company profits and their effect on taxation, battle lines already are being drawn over President Bush's latest nomination for the Supreme Court and Trekkies are absorbing last week's announcement that George "Mr. Sulu" Takei is gay.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:19 AM

Like Boston fans a year earlier, the Sox fans in Chicago are celebrating a long-awaited World Series Championship in a four-game sweep that included today's burstiest phrase: the longest World Series game ever. Go Sox!

Conservatives are also claiming victory, undoubtedly, with today's news that Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers has withdrawn her name from the judge pool. Given what many claimed was a lack of a paper trail for Miers, critics and reporters nonetheless uncovered one in the past few weeks (today's 9th most-shared link among bloggers). BlogPulse's trend graph capabilities captured the chatter about confirmation vs. withdrawal since the day Miers' name was first announced:



A new Google thing?
For a brief time Thursday, a project called Google Base (today's No. 3 link, although the site's not actually working now) was live on the Internet, and a number of bloggers, including ars technica, got a sneak peak at this one-stop content collection shop, or whatever it's going to be. Citations linked to the site included plenty of foreign commentary.

Reporting under fire
Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin has taken on USA Today for altering a photo of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. And in reporting of another kind, the blogger at The Fourth Rail is asking for donations so he can be embedded with the Marines to cover operations in Iraq's Anbar Province. To circle back to the content of that aforementioned USA Today article, will the Fourth Rail be invited back in 10 years?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:03 AM

Ben Benarnke, the man who will replace Alan Greenspan as head of the Federal Reserve Board (today's top key phrase), emerges as the burstiest blogosphere person on a day when major institutions, scientific findings and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue all seem to be under attack.

New Fed Head
The college bloggers at Mankind Minus One note that president Bush's nomination of Bernanke had none of the ickiness associated with the ongoing flap over Harriet Miers' trip to the Supreme Court, a journey that now has an entire conservative-led Withdraw Miers web site (No. 21 top link) attached to it. Even the GOP Bloggers site notes: "this is the oddest and most unanticipated turn of events that could have been imagined." Reaction to Bernanke is much more insightful and more enlightened (perhaps because Bernanke is, too?).

Next up: Major Religions
If sacred cows don't scare you (no pun intended), today's No. 5 blog post from Cenk Uygur (of "The Young Turks" radio fame) at the Huffington Post won't either. It's a scathing attack on the Muslim, Jewish and Christian religions. "And you thought I was inflammatory" deadpans a like-minded Brilliant at Breakfast, while All Encompassingly classifies it among other random moonbat ramblings.

Science, not forgotten
As long as major institutions are under assault, might as well throw science in the mix, too. Bloggers can't help but notice the results of the latest CBS News Poll (today's No. 16 top news story), in which only 15% support evolution while the rest believe that God was directly responsible for (or had a hand in) human development. Reactions range from "Time to Leave the Country" to Smart Christian's have-it-both-ways approach.

Indictments yet?
Speculation (and tension?) continue and heighten as the investigation continues into the Valerie Plame CIA leak, with indictments possible this week. The Democrats, through Howard Dean, (today's No. 32 top link) seem to be figuring out a response.

Today's Entertainment Spotlight
What's up with novelist Anne Rice? Today's BlogPulse Spotlight has the lowdown.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:47 AM

I was going to digress briefly today from all the speculation about who will (or will not) be indicted this week (today's No. 9 top news story) by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald (now with his own web site, today's No. 24 top link), and who will (or will not) fill the ninth chair on the U.S. Supreme Court (today's No. 19 top blog post)....

Forget Barbie. This is MY dream car
...but my eye was caught by this Ford Mustang "Pony" photo instead (today's No. 31 top blog post), which unfortunately turned out to be a spam blog (note the lack of additional content, author profiles, archived entries and other common blog features). But as someone who drools, cranes and sighs with jealousy every time a 1965 Ford Mustang drives past, I had to share. If I win the lotto, I'm gettin' one of these babies AND the '65 version. Red. Convertible. Manual transmission.

Bill Clinton will be interested in this...
With indictments expected this week from Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald's investigation into who leaked CIA Agent Valerie Plame's name to the press, some conservatives are planting the theory that perjury and obstruction of justice indictments are meaningless "technicalities" if the true crime can't be tracked. Hmmm....does that mean Clinton's impeachment should be reversed? Wampum notes the double talk; Slapnose describes it as pure spin. Is Fox News single-handedly playing a role in this recent (dare we say it? spin-zone) version of Newsspeak?

Honestly? Bring back Ashley and Kate
Today's BlogPulse Spotlight blog takes a look at the weekend success of the Doom movie and the distrurbing popularity of these two singing sisters.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:04 AM

Plenty of consternation in the blogosphere today, and one of the reasons is a video game blog called Penny Arcade, which is today's top blog and appears as the day's fourth most-popular key phrase. Let's just say there's controversy among critics (namely Jack Thompson, today's No. 8 on the bursty people list) and video game enthusiasts about violence and cop-killing. The gamepolitics blog has a summary of the brou-ha-ha...and plenty of follow-on commentary from gamers. JoyStiq is reporting that it's just a big joke?

Cheney resign?
Speculation is rampant today about the possibility of indicments in Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation of who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to the press after her hubsand openly criticized the Bush Administration for its pre-Iraq War intelligence. In fact, three of the four top news stories shared most among bloggers today hint at a possible Dick Cheney resignation, now that one of his aides, John Hannah, (today's burstiest person) may be cooperating with Fitzgerald's investigation. Today's No. 6 blog post, from NoQuarter, hints that up to 22 Bush staffers may be targeted for indictment.

"Rumors and Speculation?" wonders Shakespeare's Sister, or the end of an administration? asks salto mortale.

Internet longevity
Just for grins, today's No. 3 top blog post comes from Jottings.com, a list of 100 of the oldest dotcom domains. The earliest (symbolics.com) dates to March 15, 1985. Many are web site domains for current (and former) high-tech, computer, electronics, aviation and industrial firms...in a pre-Google, pre-Yahoo, pre-MSN, pre-AOL kind of world. Liz Was Here's observation: "The list is interesting, but reading it made me feel old in Internet years." Join the crowd, Liz...from someone who still remembers manual typewriters and carbon paper.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:40 AM

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.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 08:12 AM

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.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:47 AM

The Harriet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court seems to have curious staying power, particularly among conservatives who remain unconvinced that she's court-worthy. BlogPulse, in fact, was interviewed over the weekend on NPR about conservative reaction to Miers.

Why have conservatives (today's No. 3 top blog post) mobilized so strongly (No. 5) against Miers? Why so much emphasis on her and comparatively so much less on now-Chief Justice John G. Roberts? BlogPulse trend graph shows the disparity:



New from Yahoo!...podcasting
Now in testing phases is Yahoo! podcasting. Cool and plentiful, says Bobnar Blog, but with this caveat common to many Internet users: "Ever seen that Far Side cartoon where the kid asks his teacher if he can be excused from class because his brain is full? My brain's gonna pop if I keep trying to cram everything that happens on the Internet into it." Speaking of full brains, blogger Bill Hobbs is taking a blog break from a "rather time-consuming and uncompensated hobby" (today's 19th top post).

Indictment roulette, anyone?
Some bloggers are speculating about possible Bush administration indictments over the leaking of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the press. They're also speculating about the speculation.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:35 AM

If President Bush hoped to build support for the invasion of Iraq with more fear and loathing on the global terrorism trail (today's 22nd most-shared link), it didn't seem to work so well. In fact, based on blog discussions, folks are much more concerned about threats of other kinds, to wit:

The threat of government exerting even more control over women's bodies
For the past two days, the top blog post has come from Booman Tribune, about a proposed Indiana law that would make marriage a requirement for motherhood in the Hoosier state. Would the Virgin Mary and Holy Spirit be criminals, asks BoingBoing? "What the hell is Indiana thinking?" asks Rightly So. This Is Not Over is even more succint. Apparently, the scrutiny worked, as the bill's sponsor announced Thursday she's dropping it (today's 15th most-shared link)

Internal threats at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Today's No. 3 blog post and No. 4 news story discuss the espionage arrest of Leandro Aragoncilla, (today's 11th burstiest person) a Marine who worked in Vice President Dick Cheney's and Al Gore's office and is accused of handing sensitive information to parties interesting in overthrowing the Filipino president. "Do we laugh or cry?" asks Spontaneous Solutions. "The digital fortress ain't!" says Paxalles.

The threat of continued military abuse of detainees
Led by Sen. John McCain, a Vietnam War prisoner of war who knows a thing or two about torture, the Senate Dems and Republicans agreed soundly on one thing this week: to set firm limits on the interrogation rules for detainees held in U.S. military custody. Bring on the veto threat -- that's the hidden message in the 90-0 vote.

The threat to democracy
Like him or not, Gore is back in the news (today's 16th most blogged-about personality) for a speech he gave on his worries about the future of democracy (today's 2nd most-mentioned blog post). "The Road Not Taken" sums up Ratiocination's review of the speech. All About E is all about Al.

In the Blogosphere
Bloggers are abuzz about AOL's acquision of Weblogs Inc. Founders Jascon Calcanis and Brian Alvey make it into today's Top 10 burstiest people list. Jeff Jarvis has some commentary about the (inevitable?) marriage of MSM and blogs.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:52 AM

Battle lines are being drawn today on several fronts: continued conservative hand-wringing vs. liberal confusion over President's Bush's nomination of his lawyer friend Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court (still today's most blogged-about personality), and Google's decision to take on Microsoft's Office suite. That's right, let's get ready to rumble!

But before we get into the meat of the issues, let's take a time out for this Internet first (today's No. 24 top blog post): the first Internet marriage proposal via search engine. Will Ask Jeeves will put its now-unemployed butler to work at the wedding reception?

In this corner, Google...
So is Google really putting together the services and brains to offer its own version of Microsoft Office? Navel Contemplation is just one blogger looking forward to the possibility. Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble describes the move as "interesting times" and offers a video link to the new MS Office 12. "Huge news," says The Stalwart. How do the two computer/search giants compare in blog buzz?



Technical briefs
Other techie news today: the introduction of a social-networking tool called Ning, (today's No. 2 top link) and Jakob Nielsen's Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005. (Granted, usability is his forte, but perhaps he should consider this Design 101: "too much text and no graphics makes for a dull page.")

The Miers thing
There's plenty of teeth-gnashing and head-scratching over the Miers Supreme Court nomination, and we'll just assume it'll go on for a loooooooong time. Reactions today range from Patrick Ruffini's "Coalition of the Chillin' (Supreme Court division)" campaign to David Sirota's Huffington Post essay on cronyism gone amok, from George Will's reasons for Congress to say no to Miers' nomination to plenty of blog citations of Alexander Hamilton No. 76.

Passings...
Heaven must be turning into a funny place, what with Get Smart's Don Adams, who died Sept. 25, now joined by comedian Nipsey Russell, who died this week at 82 from cancer, and British comedian Ronnie Barker, who died Monday at age 76.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:57 AM

It didn't take someone long to put up a fake Harriet Miers blog (today's 24th most-shared web link) once President Bush's former personal lawyer and White House Counsel was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court, ranking as BlogPulse's top personality and burstiest person as well. And it didn't take long for a whole bunch of conservative bloggers to check in with a near-unanimous sigh of disappointment.

"Utterly underwhelmed," groaned Michelle Malkin. "A disappointment," said the Power Line guys. "Where's my Scalia? Where's my Thomas?" demanded Confirm Them. SCOTUS blog offers some middle-of-the-road analysis, while William Kristol at the National Standard is "disappointed, demoralized and depressed." Professor Bainbridge has a common reaction: Harriet Who?

Outside of the "Bush sold us out" conservative mindset are a range of other reactions, including a gay perspective from Balloon Juice, a possible take on her union views from Confined Space, her views on gun control and other issues. AnonymousLefty speculates on Miers' likelihood to avoid answers to tough questions.

In just 24 hours since her nomination, Miers is the subject of more than 2,500 search results on BlogPulse entries.

How does the Supreme Court news compare to other hot topics of the day?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:12 PM

By day, he's the early-30s senior veep of marketing/business development for a national company whose name shall remain nameless. But when he has a thought or two about the state of politics in Texas, he's just Charlie, author of the Pink Dome blog ("politics written with our tongue planted firmly in our cheek"), which is this week's Blog of the Week (view the Pink Dome profile here). Yes, Texas, home to recently-indicted Sen. Tom DeLay and the place where recently nominated Supreme Court Justice Harriet Miers started her non-judicial law career. So what is it about politics in Texas? Let's find out...

Q. How and why did you start Pink Dome?
A. "I've been using the blog medium for several years as a personal tool, so I knew about blogging. I wasn't completely fresh out of the gate when I launched it Jan. 31, 2005, a few days after the legislative session in Texas started. I knew that I could have a unique voice because there weren't a lot of political blogs dedicated to Texas when I started. Now there's a bunch... But I knew I could have a voice and stand out from the rest of those by using a sort of irrevent tone toward politics and politicians. The 2005 session was the first time that all blogs jumped on the state legislature. It gave us a wealth of material. Texas politics is more entertaining than anything you'll see on TV."

Q. Is your background in politics?
A. "I used to work in politics, as a staffer for the GOP, so I knew how things work. But I'm not a Texas native...I knew nothing about these politicians and I have no history with them, so it really frees me to write about them. I'm not invested in these people. I'm not a native (grew up in Charleston, S.C., and has lived in Austin for two years). I don't have Texas state pride...I just call 'em as I see 'em."

Q. What's so 'entertaining' about Texas politics?
A. "South Carolina is whacky, but they don't have the chutzpah that Texas politicians have. They have a swagger about them here in Texas, and it's really entertaining. They're much more willing to go for the throat. In South Carolina, they'll go for the throat, but they're much more polite and genteel about it."

Q. For example?
A. "Texas passed a constitutional amendment to define marriage as one man/one woman...and I always add to that, 'one donkey.' They focus on social issues like sexy cheerleaders, and despite two special sessions couldn't pass anything on school finance but they were passing bills to help out businesses, so it was a great source of fodder for political bloggers..."

Q. Why don't you use your real name on your blog?
A. "I use Charlie only. For a long time, I was completely anonymous, but we started getting some media attention so I had to use my first name."

Q. How do you view the role of blogs in politics?
A. " 'I am the most important person in Texas...a voter with a voice, just like you.' That's the whole message for me of blogs when it relates to politics: being a voter with a voice. I don't think blogs will replace mainstream media, but I do think they're influential among their key readers. I know that legislators in Texas were reading Pink Dome as they were on the floor during debates."

Q. Pink Dome? Where'd that name come from?
A. "Some people though it was a gay web site, but the Texas capitol is made of pink granite. 'Pink Dome' is the insider's reference to the capitol building.

Q. You've got a governor's race coming up soon. Care to comment?
A. "The mud slinging is already going on. Kinky Friedman is running, and I wouldn't rule him out. People are so disgusted with the current leadership, that if the moon is aligned with Venus, there's a possibility he could sneak in with some votes. What Texans still love about Kinky is that he just says it. He doesn't have that political filter, and that's one of the things that makes Pink Dome great, too. We try not to have any filters as well."

