Thanks to Mark at Dembloggers for putting up the video to my debate today on MSNBC's Connected Coast to Coast with Mark of Blogs for Bush.

WMV Link
MP3 Link

We talked about the growing influence of citizen journalists, I called on the President to consult with the Senate and nominate a consensus nominee, one show would respect constitutional rights and freedoms, and I endorsed 5th Circuit Judge Edward Prado (who, it was very cool to point out, was put on the federal bench by show host Ron Reagan's father, President Ronald Reagan.) It was a fun segment and Mark did a very good job representing his side.

I normally don't post pictures of myself on the front page of TalkLeft, but it's day two (and the last day) of TalkLeft Appreciation Days so I gave myself permission.

Ian at The Political Teen also has the video up of the segment.

Update: If you don't feel like watching, Bob Brigham at Swing State Project has a rough transcript of what I said. Thanks, Bob.

As of yesterday, blogs are dead.

Say hello to the Online Magazine Community. Others joining so far:

• Americablog
• Crooks & Liars
• Sadly, No!
• Swing State Project
• Law Dork
• Dispassionate Liberalism
• Chaos Digest
• The Political Forecast
• Seeing the Forest

TalkLeft is joining the community. We are now "the online magazine for liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news."

Update: Captain's Quarters will be remaining a blog.

Your turn. Have fun.

Very cool, Markos of Daily Kos and Atrios testified at the FEC hearing today on media regulation.

Update: Here are Markos' prepared remarks.

Please remember the chatterer rule in the comments.

I have just notified a right-wing commenter who has already posted over 20 comments today that he is now limited to four a day.

If you are a conservative who disagrees with what I write, feel free to express yourself, but there is no need to comment on every post or to repeat yourself and annoy other commenters. This site exists to further my point of view, not your's.

If you haven't received a notice that you are limited to four comments a day, then this doesn't apply to you. It is very rarely necessary for me to invoke the rule as most conservatives don't abuse it.

And, whatever your politics, if you comment a lot, bandwidth is expensive and it would be very nice if you contributed through our paypal link.

Now back to our regularly scheduled converstations.

Say Hello to Blog One, the blog for Live 8 and ending world poverty.

As Skippy says,

we are in the wrong part of the world to participate other than with watching it on television and sending our best wishes. but it promises to be an incredible event.

Yesterday's open thread got a lot of action, so let's try another one. And check out the bloglift at Daily Kos - it's terrific.

One of the reasons to be an anonymous blogger is if you think you might apply for a job someday where what you write could come back to haunt you. Before you blog your diatribe, you would do well to remember that the Internet has no eraser.

Case in point:

The Lexington Herald-Leader today contains an article that begins, "The young lawyer whom Kentucky Chief Justice Joseph Lambert yesterday named his chief of staff has strong opinions about Democrats, gay marriage and other hot-button topics, and until recently he enjoyed posting them on the Internet.

Jason Nemes, 27, a former Republican congressional aide, discontinued his personal blog -- with posts such as 'Democrats are anti-American' and 'Does a fetus feel pain?' -- before taking a job at the state Supreme Court."

The newspaper also offers a related item consisting of "Excerpts from the blog."

Lots going on offline here today...here's a place for your thoughts.

Scary story of the day:

The Defense Department began working yesterday with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.

The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will include personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.

[Via Huffington Post.] Arthur at Light of Reason has a lot to say about this.

Many bloggers, TalkLeft included, ask for money from time to time. Not Skippy. He's asking for visits, so he can make 1 million visitors by his third blogiversary. Please go help him out.

Your turn. Your topics.

Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a free legal guide for bloggers.

Law Sites's Robert Ambrogi gives it high marks. Here's the index.