Say hello to The Periscope, the companion blog to the news site euro-correspondent.com.

The Periscope was conceived by journalist Michael Standaert in 2003. The main idea is to highlight interesting and thought provoking stories dealing with Europe, the EU, transatlantic relations and just about anything else that catches our eye. There's not a lot of commentary here and we hope the content spans ideological lines in a way that provides a variety of information for the reader. Posting on The Periscope is mainly done by Michael and Stephen Gardner, euro-correspondent.com managing editor.

Markos of Daily Kos is in London where he'll be writing for the Guardian:

I'll be writing for the main Guardian site as well as its blog over the next week. My job is to compare and contrast the British elections with the ones we had back home. In two words? Bizarro World. More on that over the coming week, but you get a first taste of it here, where I talk about how in Bizarro World, it is Labour which has won the framing wars.

I'm actually doing real journalism and won't be near an Internet connection most of the time. As for that "real journalism" thing, I wonder what'll happen to all those silly "are bloggers journalist" idiots. Their heads will probably explode. And they'll deserve every bit of cognitive dissonance they suffer through.

Bump and Update: In case you weren't around yesterday, and wonder what's going on here, you now need to register to comment on TalkLeft. From Friday:

Sometimes, all it takes is one person to ruin a good thing. Due to mass obscene comments by a single person this morning, all of which were directed at me or falsely claimed to be written by me, everyone will now have to register with TypeKey to post comments. Typekey provides answers to privacy concerns here. TalkLeft's webmaster, Mike Ditto, is setting this up now. Just click on the comments to any post to register. You can register with the same posting name you've always used.

Your first comment will require me to approve you. Once you are approved, your comments will automatically appear as before. I personally will be doing the approving, so if I'm offline when you make your first comment, it may not be instantaneous. I'm going to try to remain online through the weekend as much as possible.

You have to give typekey an email address to register, but it will not appear in the comments. Also, you have the choice of not having your email address forwarded to me. So, you can remain anonymous if you'd like. For those of you who allow your e-mail address to be forwarded to me, I will not share it with anyone else.

Update: Only two people have had a problem registering and posting comments. If you have a problem, try registering at Mike Ditto's site, so that we can determine if the problem stems from Typekey or TalkLeft.

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Original Post:

There's a nasty troll on board today with multiple IP addresses. Comments are shut down until further notice.

A few chatterers are trying to run away with the site again. And several on the left are engaging them and allowing them to do it. Time to stop. Those who have been limited to four comments a day will have their excess comments deleted. One chatterer posted 26 comments today. I'm not going to foot the bill for the bandwidth for them--nor will I provide a place for them to chatter incessantly.

Limits of chatterers will be strictly enforced. Four comments a day. Those who continually respond to them, whether on the right or the left, will also be limited.

TalkLeft's comment policy is here.

Say hello to the Heretik: Born to Burn. Great visuals, excellent content, a mix of satire and news with some music and art and poetry thrown in. It's written by Joe Ivory Mattingly.

Also say hello to Thought Mechanics. They're adding bloggers, so if you're interested, head on over.

Update: Here's a preview of what you can expect.

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Arianna Huffington may be changing the face of blogging. Her new celebrity blogging venture, The Huffington Post, written by 250 bold-face names, will launch in cyberspace on May 9. Among the names:

Walter Cronkite, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer and Mortimer B. Zuckerman

....Notables will oversee certain sections, with Gary Hart, the former Colorado senator, for example, taking the lead on national security issues.

The venture is designed to compete with the Drudge Report, only it will be interactive. Drudge's former chief techie, Andrew Breitbart, has signed on. There will be some conservative participants, Tony Blankly, for one.

Here's a question: Where are the politically active musicians? No Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Mellencamp?

One more: Will any of them admit to blogging in their pajamas?

• Crooks and Liars has a special "Justice Sunday" video of Sen. Bill Frist. And details of the secret audio tape obtained by the LA Times of Dobson and Perkins discussing strategy.

• Skippy on the Pope.

• Atrios tells us about the charge in the Observer that the new Pope obstructed justice by demanding that the sex abuse inquiry of the Church be conducted in secret. Norwegianity has more. Jeanne D'Arc at Body and Soul writes an outstanding piece on the new Pope and why his German Hitler Youth membership and his failure to become a part of the Resistance does matter.

• Kevin Drum on Bush "blackballing the attendance of technical experts at a telecom standards meeting this week if they contributed money to John Kerry's campaign."

• Grits for Breakfast has an op-ed in Houston Chronicle on the demise of the Harris County drug task force in Texas. His earlier post is here. He also calls attention to the backlash against Texas Senator Hinojosa for his criticism of the drug task force.

TalkLeft hit the 6 million visitor mark today. It is very gratifying to know that so many of you out there in Cyberland read us regularly, both for our take on the news and for the discussion in the comments.

Thanks to all of you, from TChris and me, for making TalkLeft a part of your day.

Your turn to follow the news wherever it takes you.

I have court in the mountains today - it's a beautiful day for a 2 hour drive. Here's a space for you to comment on what's making news. I'll be back late this afternoon.

Update: A big thanks to TChris who posted some great stuff today.

Atrios and Eschaton turn three years old today. Here is Atrios' first day of posting. Who would have thought in that time he would receive more than 50 million visitors. He's now averaging 100,000 visitors a day. Congratulations, A, and many happy returns.

On another blogging note, check out this article today on Markos of the Daily Kos.

Atrios and Daily Kos are the two most widely read liberal bloggers anywhere. All you need to do is read their blogs (and in Daily Kos's case, some of the diaries) and you'll see why. As to the time that goes into it,

Thanks to Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post and AOL News' Blog Zone for mentioning TalkLeft today.

First, Howard:

Attorney Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft doesn't think much of DeLay saying he had made "inartful" remarks on targeting judges:

"If one of my clients gave this kind of apology at a sentencing, the judge would throw the book at him. . . . "He's not sorry for the content of his intemperate remarks, only for the way he phrased them. That's like saying he isn't sorry for the crime, only that he got caught."

AOL BlogNews picked up on blog coverage of Sen. Bill Frist's threat to go nuclear:

Daily Kos outlines some news stories about Frist. And Rightsided takes exception to those news reports. Captain wonders what GOP "milquetoasts" are waiting for.

Frist has backed himself into a corner, says Talk Left. And Blue Vertical Studio reports on the makeup of American federal courts.