Q. Any advice for other bloggers?
A. "Be interesting. Content is king. People know that if they come to Pink Dome in the morning, they're going to see something, and if they come in the afternoon, they're going to see something different. (Pink Dome's contributors also include an anonymous liberal feminist and an anonymous politician). Lots of Pink Dome's readers don't know if I'm male or female...I try to write as a sassy, drunk, political junkie. I don't think people want to come and read things that are always so negative or hate-filled and anger-filled, so I try to keep it edgy, because quite frankly, in Texas, you have to laugh to keep from crying."

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:43 AM

If the blogging world is a mirror into the world of news, it's impossible to ignore the obvious: a giant, 25-foot squid discovered in Japan, and the indictment of Sen. Majority Leader Tom Delay. Those two stories dominate the blogosphere today.

First, the giant sea creature
Among today's top links, 10 of the top 40 refer to the giant squid discovered by Japanese scientist Tsunemi Kubodera (today's second burstiest person). Loaded Mouth blogger is amazed...and suspiciously hungry.

Secondly, the out-of-power senator
In addition, 8 of today's top 40 links mention the Texas indictment of DeLay (today's most-shared news story) for allegedly funneling corporate contributions, in violation of state campaign finance laws, to Republican Party candidates and organizations. Reaction ranges from protectionary to, well, overjoyed. Travis County DA Ronnie Earle, the indict-er, is today's burstiest person.

Oh, lordy...
Couldn't help but notice this British study of the effect of religion on socieities, which popped into blogger consciousness on Wednesday. It didn't take long for astute readers to question the science behind the "research." Speaking of religion, remember Ashley Smith, the Atlanta woman who said she gave a killer on the run a taste of her religious faith to convince him to surrender to police? That's not all she gave him, according to her recently published book (today's No. 13 top blog post).

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:56 AM

Was Saturday's anti-war protest in Washington D.C. a gathering of tens of thousands of like-minded Americans (today's third most-shared news story) or a gathering of moonbats (today's top blog post)? Depends on who's opining about the event.

The pro/anti-war graphical trend
BlogPulse's trend graph finds a definite uptick in anti-war sentiment, judging by a search that posed phrases such as "against the war" or "out of Iraq" with phrases such as "complete the mission," "support the war" and "stay in Iraq." To wit:



Reviews and assessments of the anti-war march varied incredibly widely, such as those from Political Teen, Reflections of a Libertarian Republican, The Jawa Report and Juan Cole's Informed Comment.

Let the crony search begin...
Also floating out there today in the blogosphere is this question from Time magazine (today's ninth most-popular link): how many more Mike Browns are out there? How many more political/campaign appointees now run departments/agencies for which they have absolutely no professional experience? Reaction ranges from "what do you expect" at Think Progress while War and Piece points toward the FDA for starters. (Prediction: Paul Krugman's "Find The Brownie" column in today's New York Times (even as a Times Select offering) will be shared actively among bloggers later this week).

Celebs...dead and alive
If it's celebrity weddings and corpse-oriented movies you like, check out today's BlogPulse Spotlight for entertaining blog news.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:35 PM

As some observers are suggesting, maybe this summer's hurricanes have jolted the public and media out of a political-spin stupor, because there's evidence that serious questioning is on the rise and blind playing-along isn't.

Today's No. 5 news story suggests that the Grand Old Party, once known for tight-fisted fiscalism, isn't buying President Bush's "let the feds pay for it" approach to a $200 billion war and a $200 billion Gulf cleanup. Promethus 6 calls it "Reconstruction III."

What will Bush's second-term legacy be? A simple BlogPulse graph comparing references to Sept. 11, 2001 and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita show interesting trends: a definite spike on the four-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks but more consistent staying power for the hurricane fallout:




The Mrs. Rejection
First Lady Laura Bush is experiencing a brush-off of her own, this one from award-winning poet Sharon Olds (today's fifth-burstiest blog personality). Her letter to Mrs. Bush (today's No. 23 top news story) spells out why, on philosophical and conscientious grounds, she's declining an invitation to speak at the National Book Festival.

Authors not happy with Google
In the realm of publishing and copyrights, the Authors Guild has sued Google over its plans to make library content available (and searchable) digitally. Google's response is today's No. 2 blog post. The blog discussions are wide-ranging, including Corante's analysis of Google's reliance on its corporate blog to respond to the lawsuit.

A cell-phone milestone
I have to ask: how did they know which phone put them over the top?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:33 AM

Hurricane Katrina, still stirring up the political pot, will have to make way for Hurricane Rita, now upgraded to a Category 4 storm as it swirls westward toward Texas and the already battered Gulf Coast. But...but...the pundits aren't finished hashing out Katrina yet! Here she comes, nonetheless...



The ongoing Katrina discussion

Today's top blog post and No. 2 blog -- conservative Michelle Malkin -- lambasts the Bush administration (in the wake of recently resigned FEMA Director Michael Brown) for another frontal dive into cronyism, this time for nominating 36-year-old Julie Myers (todays' 5th burstiest person) to take over U.S. Customs Enforcement and Immigration duties in the Department of Homeland Security. Her (questioned) qualifications (today's No. 26 top link): prosecutorial and lower-level Cabinet jobs, niece of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers and newlywed wife of Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff's chief of staff. "Can we look for experience over expedience?" is the question from the usually Bush-supportive Captain's Quarters blogger.

Katrina "myths"
Bloggers also seem to be having a tizzy over Katrina "myths," including the fact that St. Bernard Parish president Aaron Broussard (who wept openly on MSNBC) was "lying" because his friend's grandmother didn't die exactly within the timeline he outlined on live TV (hey, folks, how about a little compassion?). Think Progress (No. 19 top blog) goes into more detail in outlining what it calls right-wing myths about Katrina.

Kerry's back
Sen. John Kerry is back (No. 12 top personality) after going on the offensive during a Brown University speech (No. 31 top link) on Monday. Brevity, good senator, brevity is a virtue.

Passings...Simon Wiesenthal
The community of Holocaust survivors is mourning the death of Simon Wiesenthal, (today's burstiest person) the 96-year-old who brought more than 1,000 Nazi war criminals to trial and justice, who died this week in Vienna. Dean's World is just one of many blogs commemorating his legacy.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:32 AM

The accountability gods must be reigning over the blogosphere today.

Why else would recently sentenced Tyco honchos Mark Swartz and Dennis Kozlowski be today's No. 2 and 3 burstiest people, respectively, for their defrauding the company of hundreds of millions of dollars? "Another CEO heads to prison", as recounted in The Bay Area is Talking blog, sums up many peoples' reactions. (When do the Enron trials begin?)

Clinton accountability, his and hers
The Clintons are back at it, too. Former President Bill is both praised and vilified for his criticism of the current Bush administration on Sunday's morning news shows. Wife Hillary, meanwhile, is the reason that war protester and gold-star mom Cindy Sheehan has shot back up to the No. 10 spot among today's most blogged-about personalities. Seems Ms. Sheehan is unilateral in her demands for a pullout from Iraq, pressing Mrs. Clinton to withdraw her support for the Iraq invasion now, not when it's politically convenient (today's No. 19 top link). Sheehan takes more hits, mostly from folks who still think it's unpatriotic (rather than plain old democratic) to oppose any current administration's decision.

Voting accountability
Former President Jimmy Carter's in the news, too, for his recommended changes in the primary election setup to ensure fairer, easier, standardized and more democratic voting processes from state to state. So which current/former president leads in Internet "buzz?":




Bloggers launch PorkBusters
Bloggers are rallying again, again led by Instapundit and Truth Laid Bear, and they're organizing PorkBusters, a state-by-state campaign of recommended pork-barrel cuts to pay for the Katrina cleanup and rebuilding. (Something governments/Congressional folks are supposed to do but apparently never seem to get around to). Both Instapundit and TLB were key organizers of the Blog for Relief Day shortly after Katrina hit. ARRRR! Where's the Pork? is the supportive growl from IMAO blogger in his best Talk Like a Pirate Day voice (today's top blog link).

And the matter of a billion or so dollars...
The foreign press has made Iraq's Foreign Minister Ali Allawi today's burstiest blog person. Seems there's a billion or so dollars missing (but hey! who's counting?) from Iraq's Defense Ministry, according to the Independent Online (today's No. 2 news story) for those wondering why building security forces in Iraq is taking a little longer than expected. Tongue firmly in cheek, Balloon Juice proclaims "freedom is on the march!"

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:56 AM

Did you ever get that strange feeling of deja vu? A major democratic nation is trying to figure out who won its most recent election, only this time it's Germany, not the U.S., (today's No. 4 top blog post) struggling to determine whether Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (today's No. 12 leading personality) or conservative challenger Angela Merkel (today's 25th burstiest person) will take charge in Deutschland. "Smell you later, Gerhard," says the blogger at No Parasan, while Shot in the Dark examines the deeper, more complicated issues at stake. (I've already emailed my cousin in Germany, offering the services of the Florida Board of Elections and U.S. Supreme Court to help count votes, just in case).

Afghanistan is also hosting another round of national elections, and surprisingly, the analysis comes from California Yankee blog (today's No. 13 blog post). It's a good day when voters can speak their minds, says Protein Wisdom.

Katrina Fallout Continues
There's a reason L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz, appears in the No. 3 bursty person position, and it's because of the comparison made by the New York Times' Frank Rich in Sunday's column (today's top news story). While Al Gore's former campaign advisor jumps on the President's rebuilding bandwagon, the Washington Post finds continued disarray in the relief effort, New Orleans' hospitals are struggling to rebuild and views from inside FEMA are starting to emerge. Incompetent or negligent? asks Suburban Guerilla blog.

Mother Nature's other side
Let's not forget the softer side of the natural word, captured in today's No. 4 key phrase: full moon. (Did you notice it Saturday night? Awesome....)

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:06 AM

One of the interesting things about the blogoshere is how quickly certain bloggers, blogs or issues can rise to the top of the consciousness heap, where they either gain traction or fade away. The Flying Spaghetti Monster letter, (today's No. 3 top link) for example, appeared several months ago and refuses to die...so much so that it now has its own Wikipedia entry (today's No. 6 top link).

Today's top blog post comes from newcomer Michael Yon's Online Magazine: Gates of Fire blog, an independent soul offering lengthy on-the-scene reporting and photos from the ground war in Iraq. "Every sentence is packed with life...and death," says Black Five; "must-read...won't see this kind of reporting anywhere else" is how Instapundit describes it.

Let's change things a lot...
The Bush administration wants to at the United Nations, where newly anointed ambassador John Bolton seems ready to unleash his tact with a few hundred suggestions for change (today's No. 8 top news story). Running Scared blog has a new monkier for Mr. Ambassador "Mouth of Sauron" Bolton (a reference to the bad guy in Lord of the Rings); Captain Ed calls Bolton's mission "a giant step" for reform.

Paradigm No. 2: Got an opinion? Just be quiet about it, OK?
The members of the American Legion has a novel new (and 1984-ishly scary) suggestion for people who feel inclined to air their opinions about the war in Iraq: shut up and be declared illegal? (today's No. 12 top link). "American Legion Goes Berserk" declares Shakespeare's Sister; "Defending Your Rights By Denying Them" points out Bark Bark Woof Woof, who also happens to provide live coverage of Hurricane Katrina...at least until the power goes out.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 08:43 AM

See what happens when politics and religion get a little too chummy? You've got a Christian televangelist advocating assassination of a democratically elected world leader as a cheaper alternative than another $200 billion war. Then Venezuela accuses televangelist Pat Robertson of advocating terrorism, and the administration officials currently engaged in one $200 billion war can't back away from Robertson fast enough.

The fallout over Robertson's ill-timed comments dominate the blogosphere today, noted by this "terrorist" graph:



Robertson is today's leading (and burstiet) personality, followed closely by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the guy he thinks deserves to be offed. For the first time in more than a week, in fact, anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan moves from the No. 1 to No. 5 spot among blogged-about personalities. The Robertson mouth-off captures 10 of today's most-shared news link (including seven of the top 10), six of the day's top shared links (which is also infected with blog spam; our apologies), and six of today's top 10 key phrases.

"Crazy Old Uncle Pat" opines Scott Randolph.net; Shattered offers an updated religious moment for such talk; No Right Turn wonders...Chrisitan Coalition or Christian Taleban? (sic)

Google Talkin'
Elsewhere, mouths are little more sane (yes, we said it) at Google, which this week introduced Google Talk, today's most-discussed phrase. "Pretty simple," says Makezine during a test; "uphill battle" predicts Open Loops.

More church-state mixing, with a dash of humor
Pastafarianism is what they're calling it: observance of the religion that believes in the Flying Spaghetti Mosnter as the true creator of the universe (continued staying power at No. 9 top link). Launched as a spoof of Kansas' decision to embrace intelligent design as official science curriculum, it has spawned spoofs (and contests) of its own.

Overlooking the obvious?
Couldn't help but notice today's No. 4 top link, which notes that 65 of 490 girls at a Canton-area high school are pregnant. Among the various "causes," no one mentioned (ahem) Canton-area boys.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:51 AM

To Cindy Sheehan's ubiquity, that is. Political bloggers are inherently reactionary and always horrified at the things their opponents are doing, meaning everyone probably will continue hammering Sheehan back and forth until she goes home or has her tete-a-tete with President Bush. And if anyone was ever civil in this tawdry mess, that's out the window: Conservatives are snickering that Sheehan's husband has filed for divorce (the forms are our no. 23 link today, from SmokingGun) and that she's found an unexpected ally in the famed racist and David Duke, whose website is link no. 9. "The conclusion to draw is that Cindy Sheehan's anti-war views are so off-the-wall nutty that rabid anti-Semitic kooks like David Duke agree with her," says WizBang.

FLASH! Bloggers Upset With MSM!
Even the world's largest news-gathering organization isn't immune from the web's legions of armchair media critics -- The New York Times reports in our no. 8 link that the Associated Press is getting criticized for its reporting on Iraq, which isn't sufficiently rosy. AP reporters in Iraq seem biased against, ah, getting killed, and aren't attending enough elementary school dedications to write about in their dispatches. Not good enough, says a post here: "I guess the simplest explanation is that the editors and reporters of the AP hate Bush, hate America, and want us to lose... because in their minds, that's a better story." The Bullpen has a different theory: "The plain and simple fact of the press is that violence and conflict sell. More people would tune into or buy a copy of the local newspaper which covered a horrific attack versus how Iraqis are rebuilding oil pipelines which will fuel their economy."

Hello Again, Doktor Dobson!
Dr. James Dobson is in the blogosphere again -- last time we saw him, he was advising parents on how to tell if their 5-11 year-olds were gay -- decrying America's "unelected, arrogant" judges. (It's our no. 15 link today.) The rally was to "educate evangelical Christians about the Supreme Court," and help gird the faithful for the Senate hearings on President Bush's nominee John G. Roberts, which begin Sept. 6. But bloggers, as is often the case when Dobson appears, are dubious. The World Wide Rant says the rally was basically ignorant in its criticisms of the Supreme Court --"They must really hate America," Andy writes with a heavy injection of irony. And Jim, a religious blogger, is uncomfortable with how heavily politics and faith were mixed here. "I am totally opposed to conducting this kind of political event in a church. God’s house should be a place a prayer, but you have made it a den of politicians," he says. That merits a nondenominational, nonpartisan amen.

