The mission and direction of the blog is not so much to criticize, but rather to educate the public and encourage them to lobby our elected officials for change. For TalkLeft, that will be as necessary with a Democrat in office as it was with a Republican.

When we get a President who vows to impose a moratorium on executions, close Guantanamo, and try accused terrorists under the Code of Military Justice or in federal courts, who pushes Congress to abolish mandatory minimum sentences, put a lockbox on social security benefits and provide mandatory health care, including affordable and compassionate nursing home care for the elderly, and who has ended the war in Iraq and promised not to get us into other wars preemptively or under false pretenses, then TalkLeft's mission will be accomplished and I'll start a travel or food blog.

Obviously, we're not there yet, so TalkLeft will soldier on. Thankfully, we have Big Tent Democrat, TChris and Ethan Brown, whose unique perspectives add so much to the site. I'm also very grateful to C.H., our anonymous "man in Hollywood" for the more than 100 graphics (viewable here and here) he's created exclusively for TalkLeft over the years.

I'd also like to thank our readers and commenters who have kept TalkLeft a lively place to congregate over the years. We've had over 30 million visitors and 60 million page views.

It's no secret that independent bloggers are being over-run by corporate media -- or that writing and maintaining even a blog of modest size like this one takes a lot of time and hundreds of dollars every month.

It has always been important to me that TalkLeft remains civil in tone. I will continue to spend the time necessary to weed out the drive-bys and blog-cloggers who come here not to have a reasonable debate but to slam and insult our readers or try to hijack or dominate the discussion.

If you appreciate our coverage, or just want to buy us a birthday drink, here is the the paypal link, it's very easy (and takes credit cards even if you don't have a paypal account.)

Once again, thanks to every one of you who have read a page, posted a comment, given us a news tip, linked to TalkLeft, donated dollars and befriended us. You've made it all worthwhile.