I was in court and missed all the news today. Our last open thread is full, so here's another one.

The song: This is an update on my Friday night post: He's free. I'll be back in a little bit after I'm all caught up -- especially with Sen. Ted Stevens' Indictment. What else happened?

The game fixing ex-NBA ref Tim Donaghy was sentenced to 15 months today in federal court in Brooklyn:

Tim Donaghy, the former N.B.A. referee who admitted to betting on games he officiated, was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 months in prison. The sentence delivered by Judge Carol Amon of the United States District Court in Brooklyn was significantly shorter than the 24 to 30 months suggested by federal guidelines. Judge Amon said she wanted to recognize Donaghy’s cooperation, which led to the guilty pleas of two co-defendants, James Battista and Thomas Martino.

. . . “Mr. Donaghy was a central figure in the scheme, and without him, there would have been no scheme,” Judge Amon said. But, she added, “The defendant deserves to receive a benefit for his cooperation, and there is no doubt in this case that he provided substantial cooperation and he should receive a benefit.”

About that cooperation . . .

The Indictment (PDF)

Reuters reporting:

Sen. Ted Stevens from Alaska, the longest serving U.S. Republican senator ever, was indicted on seven counts related to his holding of public office, a federal law enforcement official said Tuesday. The U.S. Justice Department has scheduled a news conference for 1:20 p.m. to make an announcement "regarding a significant criminal matter." The official said the news conference would announce the criminal charges against Stevens that have been returned by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C.

More from the NYTimes:

Mr. Stevens, 84, was indicted on seven counts of falsely reporting income. The charges are related to renovations on his home and to gifts he has received. They arise from an investigation that has been under way for more than a year, in connection with the senator’s relationship with a businessman who oversaw the home-remodeling project.

More . . .

Your turn.

Glenn Greenwald and Ed Kilgore debate the virtues of challenging incumbent Democrats, or as Ed puts it, "settling scores." I think a more basic problem needs to be addressed first, the bizarre penchant of the Netroots to concentrate its resources on electing Dems like Travis Childers and Heath Shuler. Now I have nothing against either of these Dems - they represent the views of their particular districts. My problem is with a so called Progressive Netroots wasting its resources working to elect candidates who basically disagree with their view of what the Democratic Party should be.

I guess, in a way, this puts me in the Kilgore camp, of not being for "score settling" against Dems like Shuler, Childers, Ben Nelson, Gene Taylor and the like. I am for getting "better" Dems in districts that will support better Dems. More . . .

The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune's Swamp are saying the same thing: Obama's veep vetting is focusing most heavily on Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, Joe Biden, and Sen. Evan Bayh.

Problem: If Joe Biden is the nominee, count me out. I couldn't even clap for the ticket.

Other reasons: His saying we may need to rethink the military draft. His inability to cure rampant injustices in his own state, where one of every four prisoners who died in prison since 2000 died of AIDS-related diseases and the states' prisons suffer from an atrocious lack of medical care.

I'm just warming up. I so hope Obama doesn't pick Biden. He is the antithesis of change and the embodiment of your father's Oldsmobile. [More...]

Another flip-flop from John McCain:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain drew a sharp rebuke Monday from conservatives after he signaled an openness to a higher payroll tax for Social Security, contrary to previous vows not to raise taxes of any kind.

Another position changed to mimic a policy advocated by Barack Obama.

Obama has called for imposing a new payroll tax on incomes above $250,000. ... When Obama announced his plan June 13, McCain's top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, told reporters that as president McCain would not consider a payroll tax increase "under any imagineable circumstance."

Perhaps McCain's imagination has improved. But don't worry. McCain will switch back to his original position tomorrow. But he probably won't return to his support for the privatization of social security until later in the week. His policies depend on his mood, apparently. Or on his moment-to-moment sense of what will play to voters.

To balance the budget, Illiniois Governor Rod Blagojevich has vetoed funds earmarked to prevent and correct wrongful convictions:

In a state known for sending innocent people to prison, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has angered prosecutors and defense attorneys alike by vetoing millions of dollars lawmakers set aside to fight wrongful convictions and support sweeping death penalty reforms.

One budget cut eliminated first-time funding for a Downstate advocacy group with several key court victories on behalf of convicted defendants. Another veto blocked funds for videotaping interrogations in murder cases under a law championed by Barack Obama when he was a state lawmaker.

More than $5.5 million approved by lawmakers to prevent or correct wrongful convictions was among the $1.4 billion Blagojevich vetoed this month to bring the state budget in line, according to interviews and a review of budget documents. The vetoes included money to support the reforms he signed five years ago to ensure the integrity of the state's capital punishment process.

I can't help but wonder had Obama, who worked so hard for some of the reforms, been attending to his day job as well as campaigning, whether he might have talked some sense into Blagojevich. These cuts should have been something, even as a Senator no longer in state politics, he fought the Governor tooth and nail on.

Remember the two border agents who shot an unarmed drug dealer at the Mexican border? After their conviction, right wing politicans like Tom Tancredo were outraged at their 11-12 year sentences and introduced a bill (pdf) in Congress to prevent federal funds from being used to incarcerate them. They also clamored for a pardon from President Bush.

Today, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld their senttences and the most serious of counts against them.

The Court said this was a classic he said- he said situation. The Government's facts differed from the border agents' facts, the jury was provided both and chose to believe the Government. As to the sentence, maybe if President Bush doesn't pardon them, those right wing politicians will take a second look at the harshness of mandatory minimum sentences: [More...]

Meteor Blades:

The future is what matters. Another decade or two of allowing the maggots to hollow out the Constitution could make that already dicey future grim indeed. Avoiding it, if that is possible, means, first off, putting away the perfume and inhaling deeply of the stink. Doing so properly requires not the wussy, half-hearted, half-assed, wink-and-a-nod investigation that we’re all-too-familiar with, but a thorough, ruthless, hard-core, full-bore, no-questions-evaded probe that not only digs deep but also goes as far back as needed to get the whole picture, even if that means taking up where Frank Church left off 33 years ago.

What MB said. Read the whole thing. It matters.

Speaking for me only

There is not much I agree with in Kos' post on Obama's potential veep pick. But one part really bothered me - his discussion of Bill Clinton's choice of Al Gore as his running mate. Kos writes:

Bill Clinton had it right, actually -- he bucked conventional wisdom ("must choose a northerner to 'balance out' the ticket") and chose another southern Dem (Al Gore) who reinforced his core message -- that he was a "new" kind of Democrat different from those northern urban elites. And they looked great together.

What Kos seems to forget is Al Gore was an experienced Washington legislator, 8 years in the House and 8 years in the Senate, with his own Presidential run in 1988 under his belt, when Bill Clinton tapped him for VP. To compare Al Gore in 1992 to Claire McCaskill, a first term Senator or Tim Kaine, a first term Governor, is simply ridiculous. Sure, the chemistry was important. Sure, the "new" Democrat message was reinforced. But most importantly, no one thought Al Gore was not qualified to be President. He was a well known commodity -- a respected statesman in his own right in 1992.

Let's compare Gore's 1992 bio to Claire McCaskill and Tim Kaine's today on the flip.

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