Here's Laura Bush on why Condoleezza Rice won't run for President:

Mrs. Bush referenced Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and noted that while she would be a "really good candidate", Rice is not interested in the job.

"Probably because she is single, her parents are no longer living, she's an only child. You need a very supportive family and supportive friends to have this job," the First Lady said.

[via Jessica at Feministing.]

A huge thank you to all who voted for Best of the Top 250 Blogs Results will be final Monday, but these are the votes as of the time voting ended:

Talk Left 25.15 (3495)
Feministe 24.44 (3396)

Stop The ACLU 15.35 (2133)

Bump and Update: Voting has ended. Thanks to each and every one of you who voted. The official results will be announced by Monday. I think that when voting ended, TalkLeft was in first place. We'll know soon.

Now back to regular blogging.

Bump and Update: We've pulled into first place, but just by a nod. Your vote is still needed. And thanks to all of you.

Crooks and Liars has the video of Matt Damon's comments on Hardball...

Damon: I don't think that it's fair as I said before, that it seems like we have a fighting class in our country. That's comprised of people who have to go for either financial reasons or , I don;t think that that is fair. And if you're gonna send people to war, ahh, if, if we all get together and decide we need to go to war then that needs to be shared by everybody. You know and if the President has daughters who are of age then maybe they should go too…

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld got a big Pentagon send-off today.

Combative to the last, Rumsfeld took a slap at advocates of withdrawing U.S. troops from the war, now in its fourth year with more than 2,900 Americans dead.

"It may well be comforting to some to consider graceful exits from the agonies and, indeed, the ugliness of combat," Rumsfeld said, choking up slightly as he capped a roster of speakers at his pomp-filled goodbye ceremony. "But the enemy thinks differently."

Memo to Mr. Rumsfeld: Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

A federal judge in San Jose has declared Calfornia's lethal injection system to be in violation of the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

[Judge] Fogel said that "substantial questions" had been raised by the records of previous executions in the state and that the California Department of Corrections' "actions and failure to act have resulted in an undue and unnecessary risk of an 8th Amendment violation."

The opinion is here (pdf). Check out Footnote 8 on how the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams:

Indeed, the execution team members’ reaction to the problem at the Williams execution was
described by one member as nothing more than “sh*t does happen, so.”

Florida Governor Jeb Bush has ordered all Florida executions be suspended after the state botched the execution of Angel NievesDiaz which lasted 34 minutes.

Medical examiner Dr. William Hamilton said Wednesday's execution of Angel Nieves Diaz took 34 minutes — twice as long as usual — and required a rare second dose of lethal chemicals because the needles were inserted clear through his veins and into the flesh in his arms. The chemicals are supposed to go into the veins.

Hamilton, who performed the autopsy, refused to say whether he thought Diaz died a painful death.

And in California, a judge has ordered the states' executions be stopped declaring the system of lethal injection "broken."

More on Diaz:

Now I have heard everything:

Matt Drudge, who may or may not be a willing accomplice to the distortion of news reporting, must be held responsible for the dissemination of the bias in the liberal press. . . . A study of press bias by a professor of political science at the University of California-Los Angeles, Tim Groseclose, listed the Drudge Report as one of the most liberal sites on the Web because it consistently posts articles from left-of-center sources.

My patience with the Drudge Report ended when I saw a photo of Frank Rich of the Times posted on the site along with his words: "We are losing in Iraq." It isn't too encouraging to the morale of the nation, but posts like this are common on Drudge.

The site gives top billing to every possible negative statement about the Iraq war and the Bush administration, and it gets about 13 million hits a day. Is it any wonder that President Bush has record low approval ratings?

Wow. Just wow.

h/t Jason Zengerle and Josh Marshall.

Marc Cooper of The Nation reports that for the first time since 1969, more than 1,000 soldiers are petitioning the Government to withdraw from war. Then it was Vietnam, this time it's Iraq.

On December 15, 1791, the U.S. adopted the Bill of Rights.

It's been slowly eroded since then, with the Patriot Act and other laws borne of fear in the mistaken belief that by restricting our rights we will become safer.

It's a great day to remind our elected officials in Congress of this anniversary -- and the history behind this critical addition to our Constitution.

Both the Government and Lewis "Scooter" Libby filed status reports yesterday. I have uploaded them here and here.

Editor & Publisher notes the key details: While Libby states two reporters may resist testifying for him, Fitz reports none of its witnesses, including White House officials, will claim privilege to avoid testifying.

We can expect Dick Cheney and others to be witnesses and not to claim privilege -- at least during the Government's questioning. Cross-examination by Libby could be different. From Fitz's pleading:

Home Depot is running an ad this month (click on "Pulled Over Santa") where Santa Claus is pulled over by an officer who asks for his license and registration.  Santa can't find the registration, and he sits back looking resigned to the fact that something bad may be in the offing. The elf nervously waves to the officer. The officer then asks: "What's in the bag?"

So, if kids, or even the general public, see this ad, are they supposed to believe that it is legally permissible for a police officer during a traffic stop to ask "What's in the bag?"