Bump and Update: Let's all blog live during the debate and after. Use the comments to this thread to expose Bush's lies and debunk the Republican spin from the debate. Don't wait for me, just jump on it.

Don't forget to visit Rapid Reblogger. Also, a wiki has been set up at whoarethey.org.

Bump and Update: You can watch the debate live on the internet on C-span, here is the direct link. After the debate, the transcript will be available here.

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Original Post

Here's an open thread to discuss tonight's debate. It's the news of the day, so barring something big, TalkLeft will stick with this topic until tomorrow.

The Republicans are geared up for rapid response on the internet. Dems need to be as well.

PayPal has redeemed itself. Bill Quick of the Daily Pundit objected to having his account limited due to mentioning a beheading video. He didn't remove it. He wrote an e-mail complaining and refused to follow their appeals process and insisted he had not violated their terms of use policy. He received an apology from PayPal today. And a phone call.

With respect to the same limitation being placed on TalkLeft's account, I went a more Machiavellian route. I removed the offending link, to ensure I would be reinstated right away, which I was, and then withdrew my funds. I left for another day the question of whether to continue to use Paypal.

I didn't receive a phone call, but I did receive a survey to complete about the experience and how PayPal could better handle these situations in the future. It included a space for as long a comment as I wanted to make. I made a long one, complaining about PayPal's limiting the account before asking the account owner for an explanation or defense. That's due process...notice of the charges and an opportunity to be heard--before any punitive action is taken. But, I have to admit, I was reinstated within 18 hours of their initial action, which is fairly responsive.

Also, I agree with Bill Quick:

The Guardian today presents the first weekly column by Markos of Daily Kos.

Chris Bowers, who writes for Daily Kos and My DD, has a new idea. Lefty bloggers should pool together and apply for a seat in the White House briefing room.

Twenty-four hours later and the blogosphere is still reflecting on Billmon's op-ed to the LA Times on the commercialization of bloggers and how it contributed to his decision to take a break. I contributed my two cents on Billmon's post yesterday. Today we hear from the left-of-center masters.

This morning, Kos weighed in. I agree with him completely. Tonight, Atrios provided his thoughts, which are more like pearls of wisdom to aspriring bloggers.

If you're new to blogging, go read them both. They're the stars, our blog-fathers. Which is not to say you need to aspire to their heights--only that they demonstrate what it takes to reach them. Neither expected or even sought these pinnacles, but there's a reason they acheived them--and it's not just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, writing about the topic du jour. All it takes to understand their success, should you aspire to it, is to read them throughout the day and evening. Once a day doesn't do either of them justice.

Here's a few snippets of advice Atrios had tonight for new bloggers:

Say hello to What She Said...a new blog by and about women bloggers.

The next time some guy asks you where all the female bloggers are, tell them What She Said!

Check out their all-female blogroll, it's huge. Credit for the site goes to Morgaine Swann of The Goddess, who has been working very hard (with several helpers) for months building it. And Jeanne D'Arc of Body and Soul who has been writing about it--and from whom I learned about it.

Paypal has reinstated TalkLeft's account. So, whose advice did I follow? Those of you who said delete the objectionable post, make sure I get my money, then decide whether to leave Paypal. All of your suggestions are very much appreciated. I thought about them all before deciding.

Update: Bill Quick of The Daily Pundit got a similar missive from Paypal. He's angry and has refused to give in and is taking his paypal links down.

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Original Post 9/23/04

Unbelievable. This e-mail from paypal was in TalkLeft's email box today. Shorter version: TalkLeft's paypal account is restricted because of a link to a beheading video.

We appreciate the fact that you chose PayPal to send and receive payments for your transactions.

However, your account has been limited for violating PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy regarding Offensive Material. The Policy prohibits the use of PayPal in the sale of items or in support of organizations that promote hate, violence, or racial intolerance; items which graphically portray violence or victims of violence; or items closely associated with individuals notorious for committing murderous acts within the last 100 years. Further, PayPal prohibits a person convicted of a violent felony, or his relatives or associates, from using PayPal to benefit financially from the convict's criminal notoriety. The complete Acceptable Use Policy
addressing Offensive Material can be found at the following URL:

To appeal the limitation on your account, you will need to:

1. Remove those items from your website that violate PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy. For example, any links to obtain the Eugene Armstrong begeading video; and

2. Submit the online Acceptable Use Policy affidavit.

TalkLeft's premium ad space on the right will be available tomorrow. I've lowered the price in case anyone is interested. The space is limited to one ad at a time.

Your turn, have at it. Try not to feed the trolls, there are several lurking in the shadows.

TBogg takes on Powerline's pictures comparing Kerry to Bush with ones that cast the two in a far truer light.

