The hot Christmas item this year may be the big screen tv. I've been trying to decide on one for a few months, since I moved into a place with an additional room that seemingly would be perfect for one.

But, how do you choose? I've read many articles about the difference between rear view projection screens, LCD and Plasma. I'm still confused.

Then there's the installation issue. And the furniture issue. Do you hang it on the wall, put it in a wall unit, or let it sit on a stand?

It's been almost a year since the public learned of President Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program.

Under the Republican leadership in Congress, nothing much happened to shut it down. A lot of bad bills, such as Sen. Arlen Specter's, were tossed around but went nowhere.

What will change in January when Democrats have a majority in Congress? Not enough, from my vantage point, but here's the lowdown:

Is Sudan arming the militias and hindering the relief efforts in Darfur? An investigation into atrocities in Darfur is almost complete. International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno - O'Campo says that if the Sudan Government is not conducting its own legitimate inquiry, he will present evidence to the Judges of the International Criminal Court.

The International Criminal Court has found sufficient evidence to identify the perpetrators of some of the worst atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region, and the probe offers "reasonable grounds to believe" that crimes against humanity were committed, chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the annual meeting of the court's member states in The Hague.

"We selected incidents during the period in which the gravest crimes occurred," he said Thursday in a report on his activities over the past year. "Based on the evidence collected, we identified those most responsible for the crimes." Moreno-Ocampo did not name the targets of the investigation, which he said is nearly complete.

From CNN's Truthteller:

Michael Ware reports from the Iraqi capital tonight.

And Michael, the Iraqi government and the U.S. military in Baghdad keep saying this is not a civil war. What are you seeing?

MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, firstly, let me say, perhaps it's easier to deny that this is a civil war, when essentially you live in the most heavily fortified place in the country within the Green Zone, which is true of both the prime minister, the national security adviser for Iraq and, of course, the top U.S. military commanders. However, for the people living on the streets, for Iraqis in their homes, if this is not civil war, or a form of it, then they do not want to see what one really looks like.

This is what we're talking about. We're talking about Sunni neighborhoods shelling Shia neighborhoods, and Shia neighborhoods shelling back. We're having Sunni communities dig fighting positions to protect their streets. We're seeing Sunni extremists plunging car bombs into heavily-populated Shia marketplaces. We're seeing institutionalized Shia death squads in legitimate police and national police commando uniforms going in, systematically, to Sunni homes in the middle of the night and dragging them out, never to be seen again.

I mean, if this is not civil war, where there is, on average, 40 to 50 tortured, mutilated, executed bodies showing up on the capital streets each morning, where we have thousands of unaccounted for dead bodies mounting up every month, and where the list of those who have simply disappeared for the sake of the fact that they have the wrong name, a name that is either Sunni or Shia, so much so that we have people getting dual identity cards, where parents cannot send their children to school, because they have to cross a sectarian line, then, goodness, me, I don't want to see what a civil war looks like either if this isn't one.

More.

Sometimes prosecutors say the worst things about defendants or their counsel during closing argument. Once in a while, an appeals court pays attention.

In a stabbing case that resulted in a second degree murder conviction in Maryland, here's what the prosecutor, then-Assistant State's Attorney Rex Gordon, said in rebuttal after the defense lawyer in closing pointed out discrepancies between the state witness' trial testimony and his prior statement given to police.

"I want you to remember that if any one of you . . . witness a murder and wound up sitting in that witness chair nine or 10 months later, some defense lawyer, somewhere in that trial, would be standing in front of a jury, making the snide and condescending and obnoxious comments about you."

Lynch's objection was overruled, and Gordon continued: "It is just their stock in trade. It is what they do when their client is guilty and there is no defense."

The court's ruling: Gordon's comments attacking defense attorneys as a group were an improper appeal to the prejudices of the jurors. Result: Conviction overturned, new trial ordered.

Is New York City now the safest city in the country?

It is one of the least-told stories in American crime-fighting. New York, the safest big city in the nation, achieved its now-legendary 70-percent drop in homicides even as it locked up fewer and fewer of its citizens during the past decade. The number of prisoners in the city has dropped from 21,449 in 1993 to 14,129 this past week. That runs counter to the national trend, in which prison admissions have jumped 72 percent during that time.

The national trend of lock em' up continues to be disturbing.

