The accuser in the Duke lacrosse players' alleged sexual assault case has given birth, a month early, by cesarian section.

Will she be ready to testify at the Feb. 5 eyewitness identification hearing?

I think she should be.

The options? She will ask Nifong to drop the case saying she doesn't want to pursue the case or Nifong will ask for a continuance on medical grounds or the hearing will proceed.

Any bets?

Blogger Betsy Newmark has an op-ed on the racial aspects of the case and Nifong's conduct in today's Washington Examiner.

What do you think about this Op Ed?:

This past Election Day, the American people sent a clear message to Washington: Clean up your act.

. . . It would be a mistake, however, to conclude that this message was intended for only one party or politician. The votes hadn't even been counted in November before we heard reports that corporations were already recruiting lobbyists with Democratic connections to carry their water in the next Congress.

. . . Americans put their faith in Democrats because they want us to restore their faith in government -- and that means more than window dressing when it comes to ethics reform.

. . . The truth is, we cannot change the way Washington works unless we first change the way Congress works. On Nov. 7, voters gave Democrats the chance to do this. But if we miss this opportunity to clean up our act and restore this country's faith in government, the American people might not give us another one.

. . . and they would be right. But he is a malignant airhead. In a return to the misleading GOP serving shill that we have all come to know and detest, David Brooks serves up a sexist screed that would have you believe that since Dems like FDR and Nancy Pelosi and buffoons like George Bush were/are rich, that they are all the same:

I have a dream, my friends. I have a dream that we are approaching the day when a ranch-owning millionaire Republican like George Bush will make peace with a vineyard-owning millionaire Democrat like Nancy Pelosi.

I have a dream that Pelosi, who was chauffeured to school as a child and who, with her investor husband, owns minority shares in the Auberge du Soleil resort hotel and the CordeValle Golf Club, will look over her famous strand of South Sea Tahitian pearls and forge bonds of understanding with the zillionaire corporate barons in the opposing party.

Furthermore, I dream of a great harmonic convergence among the obscenely rich — between Randian hedge fund managers on the right and helipad environmentalists on the left. I dream that the big-money people who seem to dominate our politics will put aside their partisan fury and discover the class solidarity that Karl Marx always said they shared, and their newfound civility will trickle down to the rest of us. I dream that Berkeley will make peace with Buckhead, Streisand with DeVos, Huffington with O’Reilly.

What a liar. The rest of us Brooks? You are the common man? FDR was just a rich guy like George Bush? What a lying snake.

Of course this is part of the new GOP civility offensive and a shot across the bow at the Democrats' newfound commitment to populism.

Brooks did not always think of himself as The Common Man:

The New York Times recounts the conversations recorded on the wiretaps in the Jose Padilla case. Shorter version:

Tens of thousands of conversations were recorded. Some 230 phone calls form the core of the government’s case, including 21 that make reference to Mr. Padilla, prosecutors said. But Mr. Padilla’s voice is heard on only seven calls. And on those seven, which The Times obtained from a participant in the case, Mr. Padilla does not discuss violent plots.

What's the prosecution's strongest evidence?

January 11 is the International Day to Shut Down Guantanamo. There will be protests all over the world, including England, Australia and Holland. In the US major protests will take place in Washington DC and New York City, plus dozens of cities throughout the country, including outside the US Southern Command in Miami.

The biggest may be this:

On January 9-13, a first-ever international delegation of former prisoners, families of current prisoners, US lawyers and human rights activists will travel to Guantanamo, Cuba to hold a conference on prison abuses and march to the Cuban-side security gate of the US Naval Base to call for the closure of the illegal prison. The protest in Cuba is part of the January 11 International Day to Shut Down Guantanamo, the day that marks the 5-year anniversary of the first prisoners being sent to Guantanamo.

Whether the Rudy Giuliani campaign memo was misplaced or purloined, that's not the point. Nor is the point the content of the memo. Newsweek explains.

