Update: We are fully up and restored now as is Daily Kos.

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TalkLeft has been down since Friday, due to problems encountered by our hosting company, which were not its fault. We need to have our database replaced, which should occur sometime Monday.

Thanks for your patience, and we recommend you read the excellent sites on the right until then.

Daily Kos, which is hosted by the same company, also should be back up very soon---there is no conspiracy or hacking involved, just a server glitch.

t a c i t u s is back--go over and read--for his war blogging posts!

Say hello to new bloggers:

Winds of Change, a Canadian libertarian blog dedicated to "Liberty. Discovery. Humanity. Victory." Check out their interview with Canadian police officer, John A. Gayder. He has started a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). Colorado Sheriff John Masters (of San Miguel County, which includes Telluride,) an elected Libertarian Sheriff since 1980, is a prominent member.

The war on drugs is classic proof that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It is a noble idea to not want people to ruin their lives through drug abuse. Unfortunately, the way society continues to go about achieving that aim via the WOD is not working. In fact it is making things worse. Almost everything we hate about drugs is a result of them being illegal.

We've added Winds of Change to our "Best of the Other Side" blogroll on the right.

Idols of the Marketplace--found via Hessiod at Counterspin.

Liberal Law Blawg Just Opinions promising a "mix of political, legal, and social commentary....from the liberal perspective. "

Natasha at The Watch says Mac Diva will no longer be posting there. No comment yet over at Mac Diva's blog, Mac-a-ron-ies.

Calpundit has had a bloglift and is now at its own home, so change your bookmarks. The site has also added a comments feature. Nice, Kevin.

Chris Allbritton of Back to Iraq is headed home. His farewell post is here.

Instapundit has details about new opposition to the Patriot Act. At a rally in Utah, protesters called for Sen. Orrin Hatch to "resign from office for turning his back on the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights."

Soapbox Canyon, an Arizona blog, tells us about the suspect arrest of Laro Nicol, a Phoenix peace and justice activist and crusader against police brutality, on an explosives charge. Gail Davis has emailed us the links to several articles on the arrest, including this from IndyMedia. Many are charging that he's a political prisoner.

W. James Antle III, columnist for the Washington Dispatch writes about blogging coverage of the Iraq war, including war supporters and opponents.

Examples include University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds, whose Instapundit site has emerged as the 800-pound gorilla of the blogosphere, journalist Andrew Sullivan, UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs and Megan McArdle under the cyber-pseudonym Jane Galt. The common thread between most of these bloggers is a strong belief in the capacity of American military power to effect social change, concern for the dangers posed by radical Islam and a desire to see tyrannies swept aside by democracy in the Middle East. This is not to say that that the web is exclusively the domain of hawks. In addition to liberal blogs like TalkLeft and Tom Tomorrow, thoughtful libertarians including Gene Healy, Jim Henley and Julian Sanchez have also spoken out against the war. Antiwar bloggers across the political spectrum have converged at the provocative Stand Down blog, where they debate the war and, almost as frequently, each other.

Mr. Antle concludes that we bloggers are providing some valuable input:

In our increasingly information-based society, it is best to let a thousand flowers bloom. The web's contributions to the discussion of the Iraq war demonstrate its potential as a vibrant source of news and debate, as well as a community for the exchange of ideas. Informed citizens today aren't just picking up newspapers or tuning in - they are logging on.

Daily Kos writes about Blogshares and says we are the top priced lefty blogger.

Now for something completely apolitical, but cool nevertheless, check out BlogShares, the Fantasy Blog Share Market. It's a virtual stock market trading in weblogs. Signing up (it's free) gives you access to $500 pretend dollars with which to trade. Weblog market capitalization is measured by the number of incoming links.... At current market valuations, your $500 could buy 100 shares of Daily Kos stock, or nine shares of Instapundit. If you want TalkLeft, your 500 shares will snag you just 23 shares (giving her the highest market cap of any lefty blogger).

Kos also analyzes the un-decideds in the Democratic presidential nomination race:

Gary Hart: The early word was that he didn't have the money, but recent steps seem to suggest that a) he does have money, or b) it doesn't matter. It looks like a run is imminent. Volunteers at several college campuses have started recruiting volunteer interns to help ramp up their organization (a good way to do it on the cheap). While the first of these emails, leaked earlier this week, drew a careful denial from the Hart camp, the fact that so many of these are surfacing points to a coordinated recruitment effort.

Wesley Clark: As everyone here already knows, he's my favorite in this race. He's solid on national security, well-spoken, presidential, pro-choice, pro-gun, pro-affirmative action, anti-PATRIOT Act, and believes strongly that the government should provide for the less fortunate amongst us.

But is he running? Everything I've heard is that he's 50/50 on a run, and that a decision would be forthcoming after the war. However, the war ended quickly and still no decision.

We think Hart and Clark are the two to watch. If you're partial to Clark, check out the DraftClark website that Kos and Jerome of MyDD put together.

A big thanks to Media Horse for touting our civil liberties coverage.

Lisa English of Ruminate This has some good thoughts on what the Dems must do to win in 2004: coalesce and fight. Digby of Hullaballoo weighs in as well.

Eric Alterman's new Nation column is up, Bush Gone Awol.

