Taking a Leave of Absence

I will have to take some time off...probably a week or so. Then I need to go to one or two blog posts a week after that. I have finally hit a brick wall... I have been blogging so heavily (this site has well over 1,300 postings, with at least 85% being from me) that I have neglected other things... namely my job search. A lot of time/effort goes into making most of the posts that I do. Just surfing through my online resources to obtain background on an issue or to get a blogging idea can take up to 2-3 hours or more.

But it is crunch time regarding other issues right now.

This site has grown beyond my wildest imagination.... and I have not been able to keep up. The blog is so wide ranging that I can't keep up with all of the events that are worthy of commentary. Therefore, I will build a blogger core to try to keep things going. The search for co-bloggers continues...and I am finally getting the kinds of responses that I need. Although I need more. The issue now is finding bloggers who would be a good fit and who have the blogging interests that we need. For example, the search for a blogger who can focus on international affairs continues.

I will be adding at least one co-blogger within the next few days... In addition, I will be adding 2-3 more... for a total of 3-4 new people. I also hope to create the position of Editor. I am open to suggestions on that candidate...(although I have someone in mind). But I could create an additional position of Asst. Editor. Probably too ambitious...but i'm a big thinker. I hope to have the Editor spot filled within the next week or two. I hope the person I have in mind accepts... otherwise, it will be back to the drawing board.

Two co-bloggers had to move on....and I need to fill those spots.

Again, anyone interested in being a co-blogger/contributing writer, send me an e-mail. Read through the blog, and read through the introductory posts in the sidebar to get a feel for what kind of commentary we would like to have. Although race is an important issue...and will remain so here (and has been in the spotlight lately because of foolishness in Louisiana) we also do commentary about various other issues... including international politics, foreign policy, Iraq/Middle East, religion, domestic politics, the 08 election, Independent politics, Political analysis, Interviews/Audio/Video, current events, Homeland Security, The economy, the media, music, Personal commentary (that has some kind of social relevance), just about anything except for celebrity gossip. I even enjoy occasional light blogging and humor. Know any good sources for political cartoons...or you see a cartoon that you think is relevant to current events.... add it.

Anyway... I will be making my selections over the next month.

I leave you in the very able hands of my co-pilot Rikyrah.

There have been a lot of issues that I wanted to touch on this week...but I will have to let it go... sometimes I feel the need to change the world with my keyboard....even though I know that will never happen. No one cares what I write.

My cutting room floor will have to be full for a while. This week there was Jena, The new poll that says George W. and General Petraeus failed to shift public opinion on Iraq, the Blackwater situation (which I did manage to post about), Hillary Clintons healthcare plan, The missing weapons from Iraq that have now turned up in the hands of insurgents (yes...your tax dollars are going towards new weapons that have ended up in the hands of the enemy...and that have probably contributed to injury or death of U.S. soldiers)...there is apparently an investigation underway.... and of course there was more. But I just can't keep up with it all any longer.... at least not right now.

PS...

If you want a good roundup of this weeks events, check out the On Point radio program via Public Radio. That program offers some of the best weekly roundups, and some of the best analysis of events that I know of. Commentator/Journalist/Author Jack Beatty rarely misses the mark. You can't get that kind of independent/progressive & well thought out commentary from many other places.