This is totally cool:

America's first female Supreme Court justice unveiled a videogame project last week to teach children how courts work, saying she wanted to counter partisan criticism that judges are "godless" activists.

Sandra Day O'Connor, 78, who served as U.S. Supreme Court justice from 1981 until her retirement in 2006, said she ... got involved with developing the project called "Our Courts" out of concern over public ignorance about the judiciary and partisan attacks on what should be an independent institution.

Can't argue with this:

She said the only way to preserve an independent judiciary was through public education, which she said was failing to produce citizens with enough knowledge about the three branches of U.S. government -- legislative, executive and judicial.

After kids learn how to steal cars by playing Grand Theft Auto IV, they can learn what happens after a car theft arrest by playing Our Courts.

I'm at Owl Farm, we're getting ready for our yearly NORML drug law defense party. Last Night in Little Rock is here, TChris wasn't able to make it this year. LNILR spoke right after me about roadblocks and search and seizure. My talk was on the new crack cocaine sentencing guideline reductions.

The musicians are just arriving and the caterers are setting up.

Here's an open thread where you can pick the topics.

I won't be around to ban the trolls, so please ignore them or point them out as a site violators. I'll get to cleaning threads tomorrow and we do have a site moderator around.

Obviously, I am thrilled and honored to have Senator Clinton's support. But more than that, I honor her today for the valiant and historic campaign she has run. She shattered barriers on behalf of my daughters and women everywhere, who now know that there are no limits to their dreams. And she inspired millions with her strength, courage and unyielding commitment to the cause of working Americans. Our party and our country are stronger because of the work she has done throughout her life, and I'm a better candidate for having had the privilege of competing with her in this campaign. No one knows better than Senator Clinton how desperately America and the American people need change, and I know she will continue to be in the forefront of that battle this fall and for years to come.

A transcript of Hillary Clinton's speech.

By Big Tent Democrat

Dateline: Aspen. I was able to hear the last ten minutes of Hillary Clinton's speech.

I thought she was great. As one of her supporters, I am going to honor her wishes. She could not have been more clear.

Sen. Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee. The 18 million people who voted for her should now enthusiastically support Sen. Barack Obama.

Even if you thought Hillary was the better candidate for President, she is no longer in the race. That is not going to happen.

What matters now is that we put a Democrat back in the White House. We must all work for that. The alternative , a John McCain presidency, is simply unacceptable.

The race is over. Let's get past it and look forward.

I'm past it. I thank Hillary for her commitment, her resolve and her passion. She inspired millions of us. She will continue to inspire, lead and work to improve our lives -- just not as President.

TalkLeft is proud to now officially declare, "Barack Obama in 2008." He has our full support.

Update Below:

Hillary Clinton did something that is very difficult in my opinion, she made a great speech out of a concession endorsement speech. Why?

Because she conceded nothing on the issues nor in any way discounted what she and her supporters accomplished. And then she endorsed him, but the endorsement was not the standard stump endorsement. It was an intelligent, rational, respectful argument to her supporters for why she was endorsing Barack Obama. she would speak to the issues and punctuate her line with "and that is why we must elect Barack Obama President."

She then recognized the historic nature of this election. As I wrote last Tuesday night, while a dream was realized when the Democratic Party nominated an African American as our Presidential candidate, a dream was thwarted also, that of a woman nominee. Hillary Clinton honored BOTH moments in this speech.

It was one of the best speeches I have ever seen.

Hillary Clinton will be arriving momentarily to deliver her speech celebrating her campaign for President and to endorse Barack Obama. The live blog will be below the fold.

By Big Tent Democrat

Delay in ETA of Clinton speech.

Ok, I am watching the coverage and well, it is pretty blah blah blah. I just find it banal, not even offensive.

I'll update this piece as more thoughts come to me. Add your thoughts on the Media coverage below.

Zfran points us to this column by the LATimes media critic Howard Rosenberg that takes Keith Olbermann to task. So far today, Olbermann has been quite understated, for him. I wonder if he read it?

Oh, and Democrats and Barack Obama should have made a DIFFERENT Democrat than Donna Brazile available to CNN this morning. Just looking at her on TV hurts unity. Indeed, I think one of the things the Obama campaign MAY want to consider is asking Ms. Brazile to stay away from TV during the Fall campaign.

More . . .

Todd Beeton has a report on Chelsea Clinton's speech to the Texas Democratic Party:

"My mother wanted me to be very clear - we are going to [be] united," Chelsea told Texas Democrats. Her mother, she noted, will be endorsing her formal rival tomorrow. Hillary Clinton will reaffirm "her life-long commitment to support and elect Democrats and Sen. Obama in November," the younger Clinton said.

This is an Open Thread.

On Wednesday, Roger Simon of Politico:

. . . Obama is not, one of his senior advisers assured me Tuesday night, going to spend a lot of time in the next few months wooing Clinton supporters whose feelings may be hurting.

I wrote in response "So it turns out the Obama campaign has some not too smart people on his campaign too. Expect a swift rebuke from Axelrod over this."

More . . .

Sexism:

Now that a would-be first female president is ending her quest for the White House, the race is more about women than ever before. . . . Even the Democratic National Committee chairman is avidly trying to make up for accusations that he allowed sexism in the race to pass unchallenged. “The wounds of sexism need to be the subject of a national discussion,” the chairman, Howard Dean, said in an interview. “Many of the most prominent people on TV behaved like middle schoolers” toward Mrs. Clinton.

(Emphasis supplied.) This is true Mr. Chairman. The discussion COULD have come a little earlier. But, better late than never.

BTW, I highly recommend the entire article. Some of our readers are going to enjoy the sudden onslaught of wooing you are going to receive.

By Big Tent Democrat

Let's catch up on the Siegelman case (background collected here). Don Siegelman is free pending appeal of a questionable conviction in a politically motivated prosecution. As TalkLeft noted here, Siegelman filed his appellate brief a couple of weeks ago. This is the first argument heading in Siegelman's brief (pdf):

The prosecution was required to prove an “explicit quid pro quo” agreement on the conspiracy, mail fraud, and bribery charges. The District Court failed to instruct the jury on this point. Furthermore, the evidence was insufficient on this point.

Here's a snippet of an informed analysis of that "powerful and unique" argument:

This is it for me tonight. I'll start live blogging the goings on in Washington regarding Hillary Clinton's speech tomorrow around 9 or 10.

BSG is getting quite freaky if you ask me. But I have to see it through.

Oh and Big Brown goes for the Triple Crown tomorrow in the Belmont. It's been 30 years now since the last Triple Crown winner.

This is an Open Thread.