Why Haven't You Bought More BlogPulse Gear?
When your boss walks into your cube and sees the BlogPulse coffee mug on your desk, or when he sees you in the BlogPulse t-shirt at the company picnic, he'll know you've got what it takes for that big new promotion. (And we'll appreciate you representing the blue B.) So check out our BlogPulse clothing and accessories and show everybody that you know what's up on the web! And, relatedly, that you're cool.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 10:23 AM

Power of the blogosphere? Sheer dedication of a grieving war mother? Whatever is fueling Cindy Sheehan's rise to popularity, it's working. The woman holding vigil outside President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch (now accessible via satellite photos at crytpome) upstaged Bush in BlogPulse's key people list starting late last week and continues to hold No. 2 to his No. 3 spot today. A BlogPulse graph plots her two-week rise to fame:



While the gold-star mother (today's No. 28 link) begs the President to meet with her in person during his August vacation, others are examining the fallout and intensifying their scrutiny of the war in Iraq, fueled by Frank Rich's No. 3 top link today "Someone Tell the President the War is Over" and "A Message to Cindy Sheehan" from Iraq the Model blog (today's No. 2 top blog post). Meanwhile, Daily Kos offers tips on how to frame the Cindy discussion, while Michelle Malkin unconfirmedly dishes personal dirt. Protein Wisdom (No. 8 blog post) offers some wit into an otherwise un-funny situation.

Scrutiny galore
Elsewhere, coverage of the war includes a Washington Post assessment of lowered expectations in Iraq (with some reality-vs.-unreality commentary by Washington Monthly) and the discovery of a post-invasion chemical stash near Mosul (and "told you so" commentary by Heretical Ideas.)

BlogPulse News: The 15-Million Blog Milestone...and BlogPulse Paraphernalia!
Ever had a hankering for a BlogPulse T-shirt or coffee mug? A swell BlogPulse mouse pad? Feast your eyes on the latest BlogPulse paraphernalia, now available at cafepress.com. Impress your coworkers. Advertise us for free...we appreciate it. And if you haven't paid attention to the home-page stats box, BlogPulse exceeded the 15-million blog milestone over the weekend. Woohoo!

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:53 AM

In less than a week, grieving gold-star mother Cindy Sheehan (the term for mothers whose sons have been killed in war) has risen from obscurity to prominence, not only because she refuses to leave her camp outside of President's Bush's Texas vacation ranch until he meets with her in person but also because she's not backing down from what some are calling swift-boat-style attacks on her sincerity and intent.

Sheehan is today's most No. 2 most blogged-about personality, right behind Bush at No. 1. Among today's top blog posts, Media Matters traces the trail of smears, Truthout.org follows the story, while Patterico keeps up the how-dare-she banter.

Unintelligent design?
Blogger David Galbraith offers his own theory for teaching kids about how the world got its start, this one called Unintelligent Design (today's No. 7 top blog post). Juxtapose that with another continually popular blog entry (No. 18 today), an open letter to the Kansas Board of Education proposing the Flying Spaghetti Monster theory of creation, and you've got a battle. How does a BlogPulse trend graph view it? (The spike occured on the day President Bush indicated that teaching intelligent design made good scientific sense to him).



Paying the price
What else is on blogger's minds? The amounts they're shelling out at the gas pump, for one, (today's No. 11 top phrase) and news that Mohammed Atta, (today's No. 8 talked-about personality) mastermind of the al Qaeda group (today's No. 2 popular phrase) that flew one of the 9/11 planes, had been identified by name (today's top news story) at least a year before the actual attacks.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:07 AM

From the way bloggers see it, a new ad by the pro-choice group NARAL criticizing John G. Roberts, President Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court, has backfired spectacularly. In BlogPulse's top link today, Annenberg's FactCheck.org was on top of the TV spot almost as soon as it first aired, debunking its fundamental claim that Roberts endorsed violence against abortion clinics. Inasmuch as the fracas has been about this hottest of hot-button topics, some bloggers want to make it about their dreaded msm, too: Cap'n Ed castigated CNN for agreeing to run the ad -- "shows you how much they value their credibility" -- but then concedes the spot will appear on Fox News, too. "Shame, shame, shame on Fox News as well. What are they trying to prove -- that they can get as corrupt as CNN?"

Doktor Dobson's Advice
Skipping downward once, we come to BlogPulse's link no. three, a page from Dr. James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" website with tips for parents asking "Is My Child Becoming Homosexual?" (Apparently you can tell your son is gay if, between the ages of 5 and 11, he exhibits "a strong feeling he is 'different' from other boys" or "doesn't like the roughhousing other boys enjoy.") This sort of lib-baiting is what keeps people coming back to the blogosphere, after all, because you know the reactions to Dobon's rules will be strident: "Website of organization of idiots posts idiocy. You were expecting erudition from this bunch perhaps? Or did we post this so we can all work ourselves into a froth, and yell and rant, and pretend we're making a difference?" asks a poster on Metafilter. Some bloggers are responding to the Dobson page on its own merits, though -- BloggingBaby has a point-by-point rebuttal.

Beware The Tides Of A March
Bloggers also are trading links today about Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's announcement that the Pentagon will arrange a huge march and country music concert to mark this year's fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. To be called "America Supports You Freedom Walk," -- not Your freedom, for some reason, -- the fete will include a march from the Pentagon to the National Mall and the soothing sounds of singer Clint Black, who, by federal mandate, is now beloved by every American. As public relations, this too may have backfired, judging by the responses: Megablogger Jeff Jarvis calls it "A tasteless tribute;" the metafilter mavens are all over it ("The terrorists have won"); and James Wolcott gets sarcastic: "Nothing honors the dead like an old-fashioned hoedown."

...And Some Of The Rest Of Today's Stuff
Enough Internet users probably identified with a story about a poor guy in South Korea who died after 50 straight hours of video-gaming that it appears twice today in BlogPulse.
As it typical for such a death in the blogosphere, people aren't treating it with much gravity -- "Wow, I wonder who scooped up all his leftover magic cyberswords and stuff!" asked a Wired blogger. Also being tossed around out there is this WaPo story about Americans' chronic boredom at work, for which we suggest this as a solution, and, as always, frequent visits to BlogPulse.

Posted by Philip Ewing at 09:34 AM

Officially, most schools don't begin the fall term for another few weeks or so, but it doesn't feel that way on BlogPulse. The gradual adoption of Bible-reading courses in public schools (today's No. 2 top news story) and President Bush's nod to intelligent design theories in science curricula (No. 17) are drawing all sorts of blog reaction. In Bush's home state, the critical Pink Dome can't help but ask, "They can read in Texas?", while Pandagon questions the "educational" motives of the group promoting Bible study. Bush is painted as anything but intelligent by Trial Shoe blog, while Perfectly Crumulent says the Prez is primarily pandering to far-right constitutents.

All those calisthentics...
And to think my junior class thought it novel when "phys ed" teachers Coach McTaggart (boys) and Sister Joan (girls) traded roles for a week: Sister taught the guys to square dance (successfully), while Coach tried (in vain) to inspire the girls to fall in love with golf. Today, gym class goes virtual, (today's No. 6 news link). "Finally, a gym class we'd be good at," says Gawker, while B2Day calls it "another dumb idea" in education.

Spam, sausage and spam
Today's top links show what happens when BlogPulse experiences a slip-up in its spam filtering: 36 of the top 40 links are spam blogs. Fortunately, our list of top 40 weblog posts and top 40 news articles for the day are clean.

More Rove-ing questions
Today's burstiest person, Susan Ralston, is apparently the latest from Karl Rove's office to testify before Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury into the investigation of who leaked CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to the press. Think Progress and War and Piece speculate on the meaning...and the connections.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:25 AM

It's getting nasty here in Ohio's Second Congressional District, what with former Marine and Iraq veteran Paul Hackett, (today's No. 10 top link) a Democrat, challenging former state representative Jean Schmidt, Republican, for the seat in a gerrymandered district that has long favored Republicans. But what's obvious is that bloggers are generating more buzz for Hackett than for Schmidt:



Lots of bloggers are chiming in on the election, including today's top-blog Daily Kos post about Schmidt's weekend denials that she does not know Thomas Noe, a Republican fund-raiser and rare coin dealer who's a central figure in Ohio's "Coingate" scandal about missing and questionable investments in Ohio's workers' comp funds. In today's No. 11-ranked news story, the GOP uses fightin' words, while the Swing State Project lauds Hackett for being equally straightforward.


Heated air waves
Elsehwere, Air America Radio has issued a statement to counter last week's hammerings by conservative bloggers about missing money linked to the liberal network's former investors. WizBang has a sort-of balanced perspective, which is hard to find in this tangled blog war.

Something to laugh about
The results are in, and bad writing has triumphed again. Today's No. 3 link trumpets the results of the 2005 Bulwer-Lytton Awards contest for bad fiction, namely, the worst opening line of a bad novel, sponsored by San Jose State University. (Bulwer-Lytton wrote the novel that began, "It was a dark and stormy night...."). Ignored by MSM? Finest in new fiction? "Neither," deadpans Watcher Magazine in honoring winner (or loser, as the case may be) Dan McKay of Fargo, N.D.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:55 AM

It's definitely impolite. And yes, it's a behavior that most would agree is not befitting the President of the United States. But flipping the bird is something that George W. Bush apparently likes to do. A lot. At least more than most other major world leaders.

So it is with perhaps a bit of embarassment and yet total honesty that we must report that BlogPulse's No. 2 blog post today, (as well as the No. 3 top link) is the onegoodmove blog's :Bush Flips Out" video of the Prez flipping off the press corps, as related by NBC's Jay Leno."Hail to the Chief," headlines the Republic of T blog. "The central message of his Presidency," sighs the Tattered Coat.

One, two, three...
For contextual purposes, this is the third time (count 'em, three) that Bush has publicly displayed his middle digit (on purpose, too). A video of then-Gov. Bush proffering the salute, in fact, was the most-shared video by bloggers during the 2004 Presidential Campaign season, as logged by BlogPulse's Campaign Radar 2004. And last July, during the heat of the campaign, a Pennsylvania blogger teen who showed up with anti-Bush signs while the Presidential bus motored through his home town of Lampeter received the one-finger treatment, which he chronicled on his jiveturky blog.

Items of plate-shifting proportions
Can't help but point out a few major news items from the past few days that indicate major paradigm shifts. Northern Ireland's IRA has disavowed violence, (today's No. 2 top link), the current shuttle mission may be NASA's last, (today's No. 3 top news story), and Utah is allowing a woman's "GAYSROCK" license plate. "Only in Utah" opines Thought Mechanics blog.

Two more indiscretions
Might as well pool all of the mildly offensive material in one day, eh? Today's No. 19 link could serve as the 2005 equivalent of the red-state/blue-state "Jesusland" map that circulated in the weeks after the 2004 election, although this updated version scans sea to shining sea through the eyes of someone's opinionated aunt. "Socially and geographically questionable," notes Gridskipper. And then there's veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas (BlogPulse's No. 11 burstiest person), who vows to do herself in if Veep Dick Cheney runs for his boss' job. Says INDC Journal: "Yikes."

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:10 AM

Maybe whatever's in the drinking water in Florida (speculated in the July 15 BlogPulse Newswire) has infilitrated Washington D.C. as well?

Rep. Steve King is today's burstiest BlogPulse person for telling a Congressional witness she has no legal right to prescription drugs, which just happened to be perfectly legal, FDA-approved birth-control pills. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave was in on the sentiment, too, in hearings on a bill that would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions when they have moral qualms about doing so. "Just damned stupid" says enigmaticfaerie at LiveJournal; "Protect birth control!" rallies Witchiepoo.

Another hot button: guns
BlogPulse's No. 36 top blog post and No. 21 top link both point to this BoingBoing entry about a proposed bill to protect gun manufacturers from liability when people shoot each other. A Typical Joe can't help but notice the dis-similarities to the recent Supreme Court ruling that held Grokster responsible for users' downloading behaviors.

The Clinton women
Sen. Hillary is getting it from all sides, including author Steven Johnson's op-ed piece urging her to consider a different viewpoint about video games, violence and stuff like football (today's No. 2 blog post). On the unofficial campaign front, the non-centrist wing of the Democratic party is turning up the heat for her centrist leanings. Meanwhile, Kenyan officials are still waiting for former President Bill Clinton to consider a marriage proposal made for Chelsea's hand five years ago. Maybe the stakes aren't high enough, asks the Dave Barry blog?

Personality buzz
Who continues to generate more buzz: White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove or Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts? BlogPulse speaks...

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:20 AM

Let the politicking begin? It already has, judging by blog activity today. Leading all blog posts is Patricl Ruffini's 2008 Straw Poll for the GOP nominee best suited to replace the current resident of the White House. The results show Virginia Sen. George Allen leading the way.

And just to remind us she's not disappeared completely, actress/activist/author Jane Fonda jumps to No. 19 among today's bursty people for announcing an upcoming cross-country bus tour to protest U.S. military involvement in Iraq. "Bagdhad Jane" is the (oh-so-70s) nickname already resurrected by conservative blogger Michelle Malkin (today's No. 2 blog post) and others, while one LiveJournal blogger notes simply: "Jane Fonda is my hero: Clinton/Obama '08." Let the campaigning begin...

Passings....
Today's burstiest person is, well, dead. Vardin Kushnir was found murdered in his Moscow apartment. His claim to fame: he was one of Russia's most prolific and seemingly unapologetic spammers. In not-so-reverent postings, bloggers react, including Nick Lewis, who describes the tactic as a "spam control method" the rest of the world should consider. "Momma told you not to spam," chastises Sandhill Trek.

Fun-lovin' ancestors...
Don't' read this if you're a prude (today's No. 16 link).

Konfabulous?
There's excitement in the air over Yahoo!'s purchase of Konfabulator as reported (curiously) in today's 7th top news story at Macworld News. Desktop widgets are now free and available to computer users not running OSX Tiger. Those who purchased the Konfabulator software in the last two months will receive a refund.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:45 AM

Why is a Republican Colorado congressman so prominent in today's BlogPulse results? Because Rep. Tom Tancredo (Nos. 3 and 4 on the bursty people list) "hypothetically" opened his mouth on Pat Campbell's radio talk show in Orlando when maybe he should have let the tactful part of his brain take over instead.

Asked how the U.S. should respond to hypothetical nuclear attacks on U.S. cities by terrorists, he suggested bombing Islamic holy sites (meaning Mecca) as an alternative. Patridiot Watch blog offers a particularly descriptive noun to characterize the honorable legislator, File it Under suggests offering jobs to the Middle East instead of bombs, while even "shock and awe" bloggers like Captain's Quarter and Hugh Hewitt are calling for Richard Durbin-like apologies.

The latest campus craze: Open-Source Beer
Oh, sure, there's still plenty of chatter about the Karl Rove-Valerie Plame leak from the right and the left and the media, but let's talk about what's really important: open-source beer (No. 26 link). Students in Denmark have come up with the idea of a free beer recipe; anyone using it to make money must give them credit and publish a new license. Even beer-loving German bloggers have taken note.

