Substitute teacher Julie Amero tells it this way:

A few students were crowded around a PC; some were giggling. She investigated and saw the kids looking at a barrage of graphic, hard-core pornographic pop-ups.

Amero was nonetheless "convicted of impairing the morals of a child and risking injury to a minor by exposing as many as ten seventh-grade students to porn sites." According to the prosecution, Amero accessed the porn sites deliberately. Amero contends that she was the unwitting victim of malware.

The school district (which may have an incentive to throw Amero overboard to avoid broader blame) assures the parents of Norwich that its filtering software is usually impenetrable, at least now that they've paid the bill to keep it updated. A suspicious mind might wonder whether there's a connection between a fellow teacher's support for Amero and her firing for insubordination.

Amero rejected an offer of probation, believing a jury would understand her innocence. Although she faces 40 years, probation is a sufficient sanction given the impact the conviction is likely to have on her career. Amero will be sentenced in March.

Sen. John Kerry has decided not to run for President in 2008. Smart move. The field is already over-crowded.

In the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, 5 percent of Democrats said Kerry was their top choice for the 2008 nomination, and a little more than half -- 51 percent -- did not want him to be the 2008 nominee.

Kerry trailed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who led the field of Democratic preferences with 34 percent; Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, with 18 percent; his 2004 running mate, former Sen. John Edwards, who got 15 percent; and former Vice President Al Gore, the party's 2000 presidential nominee, with 10 percent.

I'm close to concluding that Hillary will be the nominee. She's going to get the big bucks from contributors. She's got a team that is honed to the 9th degree. And, she has Bill.

With the Scooter Libby trial beginning yesterday, I forgot to put up the Tuesday open thread. So here's a Wednesday open thread.

If you've got something to report or talk about besides Libby and SOTU, here's the spot.

I know that PPJ is just dying to talk about whether Joseph Wilson was right or wrong in his criticism of Cheney and the Administration, which really has no bearing on the Libby trial, so that topic is fair game here.

I've got the dentist in the morning followed by court in the afternoon, so check in with Firedoglake and Media Bloggers if you're looking for up to the minute Libby trial coverage.

[I'll be bumping this to the top for a few days. Thanks to all who have contributed, I'll be sending thank you emails soon.]

I'm leaving Denver Sunday to attend and live-blog the Scooter Libby trial Monday and Tuesday (Jan. 29 and 30) in Washington, D.C., with a press pass graciously provided by Firedoglake. I'll be live-blogging on their site and cross-posting here.

I'll be returning to D.C. on Feb. 19 to live-blog the trial Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (Feb. 20-22)with a press pass from MediaBloggers.org

I'm not being paid for my blogging. I will be paying for these trips (not to mention losing seven working days from my day job.)

The travel expenses will amount to about $1,500.00 for both trips. While contributions from everyone who appreciates TalkLeft are welcome, I'm hoping that particularly you lurkers out there who read TalkLeft almost every day but don't comment or usually contribute, will chip in to help me recoup some of the expenses.

If you'd rather donate anonymously, please use Amazon here.

As always, thanks in advance. Your generosity is really appreciated. As an added incentive, the top three donors will get a free TalkLeft 4th Amendment Subway Tote.

For those of you following President Bush's State of the Union address tonight, here's a CBS article with some excerpts and an open thread to discuss it.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is the cabinet member who will sit out in case of a terrorist attack during the speech.

Update: Attytood: Bush to New Orleans, Drop Dead.

There's been lots of blogging coverage of Scooter Libby's first day of trial. In addition to those I mentioned in earlier posts, Christy at Firedoglake who was in the real (not media) courtroom posts this wrap-up.

As to Ted Wells' opening argument, I'm a bit surprised he chose to go after Rove so hard. It leads me to believe Rove won't be a witness. If Libby were to call him, surely he'd be a hostile witness after today's opening. I don't think Ted Wells wants to go mano - a - mano with Rove, not with Fitz backing Rove and Rove not impeachable on grounds he got a deal. There's no evidence Fitzgerald gave Rove anything for his multiple grand jury appearances.

