A number of folks have been having problems leaving comments on stories over the holiday weekend. The issue seems to be related to a change TypePad has made in the way they have TypeKey (the OpenID server) configured. (We use their OpenID server to authenticate the comments left here on the Cafe.)
The solution seems to be to clear your “typepad” and “typekey” domain cookies if you’re having problems. (Look under the privacy settings on Firefox or Internet Explorer or “security” if you’re using Safari.) It’s fixed the issue for those of us on the Editorial Board and the Newsteam who were having problems.
Sorry for the inconvenience. We’re working on raising the money we’ll need to make some updates to parts of the blogs, and comments are right near the top of the list.