Is Darwin whispering "Told You So!"?
Just a hunch, but the emergence of tuskless elephants in China probably is NOT a result of "intellgent design" theory. Still, one Live Journal evolutionist wishes science reporting would be more, well, scientific.

He's back
New Yorker writer and investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has another piece (No. 20 link) about the Bush Administration's strategies for influencing election results. In Iraq, that is.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:36 AM

America's conservatives lost their balance only briefly in their ongoing bout with liberals over presidential adviser Karl Rove -- while yesterday bloggers mostly were linking to Scott McClellan's humiliating press conference, today they're pointing out things like this column in the Wall Street Journal, and others, that rebut Democrats' accusations. RightPundit asks, apropos the Rove question, "Is the governmental employee who released the information evil or a hero? Answer: It depends. If employee’s name is W. Mark Felt, apparently the employee is a hero. If the employee’s name is Karl Rove, apparently the employee is evil." But David Galbraith calls the WSJ column "a particularly side-splitting classic of obsequious, foppish garbage, worthy of the court of Louis XVI." And the battle rages on...

The Deadly Mission of the Lads From Leeds
Chilling developments today from England, where investigators now say the attacks on the London bus and subways were the work of suicide bombers, believed to be the first such strikes by terrorists in a Western country. The BBC story is BlogPulse's no. 32 link. And the bombers all seem to have been British citizens. This British blogger is simply dismayed at the revelations -- "This is EXTREMELY bad news.. how bad doesn't bear thinking about," he writes -- while this one resents the political hay already being made from the bombings: "It’s sad how quick the right is to distort another country’s tragedy -- the tragedy of an ally in the war on terror -- into political gain in an unrelated issue. "

Heavy. But There's Levity Elsewhere On The Web
Fortunately the blogosphere is too big to comprise only partisan acrimony and bad news. Hockey could be back, for example. Check out the ad for Apple's newest music player (let the SUV ad pass and wait for the iPod video) -- "more great iPod fun," writes Trend Junkie (but don't look for it in stores) -- or this comic (link no. 21), which we predict will terminate your boredom with extreme prejudice. "Well worth your time," writes gabbahead. And finally, there's this little beauty, today's no. 6 link, which seems to have been designed so that no computer user who finds it will get any work done thereafter.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:01 AM

Today's cruise through BlogPulse finds some serious questioning of the underpinnings of the Bush White House's "mandate."

Less than a week after Bush advisor Karl Rove attack liberals/Democrats for not properly supporting the war on terror, a blog called Taking the Fight to Karl has risen to No. 3 among the most-referred links. The harsh posts are from veterans, current members of the military and military family members. The Moral Values My Ass blogger calls Rove the "round mound of partisan sound." And that's probably one of the nicer descriptions. One vet uses the Dick Cheney expletive as well.

Negotiating with terrorists?
Can the Bushies be negotiating with terrorists? The Times of London says it's true (No. 7 link) and even Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says it's true on Fox News, of all places (No. 31 link). The Outside the Beltway blog notes the administration's shift in policy and explanation, InTheBullpen sees it as a bad sign of things to come, while Joel at Joel's Ramblings points out that John Kerry (remember him?) had the same idea.

Guess who said it?
Here's the quote, guess who uttered it: ""No goal, no objective, not until we have those things and a compelling case is made, then I say, back out of it, because innocent people are going to die for nothing. That's why I'm against it." A liberal on Iraq? No, Fox news commentator Sean Hannity about why U.S. involvement in Kosovo was a bad idea. Daily Kos (No. 21 link) has a whole slew of them, from the mouths of then-governor Bush, Tom DeLay and others. Read 'em and weep...literally.

Observations about "minor" things
BlogPulse also has some intriguing posts today, including a UCLA professor's sense that agriculture is the worst thing ever to happen to humankind (my 81-year-old farmer father would have a few counter opinions, and yes, he still lives on MacDonald's Farm), along with speculation that China is awakening militarily and financially.

BLOGPULSE UPDATES: Conversation Tracker is working again Please be advised that the BlogPulse engineering team is working through a recent data quality issue that affects blog posts from June 20 on. Because of the problem, trend charts from June 20 on are showing low percentages. The Conversation Tracker feature is working again. Other fixes and updates will be coming soon. Thanks for your patience!

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:33 AM

Today, bloggers are clearly talking about the law and just how far it can go. Apparently into your private real estate, according to Thursday's Supreme Court ruling that allows local governments to use eminent domain to seize private property for private developments -- as long as there's a community benefit involved.

The Dartmouth Review calls it a "pretty lousy ruling." Professor Bainbridge (today's No. 28 link) calls it a "moral outrage" and says the ruling is clear evidence that the Bush White House must pick a true conservative -- one who respects the 5th amendment's property protection wording -- for the next opening on the Supreme Court. Outside the Beltway called it a "black day for capitalism." Zonkerama blogger ("so much for property rights...the Supreme Court really blew it") is fairly representative of the reaction, most of which is negative.

How prevalent was the Supreme Court discussion? Five of today's key phrases mention the ruling, as do nine of today's top 40 links. Today's burstiest person is Susette Kelo, the New London CT homeowner whose name is on the historic lawsuit, and eight of the nine Supreme Court Justices (all but lead dissenter Sandra Day O'Connor, curiously) appear among the top 25 burstiest people.

A BlogPulse trend graph that plots pre-Kelo Supreme Court buzz has ruling-related spikes: its early March decision to consider a Ten Commandments case, the no-go Terri Schiavo decision in late March, the lifting of the ban on wine sales in late May and early June's ruling against medical marijuana:



Meanwhile, William Kristol in the Weekly Standard speculates that O'Connor, not Chief Justice William Rehnquist, is the judge most likely to retire -- and soon.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:39 AM

It's like November 2004 all over again. Interspersed in today's top blog discussions are George Bush vs. John Kerry: the Yale years and release of the Vietnam-era war record of the one who actually went to war. Seems that neither one set the grading world on fire, and conservative bloggers, including Michelle Malkin, apparently are using the new-old info to re-live the smear campaign glory days. (Now full disclosure amounts to "spin"?) Instanpundit offers some one-liners and then offers to "let it go."

Speaking of war records, a majority of Americans now feel the war in Iraq hasn't accomplished much in the way of national security. The American Street blog offers some commentary.

What's happening elsewhere in the world? A quick BlogPulse check of events from around the world shows this pattern of buzz:



Quotable Christians
Someone's posted a web site called the American Taliban, featuring verbatim but not, shall we say, the most tolerant quotes by leading Christians, conservative TV commentators and historic figures. "Onward Christian hypocrites" sums up the review at Slightly North of Tomorrow blog.

A fashionable rant, a fun optical illusion
"Sars," the author at Tomato Nation has a humorous lecture -- and not the loving kind -- for the modern (pocket-less) women's fashion industry. One LiveJournal reader laughed so loud she snorted her tea. Speaking of LiveJournal, the ability to buy a permenant account is today's top link. As for that Rapid Afterfire optical illusion, it's today's No. 40 link at BlogPulse.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: How's your investment portfolio performing?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:04 AM

In politics, it's a left vs. right, red vs. blue kind of day, with columnist Keith Thompson ranking as today's burstiest person for his essay about giving up on the left. Democrats, meanwhile, are heartened by Chairman Howard Dean's appearance on Sunday's Meet the Press with Tim Russert, while conservatives focused on his name slipups.

In movie theaters, it's Star Wars mania. Following the movie's record-setting box-office weekend, six of the "Revenge of the Sith" actors/characters appear among today's top personalities, and five of today's most trafficked blog links refer to official Star Wars web sites and blogger reviews, beat out out only by the buzz-building spoof "Grocery Star Wars."

So in the showdown of all times, who's winning...the Force or the Dark Side?



And in international affairs, it just gets messier, with bloggers now hammering Newsweek's Japanese edition cover that describes "The Day America Died," an international-edition piece that examines whether the U.S. is losing its leadership position in the world.

Meanwhile, way down near the bottom of today's top links is the Ballon Juice blog, whose author -- a proud U.S. veteran -- nonetheless takes on blogger Hugh Hewitt for Hewitt's claims that the media is "anti-military." In his "don't shoot the messenger" posting, the Balloon Juice blogger points out the big difference between actual military abuse of detainees and prisoners (and the ramifications of those acts) and the act of reporting them, editorial corrections and all.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:00 AM

Now that national ID cards are a thing of the future (thanks to an undebated provision tacked onto the Iraqi spending bill), will they make the nation more secure? Or less?

Some folks argue the latter. Today's No. 2 blog link, Schneier on Security, spells out one security expert's concerns, including increased vulnerability to identity theft, unsupervised security breaches and more. The Ars Technica blog spells out even more concerns. And some governors are hinting at court action to rein it in. The "Real ID" bill passed, by the way, 100 to zip. Today's No. 7 top link is the UnReal ID.

If that bit of news doesn't send some futuristic shivers up your spine, how about this? The Financial Times finds that U.S. wage earners are losing ground at the fastest rate in 14 years. The Labor Blog offers some theories about who gains from these numbers (and if you guessed Corporate America, you'd be right). If United Airlines can weasel out of its pension commitment, how many other corporations soon will be lining up behind it?

Star Wars Mania builds
Star Wars fans are getting antiser for next week's release of "Revenge of the Sith," the last of the six Star Wars movies from director George Lucas. The Organic Trade Association, recognizing a hot trend when they see one, have launched the Grocery Store Wars web site to promote the "organic rebellion." Its star line-up: Dark Tader, Cuke Skywalker, Tofu D2, Chewbroccoli and Obi Wan Cannoli, among others (no vegetables were harmed in the filming of this promotion).

BlogPulse tidbits...The Rev. Chan Chandler of North Carolina has left his 100-member church in the wake of the brouhaha that erupted when he told nine Democrats among his congregation to "repent or resign"....Journalist Molly Bingham's opinion piece about covering the war in Iraq is also getting some traction among bloggers.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: The year-old Abu Ghraib prison scandal continues to play out.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:27 AM

The Huffington Post, a contributory blog launched by liberal political activist Arianna Huffington is up, running and grabbing lots of attention -- negative and positive.

Some bloggers, such as Paradox1x simply notes its May 9 launch, while the Water Glass says Huffington makes an "online ass of herself" with self-promotionalism and Cal Blog ofers a piece of advice to new bloggers: always link to cited news sources.

Because of the blog, Huffington ranks No. 8 among today's key people and many of the blog's high-profile contributing authors -- Ellen DeGeneres, John Cusack, Gary Hart, Hilary Rosen, Mike Nichols, David Mamet, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and others -- appear in today's list of burstiest personalities.

On the movie front, citations about the recently released trailer for "Harry Potter And the Goblet of Fire" pushed that movie to No. 2 among today's top links. And director Steve Spielberg's tears are getting noticed, too; he cried at a screening of the upcoming Star Wars "Revenge of the Sith" movie. Speaking of which, how about a Darth Vader lawn sprinkler?

Since most elementary and high school students are being tested incessantly these days, you might as well join the fun with this brain-teaser (today's No. 11 link). These puzzles are why I majored in English.

And to really spice up your life, catch this piece about the world's hottest chili sauce in London's Sun.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Star Wars mania builds for the May 19 release of the last Star Wars movie, and Darth Vader and Yoda are running neck and neck...still.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:25 AM

Seems we're all getting lectured by Texans a lot lately, as if the Lone Star State thinks it's the only place where ethics and morals can be decided? Bloggers beg to differ.

First, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, himself the subject of ethical scrutiny by his Congressional peers and the press, has taken on Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy for (gasp!) using the Internet to conduct judicial research and making decisions that DeLay apparently doesn't like.

Blogger Professor Bainbridge predicts that conservative Republicans' efforts to end the filibuster for judicial nominations (in order to stack the courts with conservative judges) will backfire; he's predicting at least seven Republicans will bolt from the party position and nix the proposal. The Swing State Project looks at the issues as well.

Whose ethics? Who decides? BlogPulse graphed buzz about DeLay, the Supreme Court and President Bush in conjunction with the phrase "ethics" and found this pattern:



The parent trap
Today's burstiest phrase (gay foster parents) and burstiest person (Rep. Robert Talton) also hail from Texas, where Talton has pushed legislation through the Texas House that bans gay/bisexuals from being foster parents. Bloggers at the Burnt Orange Report are already organizing a protest rally for Friday. Pitched as a way to protect Texas' "most vulnerable children," the bill will also remove current foster children from homes led by gay parents. (Who defines "vulnerable"? Talton himself?)

Target-ing a new pill bottle
Way at the bottom of today's list of top links is news of a new pill-bottle design being introduced by Target. From the "why didn't anyone think of this before?" department.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Are you sensing that it's a movie weekend? See what's hot.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:38 AM

Perhaps, like many issues in today's red-blue atmosphere, academic freedom depends on who defines it. In Florida, legislators are considering what they call the "academic freedom bill of rights" which claims to " stamp out "leftist totalitarianism" by "dictator professors" in Florida universities.

I don't know about you, but it's been a long time since I sat in a college desk, a few years since I taught a college class. Isn't this going a little too far? Are these the same conservatives who want to get lawyers out of everyone's hair? Isn't education about opening minds to others' ideas? (Personally, I wonder: is the world getting stupider or something? Are we being sucked collectively into a El Nino of Intolerant Dumbness?)

Speaking of the conservative movement, recent efforts to inject the federal government and politics into the Terry Schiavo case (she continues to rank as BlogPulse's top person this week), and are being scrutinized and examined by bloggers under the banner of "How Far Will They Go To Kill Conservatism?"(14 citations today among top links). A Glenn Reynolds MSNBC interview on the issue also shows up today among top links. Polls show continued support for the Florida woman's right to die in peace.

Other BlogPulse discoveries:
For the light-hearted at Easter, check out the Bunny Rap video (today's No. 20 top link). Yahoo! seems to be on a roll with this week's release of its Creative Commons search engine, and iPod lovers keep coming up with new ideas for the gadget.

Blog Bizarreness
The story of the woman who found a human finger in a bowl of chili at a fast-food restuarant is being shared liberally among bloggers, as is the name of the health inspector called in to investigate.

Passings
Fans of the Seinfeld show are mourning the death of Barney Martin, the actor who played Morty Seinfeld (Jerry's father) on the show.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: It's easy to see where seasonal attention if focused: spring break fever.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:23 AM

Awareness vs. wakefulness...living vs. existence...consciousness vs. brain-stem reaction. The case of Terry Schiavo continues to dominate blog discussions, with 20 of the day's top 40 links and 9 of the top 15 key phrases somehow related to the Schiavo case. Schiavo herself has overtaken President George Bush among key personalities, and Florida Judge James Whittemore emerged at No. 2 among bursty people for his Monday ruling allowing Schiavo's husband to honor his wife's wishes not to be kept alive artificially.

BlogPulse tracked references to the phrases "right to live" and "right to die" in blog postings and found this trend:



Politics has surely entered the debate, as bloggers keep track of Congressional votes for the weekend bill that allowed federal court intervention in the Schiavo case, to distribution of a GOP memo calling Schiavo's case "a great political issue" sure to rally the conservative base, to discussion of previous Bush-passed bills in Texas that give hospitals the right to terminate life support, even against a family's wishes, for patients unable to pay for long-term care in cases where there is no hope of revival.

