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:.

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.

Open Thread.

Here's the official wedding program for William and Kate, courtesy of the Royal Family website. Kate doesn't arrive to walk down the aisle until 11:00 am, GMT. It's now 2 am in London, and 7 pm in Denver.

In Denver, PBS will be airing the BBC coverage from 1:00 am tonight until 6 am tomorrow morning. Since I have zero interest in the American media spectacle or care to listen to its chatterboxes, I'll either watch the BBC/PBS coverage or watch with the sound off. I can understand the massive coverage by British media -- it's their country and their royalty -- but I totally don't get the U.S. media's obsessive coverage and expenditure of millions of dollars to fly their anchors and teams of vacuous "know it alls" to London. Even worse are the crude attempts by U.S. businesses to cash in on the event: From Kohl's "we'll dress dress you like Kate", to Restaurant X will be serving British food, it's such a turn-off. The crass commercialization of the event has ensured that I will not watch any American network coverage.

I actually think William and Kate make a nice couple and seem to be handling the massive attention well. I'd probably watch if there was a network that had the good sense to just air the event and let us take it in for ourselves, skipping the breathless chatter of their anchors and talking heads. I'm hoping the BBC will do that, although it's probably too much to ask.

Rant over. Your turn. All topics welcome.

I'm busy again. Light blogging if any from me.

Open Thread.

The media is in its full Royal Mania phase. There are 8,652 news articles on Google right now about Kate Middleton's wedding dress. No one's figured out who designed it. Bruce Oldfield tells Women's Wear Daily he is not the designer. Vegas odds are on Sarah Burton of Alexander Queen. Other possibilities: Alice Temperly, Sophie Cranston (who says it's not her) , Issa designer Daniella Helayel, and Philipa Lepley. One person who knows but isn't telling: Olivier Theyskens, formerly of Nina Ricci, lately with Theory.

The royal wedding site is here. It has its own You Tube channel where you can watch everything live, starting at 2:00 am PT tomorrow night. Unless I can find a place to watch without media commentary, I'll probably skip it. [More...]

My 2 cents, Obama released the birth certificate too soon. Should have made the GOP Presidential candidates squirm on the issue until the Fall.

Open Thread.

Hopefully, there will be more important news than Obama's birth certificate and the Royal Wedding today.

On the Royal Wedding and security, I wonder if MI5 and the Metropolitan Police will be using GigaPan. Check out this gigapan photo of Obama's inauguration. No more getting lost in a crowd. You can see the face of each individual in the crowd on 2 million in focus.

Double click on any area in the picture to bring the person closer. Or, just click the mouse and use the mouse wheel to bring them closer. Or scoot it around to closeups of the people around them, like you would on a map. The picture was taken with a robotic 1474 megapixel camera (295 times the standard 5 megapixel camera.) If something goes wrong during the event, every one attending can be scanned afterwards. (Hat tip to criminal defense attorney Steve Salter of Birmingham, AL.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Another busy day for me. Light to no posting from me. Not sure about J.

Open Thread.

There's a lot of news to catch up on today. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

I am about to get on a plane so no blogging for me.

Open Thread.

Another busy day at work for me. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.