President Obama will strike a centrist tone in his State of the Union Address. Doesn't he always?

Bath Salts are the new drug in crosshairs of the war on drugs.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Republican Senator James Inhofe today on Obama's plans to restart military commission trials at Guantanamo:

I knew then that we couldn’t afford to close GITMO, because it is nothing less than a crown jewel.

Charles Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkle has a parole hearing today. At 63, she has a clean record during her 40 years of incarceration. Will she get parole? Highly unlikely. (Update: parole denied.)

Omar Saeed Sheikh, the Briton convicted of killing reporter Daniel Pearl, is likely to be freed, as a new report shows the Pakistanis used tainted evidence to convict him and vein analysis shows Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who confessed during his forced interrogations, was the killer. The report is here. The U.S. does not plan to charge him since it would complicate their 9/11 case. Saeed Sheikh has been appealing his conviction for 9 years.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Is anyone going to watch Kathy Bates on her new show Harry's Law tonight? I am.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

I'm working today so here's an open thread, all topics welcome. (I'll be back online tonight.)

For those of you following the news and serious topics, here's an open thread. All topics welcome.

Open Thread.

Open Thread.

I'm just catching up with the news today. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

One of those days.

Open thread.

It's three degrees outside but I am headed out for dinner.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

President Obama is going to Tucson tomorrow. Jared Loughner had his first court appearance in federal court in Phoenix. The New York Times has a profile of his attorney, Judy Clarke. (Mine is here.)

Outgoing Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, a former District Attorney, has granted a pardon to Joe Arridy, executed in 1939, on grounds he likely was innocent. Additional reason: Arridy was mentally disabled, with an IQ of 46.

[A]n overwhelming body of evidence indicates the 23-year-old Arridy was innocent, including false and coerced confessions, the likelihood that Arridy was not in Pueblo at the time of the killing, and an admission of guilt by someone else. In addition, it would be unconstitutional today to impose the death penalty on anyone as intellectually disabled as Arridy.

Arridy spent 18 months on death row, always smiling and always playing with a toy train. He requested just ice cream for his final three meals and stepped into the gas chamber still grinning like a little boy.

[More...]

Open thread.

Yglesias does a Oh the places you'll go post. Here's where I've been in the US, chronologically - Louisiana - Florida - DC - Virginia - Alabama - Massachusetts - Rhode Island - Connecticut - New York - New Hampshire - New Jersey - Maine - Illinois - Arizona - Colorado - California - Pennsylvania - Missouri - Georgia - Tennessee - North Carolina - South Carolina - Mississippi - Kentucky - Puerto Rico - Washington - Indiana - Ohio - West Virginia - Delaware. Obviously, I went to these states more than once and New York, Florida and Puerto Rico are places I am present almost every month.

Where do you want to go in the United States?