Say hello to Secondary Screening, a new blog about Anti-Terrorism, Privacy and Data Mining. The author is Wired.com free-lance journalist Ryan Singal. A welcome addition to the blogoshere. [link via Hit and Run.]

And SKBubba tells us what we really should be talking about. He's right, of course.

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. We just stripped the template of these items and will experiment over the weekend with adding them back. Also, blogrolling is apparently down.

We're sorry for any delay you are experiencing.

Work beckons, so here's an open thread. Please don't feed the trolls.

Say hello to the New York State Progressives weblog. It a wordpress rather than an MT blog. Several MT blogs have converted lately, does anyone know what the advantages are over MT, if there are any?

NY Progressives is a group blog, with postings by Communication Services, John Maggoire, Long Island Progressive Coalition, Pinnacle Creative Services and USWA Local 9265. Nicely done, too.

Instapundit has been talking about "pajama blogging" which appears to be short-hand for the level of trust one should put in blogger accounts of news as opposed to those of the mainstream media. Glenn says,

JUST CAUGHT Jonathan Klein debating Stephen Hayes about the CBS forgery scandal. Klein says that "Bloggers have no checks and balances . . . [it's] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas."

Non- "big media bloggers" may not have censors, bosses or editors, but that per se doesn't make them untrustworthy. As Glenn points out, bloggers use hyperlinks to source their posts--and generally are quick to admit a mistake and correct it. As I wrote in this recent op-ed about convention-blogging in the Denver Post:

Bloggers are not a substitute for the 5 o'clock news. We help complete the picture. We keep the media honest. If the media won't cover the real story, bloggers will. Just remember, a blog is only as credible as its author. With 3.5 million blogs now on the Web, choose carefully. It's read at your own risk.

First up is Jeff at Protein Wisdom, taking issue with TalkLeft and Pandagon.

Jesse Taylor at Pandagon responds.

Jeff Harrell at Shapes of Days has been all over the issue on the opposite side of TL...Kevin Drum is wavering. Mark Gisleson of Norwegianity is skeptical of the skeptics.

Add the blogs whose opinions you've agreed with in the comments section, just be sure to put any urls in html coding so the site doesn't get skewed. Instructions are inside the "post comment" box.

Update: Bill in DC has interviewed Dr. Bouffard who was interviewed by the Boston Globe. Bill says Dr. Bouffard is furious that the Boston Globe misrepresented his comments.

Two years ago we wrote:

What a day to have a birthday. Not fun, we bet. Both DailyKos and MadKane begin another year of life today, we hope you'll go over and extend good wishes.

Time heals, and I hope the specter of 9/11 is no longer casting a pall on the celebrations of those with 9/11 birthdays. "

Sad news to report. Aaron Hawkins, of Uppity Negro, has passed away. No details are available yet. He was a unique and talented voice in the blogosphere. You can leave your condolences here.

Say hello to Derelection, 2004 campaign coverage by the superb Cursor.

Also say hello to AltWeeklies, providing news reporting from more than 100 alternative weekly papers.

There's simply no excuse any more for being uninformed.

The cable news networks are wall-to-wall hurricane coverage. If you want the news on other issues, check the blogs:

Skippy on why the Time/Newsweek Bush Bounce polls are not to be trusted.

SK Bubba, Avedon Carol at Sideshow and Natasha at Pacific Views have great roundups of blog political coverage. SK Bubba also recounts his thoughts on Bush's convention speech.

Kevin Drum at Washington Monthly comments approvingly on military analyst William Arkin's oped in the LA Times listing five mistakes Bush has made in the War on Terror. He also debunks a new Time Magazine article on Bush's plans for a second term that suggests Bush may give up preemptive strikes for less militaristic options like supporting opposition movements:

In other words, anyone who thinks they won't find excuses for further military action in a second term just isn't paying attention. A vote for Bush is a vote for more wars, and with this crew in charge it's unlikely they'll turn out any better than Iraq has.

Conservative Andrew Sullivan won't vote for Bush in November because contrary to Bush's protestations, he's not truly in support of freedom. Bush wants to deny freedom and dignity to gays. Sullivan lists a few other reasons that true conservatives cannot support Bush:

...the only difference between Republicans and Democrats now is that the Bush Republicans believe in Big Insolvent Government and the Kerry Democrats believe in Big Solvent Government. By any measure, that makes Kerry - especially as he has endorsed the critical pay-as-you-go rule on domestic spending - easily the choice for fiscal conservatives. It was also jaw-dropping to hear this president speak about tax reform. Bush? He has done more to lard up the tax code with special breaks and new loopholes than any recent president. On this issue - on which I couldn't agree more - I have to say I don't believe him. Tax reform goes against the grain of everything this president has done so far. Why would he change now?

Trolls are abounding in the comments tonight. There have been over 800 comments today and so many of them disregard the posting rules of this site: no profanity, no name-calling or personal attacks and urls have to be in html format. Sometimes I delete the offending words and leave the rest. Not tonight, no time, and most of them are from regulars who know the rules. So, if your comment is missing, it's been deleted for one of those reasons. If you find your comments blocked, it's because you've been banned for being a multiple offender. If you don't like three strikes rules, vote against them. On election day.

Update: I've banned a log of trolls tonight. There's too many and they are lowering the level of discourse on the site with their noise. Expressing a difference of opinion is fine, trolling is not. If you don't know the difference, you're probably a troll. Post at your own risk.

Update: Dr. Ace is history. True Liberal (not) is next, soon as I find his ISP number again. Steel is gone. Please don't feed the trolls. Again, thoughtful disagreement with the opinions expressed in posts and comments is fine. Snide comments, insults, name-calling, off-topic links and rants and garbage is not. I intend to take out the trash more frequently, so here's fair warning.

Thanks to all of you who contributed to TalkLeft's New York blogging trip. I will be sending each of you a thank you email as soon as I return. As they did last month for Boston, TalkLeft readers made this trip possible and I am thrilled and humbled that readers think highly enough of the site to help out.