Bump and Update: Sam Adams, Jr. didn't get to deliver his closing today. He got threatened with contempt instead, because he intended to refer to the witnesses the government didn't call, like Tony Rezko, Stuart Levine, President Obama, Rahm Emmanuel and more. Now the closings are in doubt. What a wasted opportunity. Why didn't he just start so the jury would not be left with the Government's words when they went home tonight?

Original Post

Blagojevich Closing Arguments to Continue Tuesday

Rod and Patti Blagojevich brought their daughters to court to hear closing arguments today.

Did former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich just catch a break? Closing arguments are running long, so the Judge has said Rod's lawyer can give half his closing today and finish tomorrow. [More...]

The Bachelorette is winding down. The big question, will Ali Fedotowsky end up alone or pick Cape Cod landscaper Chris Lambton or Roberto Martinez, the soon to be State Farm insurance agent from South Carolina (formerly a Florida college baseball player )won't be answered until next week. Tonight is suffering through the "Men Tell All" and the rejected suitors, minus Frank and Justin, the cads with girlfriends, who didn't attend.

Until this week I was convinced the spoiler experts were correct, that Ali ends up alone. Now I think she sends Chris home before the final rose ceremony and ends up proposing to Roberto (rather than waiting to see if he proposes to her.) It's about the only thing that hasn't been done on the show: a final rose ceremony with just one guy and the Bachelorette doing the proposing. The suspense will generate from “Will Roberto Accept?” rather than “Who did Ali Choose?” But I could change back to Ali is single before the week is out--that's how good a job they did this season.

For those of you with weightier things on your mind, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Bump and Update: Tom Tancredo has announced he's running for Governor. NPR asks, "Can You Say Governor Hickenlooper?"

Original Post (Sun Jul 25, 2010 at 08:19:34pm)

Former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo has given an ultimatum to Scott McInniss and Dan Maes: Either exit the Governor's race by noon Monday, or he'll run as a third party candidate for the American Constitution Party. He says his goal it to prevent Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, from winning. [More...]

Open Thread.

The recent revelations by Wikileaks regarding the Afghanistan conflict raises many issues, but one, and in my view the most important, is not new - and it is the strength of jihadism in Pakistan. And at the highest levels. The NYTimes reported:

Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan’s military spy service has guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants, according to a trove of secret military field reports made public Sunday.

The documents, made available by an organization called WikiLeaks, suggest that Pakistan, an ostensible ally of the United States, allows representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions to organize networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders.

That powerful forces in the Pakistani government are strongly tied to the Taliban should comes as no surprise to anyone. This has been at the heart of the issue. As a supporter of the President's policy in Afghanistan, I hope, and indeed, feel confident that this is understood. Now what to do about it? Let's discuss on the flip.

Matt Yglesias writes [I exchanged e-mails with Matt in which he made it clear to me that he does not think of himself as apart from the progressive activist movement. He sees himself as also subject to the need to "feel good." Matt stated that this need cuts across all ideological lines and groups. This seems right to me (though I do believe that "feeling good" is largely tied to believing that the policies are good.) I'm glad he communicated with me about this.]:

[T]he Obama administration points to an impressive array of accomplishment. Their health-care bill is the most significant progressive achievement in more than 40 years. Financial regulation, the new START treaty, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, etc. are nothing to sneer at. But something the administration barely seems to recognize is that political activists do not live on policy accomplishments alone. Small donations, volunteer time, and even voting itself are undertaken primarily in exchange for psychological benefits. People engaged in the process want—need—to feel good about themselves for doing it.

(Emphasis supplied.) [More...]

In hindsight, this seems an easy call - obviously yes. O'Connor was a deciding vote in upholding a woman's right to choose and affirmative action. Steve Benen digs up a story from 1981 where the arch social conservative Richard Viguerie says of the O'Connor nomination:

"The White House slapped us in the face," says Richard A. Viguerie, the conservative direct-mail expert. "The White House is saying you don't have a constituency we're concerned about. We don't care about you.