Dave Johnson at Seeing the Forest says in the strongest possible terms that those under 30 should be worried enough to vote because they are going to be drafted. Go copy his post and email it to someone you care about who's in the target age group. They need to know how crucial it is that they vote in this election.

Democracy Now has a transcript of BBC investigative reporter Greag Palast's interview with Bill Burkett about Bush's National Guard service from his new documentary, "Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" by Greg Palast. [link via Buzzflash.]

Mary Jacoby of Salon interviews Seymour Hersh who provides an "alternative history of Bush's war."

The crack investigative reporter tells Salon about a disastrous battle the U.S. brass hushed up, the frightening True Believers in the White House, and how Iran, not Israel, may have manipulated us into war.

Ben Wasserstein, writing in the LA Times, on why the conservative bloggers should get a pat on the back but not a standing ovation for their role in Rathergate.

Veteran political reporter Martin Nolan in the San Francisco Chronicle explains why Bush may lose the election, despite current opinion polls. Four reasons:

A huge thanks to Mike Ditto , a Denver blogger who volunteered to reinstall the comment spammer MT-Blacklist on TalkLeft. That was the last hurdle to our site upgrade. He also insisted on doing it for free.

So, this weekend's fund drive is over....We collected $140.00 and sent the excess to Mike even though he didn't want it. A big thanks to Jay Allen, creator of MT-Blacklist, who also offered to do the re-install for TalkLeft, but since he's visiting New York this week (his home is in Budapest, Hungary), I'm glad I didn't have to take him up on the offer.

If you're considering moving your blog to Movable Type, or upgrading to MT 3.11, I highly recommend letting them do the install. Sarah did our's and it works great. She was also very responsive to emails.

I also needed some help from TalkLeft's great hosting company, Hosting Matters, which responded right away(thanks, Stacy.)

The cool html buttons that now enable readers to post links in comments through the entry pages without typing html code were made possible a few months back by Helen and Jeff of Protein Wisdom, also from Denver, who graciously shared the code and spent hours helping me figure out how to incorporate it into TalkLeft. I met Mike, Jeff and Helen (and many others) at the Rocky Mountain Blogger Bash last May--it's really something how bloggers kick in to help when you need it--even when, like Jeff, they disagree with almost every word I write.

If you're looking for great free blog design tricks, like including quotes in a color lined box, TalkLeft's come from Mandarin Design. Meg even will help you via e-mail if you run into a snag.

I'm done playing techie for now. The concentration required over tiny details is exhausting. Much more so than blogging. Again, I really appreciate the financial contributions from you readers. I hope you like the changes. Let me know if you run across any bugs.

Bump and Update: The upgrade is complete. It has taken all of yesterday and this morning to restore the templates and the newer functions so many of you liked....a list of the five most recently commented-on entries and the category name being placed in each entry alongside the permalink.

I also was able to add the same "html" and "quote" buttons that you see when you click "comments" to a post to each post when you access it by permalink. This will help those of you who are html-challenged and haven't been able to figure out how to add urls in html format. Now, just type your comment, highlight the words where you want your link to be, and click on the "html button". Just put the url in the popup and Voila. Same for a short quote. Just highlight the part you want quoted and click the quote button. It will appear in your comment indented and inside a blue box.

Thanks to readers, TalkLeft collected $105.00, which paid for the upgrade and install. However, I need to hire someone to install an upgraded version of MT-Blacklist,the comment-spammer, as I have no clue (and I tried) and some other "plugins" that will improve the site. Apparently, only one version of MT-Blacklist will work with this latest edition of MT. So the collection effort is still ongoing at this point. I'll let you all know when it's over. And if you have experience installing the new version of MT Blacklist with MT 3.11, and would like to make some money installing it on TalkLeft, let me know.

You can contribute here via PayPal. If you'd like to donate anonymously, use Amazon. Both are secure.

Thanks to all, and now, as soon as all the 8,000 individual entries are rebuilt (a few hours, I think) I will be back to regular posting. Please ignore any comment spam for online poker, viagra and the like which will go away once MT-Blacklist is reinstalled.

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Original Post

Yesterday I reported that TalkLeft has been running very slowly since we added category archives to each entry and a section with the five most recently commented-on posts, and as a result, I stripped down the home page until I could figure out what is causing the problem. Traffic to the site is also way up. Yesterday for example, there were 17,000 visitors and 27,000 page views.

Today, being fairly confident that upgrading to the newest version of Movable Type would solve the problem and allow me to reinstate the new features, I purchased the upgrade and an installation. The two cost $100.00. If any of you frequent readers or commenters want to help me recoup the money, it would be most appreciated.

You can contribute here via PayPal. If you'd like to donate anonymously, use Amazon. Both are secure.

Thanks to all, for reading and contributing.

Update: We're still short of our $100 reimbursement goal. Thanks to those who gave and if you were thinking about it but didn't get around to it, now would be a really good time.