If you didn't make it to Netroots Nation this year, you can watch many of the events live, beginning tomorrow. The agenda is here.

You can watch all of the action (or at least all of our keynotes and panels) at netrootsnation.org, courtesy of ustream.tv.

The wonderful crew at 5 Steps Forward Media will film all Friday, Saturday and Sunday sessions happening in Exhibit Hall 4, Ballroom E, Ballroom F, Room 12, Ballroom G, and Room 12. We'll be building and promoting a fully-searchable video archive in the weeks following the convention.

One not to miss: Air America's Sam Seder interviewing former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, who is in Austin (with permission of the Court as he is out on an appeal bond.) The live stream link is here, you have to send them your e-mail address and they'll send you back the show link with a password. [More...]

I do not know if the Big Dog is fired up, but he is ready to go for Obama:

"I told him that whenever he wanted me to do it, I was ready, and so it's basically on their timetable," Clinton said. "He's got a lot of things to do between now and the convention, of which this is simply one, so I'll do whatever I'm asked to do, whenever I can do it."

Quite frankly, it is on Obama now how and when Bill Clinton campaigns for him - which I took to be Bill Clinton's message.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Today, Speaker Pelosi joined Senators Clinton and Murray condemning the Bush Administration's proposed new Department of HHS regulations regarding contraceptive services. Yesterday, Senators Clinton and Murray wrote:

Bump and Update: The ACLU weighs in:

"Hamdan's trial, like those of other Guantánamo detainees accused of war crimes, should take place in an ordinary federal court or in a traditional military court. The Guantánamo military commissions allow the government to rely on evidence that the defendant never sees, on hearsay, and on evidence obtained through torture. The commissions are completely inconsistent with the Constitution and should be shut down."

A U.S. District Court judge today denied a continuance request for Salim Hamdan, former driver to Osama bin Laden.

His trial, the first military tribunal trial of a Guantanamo detainee, will begin as scheduled Monday. The judge in that proceeding also has rejected continuance requests.[More...]

A new Justice Department report on conditions at the Cook County jail in Chicago finds the conditions at the jail deplorable.

Cook County Jail does not meet minimum constitutional standards and routinely puts inmates at serious risk, U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said Thursday at a news conference following the release of a scathing Justice Department report on the facility.

The jail falls well short of basic standards, Fitzgerald said, and inmates have been subjected to violence and poor medical care as a result. Among the chief concerns is that the jail fails to protect inmates against beatings, both by corrections officers and other prisoners.

Fitzgerald said "some guards have engaged in organized reprisals against inmates who insult them." Also,

Health care also is a serious problem, the Justice Department found. The report cited an example of an inmate who contracted sepsis from an untreated gunshot wound and died. Another had to have a limb amputated.

Go to jail, lose a limb or die? America. Prison Nation. [More...]

Maricopa County (Phoenix, AZ) Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who instituted such ridiculous shaming punishments as forcing male inmates to wear pink underwear, making juveniles serve on chain gangs and bury the dead, and requiring inmates to sleep in tents, is the subject of a new class action lawsuit by the ACLU and others for racial profiling of Latinos.

The suit alleges Arpaio has been conducting "crime suppression sweeps" of Latinos in an effort to enforce federal immigration laws.

Claiming authority under a limited agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE that actually prohibits the practices challenged here, Defendants have launched a series of massive so-called "crime suppression sweeps" that show a law enforcement agency operating well beyond the bounds of the law.

More...

The Netroots is meeting in Austin the next few days. I will not be there. But if I was, I would talk about what Markos said:

“I’m positioning myself, at DailyKos, which isn’t the broader netroots, to not be carrying water for anybody,” he said. “We’ll work to keep our party honest. We’re not going to pretend that just because he’s Barack Obama, his actions aren’t sometimes problematic. But that doesn’t mean we’re abandoning him or that we won’t vote for him. That’s ludicrous.”

And I would discuss this approach to accountability:

A good fundraising month for Obama:

Senator Barack Obama raised $52 million in June, his campaign announced on Thursday morning, more than twice the amount he raised one month earlier before claiming the Democratic presidential nomination.

. . . Last week, Senator John McCain announced that he had raised $22 million in June, which was the best fund-raising month of his campaign. So while Mr. Obama’s $52 million haul is significantly higher, he also faces a bigger fund-raising burden because of his decision to not accept public financing. . . . . [Obama] . . . has set a goal of raising $200 to $300 million for their general election effort.

More . . .

Rolling Stone guitarist Ronnie Wood has entered rehab for an alcohol problem. Video here.

We wish him a successful program. Relapse isn't fun for anyone.

This is another open thread.

The House has passed another useful bill for Senate Republicans to filibuster.

The bill, which passed on a voice vote, would block two-thirds of the federal covert operations budget until each member of the congressional intelligence committees is briefed on all secret operations under way. Panel members also would be granted access to any other details necessary to assess the value of intelligence operations.

If this refreshing concept of congressional oversight were somehow to make it past Senate Republicans, the president will make sure to crush it.

The White House has threatened to veto the bill because it says it would go too far and infringe upon the president's right to protect intelligence.

Protect intelligence? From our elected representatives in Congress? Is the president worried that they'll drop the intelligence and break it? Accidentally feed it into the paper shredder? Where in the Constitution does the president find a right to protect the entire executive branch from oversight? [more ...]

I do not know where everyone is and I have no idea what is going on in the world. So fill me in. This is an Open Thread.

I like this quote from our friend Markos:

“I’m positioning myself, at DailyKos, which isn’t the broader netroots, to not be carrying water for anybody,” he said. “We’ll work to keep our party honest. We’re not going to pretend that just because he’s Barack Obama, his actions aren’t sometimes problematic. But that doesn’t mean we’re abandoning him or that we won’t vote for him. That’s ludicrous.”