Have you been wondering how to get a link on Eric Alterman's Altercation blogroll? Eric has announced the third Altercation links contest:

Alter-links: It's time for another Altercation links contest. The blogosphere keeps expanding and it's easy to miss some really good sites. I've drafted Jeralyn again to take your nominations for blogs that should get the coveted slots on the right in our high-powered MSNBC.com blogroll.

Send nominations to her, not me, at alterlinks@aol.com. There's no point in stuffing the ballot box because once she's aware of your blog, it's "Merritt" driven. (Hint: Without a link to Altercation, don’t bother. Judge Jeralyn would probably appreciate a link too.)

We're getting a great response, there's still time. We'll be taking a look at every submission. The mailbox again is alterlinks@aol.com.

We'll be moving servers again tonight to a really big one. It should make the site load faster. If you have trouble accessing us in the next day or so, hit your refresh button or clear your cache.

If you'd like to help us out with site expenses, or just show us some appreciation, our tip jar is here.

This may not last long, so I better publish it while I can. Technorati's Top 100 Blogs list tonight:

95. TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime 2,483 links from 1,923 sources
96. Blogs for Bush 3,282 links from 1,921 sources

[Note, the number of sources determines placement.]

I've got stuff to do, some MSNBC and then the jail, so here's a place for you to talk.

There has been quite a dust-up in the MSM and blogosphere about, depending on your perspective, the lack of, or plentitude of, women political columnists and bloggers. I can't remember who started it, but the first post I read about it was this one by Kevin Drum. Kevin, who certainly is no chauvinist, later somewhat sheepishly noted his post didn't go over very well with women. (See the comments to his post. Mine, which basically sums up my views on the topic, is here)

Jude Nagurney Camwell of Iddybud has compiled a lengthy list of women political bloggers. Michelle Malkin provides her list of women bloggers today (I'm flattered that TalkLeft is listed in the liberal category.)

If you missed the entire discussion, Culture Kat has catalogued it, from 2002 through the present, as part of her dissertation which she describes as "a feminist rhetorical analysis of gender and blogging practices."

New York Times Columnist Maureen Dowd weighed in yesterday. One line that struck me:

Male bloggers predominate, as do male TV shouters.

Congrats to bloggers Jeff Goldstein (Protein Wisdom) and Bill Ardolino (INDC Journal)who have gotten a gig as radio show hosts on RightTalk radio. The program is “The Citizen Journalist Report”, billed as "An irreverent weekly look at blogging, politics, culture, society and various potato heads in government and the media." March 24 is their first show, and I've agreed to provide some "irreverent" legal analysis of the Michael Jackson case and whatever else comes up.

These RightTalk folks are clever. They've co-opted the domain "lefttalk.com." Many people have written me to let me know that when they try to access talkleft, they get sent to righttalk.com. Not exactly. These readers have transposed talkleft into lefttalk by mistake, and when you go to lefttalk.com you get sent to righttalk.com.

Nonetheless, I'm trying to figure out a way to get even. Any suggestions?

TalkLeft wrote its 10,000th post today. Thanks to Mike Ditto for spotting it. And thanks to our hosting company for keeping them all accessible.

Nicholas Ciarelli, aka Nick DePlume, a Harvard freshman sued by Apple for disclosing trade secret information about its new Mac mini computer on his website, Think Secret, has filed a motion with the Court seeking to have the case dismissed under California'as Anti-SLAPP law.

SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation.

The law is designed to protect individuals who are exercising their free speech rights from frivolous lawsuits designed to silence them.

Ciarelli argues that he has the same right as journalists to protect his sources.

Ciarelli argues that he is no different from any other journalist. He solicits tips and offers sources confidentiality in the course of news gathering. But he did not pay Apple's employees to disclose proprietary information, nor did he sell the alleged trade secrets to a competitor of the computer-maker, according to the motion.

Apple has filed similar suits against subpoenaed information from two other websites. On March 3, the Judge ruled that bloggers are not journalists and that the websites have to divulge their sources.

Here's the $64 million question: Are bloggers journalists? It depends. Think Secret reports on news and has been cited in articles about Apple by the New York Times, BusinessWeek and the Mercury News. I'd say that makes the writer a journalist.

Nightline tonight will feature a report on ethics in the blogosphere. Part of the report was filmed at the Berkman Bloggers Meeting, and one of the attendees has already scooped Nightline by posting a videoblog of the meeting.

If you're a blogger and into media, check out the non-partisan Media Bloggers Association.

Our hosting company is moving us to a "beefier" server in a few hours because because Movable Type is moving extremely slow. If this doesn't fix the problem, we'll have to find an MT professional to take a look and try to fix it. We tried to change from static to dynamic publishing once before, and it didn't work. We may try that again if we can get MT to do it for us.

The only thing the server moves means for readers is that comments made about the time of transfer may get lost. Also, if you can't access TalkLeft right after the move, hit your refresh button or clear your cache and you will go to the new IP address.

Update: Move is complete.

Update: The new server is very fast. A big thanks to Hosting Matters. I was offline all Sunday due to network problems that had nothing to do with the site. A big thanks to TChris who posted great stuff all day.

I have a Court hearing early this morning and another big one on Monday. I'll still be posting but I need you readers to help fill in. Here's an open thread for today, your choice. Maybe someone wants to do the Friday funnies, or the stupid criminal of the week. Or rant about Bush, that's always good for a few chuckles. Have fun.

CNN's Inside Politics with Judy Woodruff today did a feature on blogs, and what they are talking about. Crooks and Liars has the video. At the very end, they mention TalkLeft and show our post about Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman mentioning gin when he spoke to 4th graders. They mentioned our comment, "We're with Oscar on this one."

That makes two networks, CNN and MSNBC, (in particular Connected Coast to Coast,) talking about bloggers. It's kind of cool, but it's also a little disconcerting. Until now, blogging has been an in-house adventure with bloggers reading bloggers and bloggers commenting on MSM. Now it's a two-way street.

Related: Skippy writes a letter to CNN.