Michelle Malkin has started a new videoblogging venture for consersatives called Hot Air, described as "The world's first, full-service conservative Internet broadcast network."

While I'm sure I won't agree with the content, I think the graphics, sound quality and section layout are excellent. Watch Michelle's video to get a sense.

There are helpful links to podcasting tutorials on the site, but Hot Air appears to be far more professionally designed than what most of us can do at home. It's also got paid advertising.

As for the numbers, Instapundit and his wife Dr. Helen's 13 audio podcasts have been downloaded over 3 million times.

Liberals need to be doing more of this. BloggingHeads TV is one site, but it has no visual appeal. And it's just two talking heads, with no graphics or pizzaz. Current TV is another site, but it has lots more than politics and seems geared to video artists rather than bloggers.

Jane at Firedoglake has an excellent post up tonight about some of the problems in blogging to both newcomers and regulars:

...some times it seems impenetrable; bloggers tend to talk to the blogosphere, we assume people are following the conversation and are familiar with the cast of characters, storylines and slang that are conventions here. It can make it awfully hard to catch on. In our defense, people who show up here day after day get tired of having the same things explained over and over again, and since those are the ones we hear from the most we tend to respond to their wishes.

I see lots of news out there, but I'll be offline most of the day. Here's a place to talk about it.

Update: In the coincidence department: Has anyone noticed that the name of the father of one of the accused in the Duke Lacrosse case is Kevin Finnerty, the same name as the guy who switched identites with Tony Soprano in the dream sequences in episodes 1 and 2 of the Sopranos? You gotta feel for the guy.

Second, does anyone want to take bets on when Gloria Allred will step in to represent the accuser in the Duke case purportedly pro bono (but of course for the book rights)?

On a completely unrelated topic, Crooks and Liars reports on a new Fox News poll showing Bush's approval ratings have slipped to 33%.

It's time for the Tuesday Open Thread. The TL kid popped into town for a few days, and if there's anything I'd rather do than blog, it's hang out with him. Markos of Daily Kos is also in town, and of course I want to hang out with him too. I'm even going to be out and about by 8:30 a.m. to attend a coffee klatch with him at Progress Now at 9:00. So my blogging may be close to non-existent until this evening.

Join us tomorrow from 8:30 until 9 a.m. for an interview with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, founder of DailyKos.com, live from the ProgressRadio webcasting studio. DailyKos is America's top blog, drawing more than 1,000,000 visitors each day. Tomorrow, beginning at 8:30 a.m., connect with Markos and ask questions at this web address. And if you're in the Denver-Boulder area, here's Markos' schedule.

Hopefully, TChris or LNILR will pop in a few times, and I may as well, but just in case you end up here on your own with little or no guidance or new posts, just use the comments as a place for you to have some fun.

For those of you online today with thoughts to share, this space is for you.

Your turn. I'll be back this evening. And blogging through the holiday weekend.

[Thanks to all, comments now closed.]

TalkLeft is being blocked at at least one public library, the Camarillo library at 3100 Ponderosa, Camarillo,CA. Here is the message that users receive (pdf). Having been through this before in 2003 when software censors used by law firms blocked TalkLeft at law firms nationally, I know how difficult it will be to get this straightened out. It took me days to track down the software censor company and get them to reinstate TalkLeft. Another time, PayPal froze TalkLeft's account for similar reasons, and it was days before I got the account reinstated.

This is the reason I insist commenters refrain from name-calling and not use profanity, name-calling and crass words in comments. It's the comments, not our posts, that result in the site being blocked. So please, be considerate in your comments. Feel free to disagree with what another commenter writes, but do so civilly without the use of profanity and explicit language. If you can't abide by these restrictions, there are plenty of other sites to comment on.

TalkLeft hit 12 million visitors and 20 million page views yesterday.

But I was just as excited to see that my post on Sensenbrenner's immigration bill, H.R. 4437: A Bad, Bad Border Border Bill --including the comments--has made it onto the curriculum of a class at UC Irvine.

It's time for our Tuesday Open Thread. You pick the topics, report the news you care about and tell us your thoughts. Just remember to put your links in html format, instructions are in the comment box. I'll be back later this afternoon.

[Comments now closed, thanks to all for your thoughts.]

I usually stay out of these, but this one is too weird not to mention. Law Prof Eric Muller, a mostly progressive blogger went after Michelle Malkin today. He tracked the times of her postings throughout the day and evening (actually, for 36 hours) and concluded that she doesn't write all her material and has other people writing in her name. Michelle responds here.

Eric probably got more comments on his blog from this post than any he's written in his several years of blogging. Almost all are very critical of his attack. Sure, some readers came over from Michelle's site, which does not allow comments, but there are lots of his own readers telling him how off-base he was.

Add me to the list. In fact, it's creepy, almost like cyber-stalking. (Although Michelle goes a little overboard in calling him "insanely obsessed" and "deranged.")

[Insert and Addition: I just want to make clear that I think what Eric did is creepy and like cyber-stalking, I don't think he is creepy or a cyberstalker. I understand he was trying to prove something about her writing. My concern is that it will give others the same idea to track bloggers' whereabouts, and I think that is a very dangerous path to go down from a privacy and security standpoint. End of Insert]

Here's my comment, which does not yet appear on Eric's site because it has to be approved:

This space is for you as I won't be back until this afternoon. Have fun, and let us all know what's on your minds.

The Koufax Liberal Blogging Awards winners were announced today. Congrats to all the winners, particularly, Confined Spaces, a blog about the workplace health and safety issues, which won the best single issue category. TalkLeft came in second, and we proudly pass the crown, having won the category in 2002, 2003 and 2004. I'm grateful that TalkLeft did so well among the incredible competition. Thanks to everyone who voted for us.

Major congrats to winners Crooks and Liars (best blog, non professional), Daily Kos (best community blog), Digby (best writing), Firedoglake (best series writing for PlameGate) and Glenn Greenwald of Unclaimed Territory (best new blog.)

The full winner's list is below.