Will Leiberman agree? Cuz the McCain Independent Centrist platform seems to call for it:

We must be honest about the war in Iraq. Without additional combat forces we will not win. We must clear and hold insurgent strongholds, provide security for rebuilding local institutions and economies, arrest sectarian violence in Baghdad and disarm Sunni and Shia militias, train the Iraqi army, and embed American personnel in weak and often corrupt Iraqi police units. We need to do all these things if we are to succeed. And we will need more troops to do them.

They will not be easy to find. We should have begun to increase significantly the size of the Army and Marine Corps the day after 9/11. But we did not. So we must turn again to those Americans and their families who have already sacrificed so much in this cause. That is a very hard thing to do. But if we intend to win, then we must.

It is not fair or easy to look a soldier in the eye and tell him he must shoulder a rifle again and risk his life in a third tour in Iraq. As troubling as it is, I can ask a young Marine to go back to Iraq. And he will go, not happily perhaps, but he will go because he and his comrades are the first patriots among us. But I can only ask him if I share his commitment to victory.

Believe it or not, I respect this position more than the Bush fake vctory speeches that we hear now.

Kevin links to Richard Clarke getting to the point:

In The March of Folly, Barbara Tuchman documented repeated instances when leaders persisted in disastrous policies well after they knew that success was no longer an available outcome. They did so because the personal consequences of admitting failure would be very high. So they postponed the disastrous end to their policy adventures, hoping for a deus ex machina or to eventually shift the blame. There is no need to do that now. Everyone already knows who is to blame. It is time to stop the adventure, lower our sights, and focus on America's core interests. And that means withdrawal of major combat units.

Exactly.

Matt Stoller and I are really seeing eye to eye today:

I'm getting quite irritated at the immediate reaction among white male liberal DC kewl kidz (and Maureen Dowd) to discern catty motives on the part of Nancy Pelosi. Digby's noted it before, but it's not stopping. Look at the first two paragraphs in an email that Josh Marshall reprints on Pelosi and the Intelligence Committee from a reader called 'RY'. . . . Left out of the whole nasty and myopic rant is any possibility that Nancy Pelosi might want someone who can chair the Intelligence Committee who can do a good job running the Intelligence Committee. . . . Nonsense aside, the single most important thing Pelosi can do is find a a good Intelligence Chair and make sure he or she has the political capital to fix the mess this country is in. Doing so could require time to find a compromise candidate, or to work with the CBC or Blue Dogs to assuage egos or horse-trade other committee assignments. That's what leaders do. It doesn't always happen fast . . .

And I SUPPORT Harman for Intel Chair. This handwringing from DC Gasbag types is simply idiotic. The Pelosi record will be established by the next two years, not the next two days or the next two weeks. The idiocy is at high levels from the Pundits these days.

I agree with Stoller:

Here's a thought on FL-13 and voting problems. The FL-13 seat will be up to the House of Representatives. This puts both parties in a difficult situation. The Republicans clearly stole the seat and disenfranchised thousands of voters, but at the same time, the Democrats don't want to be seen as partisan in installing their own person through their control of the House. My suggestion would be for Pelosi to cut a deal with the Republicans. The House and Senate will pass, with Republican approval, some hard-core voting reform legislation that mandates all sorts of checks into voting integrity and vote-counting, including same day registration, paper trails, etc. And in return, the Democrats will seat the Republican in FL-13.

I heartily endorse this lemonade formula from Matt.

In light of this, I think it is fair that I take a shot at the very smart Mark Schmitt as well:

It's tempting to make fun of Marshall Wittmann's newest guise, as Lieberman's communications director, as if it were just another twist in one of the oddest careers in Washington. The New York Times has some fun with that theme today. However, it's quite obvious where this is going. John McCain will fail to win the Republican nomination, and he and Lieberman will turn up as a third party presidential ticket. They will have a great shtick: "We were each rejected by the ideological extremists in our parties, therefore we represent the true forgotten center of American politics." The Broders of the world will salivate over the possibility.

Pleeeaaaaaze! Never ever. McCain wants to emulate Teddy Roosevelt by winning the Presidency not by wrecking the GOP nominee's chances. This is simply absurd. Unless it is designed, in the manner of LBJ's musings about his opponents' sexual interests, to make McCain claim to be hard right Republicans by denying these wild stories. In which case, BRILLIANT Mark! Apologies Steve!

There is a new bio added. Less surprising to some than others one imagines. Check it out.

Open Thread.