After months of searching, I have finally found an offline blogging tool that works with Blogger Beta.   While I was happy with Qumana, Qumana has not caught up to the needs of the new blogger yet and I hope they will do so in time.  In the meantime, Performancing, which is a plug in for the popular Firefox browser (I don't know if a version exists for Iceweasel users) seems to be filling the role admirably.