Dominique Strauss-Kahn gave his first French interview today. He called the French writer's claim against him "imaginary", saying there was no act of aggression or violence.

For those of you not planning on watching the Emmy's Red Carpet or the Emmys, here's an open thread for all other topics.

College Football day. I'm pressed for time so I will just be able to give you a few of my picks in the bigger games - Oklahoma, Ohio State, Mich State.

Go Gators!

Open Thread.

Back to work. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Let's fight talk about sports.

Does Ochocinco tweet too much?

Tebow! Tebow!

Sneak peak at some of my "investments" this weekend - Denver Broncos (-3½), San Diego Chargers (+7), New Orleans Saints (-7), Manchester City (-1), Clemson (-3), Stanford (-10), Oklahoma (-3 1/2) and a Thursday night special - Miss St. (+4). (Entertainment purposes only.)

Open Thread.

Time for a new season of Survivor South Pacific and the finale of Big Brother. of the three Big Brother finalists, two of them (Adam and Porsche) don't even belong there since they were total lightweights all season, so if you haven't followed the season so far, no reason to start tonight. They need to do some serious re-tooling for next summer. (Added: my very catty take on the season is here.)

Also on tonight: Restaurant Impossible, a quirky show on the Food Network that is oddly appealing. When Obama announced his job plan, I kept thinking of the failing restaurant owners on the show, wondering how they and business owners like them would feel about being told they could have a $1,500 tax credit, a payroll tax cut and more tax cuts if they hired new workers. They have no customers because of the economy and they are already throwing their retirement savings into the restaurants just to stay afloat and keep the few employees they do have. How are they going to hire new workers? They need income and business, not tax credits.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Tebow! Tebow! (Just for the Denver/Gator audience.)

Open Thread.

Some of my legal work has stirred some deeper thoughts on the law and I expect to be writing some lengthier pieces at Talk Left this week on the law.

I just don't have much to say about GOP politics and debates right now, and nothing new to add about President Obama's moves of late. I'm a little more optimistic than Jeralyn on where he is headed these days. I'll try to explain why in a post later today.

For now, an Open Thread.

In other news, How Obama Wants to Pay for His Debt Plan.

The military appeals court at Guantanamo has upheld a life sentence for Osama bin Laden's media director, Yemeni Ali Hamza al Bahlul, age 41. The 139 page opinion takes substantial liberties with the meaning of conspiracy.

Copyright troll Righthaven is about to go down for the count. It told a federal judge it is considering filing bankruptcy after being ordered to pay $34,000 in legal fees to a blog commenter it sued for reposting a LV Review Journal article.

The Denver Post and 50 other papers who are part of the Media News Group that signed with Righthaven are terminating their relationship . The new chief executive of MediaNews Group, John Paton, who replaced Dean Singleton last week, "said it was “a dumb idea” to sign in the first place."

Paton said if he was MediaNews’ chief a year ago, he likely never would have signed on with Righthaven, which hoped to fix the print media’s financial ills by suing bloggers and website owners for reposting snippets or entire copyrighted articles. Terms of the Righthaven-MediaNews deal grant each side a 50-percent stake in settlements and verdicts.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Paul Simon originally planned to sing "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" today. He changed it to "Sounds of Silence."

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

Check out these 1966 and 2009 versions of Simon and Garfunkel singing the song. Truly timeless and beautiful.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I don't plan to write about the 9/11 anniversary. It's totally over-hyped, just like the anniversaries of the OKC bombing and every other disaster. Enough already. The media can milk the public without help from me. While I could counter the media coverage with posts about the many injustices in the last decade resulting from our war on terror, which has not made us safer, only less free, instead I'll just post great performances from the concerts relating to 9/11 -- especially those with a current relevant message.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The 9/11 Concert for New York City was one of the best concerts ever. It also raised over $35 million. VH-1 will be replaying it on 9/11 from 4 to 10 pm and streaming it on the internet at the same time.

Here's a great 8 minute performance of "Little Pink Houses" by John Mellencamp, joined by Kid Rock around the 6 minute mark. Also don't miss the incredible violinist, particularly around the 5 minute mark. Really stellar.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Obama will be the proverbial Rolling Stone in 2012 if he keeps on his current path. Seniors will throw him under the bus.

How does it feel?
To be on your own?
With no direction home?
...Like a rolling stone ?