Kevin Drum points us to this very interesting James Fallows article about the Presidential debates and while Fallows, as always, writes a great insightful article about the debates, he ignores the elephant in the room - the Media's hatred of Hillary Clinton. I think there are two particularly revealing excerpts of the article that demonstrate what Fallows ignores - the Media's persistent, unfair and grinding attacks on Hillary Clinton (which also translated into open rooting for Barack Obama). The first Kevin highlights:

When I'd seen this final [ABC] debate in real time, I'd been outraged by its harsh tone and belated attention to policy matters (including Gibson's little lecture to the candidates on why capital-gains tax cuts always paid for themselves). When I saw its place in the series, I realized it was like a late episode of The Sopranos in which nearly everyone gets mowed down. It was violent and dehumanizing, but it was the culmination of a long process.

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Amnesty International will be bringing its Experience Guantanamo Cell Tours to Denver for the Convention.

Visit a Replica of a Guantanamo Prison Cell in Denver, Aug 24 - 26, to coincide with the Democratic National Convention

Urge the U.S. government to do the right thing: stop torture, charge detainees and give them fair trials or release them, and close Guantánamo.

Where: City of Cuernavaca Park, 20th street and Little Raven (across from the skate park); Denver, CO

More about the cell tours here. You can also volunteer.[More...]

Via the Denver Post, Hillary Clinton supporters will have two days of events celebrating her achievements.

• Aug. 25: Clinton supporters will gather at Confluence Park
• August 26: The Clinton parade march from 11:45 to 12:30pm, along the convention center parade route.
• August 26: Afternoon and evening: Cheeseman Park

The organizers stress the events are intended to promote party unity. Also,

..... the events are meant to be positive, to acknowledge Clinton's achievements and to celebrate women's suffrage.

The Denver Post reports Sen. Ken Salazar will speak Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention, but he isn't the Veep pick.

Who's left? According to the Post, only those without a speaking slot at the Convention. That includes:

• Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine,
• New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson,
• Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana,
• Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and
• former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn.

What about General Wesley Clark?

Statement from the Obama and Clinton Press Offices August 14, 2008

Since June, Senators Obama and Clinton have been working together to ensure a Democratic victory this November. They are both committed to winning back the White House and to to ensuring that the voices of all 35 million people who participated in this historic primary election are respected and heard in Denver. To honor and celebrate these voices and votes, both Senator Obama's and Senator Clinton's names will be placed in nomination.

The NYTimes Editorial Board appears to be living is some fantasy world about American power over Russia in the Caucasus. Today they write:

Europe and the United States must make clear to Mr. Medvedev — and the real power player, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — that more aggression and lies will not be tolerated. They must make clear that Russia will pay a price, in diplomatic standing and economic relations, if it does not immediately withdraw its troops, agree to international mediation and permit the deployment of truly neutral international peacekeepers to Georgia’s breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

What price is the NYTimes proposing be paid exactly by Russia in terms of "standing?" Every day that Russia is seen as "defying" the Bush Administration is a day Russia's "standing" rises. That explains why today's New York Times front page reports:

Denver police officials have released more details on the warehouse detention facility that has been built to hold arrestees should there be mass protester arrests at the Democratic convention.

The arrest-processing center will operate from Aug. 24 to 31 and will be able to detain up to 400 people for short periods of time. The facility also will be able to process about 60 prisoners an hour.

It is expected that those arrested will only be held there for a few hours before being bused to their next stop: the courthouse.

There are a few wrinkles with this plan protesters should be forewarned about. [More...]

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, indicted for perjury in a text-messaging sex scandal, was arrested last week and jailed for a bond violation. He had traveled to a business event in Canada. The next day he was charged with additional offenses.

Monday, over objections of prosecutors, the Judge modified his bond conditions to toss the home monitoring (ankle bracelet) condition and allow him to come to Denver for the Democratic National Covention.

Prosecutors may appeal. Kilpatrick's lawyer is the excellent James Thomas of Detroit, a long time TL pal.

Ticket notification begins today for those who applied for "community credentials" to attend Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech Thursday night at Invesco Field.

Details for picking up your tickets are here.

If you offered to volunteer for the campaign and already put in your hours, you're a shoo-in:

Obama supporters who agreed to volunteer for the candidate when they signed up for credentials — and actually fulfilled their promises — can rest easier, knowing they are set to receive "all-star volunteer seats" closer than other spectators, the campaign announced Wednesday.

As to those who signed up online without clicking the volunteer box, it's first-come, first-serve. More than 80,000 applied for 30,000 slots.

Earlier this week, Adam Liptak wrote about the downside of allowing opposing litigants to select their own paid experts to render opinions as trial witnesses. He discussed the Australian concept of "hot tubbing," where the litigants' experts "testify together at trial — discussing the case, asking each other questions, responding to inquiries from the judge and the lawyers, finding common ground and sharpening the open issues," and the practice prevalent in Europe, where "expert witnesses are selected by judges and are meant to be neutral and independent."

In criminal cases, as Radley Balko and Roger Koppl discussed in a Slate article yesterday, experts who are paid "charlatans are only half the story." [More ...]

A manslaughter charge filed against a former Louisiana police officer follows a coroner's ruling that Baron Pikes' death was a homicide.

Pikes was shocked nine times with a 50,000-volt Taser as he was arrested on a drug possession warrant in January, authorities said. Winn Parish District Attorney Chris Nevils said [Scott] Nugent broke the law when he "unnecessarily" used the Taser on Pikes multiple times and failed to get him medical attention "when it was apparent he needed it."

Nevils' attitude is refreshing:

"In a civilized society, abuse by those who are given great authority cannot be tolerated," Nevils said in a statement.

Whether you are watching the Olympics as I am or want to talk about what you had for dinner or anything else, here's an open thread.

I'm also going to work on my Facebook and Twitter pages and widgets for instant updates of convention happenings.

I'm going to stop following bloggers and journalists on Twitter who use it only to upload every one of their posts. It clutters my inbox and I want to know what they are doing, not writing. I can check their blog for their blogposts. I wish bloggers would get a second twitter page for readers who want to read their blog via Twitter.

Facebook update below: