[UPDATE: I changed the title of this post from "Tea Party Nation bans Rachel Maddow seven minutes after she joined; no dissent will be tolerated!" to the present because Maddow says the person who they banned wasn't her: link. I assumed that Teaparty Nation had verified it was her either by doing a reverse DNS or through direct communication. Either they didn't do that, or - as Maddow says - this is just an attempt to get publicity. In either case they don't look too good and me either for not confirming it.]

Tea Party Nation sent out the following email today. They're the group that will be holding their first national convention in February featuring Sarah Palin. The email is entitled "Liberal Troll Alert!"

Please be advised that over the coming weeks, as the National Tea Party Convention draws near, we will in all likelihood be invaded by liberal trolls looking to disrupt the site.

Rachel Maddow joined this morning and we banned her 7 minutes after she joined. I have little doubt she will mention this on her show.

Per our FAQ's:

Note to Prospective Liberal Trolls: TPN does not tolerate liberal trolls. If your sole purpose is to join this site in order to disrupt the flow of constructive dialogue against liberalism, you will find your time here very short. You can and will be banned for being a liberal. If you wish to debate the virtues of liberalism (as though there were such a thing), there are many other sites on the web who will tolerate you. TPN is not one of those sites.

One possibility they aren't allowing for is "trolls" who would do things in a smarter, subtler way: nudging them just slightly even more to the fringe. Or, encouraging them to do things in an even dumber way than they're doing already. Those would be almost impossible to detect.