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John Edwards has admitted his affair with Rielle Hunter to Charlie Gibson of ABC News but denies he's the father of her child.

In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 42-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.

Elizabeth has known since 2006. [More...]

Life isn't getting any better for Detroit's Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Yesterday he went to jail for violating his bond conditions. Today he was charged "with two felony counts of assaulting or obstructing a police officer" for an incident that occurred on the day after he violated his bond by traveling to Canada without the court's permission.

Moments before Mr. Cox’s announcement, a circuit court judge, Thomas E. Jackson, allowed the mayor to be released from jail after posting a $50,000 cash bond. He also took away the mayor’s travel privileges and ordered him to wear a global-positioning tether.

But Mr. Kilpatrick, 38, who is in his second term as mayor, could soon be headed back to jail, as assault charges would be another bond violation.

The great thing about Paul Krugman, and something bloggers should learn from, he is not afraid to take on other pundits, even those on his own team. Atrios gets the chance to riff off of the Tom Friedman "Suck on This" video yet again because Krugman calls out Friedman. Here is the video:

Here is what Krugman wrote:

I heard a number of people express privately the argument that some influential commentators made publicly — that the war was a good idea, not because Iraq posed a real threat, but because beating up someone in the Middle East, never mind who, would show Muslims that we mean business. In other words, even alleged wise men bought into the idea of macho posturing as policy.

More . . .

A travesty in Baltimore last month is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Mayor Cheye Calvo got home from work, saw a package addressed to his wife on the front porch and brought it inside, putting it on a table.
Suddenly, police with guns drawn kicked in the door and stormed in, shooting to death the couple's two dogs and seizing the unopened package.

In it were 32 pounds of marijuana. But the drugs evidently didn't belong to the couple. Police say the couple appeared to be innocent victims of a scheme by two men to smuggle millions of dollars worth of marijuana by having it delivered to about a half-dozen unsuspecting recipients.

Whoops, never mind.

President Bush and VP Dick Cheney will both speak at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis opening night.

So earlier reports of Cheney being snubbed were either inaccurate or there was a change of heart.

This will be their last hurrah before fading off into oblivion and historical disgrace as the worst, most abusive, intrusive Administration ever.

Good riddance to them. I hope the American people tuning in to watch them realize that by electing John McCain they will be sentencing us all to another four years of the same.

Update: In case, as someone suggested in comments, there are national block parties during the Bush-Cheney speeches where everyone goes outside their house and dances in the street to music, what would your song picks be? Mine are below.

The Denver Post interviewed Hillary supporters on why they believe it's so important to be able to vote for Hillary at the convention. It's not that they are in denial. It's that they want their voices heard. [More...]

I want to join Matt Stoller and the Better Democrats organization in supporting Glenn Greenwald and Jane Hamsher's project Accountability Now. Glenn writes:

[The] core purpose [of Accountability Now] is to change the political calculation so that there is a real price to pay for continuing to support the prevailing agenda of the rotting Beltway class. The question is not which party will control Congress. It is guaranteed that the Democrats will. The question is what they will do with that control. Accountability Now is designed, first and foremost, to change the way that control is exercised by genuinely harming the interests of those responsible for these destructive trends.

This is an activism I can fully support.

Speaking for me only

There is one reason the Democratic Party is in the political ascendancy - the George W. Bush Administration. Let's face it, the Democratic Party is, by and large, craven and toothless. It stands for little and does even less. But they will be swept into complete control of the Presidency and the Congress in November because the Bush Administration has been the worst in the history of the Republic. Today's New York Times offers headlines that remind us this is so.

First, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is promoting a $20 billion plan to double the size of the Afghan military: [More . . .]

Obama's ten day Hawaii vacation begins today, as do the Olympics. The Democratic Convention starts August 25. So Obama's VP announcement will come sometime between the 18th and the 25th. If the Vice President is going to be anything more than an afterthought (and at this point, it seems clear that the Obama camp does not want the Vice Presidential choice to get much attention at all imo), it will have to be early in that 7 day period. Why not just before the Convention? In my opinion, yesterday's events (with Barack Obama shrewdly offering Bill Clinton a Wednesday night speaking spot) made clear that to the degree the Democratic National Convention is not about Barack Obama, it will be about Bill and Hillary Clinton. Because of that, Ann Kornblut makes me chuckle when she writes:

[Wednesday night], officials expect the vice presidential nominee to dominate the stage, along with, potentially, a separate keynote speaker (the role that Obama filled in 2004)

More...

Late Night Denver Convention News:

• Oprah Winfrey has forked over $50k for a house in Denver for convention week.

• Protest groups are appealing yesterday's ruling in their federal lawsuit against the City and County of Denver and the Secret Service. They will file their appeal in the streets of Denver. The ACLU of Denver says it won't appeal the decision.

• How well received was yesterday's announcement that 1/2 the tickets for Obama's acceptance speech will be reserved for Coloradans? 60,000 tickets were requested in 24 hours.

• An E-town concert has been set for August 25 with James Taylor, David Crosby, Graham Nash and Ani DiFranco. Tickets go on sale Thursday, the cost is $50 to $85.

This is an open thread.

Bill Clinton will speak at the Democratic Convention in Denver Wednesday night, before the VP candidate. Wednesday night is also when the balloting takes place.

Sen. Barack Obama is off to Hawaii tomorrow on vacation. That means no VP pick until next week, less than 3 weeks out from the Convention.

There's still no resolution as to whether there will be a roll-coll vote at the convention or whether Hillary will ask for her name to be placed in nomination. Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, in Catharsis in Denver? today writes [More...]:

Do you get the feeling BushCo wants the Hamdan case to just go away? This news should fuel that view:

A military jury gave Osama bin Laden's driver a stunningly lenient sentence on Thursday, making him eligible for release in just five months despite the prosecutors' request for a sentence tough enough to frighten terrorists around the globe. Salim Hamdan's sentence of 5 1/2 years, including five years and a month already served at Guantanamo Bay, fell far short of the 30 years to life that prosecutors wanted. It now goes for mandatory review to a Pentagon official who can shorten the sentence but not extend it.

Here is an issue:

It remains unclear what will happen to Hamdan once his sentence is served, since the U.S. military has said it won't release anyone who still represents a threat.

George Bush won't be President then. Hamdan will be released imo. And the dirty truths will be swept under the rug.