Join BlogHer.com as we live-blog tonight's second presidential debate of Election 2008. Talk about timing -- the same day that the Dow Jones Industrial average fell 508.39 points, "the blue-chip index's worst five-day point loss ever," reports Cindy Perman, presidential candidates John McCain (R-Az.) and Barack Obama (D-Il.) will answer questions at a town hall meeting in Nashville, Tennessee.

UPDATE: See the bottom of this post for a live-blog of the debate, starting soon... Here we go! In song and in art, the BlogHer-sphere is roiling over tonight's televised debate by the candidates for vice president, Democratic Senator Joe Biden and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Today the BlogHer Network accepted our first paid advertising from a 2008 presidential campaign. At the time of this post, BlogHer.com and about a dozen sites in our publishing network are running an advertisement purchased by Obama for America in support of Democratic presidential nominee and Senator Barack Obama.

We're excited to unveil a new service: The BlogHer Network Search Beta, powered by Lijit.com. BlogHer Network Search is a customized search engine designed to help users easily find great writing by women who blog - on BlogHer.com AND beyond. By default, BlogHer's search will now return results from the many blogs in our publishing network. If you wish only to search the BlogHer.com site, please select "BlogHer.com" to narrow results.

With the news that Lehman Brothers, a firm that survived the American Depression, has filed for the largest Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. history, and Bank of American is buying Merrill Lynch, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed below 11,000 today.