Until today, Wells had a clean defense: Libby forgot and didn't intend to mislead investigators or the grand jury. Wilson's wife was just a speck in the grand scheme of things. Now, he's put Libby in the midst of an alleged frame-up. That's going to be a tough sell to the jury. But, given the Judge's refusal to allow a decent instruction on the principles of memory, maybe Wells needed a backup defense.

But that's not the headline for today. The real headline is much bigger and with far graver consequences to Libby. More below the fold.

Kudos to TalkLeft contributer Last Night in Little Rock (aka John Wesley Hall of Little Rock, AR) for filing a motion challenging Alberto Gonzales' firing of U.S. Attorneys across the country and replacing them with political "appointees" who do not have to be confirmed by the Senate.

Hall was appointed by the court to represent a death penalty defendant last week and filed this motion (pdf) today. He argues that the "appointment" of U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin violates Art. II of the Constitution and Sec. 541 of Title 28 of the U.S. Code.

Why did Gonzales replace U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins with Griffin?

So far, seven U.S. Attorneys around the country have been fired and replaced by political appointees without confirmation by the Senate. The requirement was abolished by a provision in the Patriot Act that allows recess appointments.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched its biggest series of arrests of undocumented residents this week in Los Angeles as part of Operation Return to Sender. 761 people were arrested, most of them at home or in local jails.

The government says most of them were under deportation orders or had previously been deported.

What about the rest of them? How many had merely overstayed a visa or had no prior contact with law enforcement?

Those that were arrested in jail will have to finish serving their sentences before being turned over for deporation. Guess who pays for their incarceration? You, the taxpayer. Why not just deport them now?

If you missed out on Hillary Clinton's live webcast last night, you can participate tonight.

Have a question for the Senator? Log on and ask it.

Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-CA) has introduced the Federal Election Integrity Act (H.R. 101.) It would prohibit chief state election officials from engaging in political activity on behalf of federal candidates over whose elections the officials have supervisory authority.

How would this help? According to Rep. Davis's office (received by e-mail, no link)

This bill would prevent the troubling conflicts of interest that we saw in the cases of Ken Blackwell and Katherine Harris.

Whether the bill gets a hearing or even traction, depends in part on you. If you support it, contact your own member of Congress and ask them to sign on as co-sponsors of H.R. 101.

Empty Wheel is live-blogging part two of Ted Wells' opening statement.

Finally, some news of who got immunity to testify against Libby: Ari Fleischer, for one. Wells told the jury:

When the FBI wanted to talk to Ari, he pled the fifth, refused to testify unless he was immunized. After being immunized he said he had this conversation with Libby.

Here is some TalkLeft background on Ari's involvement in the case, and why he is such a harmful witness to Libby.

Update: Marcy reports (link above) Wells tells the jury Ari leaked to NBC reporter David Gregory.

Ari dislcoses to David Gregory on July 11 that Ambassador Wilson's wife worked at the CIA.

The Innocence Project reports that Roy Brown, the 8th New York prisoner in 13 months, will be freed from prison today because DNA testing has established his innocence.

Roy Brown solved the case from his jail cell.

“This is unlike any case we’ve ever seen. Roy Brown broke the case from his prison cell and confronted the actual perpetrator, who in turn killed himself. The true perpetrator’s courageous daughter then volunteered her own DNA sample, only to have the judge who oversaw Roy’s trial refuse to release him – saying that he had more confidence in the highly questionable practice of ‘bite-mark’ analysis than in the hard science of DNA.

Only after the true perpetrator’s body was exhumed and subjected to DNA testing did prosecutors accept the truth,” said Peter Neufeld, Co-Director of the Innocence Project. “Today, exactly 15 years after he was convicted, the truth has finally set Roy Brown free.

This is just more evidence that New York needs to establish an Innocence Commission: