I like very much the look of the site (and if Ken Baer really means it when he says he needs a new section title -- blog title? table title -- I'm still not totally in control of the categories here -- I hope he reconsiders.  "Baer Knuckle Politics" is pretty cool, IMO.

In general:

For a reader just now seeing this whole layout, it is a bit confusing.  There are so many parts to it, and with test content only, it's hard to envision how it'll ultimately work out.  For instance, the "Overheard" part looks like a nifty idea, but I have only the vaguest idea how it will work or what it will do.

Explanations, FAQs, etc:

Overall, the site needs lots more extra pages for explainers and definitions for all these things-- the section definitions; what a reader as opposed to a contributor can and can't do; what the allowed HTML tags do; what a diary is as opposed to a story as opposed to a blog entry as opposed to a table; how the recommendations work (I assume that's planned but not yet up); and most pertinent to me at the moment, what the practical implications are of the choice of items in the drop-down box right here in the "Submit story" page -- "Auto Format," "Plain Text," "HTML Formatted" -- and how does the WYSIWYG part fit into it?

Internal links:

Equally important, there need to be many more one-click internal links on every subsidiary or confirmation page (ie, after posting a comment, should be an obvious link to go back to the page one was at when one decided to post the comment) to site pages, otherwise you can end up wandering around the site for too long trying to find your place.  It should be as easy as possible to explore without getting lost.

For example, although they're probably obvious to Josh and the contributor corps, readers often aren't going to remember what the table title was they just impulsively posted a comment to in order to get back to it and read further down unless there's a "back to XX" link right there after you submit the comment.

Terminology, too:

OK, I just went up to the top and re-read the instructions on this page, and I find it says "If you're submitting a post to one of our discussion areas be sure to pick the most appropriate discussion 'table' from the pull-down menu list below."

In addition to the fact that there is no "pull-down menu list below" on the page I'm at right now, I have no clue how to obey this instruction or really what it means.  Five minutes ago, on impulse, I clicked on something that brought me to this page, headed "Submit Story."  Did I already pick a "discussion table" before I got here?  No idea.  And I no longer have even a guess where this post or "story" is going to appear when I click the "Submit" button I'm sure will show up eventually...

Avoiding reader confusion:

Anyway, as I was nattering on about navigation before I went off on the spur above, the more work I, as a reader, have to do to figure out where I am and what the rules are, the less time I'm going to spend here.  Life's too short.

And for the site administrator, life's too short to have to deal with endless emails from readers who need help figuring out how things work.  The easier you make it for readers to quickly find out what's what on the technical or practical side for themselves, the easier it'll be on the site administrator/s.

Plea in advance to the contributors:

Please, please use paragraph breaks every few sentences.  Reading substantive text on the computer is still tougher than reading it on a paper page, and there's so much to read on the Internet that one needs to be able to skim for interest.  Both skimming and actual reading are much, much easier with shorter paragraphs.

Anticipatory kudos:

This is easily the most complex blog site on the net, and I'm kinda frothing at the mouth to see it up and running and full of good stuff from the super group of writers/thinkers Josh has gathered in. It really looks like it's going to be great fun and full of intellectual nutrition, as well.  "Politics, Ideas and Lots of Caffeine" indeed.  It's a great tag line.