Today's picks: S.Fla (+13) over Miami, Mich. (+18) over Ohio State, VaTech (-23) over UVA, Penn State (+2) over Nich. St., Kentucky (+3) over Tenn,BYU (+10) over Utah, Ark (-3) over LSU, TCU (-44) over N. Mex., Stanford (-14) over Ore. State, Ga. Tech (+14) over Georgia, Oklahoma (+3) over Oklahoma State.

Please note that all these picks are just for the first half, as were my winning picks of Alabama over Auburn and Boise over Nevada. I stopped watching in the second half, what happened in those games?

Open Thread.

President Obama got 12 stitches in his lip today after an errant elbow hit him during a basketball game. Who's the perp? Rey Decerega, director of programs for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

Maybe he'll feel better when he learns his new children's book has made the Times best seller list.

I'd love to be online shopping today, but instead I'll be at the car dealership getting a side mirror that shattered on Wednesday replaced ($600, unbelievable) and then the jail.

On the plus side, I finally installed my new wireless extreme N dual band router (to go with my new 3.0 cable modem) and my internet shot up to over 20 mbps. I also installed a gizmo to make my blu-ray player wireless instead of ethernet without the player having to be near the ethernet connection. It plugs into a regular power outlet. Netflix streams just as fast as it did with the ethernet. Now I don't have to upgrade my bluray player from wireless capable to full wireless. Here's the router, the modem and the gizmo. (Note, you might find them cheaper elsewhere.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

In one of the more remarkable moments of the Absurdist play that is our annual Bowl Championship Series, the President of THE Ohio State University (which has largely distinguished itself by being pummelled by the SEC champion in BCS national championhip games) recently stated that non-BCS automatic qualifier schools are not worthy of playing in the BCS national championship game. Oookaay. Whatever, Buckeyes.

Opinion driven, as opposed to performance driven, assessments of college footbsll teams is the modus operandi of the BCS. That and protecting the big bowls. In an attempt to blunt the charge of a fixed system, the BCS added computer rankings to its formula. But that was deemed flawed because, we were told, it encouraged running up the score. As opposed to a poll voter system. Yeah whatever. This year, the REAL computer rankings, as opposed to the gerrymandered version that the BCS has installed, provide the following rankings going into today's games:

Mick Jagger and Fergie are on fire on this version of Gimme Shelter -- Bono and Will-i-Am are good too. What a great concert -- the 2009 25th Anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Same concert: Patti Smyth, Bruce Springsteen and Bono and U2 in Because the Night:

[More..]

KBCO in Boulder is playing Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant at noon and 6pm, MT. You can listen live here. It was November 28, 1965 that Arlo was convicted of littering in Stockbridge, MA. You can read the backstory here.

Why is Alice's Restaurant such a ritual, especially for those of us who remember the '60's? Ira Chernus, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, explains: [More...]

Just a little something to tide you over till tomorrow when radio stations around the country will play the full 18:37 second version of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant.

Alice, by the way, is now an artist. I still have my hardcover edition of her 1969 cookbook -- easiest recipes ever, and really, really good (Especially the red chile and her mother-in-law's corn pudding.) [More...]

Using its emergency powers, the DEA today banned five chemicals used in synthetic marijuana. They are JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47,497, and cannabicyclohexanol. The federal register notice is here.

Except as authorized by law, this action will make possessing and selling these chemicals or the products that contain them illegal in the U.S. for at least one year while the DEA and the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) further study whether these chemicals and products should be permanently controlled.

....The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 amends the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to allow the DEA Administrator to emergency schedule an abused, harmful, non-medical substance in order to avoid an imminent public health crisis while the formal rule-making procedures described in the CSA are being conducted.

The chemicals are used in smokable herbal blends like “Spice,” “K2,” “Blaze,” and “Red X Dawn.” Eric Sterling says there's no evidence the chemicals or herbal blends are dangerous. [More...]

No happy Thanksgiving for Tom DeLay. The jury found him guilty of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The penalty on one count is 2 to 20 and from 5 to 99 years on the other. He could also receive probation. Texas has jury sentencing, but DeLay previously opted for the judge to sentence him.

His attorney, Dick DeGuerin, says the verdict won't withstand appellate scrutiny:

Mr. DeGuerin said Mr. DeLay would try to convince an appeals court the money-laundering statute should never had been applied to the money swap — because the original donations were legal and also because the donations to the state candidates came out of a different account than the one in which the corporate donations were deposited. “It will never stand,” Mr. DeGuerin said.

I'm going to brave a trip to the supermarket and Office Depot. If I haven't posted again by dinnertime, you can assume it's as bad out there as I think it's going to be. In addition to the anticipated checkout lines at the market, we're getting an artic front and the mountains are getting a blizzard.

Air traffic seems to be proceeding normally. Not surprisingly, people care more about getting to their destination than they do their privacy.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome. And please let us know what you are cooking tomorrow, or most looking forward to eating.

Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam has lost his motion to suppress wiretaps.

Thousands of conversations between Mr. Rajaratnam and more than 130 colleagues, employees, friends and family were secretly recorded by federal agents over a nine-month period in 2008.

The Judge did sever some of the conspiracy counts:

Mr. Rajaratnam and Ms. Chiesi are among 24 people charged criminally in a broad probe into insider trading on Wall Street. So far, 14 people have pleaded guilty in the case.

The day before Thanksgiving, the feds have arrested Don Chu in the hedgefund insider trading investigation. He is charged by complaint (no Indictment yet.)

Why today? CNBC says he was planning on traveling to Taiwan next week. Via the Wall St. Journal:

Here’s the WSJ’s ongoing coverage of the arrest and what it means. Read here, here, here, here and here for LawBlog stories on what’s happened so far in the investigation.

Highlights from the complaint are here.