Meanwhile, polls show Americans decidedly against federal intervention in what they consider to be private matters for families and their doctors.

Other BlogPulse tidbits of curious and notable interest: Internet buzz about a new resource called Our Media, (heavy traffic, so the site may or may not work), step-by-step instructions from 3-M (the Duct Tape folks!) on how to make a Duct Tape wallet (No. 33 link) and the winner of the worst-news-judgment award for today. No comment.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Basketball buzz is certainly in the air, and the NCAA is starting to show an upward trend as March Madness continues.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:48 PM

This week, a Reuters study found that the 2004 Presidential election coverage was more negative toward President Bush than challenger John Kerry, and suddenly, it's as if the blogosphere has time-traveled to last November.

There's talk of California Judge Richard Kramer's decision that overturned California's ban on gay marriage. The Democrats are still going after House Majority Leader Tom Delay over ethics issues involving fund-raising and lobbyist activities. Emboldened right-wingers continues their attack on Darwinian evolution in science classes, and Bush confidante/advisor Karen Hughes is officially back in the administration fold as an Undersecretary of Diplomacy. Meanwhile, charges continue about manipulation of the news media by canned "news segments" issued by and paid for by government agencies. Is Thanksgiving just around the corner or something? Sure feels that way.

(One more time: Intelliseek senior researcher Natalie Glance, has co-authored a paper, The Political Blogosphere and the 2004 U.S. Election: Divided They Blog, with Lada Adamic of HP Labs. It examines the posts of 40 "A-list" conservative and liberal blogs in the two months leading up to the Nov. 2004 Presidential Election and includes a one-day snapshot of more than 1,000 political blogs).

In the blogosphere, the call is going out now to nominate favorite blogs for the 2005 Bloggie Awards. (Hint: all you BlogPulse devotees? Knock yourselves out on the nomination forms....). Technorati CEO David Sifry summarizes the state of blogging, and blog buzz (and criticism) hasn't abated over AOL's terms of service ("we own all content, you have no privacy rights") for its popular instant messenger service.

Anticipation corner: Macintosh users are starting to hear more and more about the spring release of OS X 10.4 Tiger...perhaps in April? And X-men fans seem pleased that Matthew Vaughn has been chosen to direct the X-men 3.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Have you ever been driven nuts by business jargon? Wanted to hand someone a dictionary and say, "Here. Speak English, please." A recent list of overused business phrases finds that "at the end of the day" takes the cake over "win-win" and "think outside the box."

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:58 AM

Natalie Glance, one of BlogPulse's senior researchers, has co-authored a fascinating paper that examines the degree of interaction and behavior among top conservative and liberal political bloggers during the November Presidential election, and the findings are quite revealing.

The Political Blogosphere and the 2004 U.S. Election: Divided They Blog, written with Lada Adamic of HP Labs, examines the posts of 40 "A-list" conservative and liberal blogs in the two months leading up to the Nov. 2004 Presidential Election. The study also includes a one-day snapshot of more than 1,000 political blogs. Highlights?

• Coverage by political leaning was fairly balanced. Of 1,494 blogs that met the researchers' definition of influence, 759 were liberal and 735 were conservative.

• Even though numbers of blogs were fairly balanced, conservative blogs showed a greater tendency to link to other blogs (84% linked to other blogs, 82% received a link) compared to liberal blogs (74% linked to other blogs, 67% received a link). That behavior is captured in the following graphic from the paper, which illustrates the division between liberal (blue) and conservative (red) blogs. Orange links go from liberal to conservative, purple links from conservative to liberal. The size of each blog (indicated by a circle) reflects the number of other blogs that link to it.



• Conservative blogs also linked to more numbers of blogs (15.1 average) than did liberal blogs (13.6 average). In the single-day snapshot analysis, the most linked to liberal blog had more links (Daily Kos at 338) than the most linked to conservative blog (Instapundit at 277), although Glance and Adamic found that "the distribution of inlinks is highly uneven, with a few blogs of either persuasion having over a hundred incoming links, while hundreds of blogs have just one or two."

• Conservative blogs tended to rank higher overall than liberal blogs, with the top 20 conservative blogs falling in the 44 most-cited blogs while the top 20 liberal blogs fell in the top 77 most-cited blogs.

• Liberal and conservative bloggers also had clear preferences for mainstream news sources that they cited. Fox News (89%) and the National Review, (92%) for example, received most of their links from conservative-leaning blogs. By contrast, 91% of Salon.com's links came primarily from liberal-leaning blogs. Top right-leaning political bloggers tended to refer more frequently to the New York Post, WSJ Opinion Journal and the Washington Times, while left-leaning political bloggers linked more frequently to the Los Angeles Times, New Republic and Wall Street Journal. The New York Times, Google News and Washington Post tended to received equal numbers of links from both sides.

• Who were bloggers writing about? Curiously, 59% of the mentions of John Kerry came from right-leaning bloggers, while 53% of the mentions of George W. Bush came from left-leaning bloggers. Not surprisingly, some of the top political figures mentioned during the campaign, including CBS' Dan Rather, film maker Michael Moore, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and others -- continue to be discussed as "key people" in the blogosphere today.

The current paper by Glance and Adamic bolsters BlogPulse's previous examination of bloggers' impact on the 2004 Presidential election, a special online report called Campaign Radar 2004. It and other special contributions are available in the BlogPulse Showcase section of the web site.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:45 AM

Really? Federal Elections Commission fines for bloggers who forward campaign addresses or provide links to candiates' web sites? Is that what's ahead for politics and blogs?

The biggest buzz in the Blogosphere today involves this CNET interview with FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith, who argues that elections rules eventually must be applied to the Internet, and that means more scrutiny of (and fines for?) bloggers and their ubiquitous links to campaign sites, information, fund-raising sites and more. Says Smith: "One thing the commission has argued over, debated, wrestled with, is how to value assistance to a campaign...The commission has usually taken the view that we value it by the amount raised. It's still going to be difficult to value the link, but the value of the link will go up very quickly."

Blogger Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit chimes in, as does Redstate.org and a lot of other bloggers.

Speaking of red states, the Elko Daily Free Press has coverage of a red-state speech given recently Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev).

On the party front, the Internet's marking Yahoo!'s 10th anniversary, with a 10by10 retrospective and a link to the original 1995 Yahoo! home page. A long way, indeed....

Speaking of long ways, Virgin Atlantic has an entire web site devoted to Steve Fosset's Global Flyer and the around-the-world solo flight that finished Thursday afternoon in Salina, Kansas.

Other interesting finds, access to the New York Public Library's digital image archive and (just what the Internet needs more of) sleeping cat pictures. And oh yeah, a Tawney Peaks breast implant for sale on eBay.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: What's happening in the world of Internet browsers?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:47 AM

The Blogosphere is busy today, scrutinizing every phrase and nuance in President George Bush's State of the Union address and his emphasis on Social Security reform.

Some viewers, apparently, were equally interested in the State of the Union Drinking game; its web site ranked 8th among today's top 40 links.

BlogPulse also picked up numerous references to Punxsutawney Phil, that rascally groundhog whose tradition (IMHO) is now so staged for the cameras that it seems almost silly. And over-orchestrated. And somewhat anachronistic. OK, fake. Doesn't it? (As a MacDonald who did indeed grow on up a farm, I'm pretty sure that today's farmers no longer need groundhog shadows to speculate about the spring planting season. I honestly think they have better technology now).

Apple's cute little iPods apparently are showing up everywhere...including on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, a phenomenon that apparently isn't making MS execs any too happy.

And look who's back? Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean apparently is clawing his way back as the possible new head of the Democratic Party.

Bloggers and other online news sources are also "outing" the identity of the U.S. soldiers claimed to be kidnapped in Iraq, and it turns out it's probably a GI Joe doll in a staged photo. A few bloggers are having fun with it.

Don't forget to visit BlogPulse's analysis of tsuanmi-related coverage of the Blogosphere.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAYWhat's hot at the box office this week? And how is the President's focus on Social Security reform playing out?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:57 PM

Officially, this week's focus on inauguration day for President George W. Bush, an event that again propels him to the top spot among BlogPulse's key people. Opinion about whether he will be considered a united or divider during his second term, like his election results, is pretty evenly split. But wait! Who's that nipping at his heels?

First, it's the JibJab.com brothers, Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, whose newly released animated cartoon "Second Term" is already a hot property on the Internet. And not-so-supportive fans of the Prez staged an economic protest of their own: Not One Damn Dime Day.

And before Mr. Bush has even had a chance to utter the words "Social Security reform," movements are afoot to stop him in his tracks. Among them is today's No. 3 top link, a blog political action committee (PAC) called Social Security: There is No Crisis What is a blog PAC? Find out what it is and who's involved. In a similar vein, Republican Bill Thomas, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has already gone on record calling Social Security reform, in the face of partisan politics, a "dead horse."

In the Blogosphere, blog software providers are trying to turn comment spam -- the nefarious practice by which traditional spammers post comments on blogs that contain links to spam web sites -- into a dead horse of its own. Major blog providers have joined forces by agreeing on common programming code that can be embedded in blogs to identify comment link as spam so that they're ignored by search engines (that's the reason spammers want in on blogs...for better search results). Cooperating are: Google/Blogger, MSN Search, Six Apart (TypePad, MovableType, LiveJournal), and WordPress. Here's Moveable Type's explanation.

Anyone concerned about the rights of defenseless cartoon characters should know that SpongeBob Squarepants is now the latest target of outrage by the Christian right. (As if outing the purple Teletubby Tinky Winky wasn't enough!). The brou-ha-ha is over a video featuring several cartoon characters to teach children about cooperation and tolerance; right-wingers claim it has a pro-gay agenda. (Is that all they worry about?).

Thoughts on different stuff....

Is this what they mean by a "jury of one's peers?" In which case, I want different peers if I'm ever arrested.

And is it the end of the documentary as we know it?

Breaking from Vatican teachings is the Catholic Church in Spain, which now supports condoms to prevent the spread of AIDS.

And whether you're a David Hasselhoff fan or not, do as the blogger says and prepare to lose your mind.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:50 PM

Ohio's Secretary of State certified its votes this week with the Bush-Kerry percentage still at 51%-49% (remember that), and just when everyone thought election-related conspiracy theories would die down, here comes the Blue Lemur blog and several other blogs with information about Clinton Curtis.

Curtis is a former NASA programmer who, according to several blogs, has signed an affidavit in Florida saying that he developed/wrote a computer program in early 2000 that would rig electronic votes without being detectable. He says he wrote the code at the request of Rep. Tom Feeney, now a member of the House of Representatives. Back then, Feeney was a Florida state representative and lobbyist. Guess how the code worked? Each touch-screen had a series of hidden buttons which, when touched in the proper order, would be untraceable but would keep voting percentages at a constant 51%-49% margin (remember that?), no matter how the actual vote tally counted up. His former NASA employer, according to the blog, is being investigated by the FBI. Curtis tells bloggers he's taking heat.

Also getting blog traction: this week's attacks on the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia, the departure of yet another top Bush administration official at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and for those who enjoy bizarre news, the tale of European soccer player Paulo Diogo, who was so overjoyed at winning a match that he lost a digit or two.

And here's a question: Have you ever wondered what cartoon characters looked like skeletally? Artist Michael Paulus did (today's burtiest BlogPerson person), and he created a web site of, yes, cartoon skeletons.

Today's blast from the past: Remember when "Hullabaloo" was a TV music/dance show? My how times have changed, as this posting at the Hullabaloo blog indicates.

BLOGPULSE TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: With voting irregularities as a backdrop, check out the discussion of the principal parties in the recently overturned Ukraine elections.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:37 PM

Seems two of President Bush's major policy initiatives -- No Child Left Behind and abstinence-only sex "education" for teens -- are under attack in the blogosphere and elsewhere today.

On the former, a Mother Jones article titled "No Child Unrecruited" recounts the experience of a Vermont high school principal who balked at releasing personal information about her students to military recruiters. Then she discovered that Bush's No Child Left Behind bill features a tiny clause requiring public high schools to release contact information about all students to military recruiters.

On the latter, Rep. Henry Waxman has stirred the proverbial sex pot with a report that finds troublesome misinformation is being doled out as part of the Bush administration's emphasis on absintence-only sex education programs for teens. Download the full report. (Suppose we taught kids to drive the way we teach sex ed..."Don't drive! It's too dangerous! Don't LEARN about driving! It's wrong! Don't THINK about driving! It's scary!").

Jeopardy! loser Ken Jennings continues to receive traction because of the possible role a blogger may have played in predicting/leaking his loss.

Also in the blogging world, Microsoft is entering the marketplace with MSN Spaces, which topped out as Thursday's second most popular link.

On the sports front, baseballer Jason Giambi seems to have opened the door to what most certainly will be broader investigations into steroid use among pro athletes.

On the lighter side, someone has done an amazing (and probably illegal) job of posting a fake CNN web-site news story about the arrest of President Bush in Canada for war crimes. One blogger asks: how long till CNN lawyers demand its removal?

Are you in the mood today for a good deed? How about adopting a cute little horse named after a character from the TV show "Firefly"?

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Outside of that Vermont high school, what's the buzz about military recruitment, deployment and enlistment?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:33 AM

It's not as if America has to work really hard ruining its image around the world, eh?

Not with hunters shooting each other with assault rifles in Wisconsin, NBA players beating the stuffing out of fans, a sickening new video game that hits the market 41 years (almost to the day) after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and a recent Gallup poll that should make science teachers everywhere shudder to the bones. (Maybe those folks at the Sorry Everybody blog should start adding topical sections!)

Pardon my pontificating, but today's headlines and blog references are proof positive that this nation needs a ban on assault weapons. Because when hunters start using guns for crime, then all that talk about guns-for-sport becomes hollow talk, doesn't it? Among today's burstiest people are Chai Vang, the St. Paul hunter arrested for killing six fellow hunters (and wounding two others) with an assault-style rifle on Monday in northern Wisconsin. Also on the list are sheriff deputies Tim Zeigle and Jake Hodgkinson, who investigated the senseless shooting.

If that's not enough gore, how about a video game in which you get to be Lee Harvey Oswald aiming a rifle from a book depository window in Dallas? It's true. One of today's top links describes JFK Reloaded, a new video game from a Scottish company that insists there's nothing twisted about it. Players win or lose points depending on how well their tactics match the findings of the Warren Commission, which investigated the Nov. 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Not depressed enough yet? From the pollsters at Gallup comes this new survey: almost half of Americans believe that God created humans about 10,000 years ago, while only one-third believe Darwin's theory of evolution. (I've gotta ask: is this a result of the so-called educational "gains" from No Child Left Behind? And should we add "ignorance" to the BlogPulse daily graph that charts the seven deadly sins?)

If you think sitting at a computer all day is the world's boring job, give yourself a healthy dose of perspective by checking out Popular Science's sequel to the "Worst Jobs in Science." At least you don't have ticks or worms sharing your cubicle (or DO you?)