The real problem for Giuliani isn’t the missing binder itself, it’s that it went missing in the first place. Giuliani’s candidacy, after all, will be centered around his expertise in security, order and efficiency.

“It’s hard to say you’re staying up all hours thinking about every unplugged hole in the homeland-security infrastructure when you can’t even keep track of your own documents,” said one Republican strategist who asked not to be identified because he has yet to affiliate with a presidential candidate.

There's an even deeper problem developing surrounding Giuliani, one concerning his arrogance.

In honor of our incoming Democratic majority in Congress.... Democracy, written by Leonard Cohen and performed by Don Henley in 1993 at President Clinton's MTV Inaugural Ball.

You'll need to turn your audio up. I recorded this from a VHS I made back in 1993 to a dvd, then converted it on the computer and uploaded it to YouTube. They all took their toll but if you turn the volume up, it's just great.

• Digby has the latest chilling details on the Jose Padilla case.

• Jane, Christy and the Firedoglake gang got a coveted press pass (with the assistance of Arianna Huffington) to the Scooter Libby trial. They are going to rent an apartment for the duration of the trial. They need help with expenses, so if you can spare some dollars, go on over and help.

• David Neiwert at Orcinus has some thoughts on American concentration camps.

• Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post wants to know where the outrage is over Bush's plan to escalate the troop numbers in Iraq.

Our living Tower of Babel, Pat Robertson, wants us to know that a terrorist attack on the U.S. will result in "mass killing" toward the end of the year. God told him, so you'd think he'd have it on good authority.

“I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear,” he said during his news-and-talk television show “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network. “The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.”

Something like that? Pat, could you go on another prayer retreat and get back to us with more detail?

Fortunately, Robertson's prognostication record hasn't been much better than Jeane Dixon's. In 2005, he predicted Bush would win victory after victory on issues like Social Security reform, and in 2006 he was confident that a tsunami-strength storm would engulf a U.S. coast. (Well, to be fair, it did rain heavily in New England.)

Update: 1/4, 7:13 am MT: Denver's KOA radio reports police have found the car in the Green Valley section of Denver. It was painted over but not burned. It's on its way to the police evidence department.

Denver police have identified a "vehicle of interest" in the New Years' Eve shooting death of Denver Bronco cornerback Darrent Williams. (background here.)

Police put out a bulletin earlier today looking for a White 1994 Chevy Tahoe with Colorado license plate number 665-OBS. They didn't identify the owner, but the local news has: Brian Hicks.

It may or may not be the vehicle involved in the shooting, but if it was, Hicks couldn't have been the shooter because he's in jail awaiting trial on drug charges -- and on charges of shooting a woman who was supposed to testify against him at trial. The woman was later killed the week before his trial was supposed to begin.

Hicks has been jailed since Nov. 9 on a charge of possessing drugs with intent to distribute. He's also accused of shooting at a woman who was later killed a week before she was to testify against him. His bond was increased to $1 million after the woman was killed and his trial date was rescheduled.

The New York Times has just published a revealing article on Hillary Clinton's meeting with Democrats with whom she is discussing issues related to her possible run for the Presidency. Some of the diners are talking out of school.

Mrs. Clinton told Democrats that she viewed her two strongest potential Democratic opponents as Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina. They said that she viewed Mr. Obama as her biggest obstacle to the nomination, but that she believed the threat of his candidacy will diminish as voters learn how inexperienced he is in government and foreign affairs.

Without mentioning Mr. Obama by name, Mrs. Clinton and her camp are already asserting that experience will be a key attribute for any successful candidate during difficult times — an argument that her team will no doubt make in a more aggressive way against Mr. Obama if they both jump into the race.

Via Colorado Lib:

On The Chris Matthews Show this morning, one of the 12 regulars opined that Hillary Clinton's best choice for a runningmate would be Colorado Senator Ken Salazar.

Jason Bane provides his analysis over at 5280's Elevated Voices. The show transcript is here.