Round 2 of the NBA Playoffs start today.

Heatles v. Celtics at 3:30. The more interesting game imo, is at 1 - Memphis v. OKC. In the serieses (?) I like the price on the Celtics (+155), though I like the Heat today (-4). I like the Grizzlies (+7) over OKC in Game 1.

Right now I am rooting for Arsenal to beat ManU so that Chelsea can have a chance catch them in the EPL.

Open Thread.

Is anyone watching the White House Correspondent's dinner? Who's there? Donald Trump, Bristol Palin and Bill O'Reilly. Also, President Obama, who is lauughing at SNL's Seth Meyers. And Sean Penn. Here's a photo gallery of "red carpet" arrivals.

Update: Meyers is killing Trump. Trump is so not amused. And Obama is laughing out loud. He then moves to Obama, who's a good sport and laughs at all the jabs, from how he's aged to how the only person who can beat Obama in 2012 is the Obama who ran in 2008.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome. Updates and video from the dinner below:.

The Pentagon is considering a death penalty trial for Abd al Rahim al Nashiri at Guantanamo. al-Nashiri is accused of orchestrating the U.S.S. Cole bombings near Yemen in 2000.

Navy Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Reyes and New Mexico criminal defense attorney Nancy Hollander are already on the case. This week, the Pentagon agreed to also fund death penalty lawyer, Rick Kammen of Indiana, at the CJA rate of $178 per hour. The Pentagon authorized 200 hours for Kammen, who previously represented al-Nashiri, to cover the period up to the Pentagon's final decision on whether to seek death. The order is here. The order says Kammen's representation will benefit both the Government and the defense.

The Pentagon is required, by law, to pay for an experienced death penalty counsel under 18 U.S.C. § 949a(b)(2)©(ii) and R.M.C. 506(b).

I don't know Navy Lt. Cmdr. Stephen Reyes, but I do know both Nancy and Rick, and they will be great advocates for al-Nashiri. [More...]

NATO launched an airstrike today that killed Saif al-Arab Gadhafi, the 29 year old son of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gadhafi, and three grandchildren.

The Libyan Government, through spokesman Moussa Ibrahim says Colonel Gaddafi and his wife were also in the house but unharmed. BBC reporter Christian Fraser writes that a few hours after the explosion:

[W]e were eventually brought to the villa, which was surrounded by reinforced concrete, cameras, and military positions. This is clearly an exclusive neighbourhood. Inside, total destruction.

....It's hard to imagine that anyone could have escaped unscathed, though according to the government spokesman the Libyan leader and his wife were present and are safe and well. But there's no independent evidence they were there.

NATO airstrikes are intended to save civilian lives in Libya. Libya says today's strike was an assassination attempt.

Madison NORML Examiner:

Sad news this morning as we learn that longtime Madison cannabis activist Ben Masel passed away shortly after 9am today from complications of cancer at hospice care in Fitchburg. Further details coming. Today's Global Cannabis Freedom March, scheduled for noon on Capitol Square, will be dedicated to Ben's memory.

R.I.P.

And a "world class" gift God has presented.

DOJ's tricks are working. After the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington sent a letter to the legislature warning that passage of a medical marijuana licensing bill would subject state workers to federal prosecution, today Governor Christine Gregoire vetoed the bill, saying she was "swayed" by the letter. (Background on the almost identical letters sent by a number of U.S. attorneys in recent weeks in states where medical marijuana is legal is here.)

More U.S. Attorneys are jumping on the bandwagon. Today, it was the U.S. Attorney for Rhode Island, sending almost a verbatim letter, even though he hadn't been asked for his position.

And in Montana today, Governor Brian Schweitzer let the bill that passed the legislature this week restricting medical marijuana become law by doing nothing. His lame explanation: [More...]

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted a working lunch with Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa today in Washington, the third such meeting of the Merida High-Level Consultative Group on Bilateral Cooperation Against Transnational Organized Crime. (More on Meridia here and here.) Also in attendance:

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Director of National Drug Policy of the United States Gil Kerlikowske, USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg, Acting Under Secretary of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence of the Treasury David Cohen, and Ambassador of the United States to Mexico Carlos Pascual.

The two governments issued this press release on the meeting and outlined the joint activities for the coming year. Congress has authorized $1.5 billion for Meridia since 2008, most of it for training the Mexican military and law enforcement. (As of December, 2010, $400 million had been provided. Today, the U.S. promised another $500 would be provided in 2011.) [More...]

Open Thread.

Atrios:

As I've said many times, if the economy fails to turn around sufficiently in time for the election it will in large part due to the failure of HAMP. It was bad in that it screwed a lot of individuals and failed to help enough, but it was also bad because it failed to help the macroeconomy.

From the rortybomb link:

Gagnon earlier in his talk said that “one of the biggest goals [. . .] was to push down the mortgage rate to spark a refinancing boom to encourage households and enable households to reduce their expenditures and repair their balance sheets and be able to spend again. That worked not quite as well as we hoped because the administration’s program for getting underwater borrowers to borrow didn’t work and I think that’s a true disaster that has no excuse. I have nothing but [. . .] blame [for] the administration on not doing this[ . . .] This could have been a huge success. [. . .]" I haven’t heard this critique before and I thought it was really interesting.

(Emphasis supplied.) I know rortybomb does not read TalkLeft but Atrios has only written about this about a gajillion times. Weird that he says he has not heard this critique before.

Speaking for me only

Smoking Gun:

Despite Donald Trump’s claim this week that he avoided serving in the Vietnam War solely due to a high draft number, Selective Service records show that the purported presidential aspirant actually received a series of student deferments while in college and then topped those off with a medical deferment after graduation that helped spare him from fighting for his country, The Smoking Gun has learned.

[. . . On] October 15 [1969], [Trump's] classification was switched to 1-Y, which was given to men deemed qualified for military service “only in time of national emergency.” The 1-Y classification came a month after Trump underwent an “Armed Forces Physical Examination,” according to Selective Service records, which note the results of the exam as “DISQ.”

Update: Raves everywhere for the dress, designed by Sarah Burton.

It looks like Kate Middleton's wedding dress designer may be Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen. In a few hours, the world will know for sure. Here are some photos showing her sense of style. She looks great in everything.

Queen Elizabeth announced this morning the couple will become the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

For those staying up tonight (or rising early Friday) to watch it live, here's an open thread. If you think a particular network is doing a good job, please let us know.

If you aren't interested in the wedding, we get it, but there's no need to tell us in this thread. There are plenty of other threads to comment on. Let's keep this one for people who are enjoying the event.