Top administrators at the Department of Homeland Security have adopted a new, innovative way to communicate with the American people: blogging.

According to its Web site, Leadership Journal [1]:

"...is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to provide a forum to talk about our work protecting the American people, building an effective emergency preparedness and response capability, enforcing immigration laws, and promoting economic prosperity."

The blog's authors include DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff; W. Ralph Benson, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection; Kip Hawley, assistant secretary for the Transporation Security Administration; and R. David Paulison, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

So far the blog post topics have ranged from the California wildfires currently ravaging San Diego [2] to the threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) [3] being used on American soil to acknowledging the country's responsibility to Iraqi refugees [4].

For more on the increasing phenomenon of government blogging, check out this story from the Associated Press.

P.S. The State Department has a blog too, you can find it here [5].