And from what Jon Stewart calls "Mess-O-Potamia," or the war in Iraq, come two interesting links. The first is a blog by Kevin Sites, the TV newsman who was on the scene when a U.S. Marine shot and killed and already-injured Iraqi soldier in a Fallujah mosque. He adds the context and background that the nightly news blips don't have time for. The second link looks at war from the Marines' perspective in an ABC piece about Iraqi soldiers who "play dead" before firing on U.S. soliders.

And in order not to totally bum out every BlogPulse aficionado today with bum-out news, let's shift paradigms right now. Check out this totally enjoyable ditty titled "P.S. I'll find my frog." Click on each image (73 total) as it appears on your computer screen, and you'll go on an unforgettable frog-hunting pilgrimage (don't miss image No. 62). Whoever created this site...thanks! We needed that.

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY:Who's all the rage among aging male rock/pop stars?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:56 AM

Resignation Mania has taken hold in the nation's capital, which explains why outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell is Monday's leading personality in blogs, joined on the bursty people list by outgoing Bush Cabinet members Spencer Abraham (Energy), Ann Veneman (Agriculture) and Rod Paige (Education).

Resignations of another kind are taking place at the CIA, although a top-linked article in Newsday calls it more of a "purging" than a rash of resignations at the intelligence agency.

On the flip side, researchers think they've discovered the ancient lost city of Atlantis, based on sonar maps of the ocean floor near the island of Cyprus (and descriptions of the city in Plato's writings).

Speaking of finding things, the blog Buzz Machine has an interesting report about findings from a Freedom of Information Act filing it pursued. Blogger Jeff Jarvis wanted to find out how many complaints were filed with the Federal Communications Commission that ultimately led to a $1.2 million fine against Fox for "suggestive" material in its Married by America TV show. The origianl claim of 159 complaints boiled down to 3 actual letters (the rest were copies/photocopies of other complainers' letters).

Today's noted passing: Geff Rushton, founder of the musical group Coil.

Today's interesting political find is this essay called The Urban Archipelago, which offers yet another red-blue map and theory about why the Democrats lost this month's election. The authors argue that most of the blue state are, indeed, blue -- but only by virtue of the large cities that dominate them. And the only way Democrats can win is to continue to cater to and grow the urban base, where the voters who agree with traditional Democratic values -- tolerance, working wages, universal health care, mass transit, etc. -- live.

TREND OF THE DAY: Open the iPod bay doors, Hal....

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:30 PM

A day after Attorney General John Ashcraft announced his resignation from President Bush's cabinet, the blogosphere lit up with discussion about his already-proposed replacement, White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales (Wednesday's burstiest person).

In fact, Wednesday's key phrases refer to Gonzales in a variety of contexts, including his rulings about the Abu Ghraib torture investigations, his term as a Texas Supreme Court justice, speculation about his influence on civil liberties and more.

Today's top link has been inching up in popularity since last week's re-election of Bush, but good taste prevents the printing of its official title. Let's just say that it's a rant against the American South, written in the same frame of mind (and language) that VP Dick Cheney apparently was in when he dropped the "F-bomb" on Sen. Pat Leahy a few months back. (Wednesday's 4th top link might, a letter to the editor titled "Jesus Speaks Through Republicans," might serve as evidence of that rant, except it's written by a newspaper reader in the very northern state of Pennsylvania).

Satire's thick today in BlogPulse links as well, from this updated version of Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" titled "Declaration of Explusion." It's authored by Mike Thompson, past chairman of the Florida Conservative Union. And from The Onion comes a lead story titled Nation's Poor Win Election for Nation's Rich.

But hey, how about a few celebrations!

First, the Hindu community is celebrating Deepavali, a popular festival that symbolizes the victory of good over evil. And the U.S. Marine Corps celebrates is 229th birthday as well.

For the totally irreleveant, check out the Kevin F. Sherry Sweater Project. The creative cubicle here at BlogPulse thanks you, Kevin F. Sherry, for removing the so-called fashion statements from public circulation for good.

TREND OF THE DAY Pity the poor hockey fans still stuck in limbo over the NHL lockout.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 03:30 PM

Some U.S. residents reacted to the Nov. 2 presidential election results by threatening to move to a foreign country. But the folks at the Sorry, Everybody web site have adopted a different tactic: a worldwide apology, one photo at a time. It emerged as today's top-linked site in the blogosphere. So far, it's at more than 1,000 photos and growing. Its sponsors say that being willing to apologize, which some might interpret as a sign of weakness, instead signals "courage and strength" and serves as a tangible way to reach out tothe rest of the world to heal divisions and ease misunderstanding.

The fact that the term "electronic voting angst" appears as today's burstiest phrase has something to say about the power of last week's vote to stick in the national psyche.

In the world of Internet browsing, there's much ado about the release of Mozilla's Firefox web browser, which managed to receive several of today's' top 40 links and landed at No. 12 on today's list of key phrases. It's being hailed as faster, safer and more reliable than Internet Explorer.

And in order to get in the pre-Thanksiving Day mood, those folks at Jones Soda have outdone themselves this year. Not only are they resurrecting turkey-gravy-flavored soda that sold out so quickly last year, they've added these dinner-table flavors: mashed potatoes and butter, cranberry, green been casserole and fruitcake. Honest. Drink up?

At first, I scratched my head when I saw the Berlin Wall emerge among today's key phrases, until I remember that Nov. 9 is not only my parents' wedding anniversary (happy 58th!) but also the anniversary of the collapse of that famous barrier.

If you're of the mind that the next four years will bring even more attacks on personal/civil/human rights, well, perhaps the next two news tidbits could be more uplifting. First, USA Today reports that a Texas druggist has refused to fill a woman's birth-control pill prescription because he doesn't believe in it -- and that such tactics are being legalized throughout the U.S. That occured the same week that a years-old email warning of the appointment of ultra-conservative, religiously-inclined Dr. W. David Hager to chairmanship of a federal committee that oversees women's health issues. It's an email that's circulated for at least two years and continues to re-appear fairly regularly. The real scoop, available from Snopes.com, is that Hager was appointed to the committee in 2002, but not as chairman because of outcry from women's health advocates. Not that women should rest easier...but at least maybe they can retire the e-mail?

TREND OF THE DAY: A curious blip occured in the BlogPulse graph that tracks the seven deadly sins, and it occured on Electoin Day and the few days afterward. Anger, Pride and Greed showed a slight uptick on Election Day and for several days afterward. Linked, perhaps, with the "moral values" that people expressed to exit-pollers? And did you notice that the pollsters didn't ask WHICH values people voted inside the booth...yet commentators/spinners assumed were of the right-leaning, conservative, Christian kind?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:52 AM

First, a bit of housekeeping: the trouble is not in your set. If you click on today's results for "key phrases" and nothing happens, it's not your fault. BlogPulse phrase-related data didn't register correctly over the weekend, and the tech team is working on tracking down the culprit. "Key People" and "Key Links" work fine, so click away!

And if you do click away, you'll see that post-election discussion hasn't abated one teeny bit, including plenty of soul-searching about the future of the Democratic party.

President Bush finally ranks at the top of the "key people" list...the first time in several months, in fact, on BlogPulse. Throughout the campaign, Sen. John Kerry consistently held the top spot among key people. The weekend Bush/Karl Rove announcement of intent to seek a U.S. constitutional amendment against gay marriage no doubt fueled Bush's rise.

One thing I've been hankering for is a regional/countywide breakdown of "red" vs. "blue" votes, and it's offered here by Princeton University. Maybe we're more purple than we think?

Frankly, one of the most interesting links in Sunday's results is an anonymous blog from a middle-aged Southern woman titled How You Could Have Had My Vote." For Democrats, it's sobering reading. For Republicans giddy about a "mandate," it's probably sobering reading as well.

Among the list of bursty people -- those who rise in blog discussion quickly -- comes the name of Andrew Veal, a Georgia man who apparently was so distraught over Bush's re-election that he committed suicide over the weekend in a secure area of the former World Trade Center site.

And if rumors or hints of conspiracies are in existence, they'll no doubt show up on the Internet and in blogs. Over at Common Dreams, a non-profit progressive news site, writers are looking at the possibilities of Florida vote-hacking in both the 2004 presidential election and previous elections. The BlackBoxVoting web site continues to appear in the top links among blogs as well for its continued, non-profit emphasis on fraud-free voting. In one Ohio precinct, Bush got several thousand more votes than there were registered voters. Election officials called it a "glitch;" (about 35 "glitches" like that could mean the difference between a Bush or Kerry win in Ohio).

On the ligher side, a tongue-in-cheek web site called "Marry An American" has been set up for Canadians eager to welcome their frustrated Democratic, disenfranchised Republican or apolitical neighbors to the North in the wake of Bush's re-election. It's like an across-the-border dating service web-site.

For evolutionary tales of another kind, a Wisconsin school district is in the hot seat for a decision to teach evolution and creationism as part of its science curriculum. Superintendent Joni Burgin makes to to No. 5 on the bursty people list.

FIND OF THE DAY: Have you seen 10x10 yet? It's a unique web site with this mission: "Every hour, 10x10 collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time. Over the course of days, months, and years, 10x10 leaves a trail of these hourly statements which, stitched together side by side, form a continuous patchwork tapestry of human life." It was created Jonathan Harris of Number27, during his residency (and in conjunction with) FABRICA communication research center in Italy. It showed up as No. 37 on today's top links.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:32 AM

Well, there's plenty of post-election analysis, cheering and gnashing of teeth going on in the blogosphere, depending on which side of this uniter-divider election one happens to find one's self. So let's take a quick look at some of today's results.

Not surprisingly, all of Tuesday's 40 key people, 40 burstiest phrases and 37 of 40 top links are election-related.

The top two people in today's bursty people list include Kids for Kerry organizer Alana Wexler and Michael Benson, a Florida boy who donated his piggy bank money to Sen. John Kerry's campaign. Both were mentioned in Kerry's Wednesday concession speech, the text of which was reprinted in numerous blogs.

Andrew Sullivan's blog analyzes the breakdown of votes between Bush and Kerry, noting that while Kerry did well among liberals, moderates and the young, Bush gained ground among seniors and huge numbers of conservative Christians. Several blogs link to Bill Bennett's observation of a "huge fundamentalist Christian revival in this country." (Personal aside: a friend emailed me a new map of North America overnight, showing the West Coast, Upper Midwest New England and Canada as Canada, and the rest of red-state Americaas "Jesusland.")

How did international bloggers view the American election? A blog by Stephen N. (Canadian who recently returned from a job in France), offers his insights on the red-blue breakdown of the U.S. and concerns about the U.S. Electoral College.

A German blog, RochusWolf, is one of several that quotes Tuesday's No. 3 burstiest person, Konrad Olszewski, an international observer of elections in Miami, Fla., assigned there by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He said the U.S. elections were more complicated than those in Serbia, provided less access to observers than those in Kazakhstan, had fewer fail-safe measures than those common in Venezuela and had ballots more complicated than those used in the Republic of Georgia.

Other finds:

Michael Moore's home page posted only an image of Bush's face composed of photographs of individual U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. And the message, "we're not going away."

Joshua Micah Marshall's Talking Points Memo debates the question: Should Bush be given a fresh start?

Harper's Magazine, Tuesday's 12th-ranking blog link, offers "Electing to Leave," a breakdown of countries or locations that disgruntled Americans might want to consider for re-settlement.

William Selatan at MSNBC offers this piece of advice on running Democratic candidates in the future: Keep it simple, stupid.

And since the Christian vote apparently played such a large role in Tuesday's results, this incident in China, of a man trying to convert an uncoooperative lion to Christianity, simply must stand without comment.

And don't forget, BlogPulse results are often mentioned and discussed on Blogosphere Radio out of Canada.

TREND OF THE DAY: Now that the focus is/may be off the U.S. Presidential elections, will it quickly turn back to events in the rest of the world? Here's a look at international hot spots.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:51 AM

Given the amount of bad information and exit-poll data that littered the Blogosphere by mid-day on Tuesday, it's probably best that bloggers weren't put in front of TV network microphones for the rest of the day. A few web sites and blogs posted mid-afternoon exit polls that predicted a John Kerry win in the electoral college...information that obviously proved wrong as Tuesday wore on.

So what do the day-after results say about bloggers' role and influence in the election? Because BlogPulse data is up to a day behind, Tuesday's results (based on Monday data) are filled mostly with predictions, voting-day experiences and running commentary. Wednesday's actual post-election content catches up to the results, and it's all there, from disappointment with a hint of determination, to shame, to running commentary, to unrivaled glee at the Republican sweep.

The Zogby Poll today posts a statement saying it stands by its data and proved all along that the race was close. Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly, who published early exit polls favoring Kerry, finds that later exit polls compiled by CNN more accurately reflected the results and Bush's win. Over at The Buzz Machine, blogger Jeff Jarvis has posted a "Post Election Pledge" that's worth reading. So are the comments. And poet John Greenleaf Whittier's ditty about Election Day is linked or reprinted in several blogs.

In non-election news, the late Dutch film director Theo Van Gogh continues to be tracked in BlogPulse. Van Gogh, who received death threats over his Submission movie about violence against women in Islamic societies, was killed in Amsterdam earlier this week. A suspect with Dutch-Moroccan ties has been arrested.

And for bizarre animal stories, there's always the news of "blood-sucking monkeys" attacking children at a Hindu temple in India.

TREND OF THE DAY: Let's not even think about politics today. Let's look at continuing talk of airline troubles and looming airline bankruptcies.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:55 AM

Let no one tell you that American voters are apathetic this year. Not when 30 of Monday's 40 key phrases are election- or politics-related.

Not when 35 of Monday's top 40 key people mentioned in the blogosphere are somehow related to Election Day fervor..with only Harry Potter, Britney Spears, Ashlee Simpson, Martha Stewart and Avril Lavingne breaking the non-politico mold.

Not when 35 of Monday's top 40 blog links are politics-related and representative of idealogies and opinions from one end of the spectrum to the other.

The question remains: will politics remain at the forefront of blog opinion in the weeks AFTER the election? Only time will tell.

Appearing today as No. 3 among bursty people is retired Gen. Norman Schwartzkopf, who is asking Democrats to quit saying he supports Sen. John Kerry when he actually supports President George Bush. And Andrew Tannenbaum, creator of the Electoral Vote Predictor web site, is capturing plenty of blog buzz now that his identity is being widely circulated. On the nastier side of politics, critics continue to try to bash Kerry's military record while blogger/documentarian Joshua Bearrman catches Republican staffers posing as gay advocates in Florida, and rather badly at that. (Too bad dirty tricks didn't follow Richard M. Nixon out of office thirty years ago....)

For the record, Al Jazeera's web site has posted the transcript of Osama bin Laden's tape-recorded speech from earlier in the week. Even if only for historical purposes, it's worth reading.

TREND OF THE DAY: Election-day jitters continue their creep toward today.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:32 AM

Those missing explosives in Iraq are spinning the spin machine like few other topics of late. If you're of the "Saddam had WMD all along" persuasion (with a hint of Commie intrigue thrown in), the Washington Times version of events is being linked heavily among bloggers.

