I've always listed 'just plain' liberal and conservative blogs near the bottom of my sidebar. Many of them I enjoy reading, but I've always felt I could find plenty of either in mainstream newspapers and magazines. Not that some of the blogs near the top of my sidebar aren't liberal and conservative, but that's not why they've earned places of honor. I've already written about some of them, and linked to them on my sidebar.

Recently though, I wrote a post about the problems with Iraq. It wasn't meant to be a generic anti-war post, I tried to do the kind of thinking that could help make a start on solving those problems - if they were solvable. Later I found a similar article in the Daily Kos. While it takes the form of an 'I told you so' rather than an attempt to solve the insolvable, overall it's better than the post I wrote - and about basically the same issue with a few more facts. Maybe I should have a couple each of the best mainstream press liberal and conservative blogs or columnists on my sidebar. No sense thinking along the same lines someone has already thought better on - if they've really done it better.