I think you must answered my earlier question... its sounds like you know what you're talking about...
My host at AITcom.net supports user CGI, MySQL, and PHP, along with the rest of the alphabet soup you just rattled off. Why don't you take a moment and look over their hosting services - visit http://aitcom.net - and see for youerself.
This "D.I.Y" option is sounding better all the time: cost nominal (I'm already absorbing the domain hosting) and options nearly unlimited - particularly if you can help us locate a script that can distribute posts by e-mail. That would be very cool.
--PS
Created on Thursday, June 07, 2001 1:42 PM EDT by The Perfesser