The Hollywood Writers Strike will start Monday.

There will be a "last ditch" effort to avoid the strike Sunday when both sides meet with a federal mediator.

On one side: "CBS Corp.; NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; and The Walt Disney Co., owner of the ABC network." On the other: Writers Guild of America.

First casualties, probably Monday night: the late-night talk shows, from Leno and Letterman to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. All are expected to go to repeats.

After that: Day time talk shows and the soaps.

What the writers are fighting for: a fair share of the profits from dvd sales and internet programming.

What to do instead of watching tv? Read more blogs. Support the writers.

More here.

Update: More on juvenile Tate in the news today here and more thoughts below the fold.

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At 4:00 am this morning, hours before he was to face U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch for sentencing in a fraud case, banker Edward P. Mattar, III took a sledge hammer and knocked out a window in his 27th floor apartment, two blocks from Denver’s federal courthouse, and jumped to his death.

A few hours later, 20 miles away in Golden, Colorado, 19-year-old Nathan Quinn Tate faced a state court judge for sentencing following a jury verdict of guilty of first degree murder. His defense to the killing of his friends’ father, who had surprised the pair during a burglary of the father’s residence, was insanity, but the jury didn’t accept that. Nathan Tate was 16 at the time of the murder. The Judge imposed the sentence required by law in Colorado for first degree murder: Life without the possibility of parole.

Two lives lost to the criminal justice system, one to suicide, one to a sentence of life in prison. Surely there must be a better way.

(cross-posted at 5280.com)

Right now, HBO -- Bill Maher, has Markos of Daily Kos and Joe and Valerie Wilson on.

Markos: Hillary didn't do bad in the debate, she just wasn't perfect as she had been in earlier ones. The media just wants a horse race.

Maher: The Republicans are making immigration the "bogeyman" of the election.

Martin Short and Allison Stewart are on too. The Wilsons' segment is over. Did anyone see it?

Some seem to like this type of campaigning. I think it is abhorrent:

While Rudy Giuliani may embrace Hillary Clinton's policy of not talking and saber rattling towards Iran, Barack Obama knows that policy is not working.

What can one say now. The Obama campaign is simply telling falsehoods now. I'll say this, Obama has certainly seen the light, he won't be ushering in a New Era of Politics after all.

This is gutter stuff. h/t Adam B.

The Edwards ad ripping Hillary has wowed some folks in the blogosphere. I thought it was weak, because it seemed to lack any real substance to it. Matt Yglesias agrees with me:

Substantively, though, I'm not in love with this particular critique of Clinton precisely because it's not a substantive critique.

And it seems Team Edwards agrees:

Edwards campaign sources want to emphasize that Edwards did make a policy argument during the debate . . . but that the MSM isn't interested in policy arguments.

Apparently, neither is a good deal of the Netroots.

An inflammatory title you say? Well, I would like to know whether Schumer and Feinstein believe it is ok to have an AG who does not know that waterboarding is torture? Cuz Mukasey, who they support for AG, does not know that.

I never want to hear Schumer pontificate about anything again. Indeed, with this move, it seems to me that he really has disqualified himself as an observer to listen to on the judiciary committee. Spare us your phony outrage in the future Senator. Your act is over.

Say what you will, give the Clinton campaign professionalism props. After a few days of her campaign, imo, insinuating that gender DID have something to do with the criticisms levelled at her, she now turns a nice phrase denying that:

Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that her status as the Democratic presidential front-runner _ not her gender _ has led her male primary rivals to intensify their criticism of her. "I don't think they're piling on because I'm a woman. I think they're piling on because I'm winning," Clinton told reporters after filing paperwork to appear on the New Hampshire primary ballot.

So Obama, erm, piles on today on this, a mistake imo, and walks into this one. This line also is a winner for Clinton:

"I anticipate it's going to get even hotter, and if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen. I'm very much at home in the kitchen," she said.

Not baking cookies one assumes.

My opinion of Gov. Bill Richardson has just grown by leaps and bounds. He has appointed veteran criminal defense lawyer Charlie Daniels (a real criminal defense lawyer, by the way, who truly believes in and has been passionate about defending the rights of the accused his entire career) to be a Justice on the New Mexico Supreme Court.

Charlie, whom I've known for 15 years or more (along with his wife Randi McGinn, a stellar criminal defense lawyer in her own right), will be sworn in on November 9.

Here's the announcement from the Governor's office (no link, I received it by e-mail.)

TPM reports that Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) will vote no on the AG nomination of Michael Mukasey.

Will Mukasey be defeated in committee? Depends I think on Schumer and Feinstein. Frankly, I have little confidence they will vote against Mukasey. And if they do and Mukasey is defeated in committee? What then? Normally, that would be that. But Harry Reid has been pretty lousy lately so it is possible he will give Mukasey a floor vote where he would almost certainly be confirmed.

Unlike, Ezra, and possibly Atrios, I think it is clear that the Clinton campaign is playing the gender card to some extent. But I think the real question is is she playing it unfairly. As Ezra notes, no reasonable person can doubt that as a woman (as Obama does in different, and, imo, more profound, ways as a African American), Clinton faces unfair challenges as a candidate. Indeed, the entire Hillary Clinton image, as conjured up by Limbaugh and Republicans for 15 years has been wrapped up in her being a bitch; a castrating "devil woman." She is constrained in how she can respond to negative attacks because of this.

That said, this ridiculous "doubletalk" broadside from Edwards, and particularly absurdly from the vacillating Barack Obama, fueled by the absurd Pumpkinhead Russert, is more a function of her being a frontrunner than a woman.

But Hillary opponents beware, I think Hillary's play of the gender card will win this absurd political argument. I was surprised to see Obama jump into the fray. Edwards was doing the dirty work for him. Yet again, Obama makes a political mistake. In my opinion of course.

Via Cosbo, John Edwards continues to pound Hillary Clinton on her "doubletalk" while doing no talking himself on the issue. Where do you stand on the issue Senator Edwards? Are you for or against dirvers licenses for undocumented aliens? What do you think of the Spitzer Plan? At this point, even a little doubletalk on the issue from you would be welcome.

On a related note, I agree with Kos that challenges to the Democratic frontrunner on the issues is not only more than welcome, it is tardy. But make it on the issues. Alleged "doubletalk" is NOT a substantive issue. Here are some examples of issues that I think are substantive:

Why is Senator Clinton not pressing her colleagues to end the Iraq War by not funding it? Why does she continue to falsely claim the Senate needs 60 votes to not fund the Iraq Debacle?

Why did Senator Clinton vote for Kyl-Lieberman? Does she not agree with Senator Dodd that the Bush Administration can not be trusted?

Will Senator Clinton lead on a filibuster of the FISA telco amnesty? Not just vote for filibuster, will she LEAD it?

To name a few examples.

I wrote this piece for the Guardian America's online Comment if Free on the Rightroots. A highlight:

While the liberal blogosphere, or netroots, has had a very rocky transition due to Democrats gaining the majority in Congress, its conservative counterpart, the rightroots, has had a similarly difficult time transitioning from supporting a Republican party in control of Congress to trying to discover a new agenda. Truth be told, the rightroots has been flailing, trying to discover the new kerning scandal while doing the usual cheerleading for President Bush's Iraq debacle. It reached a nadir when senator Mitch McConnell's office sent them on the noxious attack against 12-year-old Graeme Frost and his family on the S-Chip issue.