The Firefox browser was released today in the 1.0 version. I've been using it for a few months (except when I post on TalkLeft, because I can't get the "hot buttons" in textile to work with it--although that may be my shortcoming) and it really is cool. The best feature is no pop-ups. It has tabbed browsing. It also lets you bookmark the rss version of news sites and blogs so as you run your cursor over them in your "favorite places" you can see last ten or so headlines and just click on those that interest you.

Many believe Firefox is going to give Microsoft's IE a run for its money. It's free, you can read about it and download it here.

It's that time. TalkLeft has not asked often for reader contributions in recent months due to revenue received through our blogads. But, blogads have all but disappeared since the election. Even after dropping the ad rates, there have been no takers.

As regular readers and commenters know, this site takes hours of my day and evening to maintain. What began as a fanciful hobby is now a news and opinion site read daily by 15,000 people, and growing. Many of these readers return several times throughout the day, evening and weekends, looking for fresh material. So far, I haven't disappointed.

Without the ad revenue, I have to ask for reader contributions. There really is no other way to keep the site going at the current level. So, if you are a frequent reader, or if you just like TalkLeft and want to see it continue and thrive, please make a donation. All amounts from $1 up are welcome and appreciated.

• PayPal
  

• Amazon (Anonymous)
  

(If you recently gave, no need to give again.)

Update: Thanks to all you generous readers who are making contributions. I really appreciate your response. Individual thank you notes will be sent soon.

A blogger named "anniesj" at Live Journal criticized Bush the week before the election and received a night-time visit from the Secret Service. She is single and lives with her mother. The agents determined she was not a threat to national security, but she now has her very own FBI file that includes her photo, email, and weblog address.

Now, as to what made them pick her: She wrote a post after the presidential debate critical of Bush. Another reader called it in to the authorities. The Secret Service told her they were following up.

Some advice:

The tale is a lesson to us all. Number one lesson is that what happens on the internet can and will bite you on the a** in real life. We've seen it time and time again with internet affairs and sordid emails - now, you'd better watch where you put your political commentating toes. Number two is that no matter how cool and geeky the community - and LiveJournal is both - there will always be someone that ruins it for everyone else.

Put another way, people need to keep in mind that the internet has no erasers.

Here's Annie's version of her ordeal. [link via What Really Happened.]

Update: Not so clever attempts by Right wing bloggers, including a prosecutor, to post words in the comments to this post that will result in this site being linked to unacceptable behavior when googled have led to a decision to shut the comments down. Their comments have been edited.

More wonderful blogs are closing up shop in the wake of last week's election. We wrote about Tristero here. Today we received an e-mail from Anna of Annatopia. She's shutting down. Another big loss for the blogosphere. Hesiod at Counterspin has also shuttered his doors. Let's hope they just need a rest and will join us again soon.

Update: New blogs are coming on board. Say hello to the new weblog of the U.S. Marijuana Party by the organization's indefatigable Loretta Nall.

The election is over and blogads naturally are down on bloggerland's political sites, including TalkLeft. In hope of attracting some new advertisers, we've cut our rates substantially.

Take a look, and if you're interested in having 15,000 distinct daily visitors view your product or service or learn about your organization or its issues, try an ad on TalkLeft. Three spots are available:

• Premium, top right.
• Right Sidebar
• Left Sidebar

Tonight is the third Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash at Falling Rock Tap House, 1919 Blake St, Denver. Now here's the cool thing for those of you too far away to attend....you can watch us on this webcam which is updated every second. Thanks to Colorado Conservative Darren Copeland for organizing the event.

There doesn't seem to be a start time, but 7:00 or 8:00 should do it. Liberals will be in very short supply, and you don't have to have a blog to attend, so come on down if you can.

The Tank in New York City was home to Democratic bloggers, including us, during the Republican National Convention. If you're can make it to New York next weekend, the Tank is hosting a conference for online activists about the election:

The election is over. The campaign cannot end. What do we say after the mourning on the Morning After?

THE MORNING AFTER ­ A Symposium ­ November 13-14.

A day-and-a-half of conversations, panels, working groups and more.

Hosted by Cosmopolity at The Tank - 432 W 42nd St NYC.

Why? The 2004 election saw an explosion of grassroots activity, online organizing, voter registration initiatives, new forms of media and progressive unity. We fell short on November 2, but the movement, the organizations, their members and our progressive energy are as important as ever.

I'm very sorry to learn that Tristero is calling it quits.

It's become much too hard to be an American.

In my case, I took a break from the middle of a pretty decent career, to add my dissenting voice during what was - and remains - a national emergency. Although my career hit some major snags as a result, I will never regret what I've done. How could I be a decent father to my daughter, let alone a responsible citizen, and not have tried to do at least something to prevent the madness of the Bush/Iraq war?

...constant exposure to the toxic nature of George W. Bush and his world has taken a serious toll. In more ways than I care to remember, my health has suffered, as has my emotional well-being. In a nutshell, America is now asking too much of its citizens in order to save it from heading over a cliff. That is why we elect representatives, so that we can do our work and not have to run a government. We're supposed to have a responsible and free press, so that normal folks need not work 24/7 exposing the lies and crimes of our leaders. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to do my bit, but I've already done more than I reasonably could. Politics, political writing is not my field, never was, never will be. There is a limit to how much I can do, how much basic research I'm qualified to undertake. I tried to exceed that, but I am simply not capable of continuing to do more.

You know who you are. I just deleted 9 of B.B.'s comments--the first four stayed.

If you don't know if you're included in the group of chatterboxes who are limited to four comments a day, or why we are doing this, go here and here. If you still don't know, e-mail us.

The right will not take over this blog. It can visit and post in moderation, period.

Update: Forget the lectures on freedom of speech and censorship. TalkLeft is not the Government and this is a personal blog. Comments are allowed at my discretion and under the stated terms. No one has a right to comment on TalkLeft.

Yesterday afternoon, internet traffic was so massive that TalkLeft and other sites became almost impossible to access.

Hosting Matters, the company that hosts TalkLeft and hundreds or thousands of other blogs, was there to help. I don't know what they did, but beginning around 4pm yesterday afternoon, we were as fast and easy to access as ever. We never went down once, despite receiving double our normal traffic.

Thanks to Annette and Stacy, and everyone else at Hosting Matters, for realizing that E-day was the main event to bloggers, and for keeping us all up and running.

Happy first birthday to Ari Zunigas, heir to Daily Kos and still the cutest baby ever. Here's a year in the life....

November 6, 2003: Baby Kos Joins Us at Planet Earth

Mother's Day, May 9, 2004 at Casa Kos(with Tia Jeralyn):

November 1, 2004, First Birthday

Ok,maybe the second cutest baby ever:

Self-imposed break today. You can talk amongst yourselves here, you pick the topics. Some ideas:

Voting problems. As I wrote over at 5280 today, the TL kid and two of his friends in New York still have not received their Colorado absentee ballots . Three votes for Kerry down the tubes.

Or Rumsfeld and the draft. He insists there never were any talks to resume it. But members of his staff attended the Selective Service meeting where detailed plans were proposed.