I'd say, at the time, Viguerie and people like him were in fact shunted aside because Reagan wanted to nominate the first woman to the Supreme Court. I don't think Benen is disputing that. I do think Benen is trying to discredit progressive dissatisfaction with President Obama. Indeed, he says the moral of the story is "that perceptions can change over time." That is silly. Some folks seem incapable of getting out of focusing on the pol, not the issue. Vigeurie was commenting on one event - the nomination of O'Connor. I am sure if he wanted to, Benen could find many instances of Viguerie praising Reagan at the same time (tax cuts anyone?). It is not all of one thing or another. Here's the real moral of the story in my opinion - who did Reagan nominate for the Supreme Court after O'Connor? Antonin Scalia. For those who decry pressure on their hero pols, the lessons of Richard Viguerie's complaints about Reagan's nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor are that they worked. Viguerie got what he wanted the next time.

Richard Viguerie understood what too many do not want to these days - pols are pols and do what they do. Your loyalty should lie with the issues you care about, not the pols.

Speaking for me only

When we left off Friday, the Judge instructed the lawyers in the trial of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and his brother Rob to e-mail him and each other any requested changes to the jury instructions over the weekend.

Sunday, Team Blago filed a motion for reconsideration and objection to the jury instructions and four in particular. (Available on PACER.) They say the Court is not following the 7th Circuit Pattern instructions or the law in refusing their tendered instructions. Which means, the Court has accepted the Government's versions or ones close to it. And they make a big difference.

The instructions Blago wants are his (filed Saturday) numbered 14, 15, 22 and 5. [More...]

Wikileaks has published a 200,000 pages of secret documents on the Afghan war.

The files, published online by The Guardian, the New York Times and Germany's Der Spiegel, include details of 144 incidents in which Coalition forces have killed civilians.

The Guardian says the leaks show that troops killed hundreds of civilians in previously unreported incidents.

The White House is livid.

US national security adviser James Jones says the publication of the documents puts the lives of soldiers and civilians at risk.

"The United States strongly condemns the disclosure of classified information by individuals and organisations which could put the lives of Americans and our partners at risk and threaten our national security," he said in a statement.

[More..]

Not a shocking headline obviously. But I like the Dem political plan on the issue as reported by the NYTimes:

Negotiations are expected to start in the Senate, where it is hardest for Democrats to advance legislation because of Republican filibusters. But some Democrats say a fallback plan would be to have their larger majority in the House approve a continuation of the lower rates just for the middle class right before the election, almost daring Republicans to oppose them.

In that case, Democrats say, Republicans who opposed the bill would be blocking a tax cut for more than 95 percent of Americans to defend tax cuts for a relatively few wealthy households. [. . .] In the weekly Republican radio address on Saturday, Representative Mike Pence of Indiana promised an all-out push to extend the tax cuts [to the wealthy.] “House Republicans will oppose this tax increase with everything we’ve got,” he said.

(Emphasis supplied.) The Dems seem to have the politics AND the policy right on this one. We'll see.

Speaking for me only

Ann Althouse implies so:

"Those favoring, say, prosecutors and employers are said to be conservative, while those favoring criminal defendants and people claiming discrimination are said to be liberal." If you can get past that sticking point, you can code everything into an immense database, produce some amazing-looking charts, and reach conclusions like "Court Under Roberts Is Most Conservative in Decades."

(Emphasis supplied.) Strange. Althouse seems really upset that the Roberts Court was called the most conservative court in decades by the New York Times. I am not at all sure why. Of course the Roberts Court is the most conservative in decades. That is what Republicans wanted -- what President George Bush wanted and what the Republican Senate that confirmed Roberts and Alito wanted. And what all conservatives wanted. Why whine about the NYTimes reporting that Republicans achieved their stated goals?

I think the article is rather silly, in that it is like reporting that the sun came up today. The more interesting and important reporting should be about how the Roberts Court is the most activist in decades.

Speaking for me only

The Tour de France finishes up this morning riding to Paris and around the Champs d'Elysees. Alberto Contador is the winner.

Open Thread.