Bump and Update: Embattled D.A. Mike Nifong, while testifying in his ethics trial today, announced on the stand he is going to resign.

Facing the loss of his law license, a tearful Mike Nifong said Friday he will resign as district attorney, more than a year after he obtained rape indictments against three Duke University lacrosse players who were later declared innocent by state prosecutors. "My community has suffered enough," Nifong said from the witness stand at his ethics trial on allegations that he violated rules of professional conduct in his handling of the case.

You can watch the video of his announcement here.

Why make the announcement now? Perhaps because the trial has gone really badly for him, a decision is expected tomorrow and he's hoping for suspension rather than disbarment. If he admits his mistakes and resigns, perhaps he will avoid disbarment and be able to practice law again one day.

Closing arguments and deliberations are Saturday beginning at 9:00 a.m.

Original Post Below:

You may not care about Paris Hilton and her 23 day jail sentence, but I care about hypocrisy in the criminal justice system.

The L.A. Times reports:

[Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky] Delgadillo had argued that the hotel heiress should spend more time in jail for driving with a suspended license and violating her probation on alcohol-related reckless driving charges. Later that day, Delgadillo acknowledged in response to inquiries from reporters that his wife had been ticketed for failing to obey a right-turn-only sign while driving her personal car with a suspended license in 2005.

Paris was sentenced for a probation violation for driving under suspension while on probation. Mrs. Delgadillo also drove under suspension and committed a traffic offense while doing so. She was not charged with driving under suspension, only the traffic offense, and was fined $186.00.

Mrs. Delgadillo was under suspension for causing a traffic accident and not having insurance. According to California law, the penalty for driving under suspension is a fine between $5,000 and $25,000.00. She also failed to file an accident report.

There's more....

Glenn Greenwald and a recommended dkos diary by Tom Rinaldo again sound the alarm bells about the attempted gin up for a war with Iran. I must raise my previous objections to this line of thinking again -- any war with Iran will use the pretext of Iranian involvement in the Iraq Debacle. Glenn quotes Joe Lieberman's column I noted earlier:

Facts on the ground also compel us to recognize that Iran is doing everything in its power to drive us out of Iraq, including providing substantive support, training and sophisticated explosive devices to insurgents who are murdering American soldiers. Iran has initiated a deadly military confrontation with us, from bases in Iran, which we ignore at our peril, and at the peril of our allies throughout the Middle East.

Lieberman desperately wants a war with Iran but realizes the only way he can have one is by arguing that Iran is attacking our soldiers in Iraq. This central fact must be the lede in every discussion of potential war with Iran.

Joe Lieberman filed his yearly WSJ glowing report on Iraq:

I recently returned from Iraq and four other countries in the Middle East, my first trip to the region since December. In the intervening five months, almost everything about the American war effort in Baghdad has changed, with a new coalition military commander, Gen. David Petraeus; a new U.S. ambassador, Ryan Crocker; the introduction, at last, of new troops; and most important of all, a bold, new counterinsurgency strategy. The question of course is--is it working? Here in Washington, advocates of retreat insist with absolute certainty that it is not, seizing upon every suicide bombing and American casualty as proof positive that the U.S. has failed in Iraq, and that it is time to get out.

Joe does not agree of course.

Taylor Marsh and a host of people say:

There is no doubt that Reid said what he said [that Pace is incompetent]. The question now is, why in the world did Reid let this hang out there all day without confirming it? Since he did the honorable thing and told Pace to his face what he thought of him, why not also confirm to someone, anyone? Also, since Reid believes it why not take the opportunity to also come out and stand by your story strongly at least in a statement? And why sidestep the question at a press conference? Again, the strongest thing to do when you've leveled a charge like this is stand up and stand behind it. Reid's silence all day while the rest of us tried to get to the bottom of this was ridiculous. It makes no sense.

With due respect, I disagree with almost every particular of this analysis. I will explain on the flip.

With all the activity this week, I forgot to do an open thread. Here it is. You pick the topics, we'll all just read along and respond.

It's our 5th blogiversary today. (Yes, as Skippy would say, we coined that phrase.) I'm really amazed. I had no idea when I sat at the computer one weekend in June, 2002 to create TalkLeft that I'd still be doing this five years later. There's no turning back now.

Thanks to all of you who read TalkLeft. You've made the time investment so worthwhile.

A little TalkLeft history for those who are interested, below the fold:

Barack Obama said he was going to avoid negative campaign attacks. However, his campaign just made one against Hillary Clinton.

The New York Times reports that the Clintons recently divested themselves of their stocks held in a blind trust (meaning the stocks were chosen by trustees and they were not allowed to be advised of which stocks they were holding) to avoid any allegations of conflict of interest.

When Hillary became a presidential candidate, regulations required her to dissolve the blind trust so that she would know what stocks she held.

Once she learned what they were, she and Bill decided to liquidate them all, even though by doing so they will have to pay hefty capital gains taxes.

More...

Greg Sargent got it:

REID: Look what this Justice Department has done. And now, with the Surgeon General, we have a man here who has written articles that I think are a little questionable as to in our modern society. He's a medical doctor. And don't worry, he's gonna be looked at very closely.

BLOGGER QUESTION: What's the next step on Gonzales?

REID: Well, I guess the President, he's gotten rid of Pace because he could not get confirmed here in the Senate. Pace is also a yes-man for the President. I told him to his face, I laid it out last time he came in to see me. I told him what an incompetent man I thought he was. But he got rid of his Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, but he still hangs on to this failed Attorney General. And I guess he's gonna [inaudible]. We're gonna keep focusing on it. Every day that goes by, it seems he keeps giving. Now we've learned that the immigration judges are all graduates of Regent University I guess.

In his podcast with Ana Marie Cox, Joe Klein said he does not believe the polls on Iraq. I believe him when he says that. He claims to be a Moderate on Iraq and in order to do that he must disbelieve the polls:

"In your opinion, should the United States withdraw troops from Iraq right away, or should the U.S. begin bringing troops home within the next year, or should troops stay in Iraq for as long as it takes to win the war?"
Withdraw Imm. -- Withdraw W/in Year -- Stay

%25 ------------------- 43 -----------------------26

Joe is with the 26%, as he makes clear in his wish list for the next Presidential agenda:

Joining the 3 bloggers who denied that Sen. Reid called Gens. Petraeus and Pace incompetent, the Americablog bloggers on the call also deny that Reid said it, increasing the pressure on Politico to retract its story or be more forthcoming on its sourcing. As of now, Politico identifies "sources familiar with the interview."

[Edited to remove any speculation on Bob Geiger. As I wrote, I take Bob Geiger at this word that he was not the source. My apologies to Bob. ]

Bump and Update: As expected, Judge Walton denied Scooter Libby's request for an appeal bond and ordered him to report to prison within weeks. Team Libby will immediately appeal. Marcy Wheeler provides analysis of the ruling.

As for the time it will take the D.C. Circuit to decide Libby's appeal of Walton's decision, I can only go by how long my last one took in a different Circuit. The Notice of Appeal was filed on Jan. 18 and the 10th Circuit issued its order upholding the trial court on March 8, about 7 weeks later. I would think the D.C. Circuit might take longer.

This means Libby almost certainly will be designated and ordered to report before the Appeal is decided. So, unless the Circuit Court stays Walton's order pending the outcome of the appeal, which is not likely, or Bush commutes Libby's sentence to probation before his surrender date, Libby will do at least some time in prison.

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Pach at Firedoglake will be live-blogging the Scooter Libby appeal bond hearing. Here's the latest:

More...