The registration door swings open and the turnstiles turn, clicking and counting the hatchlings as they enter.

If you decide to take that momentous step and register, it’s not a bad idea to read all the rules and commit them to memory. The short version:

• Don’t register with a proxy.
• Don’t register with a throwaway email address.
• Don’t register more than one account at a time from the same Internet connection.
• Don’t be a jerk.
• Don’t be a troll.
• Don’t be a sock puppet. Stinky Beaumont hates sock puppets. He will find you. You don’t want Stinky mad at you.
• If you’re registering just to post a dramatic “goodbye cruel world” comment full of insults and drool, don’t waste your time. Nobody’s going to read it. It will be immediately deleted and your account will be blocked.
• Do play nice.

And then everything will be groovy.

UPDATE at 11/19/09 8:19:33 pm:

The door of registration opportunity has slammed shut for the evening.

New York Times writer Danny Hakim reports that Rudy Giuliani has decided not to run for Governor of New York.

Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has decided not to run for governor next year after months of considering a candidacy, according to people who have been told of the decision.

Many Republican leaders had viewed Mr. Giuliani as the strongest potential candidate as voter anger and anti-Albany sentiment have appeared to be swelling.

It remains unclear whether the former mayor is considering any other political race in 2010. Some have urged him to take on Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, who is newly installed in office, has never run statewide and is still introducing herself to voters in some areas. Mr. Giuliani is said to have made no decision about such a race. …

It was not clear what prompted the decision, but the possibility of facing Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, who is quietly planning a run for governor on the Democratic ticket, may not have appealed to Mr. Giuliani, who suffered a bruising defeat in the 2008 Republican presidential primary.

On his front page today, Rush Limbaugh has a prominent link to “Prison Planet,” the website of whacked out conspiracy freakazoid Alex Jones, titled: Algore Photoshops Fake Earth.

And possibly even more ridiculous, Limbaugh says his “official climatologist” is Dr. Roy Spencer — a notorious climate change denier and creationist, who believes “intelligent design” creationism should be taught in schools as if it were science. Dr. Spencer is one of the best examples of the anti-science convergence of climate deniers and creationists.

That’s who Rush Limbaugh’s promoting to millions of people as a reputable expert and global warming “skeptic.”

(Hat tip: Killgore.)

Ron Paul’s bill to audit the Federal Reserve has been approved.

The House Financial Services Committee has approved Rep. Ron Paul’s measure to drastically expand the government’s power to audit the Federal Reserve.

The measure, based on a Paul proposal that has attracted more than 300 co-sponsors, passed, 43-26, as an amendment to a financial reform bill. Florida Democrat and fellow Fed critic Alan Grayson co-sponsored the amendment with Paul and played a leading role drumming up support for it among committee members. The adoption of this amendment is an extraordinary victory for Paul, whose libertarian, anti-Fed leanings have often been dismissed by the political establishment.

Here’s a terrifically weird video for singer Charlotte Gainsbourg’s new song with Beck, directed by Keith Schofield. The iTunes Store has the single; the album comes out early next year.

Oopsie.

Far right New York congressional candidate Doug Hoffman has posted a wacky, paranoid “unconcession” letter at his website; he accuses ACORN and “the unions” of “tampering with democracy,” and the file name of the web page is “stolenelection.html.” Wow. Stop Another Stolen Election!

(Hat tip: Dave Weigel, who points out that ACORN actually had no volunteers in Hoffman’s district.)

And again, Fox News shows old footage of Sarah Palin from the presidential campaign to give the impression that she’s drawing huge crowds on her book tour.

The Swamp reports that heads may roll at Fox over this embarrassing incident.

As we learn more about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, it’s clear that he was throwing off warning signals right and left — but nobody wanted to step up and take action about him until it was too late: Hasan’s Supervisor Warned Army In 2007.

Two years ago, a top psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was so concerned about what he saw as Nidal Hasan’s incompetence and reckless behavior that he put those concerns in writing. NPR has obtained a copy of the memo, the first evaluation that has surfaced from Hasan’s file.

Officials at Walter Reed sent that memo to Fort Hood this year when Hasan was transferred there.

Nevertheless, commanders still assigned Hasan — accused of killing 13 people in a mass shooting at Fort Hood on Nov. 5 — to work with some of the Army’s most troubled and vulnerable soldiers.

On May 17, 2007, Hasan’s supervisor at Walter Reed sent the memo to the Walter Reed credentials committee. It reads, “Memorandum for: Credentials Committee. Subject: CPT Nidal Hasan.” More than a page long, the document warns that: “The Faculty has serious concerns about CPT Hasan’s professionalism and work ethic. … He demonstrates a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism.” It is signed by the chief of psychiatric residents at Walter Reed, Maj. Scott Moran.

When shown the memo, two leading psychiatrists said it was so damning, it might have sunk Hasan’s career if he had applied for a job outside the Army.