American Idol airs auditions in Aspen, CO tonight. Steven Tyler calls it "G-ds' Paintbrush."

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Newt Gingrich has taken $10 million (so far) from a PAC funded by Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelman and his wife.

What's Newt doing with the money? He's bought $6 million of ad time in Florida.

Newt, of course, pretends people power is fueling his campaign:

"Gov. Romney will have vastly more money than I will," Gingrich said, but suggested he has more grassroots support. "People power beats money power every time."

Adelson owns, among other things, the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. I'm crossing that one off my list of places to stay.

Steven Slevin, 57, was arrested for a DUI and related minor offenses in New Mexico in 2005. He spent two years in solitary at the Dona Ana County Detention Facility. He was not provided mental health or medical care. Even his request to see a dentist was refused -- resulting in him being forced to pull his own tooth.

A federal jury has awarded him $22 million for the inhumane treatment. [More...]

Is it time to close your Google account? Here's how.

MegaUpload read for today: MegaUpload Meet Morrison. More here. The media has gone wild with its coverage of Kim DotCom's personal life, I'm only interested in the legal aspects of the case. MegaUpload lawyer Ira Rothken is interviewed here.

I've got court today, so here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Starting at 6:00 am this morning, the DEA and other agencies began raiding 25 residences in Denver and nearby cities for marijuana. It's part of Operation Sweet Leaf. So far, more than 1,000 plants have been seized. A dozen people have been arrested, and 7 children have been turned over to Social Services. More arrests are expected.

Authorities say this has nothing to do with medical marijuana.

Investigators say the raids were on a single organization growing marijuana in Colorado and then shipping it to as many as eight other states. The DEA, U.S. Postal Service and IRS are all involved in the investigation as well. The investigation does not involved marijuana grown for alleged medicinal uses.

Update: The cases are being brought in state, not federal court. Charges include racketeering, money laundering and drugs.

Agencies involved:

The joint investigation included the North Metro Drug Task Force, Drug Enforcement Agency, Internal Revenue Service, United States Postal Service, South Metro Drug Task Force, Boulder County Drug Task Force, Adams County Sheriff’s Office, Weld County Sheriff’s Office, Denver Police Department Narcotics Unit and Summit County Sheriff’s Office.

President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address tonight. It's theme is Economic Unfairness . (Update: Transcript here.)

"We can either settle for a country where a shrinking number of people do really well, while a growing number of Americans barely get by,” he will continue. “Or we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.

He'll remind us once again that in his view, this is not a Republican or a Democratic issue, but a U.S. issue. I hated that line in his 2008 campaign (no red states or blue states) and I doubt I'll like it much more tonight.

What’s at stake are not Democratic values or Republican values, but American values. We have to reclaim them.”

In other news, Google announced changes to privacy, and you can't opt out.

Google said Tuesday it will require users to allow the company to follow their activities across e-mail, search, YouTube and other services, a radical shift in strategy that is expected to invite greater scrutiny of its privacy and competitive practices.

The information will enable Google to develop a fuller picture of how people use its growing empire of Web sites. Consumers will have no choice but to accept the changes.

A federal judge in Colorado has ruled that the 5th Amendment doesn't protect a defendant from being compelled to unencrypt the data on her hard drive and provide it to the FBI which had gotten a search warrant. (Background here.) [More...]

Update: You can read the 20 page bail decision in two parts, Part 1 and Part 2. The other three defendants had their bail hearing this afternoon. The judge will rule tomorrow.

The judge has denied bail for Kim Dotcom. The MegaUpload defendant will remain in custody until Feb. 22. That's the day an extradition hearing is expected to be held.

According to the New Zealand Herald, although everyone was assembled in court, the Judge did not release his reasons, just his decision. I guess there will be a separate written ruling released later.

Update: The ruling has been released and Kim DotCom will appeal. [More...]

The investigation into abuse of immigrants by the East Haven, CT police force has taken years.

Today, the Department of Justice charged four officers, Dennis Spaulding, David Cari, Jason Zullo and Sgt. John Miller, with conspiracy, deprivation of rights and obstruction of justice. Miller is the head of the local police union.

The Indictment is here. The officers were arrested by the FBI. One agent said of the misconduct, "They behaved like bullies." [More...]

The Romney Campaign has sent out a summary of the tax returns it will be releasing today.

Mr. Romney reported $21.7 million in income. He paid $3 million in federal taxes, slightly more than the $2.98 million he made in charitable donations. At least $1.5 million of his charitable donations went to the Mormon Church.

Of Mr. Romney's 2010 income, he noted a capital gain of $12.6 million, taxable interest of $3.3 million, ordinary dividends of $4.9 million and smaller sums of gains and losses on business income, refunds and other income.

His tax rate comes out to 14%. Why so low? The rate on investment income (15%) is lower than the rate for salaried income (35%.) Who is responsible for the big disparity?

That preferential rate for investment income, which was instituted as part of the Bush tax cuts to spur investment, is the basic reason why the Mr. Romney and his wife have an effective rate of around 15%.

His off-shore investments are not tax shelters. He pays the capital gains rate on those. He's worth between $84.8 million and $264.7 million. [More...]

The Republicans debate yet again tonight in Tampa.

For those of you watching, here's a thread to discuss it.

In other Repbulican news, it looks like Newt's tax returns have "issues."

Haditha has been described as the My Lai of the Iraq War. 24 civilian Iraqis, including women, children and an elderly person in a wheel chair were shot in cold blood when Marines from Kilo Company (3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment)went on a retaliatory rampage after a soldier had been killed by a roadside bomb.

Eyewitnesses disputed the Marines' account. The account by a 13 year old girl who pretended to be dead as the Marines barged in and killed her parents, grandparents and brother is especially compelling. [More...]