As some of you may have noticed, TPM was offline and inaccessible for roughly 8 hours starting just before 5 PM on the East Coast this evening. The site was the victim of a massive denial of service (DDOS) attack. Here's what we know about what happened.

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Some reader reaction to the NY-9 special election and what it means:

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A couple of corrective data points on the NY-9 race, where Democrats seemed primed for a big defeat come Tuesday.

I mentioned yesterday how heavily Democratic this district is. That's true in general. There's a 3:1 Democratic to Republican voter registration there. But Obama only won 55 percent of the vote here in 2008, which is relatively low for a NYC district and was actually worse than John Kerry performed there in 2004. So it's not one of those hardcore Democratic havens in the city. That doesn't mean Democrats should lose there, but it does make it somewhat more susceptible to the prevailing political climate.

The second data point comes from a closer look at the polling numbers coming out of the district. Respondents there overwhelmingly think the country is on the wrong track, and Obama's approval ratings are in the tank. "It's hard for Democrats to win open seat races in places where Obama's that unpopular," PPP polling director Tom Jensen tells TPM.

The upshot is that while the Democratic candidate is far from the ideal candidate, it would be a mistake to pin the blame for this loss (if it turns out to be a loss) entirely on him. The district is a better bellwether than I realized, and a loss here would paint a very bleak picture for Democrats going into 2012.

U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) has lost basically her entire campaign warchest in the embezzlement scandal rocking California Democrats.

Pretty amazing interview with one of the first two fighter pilots scrambled after the 9/11 attacks to take down any more airliners coming into the DC air space. The problem? As she tells it, there hadn't been time to arm the fighters.

We've got the mugshots of the 16 alleged "hackivists" arrested in July who the feds claim were involved with the group Anonymous. Take a peek.

Hot new poll out on Tuesday's special election in NY-9: Republican Bob Turner up 50-44 on Democratic state Rep. Dave Weprin 44%.

Another national Dem outfit is going up with a TV ad today to try to salvage this thing.

Newt tells campaign supporters: People ask me if I'm still even running.

Wisconsin state employee gets fired for mocking new state policies to make it harder for people to vote.

Bachmann: Obama insulted Congress by calling us a "circus."

More reaction from TPM Reader MA ...

I loved the start of the speech; it was my favorite part!

I have never seen Obama start a speech like that and I doubt anyone else has either. The Dems didn't really know how to take it. I wasn't sure either. Then I got it: Obama got it! The US is in a crisis situation and Washington needs to get serious about addressing it. Obama's demeanor was serious, focused, angry, and determined. It wasn't Obama being "back"; this was a new face of Obama. This is reelection Obama.

My economic preferences are much more Keynesian than Obama. We could use at least a trillion dollars of spending stimulus right not. But I realize Obama isn't going to do that. So, I wasn't surprised that he proposed a long list of policies that have had a history of bipartisan support. If his bill passes, he wins. If his bill is DOA, he wins. It'd be great to get all of the Senate Dems on board and either let the Senate Republicans kill it or send it over to the House and see what they do with it.

Obama is the best choice out there. Based on his performance tonight, I think he's going to win next November.

Our new TPM2012 site section has been released in beta. And we're using a new commenting system that we're considering for use across the rest of the TPM website. In this post we explain how it works and ask for your feedback.

From TPM Reader RT ...

I don't think it's fair to say that POTUS "got off to a rocky start" because his audience was not initially receptive. I would argue that he is the one who warmed them (especially Dems) to his speech, and he did it by an engaged rhetoric that has been absent since the last election. He was engaged and his rhetoric was sharply focused, using repetition to drive home his themes. He laid responsibility for failure at the feet of congress, emphasized that what he was proposing was nothing radical, and called the GOP on its alternative world view of the ethos of the country. It was a very different speech for him.

From TPM Reader SS ...

Too often, Obama seems to play only one side of himself, either the fiery idealist or the nuts and bolts pragmatist. The result pleases no one. Tonight he brought together the idealism with the pragmatism, and no small amount of fighting words. My hopes are still low that the Republicans will meet him half way, or any way but their highway (unpaved, mind you). But Obama has put them on alert that he's going to press them for action.

So far I'd say the President got off to a slow, rocky start. A skeptical audience not only on the Republican side, which is obvious, but weirdly from the Democrats too. But it's picked up steam and momentum over the last half hour, hitting a few key themes over and over. The speech and delivery have urgency without seeming desperate.

The speech itself isn't that big a thing, it's ephemeral regardless of whether it's great for the president or terrible. But it lays out a roadmap -- both in policy and political terms. The question is how and whether they follow it.

Every last nugget of news from the speech right here at TPMLivewire.

7:08 PM: I'm at least glad, compared to the Stimulus Bill, that they've at least got the branding down a bit better now. This bill is apparently labeled like the the American Jobs Act for Jobs So that Everyone Can Have Jobs. Jobs.

7:19 PM: Sheesh, can't the Democrats clap even?

7:19 PM: Camera just panned on John McCain. Barely realized he was even still in Congress.

7:20 PM: Check out live updates from our reporters up on the Hill at TPMLivewire.

7:22 PM: If I'm not mistaken President Obama just got a stand up clap from Sen. Scott Brown.

7:30 PM: Waiting for the President to scowl at House Republicans and yell "You Lie!"

I'm waiting for Speaker Boehner to call up the President and say sorry, something came up. Can we reschedule?

Live streaming video of President Obama's address to Congress on the jobs crisis. Watch.

The clash between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney over Social Security continued to unfold today. Not only an important issue in its own right, but this is the first real substantive pivot point in the primary race thus far, so it's fascinating politically as well.

Sen. Franken confronts notorious vote fraud bamboozler Hans von Spakovsky at senate hearing on voter suppression.