Atrios takes off on liberal bloggers criticizing other liberal bloggers and has some thoughts about Castro:

...in the Pantheon of evil dictators of the last 40 years , including ones we actively supported like our good buddy Saddam, he doesn't exactly deserve the top billing. In addition, despite the fact that U.S. policy towards Cuba - driven at least in part by the Cuban exile community - is supposed to encourage "regime change," it seems to have been instrumental in preserving the viability of the Castro regime.

Jim Capozzola of Rittenhouse Review, future Pennsylvania candidate for the U.S. Senate, highlights the looting and destruction of Iraqi artifacts. Skippy is focusing on Iraq and fascism. Liquid List has an excellent post on the threats to our civil liberties.

We hope you will take some time this weekend to read these excellent bloggers as well as the sites listed on the right. All are contributing to the quality of discourse in the blogosphere, including the ones "on the other side."

Say hello to The DAILY WHIRL--bringing you the latest posts from top legal blogs and legal news sites on one page--You can pick your own favorites to display: How Appealing, SCOTUSblog, Ignatz, Volokh, TalkLeft and lots more. You can choose law blogs, law news or both. If your blog or your favorite blog or news site is not listed, they are accepting recommendations.

We want to extend a warm welcome to our international readers. In recent weeks, there has been an increasing number of comments posted on TalkLeft by readers who are from other countries and for whom English is either a second language or one they are struggling to learn.

Writing in a language other than one's own is hard. Some of these commenters have expressed concern that we will think they are dumb because they do not write in fluent English and make spelling and grammar errors.

We appreciate these readers and their comments. We are flattered that they take the time to express their thoughts here. We would ask our U.S. readers (still about 80% of you) not to chide them for their poor grammar or spelling. If you disagree with their ideas, by all means say so, but please don't discourage them from reading or posting comments. Diversity is great.

Media Horse is back from vacation.

David Neiwert at Orcinus covers increasing threats to anti-war protesters.

Dr. Helen Smith's documentary, Sixes, 6ixes, sixes , on a famous Tennessee case involving juvenile murderers is out with a good review. Dr. Smith is married to Instapundit. At least someone is looking at why these crimes occur instead of just calling for more punishment.

Alternet has an article about Justice in Tulia. [link via Cursor]

Eric Alterman has a new Nation column on Jews and dual-loyalties.

Arthur at Light of Reason on the increased lifting of restrictions on police surveillance.

Atrios is incensed by the news that an Army Chaplain is offering baths to soldiers if they will agree to be baptised. Calpundit is mad about it too, as is Matt Yglesias. Add us to the list.

Sean-Paul Kelley of The Agonist isn't blogging today because...he's getting married. But he promises to be back with his minute by minute war news tomorrow. Jay is filling in for him today. Talk about blogger dedication!

Eric at The Hamster has the full text of an Arab News editorial warning that our conduct in Iraq is likely to create 100 Bin Ladens. Eric then sends us to American Prospect where James Galbraith explains why liberals must continue to oppose the war. And don't miss Eric's own thoughts on Republican hypocrisy on the affirmative action issue.

Howard Bashman of How Appealing has all the news on the Supreme Court oral arguments in the race cases. The transcripts of the oral arguments are here and here. He also covers the Senate's confirmation Tuesday of Timothy M. Tymkovich to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The vote was 58-41. Joe Lieberman was a no show. Senator Leahy's statement is here. Howard says there will be another cloture hearing Wednesday on the Miguel Estrada nomination.

Skippy has a rant on secret arrests and nazi's-- and Bush and concentration camps.

Gary Hart updates his weblog with his thoughts on America's role in the world.

Avedon Carol of Sideshow has started a media blog (with help from Lisa English of Ruminate This) on the degradation of our airwaves. Avedon is having some surgery, we wish her well, and she will be posting at her emergency blog for the time being.

It's National Make Fun of the Cheney's day over at Rittenhouse, Neal Pollack and TBOGG (scroll down).

David Neiwert of Orcinus covers the War on Dissent.

Atrios has been so generous with his links, we hope you will buy him a present.

As for us, we should be finally settled at Corner Host, our new home, sometime tomorrow. We've managed 7,000 visitors both Monday and Tuesday despite the disruption of the move, so thanks to all of you for your patience.

We are almost done with our move to a new hosting company. Right now there are still a few glitches, but it should be smooth sailing by tomorrow or the next day. It has been difficult for us since Sunday, when the site went down and we made the decision to switch, as we've cotninued to write new posts, read the comments and email , stay on top of the news of both war and crime issues, and at the same time, try to remember all of the site peculiarities to relay them to the new hosting company. Not to mention, put in full days at work.

So please bear with us a little longer, and excuse any dead links should you run across one. If you run across something that doesn't work right, send us an email, talkleft@aol.com.

TalkLeft is moving to a new server to accomodate our increased traffic. We were down Sunday and hope to be operational today, although there could be a glitch or two from the move. Thanks for your patience. CrimeLynx is moving to the new server as well.

Also, thanks to those of you who chipped in through our Paypal and Amazon links on the left. If you haven't yet, and would like to, all contributions, even small ones, are welcome and much appreciated. Amazon donations are anonymous, Paypal lets us know your name and email address.