Several people have e-mailed me this week to let me know the site is loading so slowly it's become a source of frustration. If you are having the same problem, please add a comment here. I am going to contact my hosting company to see if there is something they can do, but I'd like to get a handle on the size of the problem. Please be patient.

Say hello to CBS's new blog, The Public Eye. One of the bloggers there is Brian Montopoli, formerly of the Columbia Journalism Review. Brian was one of the bloggers with press credentials for the Democratic convention - and even though he hung out with us liberals, he strived to provide non-partisan coverage. He is an excellent choice for CBS, and I bet it's not long before we see him on the CBS evening news.

Memeorandum, which is a daily stop for bloggers who want to know what other bloggers are reporting on, has gotten a major bloglift (y.i.c.t.p.)

It's a big change. I had some advance notice having had the opportunity to view the Beta months ago. I'm liking the final version better than the beta, but it will still take some getting used to.

I'm not a big fan of change, it upsets my equilibrium, but I think once I get used to the new Memeorandum, I'll realize it's a big advance.

If TalkLeft's blog traffic the past ten days is typical of other left-leaning blogs, there can be no doubt that the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe is the blogger story of the year - and that the Bush Administration is in big trouble.

by TChris

Comment at your leisure.

Update: (TalkLeft) I'm back now. TChris and Last Night in Little Rock did a great job while I was gone, I can't believe how much time they spent updating the site. I am very grateful to them.

I'm also so glad to be back at my desktop with a big monitor and mouse. I made peace with my Powerbook after 2 days, and actually like it now, and used many of your suggestions from the other day. Particularly helpful was Paul in LA's info that the apple key functions like a control key on the PC when it comes to cut, copy and paste. Anyway, it's good to be home.

As promised, here's another open thread. I'll be back Saturday night to resume regular posting. Major thanks to LNILR and TChris for helping out yesterday. I only brought a powerbook G4 with me on this trip, since my regular laptop seems to have died, and I can barely operate a Mac. That's another reason I'll be really glad to get home. Linking on this machine is beyond tedious, there's no right-click button for cut, copy and paste and the delete key works like a backspace instead of a delete key. On the plus side...does anyone have one?

I'll be on the road today and tomorrow. Last Night in Little Rock and TChris will fill in some during my absence, and I'll try to get a post or two in, but there also will be an open thread each day, like this one, for readers to take over.

Say hello to the new blog Fema Failures, by a doctor in Washington, DC who writes:

I am outraged at the response of FEMA to Hurricane Katrina. Consequently, I have created a site expressly designed to list these failures. Users are welcome to use this site to: 1) Better inform themselves regarding the remarkable negligence and dissimulations of FEMA and the Bush Administration 2) Add information of their own.

New information will be added as it comes to light.

For those of you who have more to say....

(Note to new commenters, please read the comments policy. Name-calling, profanity and personal attacks on other commenters isn't allowed. Nor is reprinting the full text of news articles. Links must be in html format or they skew the site. Instructions are in the comment box.)

I've been dominating the conversation. It's your turn now, I'll be back tonight.

Update: One more on FEMA's ineptitude: When they finally sent supplies, they sent those intended for a chemical attack:

" After the authorities in Baton Rouge had prepared a field hospital for victims of the storm, Fema sent its first batch of supplies, all of which were designed for use against chemical attack, including drugs such as Cipro, which is designed for use against anthrax. "We called them up and asked them: 'Why did you send that, and they said that's what it says in the book'," said a Baton Rouge official. "

[hat tip Patriot Daily.]

Update: Commercial airlines are beginning evacuations from New Orleans. And Carnival Cruise ships will house thousands.

Blogads is having trouble with one of their image servers that spilled onto other servers. While they are fixing it, I stripped the links to ads on TalkLeft because the site was loading so slowly, if at all.

Hopefully, this will make it faster for those of you reading and commenting.

Update: Ads are back.

I'm turning comment registration back on. There have been too many annonymous comments from people not taking the time to include their user name. Also, there have been too many comments with urls not in html format.

If you have a problem with the registration or get a validation error message, send me an email and I'll re-evaluate.