A few weeks ago, I was invited to participate a meeting in New York of some of the best known progressive bloggers and writers.  While I was flattered to have received the invitation, I couldn't help wondering, and asking aloud, "Why me?  Why would I belong there?  I hardly write or blog at all!"    The reply?  "Maybe if you come, you'll want to write more."  Right--like there aren't enough bloggers in cyberspace! ;-) 

But I went to the meeting anyway.  And while it's taken a couple of weeks for me to figure out what (if anything) I might have contributed to it, I did come away with the realization that a) I do have at least as much to say about some of the issues going on in the world as most of the other attendees; and b) I needed my own space to say it.

During the past few weeks I've written a couple of articles that have been published on other websites.  (More about those in future blog posts, where I will provide links to them.) While I very much appreciate and welcome these opportunities to write for a larger audience, and hope to continue to do so, I am beginning to realize how useful one's own corner of the web can be, especially at a hospitable "island of sanity in a world of pain" (a memorable quote from the 1966 film "Morgan") like TPM.

The idea of creating a news blog to share my own evolving take on various issues, about which I don't yet have enough to say to warrant a full-fledged article, is something I have given quite a bit of thought  to these past few weeks.  I realize that I also need the discipline of writing more than Profco's hastily dashed off reactions to other people's articles published on Huffington Post, Washinton Post, and Haaretz.

So Profco's blog is now Profco's Politackle Newsroom (PNN).  

Among the regular features you can anticipate seeing on PPN are links to largely underreported news stories and commentaries that are receiving little or little attention in the mainstream media and the blogosphere, and as well as critiques of how some issues and events have been misreported and "spun."  Much of the attention will be directed to news from and about the Middle East, particularly Israel and Iran.  PPN will do what Profco has doing, and more, on a daily basis.  PPN will also feature a much-needed  "RJC Watch," which will monitor the malicious e-mailings of my bete noire, the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC). 

If you are a part of what I am sure has been Profco's extremely small audience, I thank you for stopping by and finding out about its transformation to PPN.  I hope that, once I get PPN up and running in the next day or two, you'll find that the next time you drop by, you will have reason to return.