The Huffington Post makes me sad

The Huffington Post covers an amalgamation of topics: Politics, Media, Business, Entertainment, Living Now. The front portal offers very large photos, today it was of Hillary and Bill along with Gisele at the Victoria Secret fasion show. Blogs posts, videos, photos and entertainment stories are featured prominently across the page. The font is big and there are hundreds of comments. There are options for “Quick Read” and “Sign Up For the Daily Brief.”

            The layout of the Web site wasn’t too bad. The Web site incorporated a lot of things we’ve discussed as important for online news sites- interactivity, community, multimedia, and easy navigation.

            But, truthfully, I felt like the site was dumbing things down. Maybe I’m just used to ready the snotty New York Times. But, I like to keep my trashy entertainment news separate from the important stuff, and I don’t need enormous font and even bigger photos to be interested. I don’t want the Quick Read, I want the real story. I’d love to see less pictures of the zillion bloggers and more links to what’s going on in the world.

On top of that, the Huffington Post’s blog section confused me. All the bright colors, all the random topics. The combination of many different authors, many different topics and vague blog titles left me feeling overwhelmed. It was poorly organized. I mean, sure I could filter the blogs by the various topics: Living Now, Media, Entertainment, Business, Politics and Off the Bus. But, frankly, after looking at the blog portal, I didn’t want to.  Along with the all the authors, most of their blog posts head straight into quoting other people. I didn’t think I was the type to be intimidated by new thing, but all the unknown faces and quotes by unknowns was a turn-off. The blog portal of The Huffington Post site does offer a few saving graces for the confused first-time user, to the right it provides a bloggers index, top news, and top blog posts section, which could be helpful, if you can even find it.

Abbas brings fighting to West Bank refugee camp

Palestinian security forces clashed with militiamen Monday in Balata, the West Bank’s biggest refugee camp. This was President Mahmoud Abbas’s first major attempt at asserting his control over rebels in the area. The action occurred only days after the Palestinian Authority sent in a force of 300 police officers.

            Palestinian police withdrew Tuesday with 2 suspects in tow after 12 hours of fighting. One policeman and eight citizens were wounded in the gunfire.

            Palestinian police would previously not enter four refugee camps in Nablus, a city where militants hold a good deal of power. Abbas, supported by Nablus’s governor, Jamal Mohsein, and the Palestinian police, plans to change that both in the city and in the rest of the West Bank.

            President Abbas has been experiencing increasing international pressure, which includes a recent visit from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to bring peace to the West Bank. And clearly, he plans to do it by force. Not even the refugee camps are safe, ironic.