var req = null;
function processReqChange( handler ) {
  if (req.responseXML ) {
    handler( req.responseXML ); 
	}
}

function loadXMLDoc( url, handler ) {
  if(window.XMLHttpRequest) {
    try { req = new XMLHttpRequest(); } catch(e) { req = false; }
  }
  else if(window.ActiveXObject)
  {
    try { req = new ActiveXObject("Msxml2.XMLHTTP"); } catch(e) {
    try { req = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } catch(e) { req = false; } }
  }

  if(req) {
    req.onreadystatechange = function() { processReqChange( handler ); };
    req.open("GET", url, true);
    req.send("");
  }
}

function parseFeed( dom ) {

	var sidebar = document.getElementById( 'sidebar' );
	var item = req.responseXML.getElementsByTagName( 'item' );
	var thisItem = item.item( 0);
	if(thisItem) {
		var title = thisItem.getElementsByTagName( 'title' );
		var link = thisItem.getElementsByTagName( 'link' );
		var desc = thisItem.getElementsByTagName( 'description' );
		var heading = document.createElement( 'span' );
		heading.className = 'title';
		heading.innerHTML = title.item(0).firstChild.nodeValue;
		sidebar.appendChild( heading );
		var blogLink = document.createElement( 'a' );
		blogLink.href = link.item(0).firstChild.nodeValue;
		blogLink.innerHTML = ' read more';
		blogLink.target = '_self';
		var description = document.createElement( 'p' );
		description.className = 'description';
		var desc =desc.item(0).firstChild.nodeValue; 
		description.innerHTML = desc.substr(0,500) ;
		description.appendChild( blogLink );
    sidebar.appendChild( description );
	}
}
function getFeedList() { loadXMLDoc( blogRSS, parseFeed ); }