The time has come to limit the "chatter" on TalkLeft--constant comments by those who disagree with TalkLeft's positions, designed to overtake the discussion. I am receiving emails from TalkLeft's loyal readers who say that they feel the discussion is no longer valuable because of the constant commenting by three or four of these individuals.

So, here is the new policy. The "chatterers"--and they know who they are --will be limited to four comments of reasonable length during a 24 hour period. All comments over this amount will be deleted without explanation. After the third violation, the chatterer will be banned.

This group includes the relatively new poster "ras" who I notified of this policy last Friday and has ignored it. It does not include Jim (poker player) or Cliff--who although they take the other side, in my opinion stimulate debate. They also are the first to respond every time I put out a call for contributions.

I am not worried about chatterers using different names to get around the rule because I can track them by ISP address and their past comments. Of course, I do not publish this information.

Please feel free to email me with the names of commenters you believe I should be limiting under this new policy. Or , you can leave their names in the comments.

I'm not happy about this new policy as it will take up a lot of valuable time. But I agree with those of you who believe that these commenters are spoiling the disussion for the rest of you. They are trying to dominate the conversation on TalkLeft and it will be not happen.

Also, if you find someone who has broken the new rule and not been held accountable, send me an email and I will delete their excessive comments and add it to their strikes.

TalkLeft is scheduled to be moved to a new server at 11 pm ET. We may be down for a while. Hopefully, it won't be for long.

This was great to see today. Thanks to Jed for making such a great graphic:

And to Walter and Darren for leading me to it.

The great thing about America is that, win or lose, after the elections we still party together. And this year is no different. RMBB is at the Falling Rock Tap House on November 6th.

I'm bringing a camera to catch the fireworks. This is not a politically homogenous group by any stretch. I can't wait to snap a shot of Jeff G. and Steven G. crying in their beer.

Colorado is always beautiful, but today is especially so. I'll be back this evening, but if you have something to discuss in the meantime, be my guest.

Say hello to You Forgot Poland.

I just dropped the rates for ads on TalkLeft. Check them out, there are some real bargains. Ads placed today will be up in time for the debate. Act soon, because prices will be going back up Monday or Tuesday.

Placement links:

• Premium, top right
• Right sidebar
• Left sidebar

Demand for the top left spot is very high. It's available only between Oct. 19 and 28. Instead of lowering the price on this one, I"m offering 9 days for the rate of 7. Then it's filled until November 28, so again, act soon.

Lots of work today and I want to get done early so I can provide full coverage of the debate. Here's a second open thread for non-debate topics (debate open thread is here) and some things to read.

Saddam Hussein as the 20th Hijacker by James Bovard, and

Bush is Engagering America, a Buzzflash guest editorial by Carla Binion.

Everything at Raw Story and Memeorandum.

Congrats to Skippy who received a listing as an entertaining, far-out website from Time Out - New York:

Named for a popular Australian TV show, this blog is a brew of wiseass remarks and reports that make no claim to unbiased journalism. (President Bush is routinely referred to as "AWOL.") Skippy is most useful for its links to similarly minded blogs. It's a good way to keep abreast of which vast right-wing conspiracy is attracting the attention of the lefty blogosphere on a given day.—Elana Berkowitz

Jeralyn E. Merritt is criminal defense attorney in Denver representing persons accused of serious federal and state offenses. She served as one of the principal trial lawyers for Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City Bombing Case.

She has served as Secretary, Treasurer and member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as well as on the ABA Criminal Justice Section Council and the Board of Governors of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers.

She is co-author of a treatise on the U.S.A. Patriot Act, published by Lexis-Nexis. She has testified before both Congress and the United States Sentencing Commission on drug sentencing laws.

From 2001 through 2003, she was a Lecturer in Law at the Denver University College of Law teaching "Wrongful Convictions" and "Criminal Defense."

She is the creator of CrimeLynx, an internet resource for legal professionals and TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime. All entries on TalkLeft are written by her, except those that specify at the top that they are written by TChris or Last Night in Little Rock. She is also an online contributor for Denver's 5280 Magazine, where she blogs on Colorado issues.

She lectures nationally on a variety of legal and political topics and has been a cable television legal analyst since 1996, most frequently appearing on MSNBC and Fox News. A more detailed list of appearances is available here.

Speaker fees are available upon request. If you would like Ms. Merritt to speak to your organization, or write a commentary piece for your publication, please contact her directly.

E-Mail: talkleft-at-aol-dot-com.

TalkLeft was dysfunctional for some hours today when good samaritan Mike Ditto converted the archives to Movable Type's dynamic pages ....it's way too technical for me, all I know is it didn't work--probably because TalkLeft gets too much traffic for the cpu, memory capacity and MySQL capacity of the server we're on. So, we're back to static pages. A big thanks to Mike who successfully converted the site to php, only to have to change it back when it was too much for the server.

Mike asks,

Update: Both spaces now filled until October 9 and 10, respectively.

TalkLeft's two premium ad spots will be opening up tomorrow and Sunday. One is on the top left, under our logo. The other is on the top right of the site. Each spot is limited to one ad at a time. Our readership has grown significantly since the political conventions this summer, and we invite advertisers to take advantage of the space during these last few weeks before the election.

You can place your ad here for Premium ad space on the left.
Here for the Premium space on the right.

Blog commenters, take note. The mainstream media is reading not just what bloggers write, but their readers' comments. From an Associated Press article 9/27/04 (available at Lexis.com)about the ACLU's attempt to get out the former felon vote in Idaho.

The civil rights organization wants former inmates living in Idaho to know that their right to vote was reinstated when they got out of prison and finished parole and probation. A person convicted of a misdemeanor doesn't ever lose their right to vote. "A lot of people seem to be misinformed," Durand said. "They think that if they're convicted, they can never vote again, or have to petition the governor or petition the courts."

The AP quotes a commenter on TalkLeft:

"I live in Idaho and am a voting ex-felon," one former inmate said in an e-mail to TalkLeft, an Internet site on the politics of crime. "I was under the impression I could not vote until 2003, even though I had finished my sentence around 1997-1998." The ex-inmate, who did not sign his or her name, said being able to vote gives a sense of being in the community again. "It can produce a connectedness where none existed before and a belief that the system can change," the e-mail said.

A big step,I think. It's also a reminder that the Internet has no eraser, so remember that your comments may last forever. Here's the post with the quoted comment.

[Note: The online version of the article omits mention of TalkLeft and the reader's comment.]