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)

Bump and Update: More tales from the Twilight Zone about the TalkLeft content that disappeared down the rabbit hole. I've been working all day getting TalkLeft back on track (a big thanks to TChris for all his posting). Here's what happened. The hosting company moved TalkLeft on July 26 to a different server and didn't notify me. They left TalkLeft on both servers, so the only way I had of figuring out something was wrong was when I uploaded some pictures and pdf files to the server and they didn't show up on the site.

They moved the server because for the past two weeks I had been telling them that TalkLeft was running really slow and inexplicably would go down for 15 minute periods. Alexa says TalkLeft loads slower than 90% of other sites on the internet. So I asked them to check into it. They did and told me nothing was wrong on their end and I should have someone check the applications and Movable Type templates on TalkLeft. I hired someone to do this at $100 an hour. After three days, he told me nothing was wrong with the templates or applications and made some suggestions for speeding up the site, and said he believed it was a problem with the server.

I'm on the road today and tomorrow. Here's a space for you to discuss whatever's on your mind. I'll be checking in periodically, but blogging will be light on my end.

I'm guest-blogging for Eric Alterman today over at MSNBC's Altercation. The topics: Sen. Lindsay Graham, Bush's stubbornness on Guantanamo, Sen. Mike DeWine's pulled ad with phony 9/11 pics (done by the same company that did the swift boat campaign against John Kerry) and Joe Lieberman's new backer, Bill Clinton.

I can't remember the last time I went to bed at 11:00 pm, but I'm headed there now because I have to get up at 4:30 a.m. to make an early flight for court in another city. Since that's the way it is, here's an open thread. All topics are welcome, except Duke which has it's own thread going as well as the TalkLeft Duke forums.

If I get any free time waiting around the airport, I'll check in, otherwise it may be Wednesday before I'm back to blogging. I'm also pretty bummed because tonight is Hunter Thompson's birthday party in Aspen, and even though I've been invited, I can't go because I won't be back from court in time to get there.

Distance: 540 miles

Skippy the Bush Kangeroo, one of my longest standing friends in blogtopia (y.s.c.t.p.) turns four today. Congrats Skippy and Skippy community bloggers, keep up the great work.

Typekey is up and running and comment registration is back. Anonymous comments don't let readers know if they are coming from one person or different people. They are misleading because they give the appearance that multiple people share a position that might only be coming from one individual.

Also, without registration, I can't control the spammers, even with filters. I deleted more than 10 comments selling ringtones yesterday. Deleting comments takes a long time because of the rebuilding infrastructure here.

So, if you'd like to comment, set up a free account at Typekey. It will allow you to post comments at all blogs that use the service.

I've just been advised people are unable to log in through TypeKey to comment. I've opened up the comments to everyone without registration until it's fixed. I'll clean the threads up tonight if need be.

Update: Typekey is indeed down.

July 12, 2006
TypePad Service

The TypePad application is currently down. We're working to correct the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Update: We're still working on this issue. We appreciate your patience.

Your turn. Be aware some new right-wing commenters have discovered TalkLeft. A few are interested in reasonable and civil discussion but several are here just to mock or stir up trouble. Don't feed the trolls, and when I return, troll comments and insulting comments will be deleted. Otherwise, enjoy the day.

To get you started, check out Think Progress -- the head of DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel told the Senate yesterday "The President is always right." They even have the video.

And Rudy Giuliani's ex-wife Donna Hanover has taken a gig as AOL's online love and sex coach. "You could easily imagine what her advice would have been to Judith Nathan, the current Mrs. Rudy Giuliani, who began the relationship while he was still married to Hanover."

One more: Attytood, telling America's news directors to cancel Bush's "fear factor."