Robin Williams....censored tonight at the Oscars. ABC has refused to let him sing a cartoon ditty that made fun of Rev. James Dobson and his SpongeBob SquarePants criticism. Then it refused his proposed changes. [link corrected]Here's what happened:

Overnight, Mr. Shaiman and his partner, Scott Wittman, dashed off a mock exposé of the dark underbelly of cartoonland for Mr. Williams to deliver, over a gospel-music groove, as if he were a full-throated preacher inveighing against other newly-discovered sinners in the nation's midst:

"Pinocchio's had his nose done! Sleeping Beauty is popping pills!/ The Three Little Pigs ain't kosher! Betty Boop works Beverly Hills!"

The she-pundit with long blond hair has been censored by her own publishing syndicate.

Writing in her February 23 column for Universal Press Syndicate, Coulter observed, among other things, that Guckert/Gannon was a better reporter than The New York Times' Maureen Dowd and his "only offense is that he may be gay." Nothing unexpected there, but Coulter also wrote: "Press passes can't be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president."

Scott at Grits for Breakfast, the blog devoted to Texas criminal (in)justice, which also won a well-deserved Koufax award this year for Best Single Issues blog, provides a breakdown and analysis of the new report released this week on profiling during Texas traffic stops.

by TChris

Federal prosecutors are trial lawyers. Insurance defense lawyers are trial lawyers. The corporations that overwhelm federal courts with commercial litigation are represented by trial lawyers. Even the lawyers who represented Bush in his lawsuit against Gore to decide which Florida ballots would (or would not) be counted are trial lawyers.

With so many trial lawyers helping the interests of the wealthy and powerful, why is it true (as today's New York Times reminds us) that "within conservative circles and inside the White House, the term 'trial lawyer' is an epithet"?

by TChris

The New York Times wonders whether Bernard Ebbers should testify.

There is no hard rule for lawyers in these cases. Martha Stewart, the entrepreneur, did not take the stand and was convicted. Frank P. Quattrone, the former Credit Suisse First Boston banker, did testify in his defense and was convicted, too. John Walker, an executive at Qwest Communications, took the stand last year and was acquitted.

The case against Ebbers rests largely upon the testimony of Scott Sullivan, WorldCom's former CFO. Sullivan is cooperating with the government's prosecution of Ebbers with the hope of avoiding a lengthy sentence of his own. Witnesses who point a finger at others to benefit themselves are notoriously unreliable, but juries often believe self-interested testimony. When the case comes down to "he said-he said," the jury will want to hear from the other "he."

Clara Harris is the Houston dentist who was convicted of running down her husband with her car. She is serving 20 years.

The Houston Chronicle has a long interview today, notable for the descriptions both of life inside a Texas women's prison and the pain of separation prisons impose upon children of the incarcerated.

[link fixed]

All eyes should be on the Monday print edition of the Boulder Daily Camera. 200 professors have paid $1600.00 for a full-page ad demanding the University cease its investigation into Professor Ward Churchill's writings:

The ad says the review of the professor, expected to complete by the middle of March, should be stopped immediately. The ad says the inquiry is the result of political pressure and not based on "any prior formal complaint of specific professional or academic misconduct on his part."

The 200 faculty members' statement defends Churchill's "right to speak what he believes to be the truth" based on academic freedom rules designed to prevent faculty members from being fired for unpopular views.

American- born Abu Ali sits in a U.S. jail cell, indicted on terrorism charges. The Government claims he confessed to treatening to kill President Bush. (Background here, here and here.)

Law enforcement agents have told Newsweek they think he'll walk. The confession was obtained while he was imprisoned in a Saudi jail, and no American agents were present.

NEWSWEEK has learned that his confession, which occurred shortly after his arrest in June 2003, was videotaped by the Saudis and immediately turned over to the FBI. The tape became the chief piece of evidence against him. But back in Washington, the case presented an agonizing dilemma for top Justice Department officials, sources said.

• Crooks and Liars has a 7 minute video of Hunter being interviewed by Tim Russert

• Hunter's widow, Anita Thompson, describes their last day together

• Hunter's Legacy's in the Works

• Former Rolling Stone writer Lucian Truscott IV recalls his early days with Hunter

• The Nation republishes a 1965 article by Hunter, The Motorcycle Gangs: Losers and Outsiders, that later became his Hells Angels book

• The Hunter S. Thompson Foundation: "...dedicated to helping people in the prison system ``who don't belong there.''

Our server move went off without a hitch, another big thanks to the folks at Hosting Matters. We'll be back posting tomorrow.

TalkLeft's comment policy has been updated. A permanent link to the policy is provided on the front page under the word "More."

In the meantime, here's some news of interest:

• Private Health Car in Jails Can Be a Death Sentence in the New York Times

• CIA Agents Fear Prosecution over Interrogation of Detainees, also in the New York Times

And a feel-good story:

• Who is Gary and why are people saying such nice things to him

And some Oscars' Coverage:

• The Two Johnnys, excellent in-depth profile and interview with Johnny Depp, that originally appeared in Rolling Stone

• The Girls With Grit, LA Times

• Superstars Rehearse for the Oscars

• Drudge on a rejected Robin Williams skit lampooning evangelist James Dobson. The deleted lines which Williams intended to lisp:

Five male prison guards at a privately run female jail in Brush, Colorado are about to be charged with having sex with inmates and introducing contraband. I wrote about it on 5280.

Interesting that authorities have concluded the claims of sexual assault were false, and the sex was consensual. What's consensual in a situation like this?

Just a reminder that TalkLeft is being moved to a new server tonight. Hosting Matters expects to begin the move around 10 pm ET, but it could be earlier or later. We will be the only site on the new server. The move is being done to protect other sites on the current server, because for a reason we have not been able to determine, TalkLeft has been crashing the server a lot. It may just be that with 9,700 posts and over 125,000 comments, the site is too big. Or it could be a problem with our code, or spammer-induced. Being on a new server should make the cause easier to determine.

Comments you make here later today may or may not make it over to the new server. Once the move is complete, you may need to click your "refresh" button a few times Sunday to find us.

I will probably institute other comment policy changes in the coming weeks, aimed at reducing pings from spammers, and repetitive, hostile or long-winded comments from trolls and chatterers. I also want anonymous posters to identify themselves with the same moniker, so readers know their comments are coming from a single individual. You know who you are.

Update: Eric at Is That Legal? is having similar problems with commenters, particularly those posting under multiple names.