TalkLeft's webmaster and I have spent the entire day working on having the premium content option for our content available on this site, rather than on the new premium site. We are almost done.

We are now working with Media Pass instead of Tiny Pass, which was able to accomplish this. We had an hour and half conference call on joinme, which is pretty cool since we could each show stuff on our computers. Media Pass has incredible customer service.

So, it looks like I spent a week and half designing a site that won't be used at TalkLeft. I'd much rather have spent that time writing blogposts. But, pretty as it is, it is better to keep all TalkLeft's content in one place.

I'll be back to regular blogging soon, this is an open thread, all topics welcome.

It's close to sundown here, which marks the beginning of Passover. Best wishes to all observing.

I just got back from the grocery store and was really surprised -- there was an entire aisle of Matzoh, from the U.S. and Israel, and all the regular Matzoh was sold out. Only options: Sodium free, gluten-free, etc. Also gone: white horseradish -- they had hundreds of bottles of the red horseradish. They also had an entire case of Kosher meats, but they were from Iowa, and ever since the labor violations of Agriprocessors came to light, I'm not buying meat from Iowa.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Award-winning, long-time (former) New York Times reporter, columnist and professor Anthony Lewis has died. Here is a link to a collection of his writings.

A few examples: The Imperial Presidency and Silencing Gideon's Trumpet and Guantanamo's Long Shadow. In the New York Times Review of Books: Making Torture Legal.

R.I.P. Anthony Lewis.

Carol Rosenberg at the Miami Herald has a graphic and disturbing update of the continuing hunger strike at Guantanamo (background here.)

By this weekend, the U.S. military had defined 26 of the 166 captives as hunger strikers. Eight were being fed nutritional shakes through a tube snaked through a shackled captive’s nose to his stomach. Two were hospitalized, getting nutrition through a tube and intravenous hydration as well. Lawyers for the captives quote their clients as counting dozens more as long-term hunger strikers, who are getting weaker by the day.

Each meal is prepared, brought to the detainee, and when refused, thrown away. [More...]

Is anyone watching the Phil Spector movie on HBO? It's very strange. It's like they are all playing caricatures of caricatures. I'm switching to the Good Wife.

I've been working on TalkLeft's premium page all weekend, trying to add features we have here that Wordpress doesn't have -- particularly in comments. I must have tried 15 plugins, none of them adequate. So even though I think I've figured out the subscription issues, I'm going to tinker with it some more before asking people to use it.

One thing that's very noticeably lacking on older blogs like this one not using Wordpress is the lack of web fonts. They really make the blog so much easier to read. The possibilities are endless -- and of course, not free. It's great that Wordpress offers them in themes -- as does Bootstrap, but figuring all this out is way beyond my skill set and time availability.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Attorney General Eric Holder sent out a memo to Justice Department employees Friday (available here) saying he transferred $150 million from DOJ's funds to the Bureau of Prisons to avoid mass furloughs of prison guards and staffers.

Absent this intervention, we faced the need to furlough 3,570 staff each day from the federal prisons around the country. The loss of these correctional officers and other staff who supervise the 176,000 prisoners at 119 institutions would have created serious threats to the lives and safety of our staff, inmates, and the public.

[...more]

The investments:

Indiana -11 over Temple, Illinois +8 over Miami Florida (3 units), Mississippi -3 over La Salle, Ohio State -7 over Iowa State, Minnesota +8½ over Florida, Duke -5 over Creighton (5 units), San Diego State -7 over Florida Gulf Coast (5 units), Kansas -6 over North Carolina (3 units.)

Go Gators!

Yesterday - 5-3 ATS (22-16 in MM), +6 units (+17 units in MM.)

Open Thread.

Day 3. The investments: Louisville -11 over Colorado State (3 units), Butler +1½ over Marquette, Michigan State -6 over Memphis (3 units), St Louis -3½ over Oregon (5 units), Wichita State +6½ over Gonzaga (5 units), Syracuse -7 over California (4 units), Michigan -3½ over Va Commonwealth (3 units), Arizona -10 over Harvard (3 units)

Yesterday - 9-6 ATS (17-13 in MM), +8 units (+11 units in MM.)

Open Thread.

If March Madness is not your thing, tonight at 10 Eastern, you may want to take a look in at a crucial World Cup qualifying game for the US mens team against Costa Rica. The team is reportedly in turmoil. But as Michael Bradley says, "it is time to play."

The home team needs this one bad.

Open Thread.

A suspect in the murder of Colorado prison chief Tom Clements has been killed in a shootout with Texas police. The suspect, a 28 year old white supremacist and parolee from a Colorado prison, was stopped by a police officer in Texas. He shot the officer and took off.

The officer was wearing a bullet-proof vest. Two shots were to the chest and did not injure him. The third shot grazed his head. He was able to radio in the car description.

According to a live news conference I just watched here, it was a a drug interdiction stop. The officer had no idea the driver might be connected to the Colorado shooting of Director Clements.

When officers in Wise County, TX spotted him, they tried to stop him and he stuck his gun out the window and started shooting. A high speed chase ensued, and a big 4-wheeler crashed into Ebel's car, setting it on fire. Ebel got out and started shooting at the officers. They shot him multiple times, including in the head. [More...]

Day 2. The investments:

North Carolina -4 over Villanova, Kansas -19½ over Western Kentucky, Minnesota -3 over UCLA, Notre Dame -1 over Iowa State, San Diego State -2½ over Oklahoma, Pacific +13 over Miami Florida, Florida Gulf Coast +13 over Georgetown, Ohio State -13 over Iona (4 units), Mississippi +6 over Wisconsin, Duke -17½ over Albany (3 units), Creighton -3 over Cincinnati, La Salle +6 over Kansas State, Indiana -22 over James Madison, Illinois -1 over Colorado (3 units), Northwestern State +21 over Florida.

Yesterday, 8-7 ATS, +3 units.

Go Gators!

Open Thread.

I've been spending all my free time and then some tinkering with my new creation. It should be ready in a few days, hopefully over the weekend. I'm also going to check into having a professional add the commenting features everyone asked for.

Tonight my eyes need a break from staring at tiny coding symbols, and I need a break from the computer. The TL kid is bringing Chinese food over from the place we used to get it when he was a kid (I'm no longer in the delivery area)so I'll leave you all with an open thread, all topics welcome.