Or if you're pretty certain that the U.S. invading forces had far more security troops defending the Iraqi oil ministry and oil fields than they had at the explosives-heavy Al Qaqaa, you're probably more inclined toward the footage from a Minnesota news crew that was reporting from the site just days after Bagdhad fell. Videographer Joe Caffrey and reporter Dean Staley jumped to Nos. 1 and 4 on today's Bursty People list. Also on the list at No. 2 is researcher Les Roberts, who reported this week that up to 100,000 more Iraqis have died, since the U.S. invasion, than would have been expected to die under normal circumstances in that country.

But if all this political blabbing and the incessant swing-state commercials have caused you to tune out already, maybe you'll get a laugh from commentary on this week's season-opening episode of South Park, perhaps the funniest slam yet of this year's election choices. Let's just say the kids at South Park Elementary were glad to keep the cow as their mascot rather than choose between the two options they otherwise faced (and please don't make me print it in public)

And don't forget to check BlogPulse's Campaign Radar 2004 Roundup, an analysis of politcal content in blogs during this campaign season. The graphic representations of bloggers' abilities to keep issues alive...or debunk them, if necessary is captured in these bottom-of-the-page analyses. It specifically tracks the blob buzz about the Swift Boat veterans campaign and the fallout of CBS' "memogate" reporting on President Bush's National Guard Service.

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Today's Bush vs. Kerry graph shows just how close this election could/will/can/might be.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:18 PM

From the first day that Intelliseek's Campaign Radar 2004 hit the web, the Iraq war has remained the most blogged-about issue, according to a deeper look at the topics, people, links and issues being discussed in political blog postings. And Iraq-related discussion, as well as discussion of jobs/economy, health-care and other issues, has either tracked or, in some cases, preceded ongoing events and campaign-related news as the nation heads toward next Tuesday's election.

Find all the results at the Campaign Radar 2004 Roundup page that went live on Wednesday, Oct. 27.

But the issues-related data highlights an interesting point: bloggers' political postings clearly mirrored ongoing news events, including the Presidential debates, the political party conventions, the milestone of 1,000 U.S. casualties in Iraq, the Swift Boat Veterans charges and fallout of the CBS "60 Minutes" report on President Bush's National Guard Service. Similar event-related spikes also appeared in tracking of blog buzz regarding the two major presidential candidates and the vice presidential candidates as well.

And what's happening in the blogosphere as the countdown to Election Day continues? Well, there's the case of 60,000 missing absentee ballots in everyone's favorite voting state, Florida. And someone who posted negative commentary about the sitting president in her Moon and Antarctica LiveJournal blog got a visit from the Secret Service and writes some insightful commentary about the experience. (Can't help myself here as I stuff my tongue firmly in cheek, but do you suppose it was same guys from the Cat Stevens patrol?)

And remember the Oct. 20 BlogPulse entry about "Silence of the Domes," the video showing John Edwards tending to his hair before a TV appearance? Today's BlogPulse 40th top link has the George Bush version of hair-taming...and a little frat-boy "one-finger victory salute" thrown in at the end. (Be patient...it may take a few seconds to load).

BLOGPULSE TREND OF THE DAY: Seems bloggers are more focused on potential voter fraud in next week's election than in the count that really counts -- the electoral college.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:56 AM

What does it say about a presidential election when comedians, in the form of fake news show anchors and puppet animators, get more than their fair share of "buzz" among bloggers? It's true.

Over the weekend, the number of links and mentions of Jon Stewart's not-so-funny appearance on CNN's Crossfire increased on BlogPulse. "The Daily Show" host didn't play such a yuck-yuck to hosts Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson, instead calling their behavior "partisan hackery" and damaging to democracy.

Likewise, references to Matt Stone's and Trey Parker's new movie, "Team America: World Police" also picked up over the weekend, with the bloggers at Evilcon calling it a "laff riot."

It didn't take long for Sunday's New York Times endorsement of Sen. John Kerry to show up in the blogosphere. And accompanying it was Ron Suskind's article in the paper's Sunday magazine about Bush's intersection of faith and politics. Read the article here (registration required). Will moderate Republicans revolt starting Nov. 3 if the President is re-elected?

Friday's BlogPulse results also thrust into the spotlight at least seven U.S. military personnel, their relatives and their Congressman, all because a reservist unit in Iraq refused to go on a supply run because they felt their trucks and equipment were unsafe. In fact, seven of Friday's burstiest people are involved in the ongoing dispute.

On the technology front, Google's Desktop Search Download caught attention last week and continues to garner blog traffic and discussion. And if ongoing world events didn't make us jittery enough about stuff like safety and security, the shortage of flu vaccines is there to remind us that something is always out to get us.

TRACK THE CAMPAIGN NOW: Be sure to use Intelliseek's Campaign Radar 2004 to track the political campaign buzz now through Nov. 2 Election Day.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:20 AM

Observers predicted this Presidential election would be close. But did anyone think it would get this, what shall we call it, intense? Downright nasty at times? Enough to want to make you just turn off the TV and quit buying the newspaper for a few more Tuesday's until it's all over?

Yesterday's brou-ha-ha over Sinclair Broadcast Group's decision to air an anti-Kerry documentary "Stolen Honor" is joined today by concerns about voter registration fraud linked to the GOP-funded Voters Outreach America. Did some registration workers tear up and throw away the registration forms of Democratic voters and turn in only the forms for Republican voters, as former workers claim? The name of political organizer Nathan Sproul, fourth on Thursday's bursty people list, keeps popping up in connection with the controversy.

And if that's not ALL, how's this for an extra soap-opera-ist twist to your election coverage? "No-Spin Zoner" Bill O'Reilly, 55, has been sued for sexual harassment by one of his show's 33-year-old producers. Legitimate or extortion? Bloggers will no doubt blog about it, you decide...

On another totally unrelated topic, the curious name of "Shel Silverstein Six" tops today's bursty people list. Shel Silverstein is a late children's book author (and one of my personal all-time favorite poets), but Shel Silverstein Six? Seems that a Silverstein poem was posted on numerous blogs commentaring this week's sixth anniversary of the death of gay student Matthew Shepard.

DEBATES ARE OVER: LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN: Now that the debates are officialy over, be sure to rely on Intelliseek's Campaign Radar 2004 to follow blog "buzz" about the political scene from now through Nov. 2 and for a week or two beyond.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 01:36 PM

Seems everybody else is talking about it: just what WAS that square thing under President Bush's suit jacket during the first debate in Miami? A seam wrinkle? A shadow? Or a wireless device from which someone off-stage was feeding him answers to debate questions?

Salon.com posted an article hypothesizing its purpose, then bloggers started buzzing about the photos and the phenom late last week, and the issue is all over the mainstream media by now, including a Saturday shortie in the New York Times and Monday-morning mentions in Technology Review's online newsletter and Online Media News' online newsletter. An entire web site, Is Bush Wired? has been set up to examine the issue (although high traffic to its servers might make it temporarily unavailable at times). Which raises the next question: if it WAS a wireless device, whose voice was prompting the president? And how often does this sort of "prompting" happen? (And what does that say about our leader's ability to think on his feet? With his own brain?)

That's the heavy part of politics today. But who said politics had to be serious business all the time? Those guys at JibJab are back at it again, and while the novelty factor might not be the same, you gotta give 'em credit for creativity. "Good to be in DC" is a satire-heavy equal opportunity animated clip that pokes fun at everything election-related and most things D.C.-related. By comparison, the You Forgot Poland web site, No. 35 among Saturday's burstiest phrases, pokes direct fun at the current resident of 1600 Pennylsvania Avenue. Making it to the fifth spot among Sunday's key phrases is Trey Parker and Matt Stone's (the South Park guys) new movie, "Team America: World Police," a puppet version of the war on terror and apparently a big poke in the eye with a sharp stick for politicians, governments and just about everything held sacred, according to sneak previews.

For Boston baseball fans, the words Red Sox won" are as full of hope and another chance at a World Series are they weighted down by a sense of foreboding and a fear of longstanding curses.

BLOGPULSE NEWS: Thanks to everyone for the feedback and suggestions that continue to filter our way. Campaign Radar 2004, the politics-only showcase of our blog-tracking technology, was featured Oct. 8 in the Cincinnati Business Courier. We certainly appreciate the traffic, and we we apologize for any disruption of service or slow results at BlogPulse and Campaign Radar 2004 because of some glitches we've encountered the past few days. Our tech gurus are hard at work tweaking and fixing, and things should be running smoothly very soon.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 02:06 PM

There was plenty of talk in political circles this week about having free, open elections unfettered by interferences....and no, we're not talking about first-time voters in Bagdhad or Tikrit. We're talking about red-blooded Americans getting a fair shot at the polls in Ohio, Florida and other key states in the U.S. Nov. 2 presidential elections.

Seems Ohio's Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, has ruled that only a certain stock of paper is allowed for voter registration cards, leaving some speculating that hundreds of voters who thought there were registered might not be. And former President Jimmy Carter's editorial in the Washington Post does little to calm fears that Florida's election hassles (remember hanging chads? the Supreme Court's intervention?) have been solved for 2004. Indeed, he predicts a repeat performance of how not to run an election in the president's brother's state in 2004. In fact, Carter's editorial is Tuesday's top link via the BBC, which means the rest of the world is watching how we execute the very democratic principles we proclaim to deliver to the rest of the world.

And how about this interesting bit of news? Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" viewers are among the most educated on political issues, according to the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Election Survey.

And hey? Do you have an extra $70,000 lying around? Take it to space. The folks behind Virgin Galactic are predicting civilian trips into space in the next few years.

Today's tidbits: The World's Shortest Blog (No. 13 on Tuesday's top links). Also, the latest update on the level of insurgency in Iraq is quite chillling.

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Since Iraq is now the leading campaign issue, take a look at the top links on the topic at BlogPulse's politics-only blog tracking site, Campaign Radar 2004.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 10:49 AM

Bloggers gave Howard Dean's campaign early, unexpected momentum. They fanned the flames of the Iraqi prison crisis with rapid distribution of photos, especially the most controversial ones. They catapulted into the mainstream Burger King's "Viral Chicken" campaign, as well as the controversial "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" anti-Kerry video into the mainstream.

Bloggers are now serving as fact-checking, credibility screening, gap-filling counterweights to traditional media. We saw this in vivid Technicolor after CBS Evening News released documents alleging preferential treatment toward President Bush during the Vietnam War. Bloggers threw the "memo" story back in CBS's face with a flurry of investigatory rebuttals, counterclaims, and alleged testimonials from real and self-proclaimed handwriting or typewriter experts. Within a day of CBS airing its "scoop", bloggers effectively shifted the story from one about presidential perks to one about network credibility. CBS executives were not only caught by surprise, but will probably never think the same way about story "due diligence." Power Line, which broke the story rose rapidly to the top of BlogPulse's Top Links for September 10, 2004. This festering issue keeps CBS news anchor Dan Rather in the 4th place on BlogPulse's Key People for September 16, 2004, eclipsed only by President Bush and John Kerry who have been in the top spots all along, and guitarist Johnny Ramone who passed away on Thursday.

Take a look at the impact of this controversy through BlogPulse's very own trend graph: Buzz trends in the blogosphere on CBS and Dan Rather.

Also, check out Campaign Radar 2004, BlogPulse's analysis of blogger opinion pertaining to the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election and let us know what you think.

We are grateful to those of you who have blogged about BlogPulse as well as the new Campaign Radar 2004 or shared your thoughts with us directly.
Thank you!

Posted by at 03:36 PM

If it weren't for the inventive minds at Apple Computers, the blogosphere would be a pretty back-biting place these days, what with the continued bashing of Michael Moore by Sen. John McCain, the outing of Virginia Congressman Edward L. Schrock by BL Ochman's whatsnextblog.com, and the discovery of security holes in Diebold electronic voting machines.

Leading the list of bursty people is Morton Blackwell, a Virginia delegate to the Republican Convention who's been handing out bandages with purple hearts on them -- and has been asked by the Republican party officials to stop doing so -- in a slap at Sen. John Kerry's medals from Vietnam. (As the wife of a decorated Vietnam Vet (1969-70) who still jumps in terror when awakened suddenly, I have to get this off my chest: I would never question the service of any soldier who served in that awful war, but I seriously question the motives of the veterans involved in today's smear campaigns).

For the second day in a row, Garrison Keillor's stinging essay on the Republican Party continues its traction, while President George Bush discusses his flip-flo, er, previous statement about whether the war on terrorism is winnable with Rush Limbaugh.

But it's those folks at Apple who've caught some of the top-ranked blog attention by launching the new iMac G5, designed (intentionally) to look and act like their popular iPod. The new machines were introduced in Paris this week.

TREND GRAPH OF THE WEEK: The presidential campaign heats up: Bush vs. Kerry.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:17 AM

"WOW! I did not see this coming!" exclaimed one blogger, pretty much summing up the shock-and-awe power of New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey's sudden (and very public) admission of a homosexual, extramarital affair and his resignation on Wednesday. His simple but powerful "I am a gay American" statement booted him from out of nowhere into leading positions among key people, key issues and key links in Thursday's BlogPulse results.

Combined with California Justice Joyce Kennard's decision that annulled some 4,000 gay marriage ceremonies performed earlier this year by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, well, BlogPulse has kind of a rainbow theme for the next few days.

By sheer numbers, key links to news about McGreevey's resignation and Kennard's gay-marriage decision grabbed nine of Thursday's top links. Among Thursday's burstiest people, the New Jersey gang and the California gang took seven of the top 10 positions (the governor, members of his staff, the judge, the couple involved in her annulment decision, etc.). And among key phrases, the gay theme appeared in 11 of the top 15 hits in Thursday's blogs.

In the non-rainbow-but-still-atmospheric department, this week's Perseid meteor showers got a few hits, and in the terra-firma weather department, the National Hurricane Center made an appearance because of the two hurricanes slamming the Florida coast.

Question of the day: are the 2004 summer Olympics so much a non-story that the event is barely being mentioned by bloggers? Thursday's results had only a few links, one about Iraq's soccer victory over Portugual and an ESPN hit about, shall we say, "extracurricular" Olympic activities.

Bizarre news of the day has to be about the untimely and bizarre death of Floridian Gayle Laverne Grinds, all 480 pounds of her (and no 11 among burstiest people on BlogPulse). No comment, because what is there to say?

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:48 PM

At a time when tensions in the U.S. and abroad are tight, running high, and, in some places, bursting out all over, maybe it's not such a bad thing that the Brits have discovered traces of Prozac in the drinking water? Certainly, environmentalists and people who worry about the cumulative effects of excreted pharmaceuticals and built-up chemicals in the world's water supplies aren't happy about the finding. It certainly made headlines at the BBC.

Speaking of worldwide phenomenon, it says a lot about the state of U.S. politics and voting processes when many of BlogPulse's top hits are about international observers being assigned to monitor the upcoming U.S. Presidential election. (We're assuming Jimmy Carter, for obvious reasons, will not be called into duty). Because of the behind-the-scenes work by Congressional reps to get the foreign monitors in place, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson rose from obscurity to No. 3 on Tuesday's burstiest people list, followed two spaces back by Urdur Gunnarsdottir, spokeswoman for the organization that will do the monitoring.

