Falls Church News Press editorial printed by permission of owner/editor.

'Best Revival of the Liberal Media’

Last month, the Washington City Paper, the most prominent “alternative weekly” in the nation’s capital, did its first “Best of D.C.” edition in 15 years. In addition to “bests” as voted on by its readers, it included a group of special categories made up and filled by its editors.

I am very proud to report that my newspaper, the Falls Church News-Press, the paper that I founded 17 years ago, own and edit, was named by the City Paper the “Best Remnant of the Liberal Media.”

I’ve told friends I want that as the epitaph on my tombstone, though there’s no rush. When we began touting the paper as “the most progressive newspaper in Virginia” awhile ago, there were no challengers. We pride ourselves as being in the epicenter of where Virginia is shifting from a “red” to a “blue” state, something confirmed by where the votes came from that tipped the balance to Democrats in the last three statewide elections.

AS the one who posts Benton's editorials, the owner/editor of the Falls Church News Press--with his explicit permission--I have begun to wonder! He and I certainly disagree on the Clintons, on the significance of the Obama campaign, and on John Edwards whom he fails to mention. But then again, I think he provides food for thought for those who agree with me (probably the majority of progressive bloggers. So here it is.

Nicholas F. Benton: The 12 Days Since Christmas

Wow. What a year 2008 is going to be. Fasten your seat belts! We've already made history. In the first week of 2008, the stock market fell as a percentage of the total by more than any year since 1932. That's since the depths of the Great Depression. And it took another big hit Tuesday.

At the same time, it's a presidential election year, and we're also on the verge of a preemptive military strike against Iran that could bring oil deliveries to a standstill. We've already had the first military face-off in the critical Straits of Hormuz, through which all oil from the Middle East must come, and the price of oil has already bumped above $100 a barrel a couple times. Armed militants are about to make life really messy in oil-rich Nigeria.