For those of you wondering what happened to Eric Alterman's new bookmarked links on Altercation (the old ones are showing as we write this), MSNBC is on top of it. They are busy working on the problem and the new list will be restored as soon as possible. Just a technical snafu, no one has been deleted.

While you are waiting, we recommend you read Eric's new Nation column Devil in the Blue Dress (about she who recently wrote a best-selling book) here's one quote:

"Is looking like an anorexic Farrah Fawcett and wearing skirts so short they lack the dignity and reserve of Monica Lewinsky's thong enough to insure the embrace of the national entertainment state no matter what you say, just so long as your murderous bile is directed at "liberals"? Would it have worked for Saddam if he wore a size 6?"

and weigh in on the debate on Altercation between Eric and Instapundit over Sweden, Holland and Mississippi--

and check the "Slacker Friday" mail--it has the responses to the battle last week between Eric and Alexander Cockburn of Counterpunch.

Update: It looks to us like Eric's Altercation page has been fixed. Please let us know if your page was there earlier in the week and now seems to be gone. Or if you are having other troubles with a link.

Thanks to fellow lawyer/blogger Sam Heldman for this compliment to TalkLeft: "I love reading all the people on the left-hand side of this page. But this morning I am especially loving TalkLeft because the site is chock-full of actual information and factual support for their opinions."

Sam is a left-leaning blogger and labor lawyer in Alabama who writes on law and politics and we enjoy reading him.

Instapundit today highlights a new law enforcement weblog called Guardman. We took a look, and were not thrilled to learn the following about those who post comments on blogs:

"When you post a comment, you should keep in mind that IP addresses are recorded and if there is any question that a comment is in any way illegal (remember, harassment and stalking statutes are very broad in some states) this information may be used by a subpoena-wielding, irate police management type, to track down the author of the comment. Trust me, it can be done. And, it is done all the time. You might be surprised at how easy it is to track down 'anonymous' posters when necessary. "

The links contest is over and the new bookmarks are up on Eric Alterman's great blog Altercation

TalkLeft is proud to have had a hand in the selection.

American Lawyer today profiles law professor and weblogger extraordinaire Glenn Reynolds, known to bloggers everywhere as Instapundit.

This being Labor Day, we want to take a moment and praise some blogs whose authors labor long and hard at creating informative, interesting and original material and whose work we not only read regularly but look forward to reading.

We also want to thank these blogs for their praise for TalkLeft. Many of them write on some of the same topics we do--and often agree with our point of view (and vice-versa.)

First up come the incredibly industrious and prolific Instapundit, also known as Law Professor Glenn Reynolds, and the up-to-the minute Eric Alterman of Altercation. We especially appreciate the variety of topics they write about--you never know what the topic is going to be but it always turns out to be a good one. Through their frequent mentions of TalkLeft, we have been able to reach so many more of you than we would have on our own.

The same goes for Cursor, Rittenhouse Review, Hamster, Atrios/Eschaton and Howard Bashman's How Appealing.

We also can't say enough good things about MaxSpeak, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (and his post about TalkLeft), Ruminate This (her post about Talkleft), Mattew Yglesias, Let It Begin Here , The Poor Man (and his praise for TalkLeft), Cooped Up , Lean Left and Jason Rylander. And although no one could ever call him a liberal, we appreciate Stephen Greene of Vodkapundit and his early support of TalkLeft, and would remind him that we are still waiting to buy him and his bride Melissa a drink on their next trip to Denver (all of 60 miles from his home in Colorado Springs.)

And for the blog most important to our very existence, we want to thank Daily Kos, who not only is an original thinker and excellent writer as is evident from his famously astute and oft-quoted blog, but who also contributed so many hours of his valuable time re-designing TalkLeft.

Now we are going to take a few hours off. Please, go read these folks. If you haven't already, you don't know what you're missing.

Thanks to Skippy for pointing out that TalkLeft is listed in the political blog section of the Guardian Weblog Page.

And congrats to his great blog Skippy the Bush Kangaroo for receiving a place in the Guardian's "world wide blog" section.

Thanks to the incredible amount of hard work and long hours contributed by DailyKos, we are transforming the TalkLeft weblog today. It will have a new look and new content--and the blog and the home page will be one and the same.

There will be a redirect link on the current blog url as well as the TalkLeft Today page, so you don't need to update your link list yet, but soon, please change your link to us to to simply www.talkleft.com

The other sections of TalkLeft (crime policy, injustices, politics and legislation and media) have also been redone to fit the new look and will be accessible on the blog page.

And of course, our unique newsfeed from our sister site Crimelynx will continue to appear on the left side of the blog, updated several times a day with hand-selected news and opinion articles.

Other talkleft pages (the forums and 2000-2001 archives) will be accessible on CrimeLynx.

Hopefully there will be no glitches, but if there are, please be patient and keep checking back.

And thanks again to DailyKos who has a particularly insightful political blog that has been really gaining steam lately, with Hamster, Cursor and others quoting directly from his writings.

Instapundit's first blog appeared one year ago today. Amazing, when you think of how many hits the site gets.

His first blog is very good, we agreed with four posts--those on the Amiral witchunt trials in Mass., the FBI overstepping its bounds in using informants to murder, the drug war being a failure and the need for FBI reform (prompted by a judge's decision allowing one of the Ruby Ridge agents to be prosecuted for murder.)

Happy Birthday Instapundit!

We've made the move from Blogger Pro to Movable Type. We hope you like it as much as we do. Once again, thanks to Daily Kos for the hours he spent helping build the page and for his invaluable technical assistance.

You can now post comments directly in response to any post. Recent posts are on the right, as are categories of all of our 125 posts to date and monthly archives.

There is also an xml feed that many of you have been asking for.

Let us know what you think, either here or by e-mail.

In other site news, we are pleased to report that Howard Bashman of the excellent appellate-law blog How Appealing has added TalkLeft to its list of "Especially Appealing" blogs.

Thanks to Jason Rylander for his exceptionally nice compliment on our coverage of the Moussaoui attempted plea news yesterday, "Talk Left owns this story and is correcting lots of media mistakes on court process and pleas -- head over there for detailed news."

Over the weekend we will be making the transition from Blogger to Movable Type. We're not expecting down-time, especially since the incredibly web savvy Daily Kos volunteered to help us with it --but if we do, just know we'll be back up asap.

Instapundit is a Prince. His recent mentions of us have resulted in over 1,000 hits since yesterday--and he's on vacation! Thanks to Jason Rylander for his very complimentary mention of our site. We are adding his blog to our favorites on TalkLeft today. Also thanks to Dan Dodson, Media Affairs Director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers for alerting members to us on the Criminal Justice reporters list-serv he subscribes to. For last week, thanks to Vodka Pundit for a very big number of referral hits.