Out on the campaign trail, those Swift Boat Veterans, whose web site is Tuesday's top BlogPulse link, have stirred up the bee's nest with their newly launched campaign and attacks against John Kerry's military record in Vietnam. Another blog, Captain's Quarters, repeats similar claims...but scroll down to the comments section to get a good cross-section of the reaction (positive and negative) that's occuring among voters, vets and Vietnam remember-ers. Media Matters for America has compiled some tidbits about Jerome Coris, co-author of the book by the Swift Boaters.

On the other side of the fence, Bush is getting a few slams, too, including this posting from the American Progressive Action Fund about his campaign promises and the realities of his performance, and audio clips of more Bush-isms from Majority Report Radio.

It's going to be an interesting few months until Nov. 2...

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 03:02 PM

No sooner had the red-white-blue balloons and confetti dropped from the ceiling of the Fleet Center in Boston than blog talk -- while still focused heavily on presidential politics -- turned to (what else?) sex.

Namely, sex toys. Thursday's burstiest phrase involved coverage of an appeals court decision about an Alabama law that provides a one-year prison fine for anyone caught selling sex toys. (Georgia and Texas have similar laws). Which raises the question: does Viagara qualify as a sex toy?

Of course, politics is still on the minds of many bloggers. In fact, Thursday's top phrases include several references to Rev. Al Sharpton's crowd-rouser convention speech on Wednesday, and the Democratic ticket of Kerry-Edwards took the No. 1 and No 2 spots among Thursday's key people...with Harry Potter managing to maintain a longstanding position in the top five most-blogged personalities.

Science lovers also pushed the late Francis Crick, Nobel Prize winner and co-discoverer of the double-helix structure of DNA, to the top of the burstiest people list. He died this week of cancer at age 88. (Note: The first link in Crick's list is to a weird blog called The Dead Pool, in which site visitors take bets and earn points on which pre-designated celebrities/personalities of note actually pass on within the year. A sampling from the list: the Pope, Courtney Love, Fidel Castro and Julia Child).

And what is it about anti-depressants and the White House? Thursday's top link (which began surfacing a day earlier) is to an article in Capitol Hill Blue hinting that the sitting president is popping "powerful antidepressants" to control erratic behavior. In a similar vein, Prozac is on the mind of Bush-Cheney campaign spokeswoman (and third-burstiest personality) Susan Sheybani, who was quoted in a Reuters article as saying that Americans unhappy with low wages should find new jobs...or pop a Prozac. Does that perhaps qualify as a different kind of "outsourcing?"

And in cinema land, fans are already drooling over a trailer for the 2005 Batman movie. "This is going to be good..." gushes one LiveJournal blogger.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 04:25 PM

Want a sense of the influence being wielded by bloggers at this week's Democratic National Convention?

First, newcomer Chicago Democrat Barack Obama captured nine of the top 11 bursty phrases in Wednesday's blog tabulations, either by name directly or by phrases quoted from his Tuesday evening speech.

Obama also leapt to first place among the "bursty people" list, and 18 other convention speakers appeared among the 40 top people mentioned in blogs for Wednesday's results. They included Howard Dean, Teresa Heinz Kerry (so many different ways to spell her name!), Ted Kennedy, Ron Reagan (Jr.), Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson and youngster Ilana Wexler, founder of Kids for Kerry, who brought down the house when she suggested a loooooooooooong time out for Vice President Dick Cheney and the "very very BAD word" he uttered a few weeks ago.

And among Wednesday's top links, the Obama-man managed to grab mentions in eight of the top 40 links.

Of course, there's more than convention news in blog-land today. Such as speculation about which Simpsons' cartoon character will be involved in a gay wedding in the upcoming fall season? Could it be....?" There's some Presidential-bashing, too...the challenger kind from Matt Drudge about John Kerry's war experience and the incumbent kind from Capitol Hill Blue about George Bush's mental state.

Meanwhile, continue to check out the entries of some of the 20 bloggers who received official press credentials to the Democratic convention. Among them:
Eric Schnure, official DNC blogger.
Dave Winer of Scripting News.
NYU Journalist Jay Rosen's Pressthink.
Markos Moulitsas Zuniga's Daily Kos.
Teagan Goddard's PoliticalWire.
Ana Marie Cox's Wonkette.
Patrick Belton's Oxblog.
The Burnt Orange Report, from "deep in the heart of Texas."
Pandagon, the blog of Jesse Taylor and Ezra Klein.
Jeralyn Merritt's Talk Left.

And for sheer political satire, don't miss the popular, animated "This Land" spoof created by brothers Greg and Evan Spiridellis. It's at their JibJab Web site.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 02:01 PM

Hmmm...this country has survived a Civil War, several World Wars, an October Cuban missile crisis, flu epidemics, Watergate, disco and other horrible nasties without ever once hinting at -- openly -- the possibility of postponing to delaying Presidential elections. But it's a topic that's been blogged about a lot in the past few days, capturing seven of Monday's top 40 links, six of Monday's top 15 phrases and this Newsweek story.

If I understand this correctly, it's great to promote free elections in counties that need democracy, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, but OK to postpone them in the country that supposedly does democracy best of all? And as some bloggers ask...if we postpone elections, do we opt for regime change instead?

Recent blogs contain some other interesting faces and ideas in the news. Among them is Ron Reagan, son of the late president, who's crossing party lines to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Joining him on this week's bursty people list is Tom Mauser, father of Daniel Mauser, a Columbine High School student who died in those fateful attacks. Mauser is promoting a petition to extend the ban on assault weapons...in direct defiance of the National Rifle Association and Bush Administration. And then there's this tidbit from Wired about blogger burnout. How long can bloggers keep filling those entries before tiring or running out of ideas? It depends.

Now about that Presidential birdie? Blogger "jive turkey" claims that as the Presidential motorcade rolled through East Lampeter, PA, last Friday, the Commander in Chief flipped the bird at his small band of teen-age protesters. Read for yourself. The fuzzy photo is not the kind of hard, CIA-standard evidence one would like of the actual event. But given the senate intelligence committee reports of the past week, perhaps as reliable?

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: How is bicyclist Lance Armstrong holding up in his quest for the most Tour de France victories in the history of cycling? See how he compares with leading competitors.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 02:52 PM

Sen. John Kerry's choice of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards as his Democratic running mate dominated post-July Fourth news coverage and the blogging world as well.

Tuesday's list of key people included no less than five links to the Kerry-Edwards ticket, and Edwards scored four of the top five slots among burstiest people as well. Blog references ranged from the official announcement to the GOP attack response to many observational musings. Add in all the other vice president-related personalities (Cheney, Gephardt, McCain) and news of Kerry's veep choice dominated 11 of the top 40 key people links.

The Kerry-Edwards team garnered even more traction among top links in Tuesday's blog results, grabbing mentions in 21 of the top 40. Of course, some of those included the New York Post's glaring headline blunder that erroneously touted Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt as Kerry's running mate. I'm guessing the Post's newsroom cafeteria is serving up lots of "Dewey Defeats Truman" crow this week...

And hey! How about those wacky Iraqis? A web site called "Rock, Paper, Saddam" offers mindless entertainment created from images of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein's recent appearance before an Iraqi court. Someone was bound to do something humorous, and why not rock-paper-scissors? Much less uplifting are the results of a poll of Canadian teens, 40% of whom consider Americans to be "evil."

TREND OF THE DAY: Which online intrusion gets more traction? Check out Spam vs. Spyware vs. Adware.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:36 PM

On this Fourth of July weekend, you gotta love a country that can be so, well, darned unpredictably fully of unending variety. Among the key people popping up on this week's BlogPulse are Michael Moore and Harry Potter (both of whom have surpassed previous leaders President Bush and John Kerry), Britney Spears, Bill Gates, Howard Stern, Avil Lavigne, soldier Wassef Ali Hassoun, and Doc Ock, the bad guy in Spider-Man 2 (which became the second movie in a week to set a box-office opening record).

Which begs a follow-up question: Who is Deforest B. Soaries and what is he (atop the Bursty People list) advocating? The head of a world power's elections system....recommending the suspension of elections? Oh wait...that's the head of the U.S. Federal Elections Commission, raising the spectre of suspending elections in the US of A in case of another terrorist attack. Isn't this country supposed to support free election with open arms? Aren't free elections our specialty? Isn't that the concept we want to take hold elsewhere around the world?

If you were asked to spy on your fellow citizens for the good of your country, would you? That's why trucker Eddie Dean is getting some ink in the blog world today. In a creepy, spine-tingling sort of way, don't you think?

TREND GRAPH OF THE DAY: Make it a movie-heavy weekend. Here's a look at major competition for Spider-Man 2 and a look at the growing numbers of big-screen documentaries.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 02:19 PM

Over the weekend, references to the Bush re-election campaign's new video ads began appearing in blogs and BlogPulse. And not too flatteringly (see Saturday's BlogBites). By Monday, the official web site of the Bush re-election campaign emerged as the top link of the day. The video ads, called "The Coalition of the Wild-Eyed," (and found on the Bush web site under "Latest TV ads"; click on one to get to the wild-eyed entry) intersperse images of Adoph Hitler with clips of former Vice President Al Gore, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, (gloating?) filmmaker Michael Moore and Democratic hopeful Sen. John Kerry.

Perhaps not surprisingly, on the same day that the Bush web site jumped to top spot among key links, Fahrenheit 9/11 creator Moore jumped to the top spot among key people. The weekend release of his movie (on a limited number of screens nationwide) broke all-time box-office records for a documentary film.

Might as well keep the political theme going, which explains why NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. pops into the No. 33 spot among key people. And it's not because he took the checkered flag. Turns out he encouraged his crew to see Fahrenheit 9/11 as a good bonding experience. Some bloggers are speculating whether fan reaction will be supportive...or Dixie Chick-like?

TREND OF THE DAY: So how is the incumbent president tracking compared to his Democratic challenger? Check out this week's Bush vs. Kerry BlogPulse Trend.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 09:30 AM

Maybe there's something bizarre in the air. Maybe the imminent release of filmmaker Michael Moore's movie, Fahrenheit 9/11, has legislators, politicians, elected officials and average folks everywhere a little on edge. How else to explain what's floating to the top of the BlogPulse world in today's results?

Probably not surprisingly, Moore has risen to the top of the key people list, and references to his movie -- with reviews and commentary covering every possible slant and opinion -- appear throughout BlogPulse's key links. And apprently Moore's isn't the only political film generating buzz. More films to be released between now and the November election include The Hunting of the President, Silver City, and The Corporation.

But that's not the bizarre part of today's results. I'll let the references to Judge Donald B. Thompson stand on their own. Hold the puns, please. Meanwhile, over in spam-land, AOL engineer Jason Smathers managed to bolt from obscurity to instant notoriety among BlogPulse's key people after being arrested on federal charges of selling 92 million AOL screen names to spammers. Let his sentence be an inbox filled with e-mail come-ons for mortgage refinancing offers, enhancement pills and cheap prescription drugs...every day, for the rest of his life.

There's also news of the genetically abnormal musclar baby from Germany and Dick Cheney's potty mouth. (For the curious, the Washington Times printed the verbatim comment).

But a bow of the head in deepest respect, please, for the late 84-year-old Bob Bemer, computer pioneer who developed the code that allows computers to understand text as a series of numbers. He passed away June 22 in Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas. His USA Today obituary says his personal motto was..."((((DO SOMETHING!) SMALL) USEFUL) NOW!"

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:58 PM

Suddenly, the blogging world has that hint of political yesteryear. Former President Bill Clinton has moved steadily up the "key people" list in anticipation of the release of his book and the media appearances that will accompany it. Al Gore's in there too, mostly (and still) for reasons of comparison and contrast. And hey! So is Ken Starr, report writer of note in this week of hefty national reports. Not to be outdone, Newt Gingrich makes an appearance, too, although not for anything political. Turns out he has a secret life as a reviewer of spy novels on Amazon.com. Which probably begs the question...CAN you judge a book by its cover?

Science, however, blasts us right back into the present and future, with these two interesting tidbits. From the journal Nature comes news of scientists transporting atoms for the first time. Beam us up, Scotty? And from another world of energy comes this disquieting interview with Ron Oxburgh, the chairman of Shell, who openly admits his fears about growing amounts of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere. He tells The Guardian that climatic changes make him "really very worried for the planet." Possible solutions? Trapping the gases in solids or burying it under the sea. The Little Mermaid isn't going to be happy about this...

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 03:07 PM

The Bush White House might have wanted to ride the Reagan coattails for a while longer, but the Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change aren't letting it happen. Even though they won't officially announce their positions until June 16, this group of 26 former senior diplomats and military officials who served under Reagan, Bush I and Clinton are urging Bush II's defeat in November because of ongoing diplomacy and military policies that they claim damage America's national security and international interests.

All but three of the 26 names appear among the "key people/bursty movers" list in Sunday's BlogPulse. And under BlogPulse's key phrases, links to the complete list and announcement appear more than once.

And why are so many movie stars and authors suddenly appearing in the blogosphere? Seems a popular movie meme and a book meme are making the blogging rounds (memes are contagious ideas/catch phrases/behaviors/bits of info that get passed around from person to person to person). The goal is to add to two separate lists (one for movies, one for books), by italicizing those you've read/seen part of, bold-facing those you've finished reading/watching, underlining those you own, and adding three to the list before posting to a personal blog. Here's a sample. Which explains why Forrest Gump and Johnny Depp, Mary Poppins and Bridget Jones, William Shakespeare and Barbara Kingsolver, and George Orwell and Amy Tan (and others of print and silver-screen fame) are suddenly...and simultaneously...popular personalities in blogs.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 12:27 PM

For a moment there, it felt like I was back in college. Author Kurt Vonnegut made the No. 11 spot among "top links" for his "Cold Turkey" look at the future of his country...and he's clearly disturbed by what he sees.

And sure, the blogosphere continues to be filled with references to Seymour Hersh's latest article in the New Yorkerabout who bears responsibility for the abuses taking place in Iraqi prisons. Out of nowhere, too, popped the name of press aide Emily Nelson, who managed to re-focus a camera away from Secretary of State Colin Powell Sunday during a "Meet the Press" interview with Tim Russert. Like Vonnegut, Russert was not happy. Those hunky stars of the "Troy" movie -- Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana -- also made respectable showings as some of the most discussed people in the wake of the movie's weekend opening.

But bloggers like to discuss their craft, so it's no surprise that a surprise announcement of a price hike from Moveable Type, a popular blogging software program and service, generated a hefty amount of discussion as well. Many bloggers, in fact, are already considering alternatives.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 03:21 PM

This little tidbit caught our eye, because it's a commentary on either the state of affairs of modern-day terrorism intelligence or the level of cultural awareness (or lack thereof) in the nation's capital. When the name of potential terrorist Don Emilio Fulci showed up on the government's threat matrix recently, the FBI was officially briefed. But an alert White House staffer did some outside-the-beltway thinking and typed bad-guy Fulci's name into Google: Don Emilio Fulci is a crime boss character in the video game Headhunter. Whew. Maybe the White House needs a few teen-agers on staff in the "reality check" department.

But about today's top phrase...those UFOs in Mexico? What's up with that? And like every other breaking news story today, where are the photos? The digital images?

Thanks to eveyrone who's sent an idea or suggestion about BlogPulse in its first week of operation. Some are already in consideration. In the meantime, keep sending them our way.

Posted by Sue MacDonald at 11:14 AM