The Wall St. Journal (free link) today examines whether bloggers should blog or not during holiday weekends like Labor Day.

In the height of summer-holiday season, bloggers face the inevitable question: to blog on break or put the blog on a break? Stepping away or bringing in a guest author often means accepting a decline in readership.

....Yet for the sliver of people whose livelihood depends on the blog -- whether they are conservative, liberal or don't care -- stepping away from the keyboard can be difficult. Unlike other jobs, where co-workers can fill in for an absent employee, blogs are usually a one-person show. A blogger's personality carries the site. When the host isn't there, readers tend to stray. August is a slow time for all blogs, but having an absent host makes the problem worse. Lose enough readers, and advertisers are sure to join the exodus.

John Amato of the incredibly popular Crooks and Liars tells the Journal:

I've gotten lots of emails today saying that comments are not going through. I've opened them up to everyone without registration. I'll delete the spam tonight, just ignore any that show up.

TalkLeft is going to a new comment system after Labor Day. I'm also planning on changing from Movable Type to Scoop, and putting TalkLeft on its own dedicated server. That should speed up the commenting process and allow greater flexibility.

For those of you who emailed me today angry that your comments didn't show up, please know I didn't stop any comments from being posted. There are no comments showing they are "awaiting moderation." It's a MT or Typekey glitch, and both will be gone the week after Labor Day.

This is one way to make sure the comments are fixed. I'll be working on the site today, so here's a place for you to write what's on your mind.

Update: Comments seem to be fixed.

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I know there's a problem with commenting on TalkLeft today. This time it's my fault. I thought I would try to set up a separate blog for the Jonbenet Ramsey case and in copying templates I screwed something up.

I'm trying to find Mike Ditto to help me recover them. When I realized it last night, I opened up comments, but by this morning there were so many spam comments for ringtones and drugs I had to close them again.

Please be patient. It's not Typekey's fault or the hosting company's. I'll let you know when it's fixed.

The news is still focused on Ramsey coverage, but you don't have to be. Here's a place to discuss whatever's on your mind.

Your turn. I'm sure there are other things beside John Mark Karr and the Jonbenet murder case you want to talk about. Here's a place.

Sorry everyone, I know there's a lot of news besides Jonbenet Ramsey, but I don't have time to cover it today or tonight. Here's a space for it.

The comments seem to be slower than ever today. It looks like I'm going to have to move TalkLeft to its own server. I'll do it over a weekend probably so there will be less downtime, but I'm as frustrated with the slowness as you are. I'm hesitant to double my hosting expenses but it seems there's no other solution. I was just told that one of the most popular blogs around with ten times TalkLeft's traffic but without comments has a database of 54 MG and TalkLeft's is 234MB -- and that's after I deleted the comments from 2002 through 2004. An alternative is to move to Drupal or something like that from Movable Type, but it would cost a fortune to have someone redesign and move the site and I don't have time to deal with that right now.

My schedule (all subject to change without notice, that's how it works and studio space is double-booked all over town today) : Tucker Carlson 4:30 ET, Catherine Crier (court tv) 5:30 pm, Paula Zahn, 8:00 ET, Hannity and Colmes.,9 pm. Then I'm done.

My Washington Post Chat transcript on the Ramseys (from the 9 News studio) is here.

Time for readers to take over. Here's a fresh thread for whatever's on your mind.

I forgot to do an open thread earlier this week, so here it is. Jabber away. I'll be back late tonight.

Some news today, courtesy of Patriot Daily.

• Bush's rating drops on nearly every issue
• Road Home Program Requires Fingerprints
• Foiled Terror Plot Comparable to 9/11
• Richardson Calls on Lieberman to Step Aside

• Say hello to Pollyticks....great Bush & company cartoons and satire.

• The Daou Report is back, being edited by Steve Benson while Peter Daou is working on Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign.

• Check out the great job the bloggers are doing at Colorado Confidential and Media Matters first state site, Colorado Media Matters.

• Larisa has a compelling post at Huffington Post on anti-semitism and bigotry, vis a vis Mel Gibson (and the Bush Administration.) Arianna has a roundup of the site's Gibson coverage this week -- and the Lieberman coverage.

I've got court today, here's some prison news and sundry items and an open thread, all topics are welcome. And thanks to all of you for your donations this week, I'll be sending personalized thank you's this weekend.

• Prison Disciplines Inmate Who Paints With M&M's

• Lost in Translation -- immigrant kept in local jail two months after his case was closed.

• Bush Grants Self Permission To Grant More Power To Self (The Onion)

There's a lot going on today-- from Haditha and Murtha (Taylor Marsh has the full scoop) to the release of the 9/11 Norad tapes (Kevin Drum has some thoughts on them) to the countdown to the Joe Lieberman-Ned Lamont primary (Firedoglake has all the latest). Here's an open thread to talk about it and any other topics. After spending the last five days entrenched in the Twilight Zone, I'm ready for a break and something less stressful today, like visiting a few clients in jail.

Thanks to those of you who donated to TalkLeft yesterday to help me with the site fix-it costs. I'll be sending you personal e-mails this weekend. There's still a lot to cover, so if any more of you feel like helping out, here's how:

• PayPal
• Amazon (can be anonymous)