Well I finally have a full solution I can live with for the blog.  Using DasBlog to create the entries and do all the managment necessary on them and a few custom scripts to post from it, I am now able to do nearly everything I need.

I figured out that the easiest way to filter private items is to do exactly that:  the script to post the public blog searches for the Atom tags for private category and removes that entry.  I will probably leverage this concept to create a even more filtered professional blog too.  So now I have 2 blogs from the same source:  a public, censored blog that I am not afraid to let out, and a private one to capture my thoughts and feelings about everything.

I am pleased!  As always, the scripts are available upon request.