It's Lennon/McCartney night on American Idol, which is just starting here. Katie Stevens was great, singing "Let it Be." Andrew Garcia was peppier than usual, but I felt like I was at a high school dance listening to a local band. Who did you like?

Who's going home on DWTS? I hope it's Kate Gosselin or Buzz Aldrin. There's also a new Good Wife and Justified (on FX.)

There were 8 bombings in Baghdad today. And a new filing by Roman Polanski, seeking a special counsel to investigate the allegations of official misconduct.

Thank goodness Rudy Giuliani has the stature of a footnote now, so remarks like these don't carry any weight. Maybe Ms. Judy still listens to him, but I doubt anyone else does.

What's on your mind tonight? This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I've already written up what interests me this morning and am now leaving for work. BTD is off doing hearings this week.

If there's political or other news you want to discuss, here's the place -- an open thread, all topics welcome.

Monday has turned out to be the best night of the week for TV. There's Dancing With the Stars, a 2 hour "24", Nurse Jackie, Life Unexpected and Damages. The only way to watch this much TV is with Tivo to fast forward through the commercials.

The AP has a wrapup of the three leading contenders to replace Justice John Paul Stevens if he announces his retirement.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is in the news again. Now he's started a "Pedalvision" program for inmates. If they want to watch TV, they have to do it by riding a stationary bike to generate electricity.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

BTD has hearings this week, and is taking the week to prepare for them.

I'm not seeing much in the news this morning: Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's doctor, heads back to court where the DA is asking the judge to strip him of his medical license as a condition of bail. They tried it before with an earlier judge and lost. I think Dr. Murray's lawyers are correct, unless the state can show changed circumstances, the bail conditions should not be changed.

The latest tawdry celebrity couple news in the air pertains to Bruce Springsteen. Remember the woman whose husband claimed she had an affair with The Boss when the two got friendly at a New Jersey gym? He's filed court documents claiming she did have an affair with Bruce, She's now filed papers saying her husband made it up, thinking Bruce would pay to keep it quiet. She's also alleging he's a physical abuser who had numerous dalliances during their marriage. Someone ought to deliver a washing machine to the front door of all these couples (Jesse James, Tiger Woods, etc.) so that instead of foisting these personal, embarrassing details on us, they could be reminded to take care of their dirty laundry themselves.

One person in trouble who was impressive last night was Rod Blagojevich, who got "fired" last night on Celebrity Apprentice. [More...]

Hopefully, everyone is unwinding from a pleasant holiday weekend. I'm going to watch Pacific, Celebrity Apprentice and Justified, and call it a night.

If you did get an iPad, please give us your updated thoughts, particularly on good Apps, now that you've had a day to try it out. Gizmodo has a round-up here -- and a handy set-up guide -- and a list of what they call the "essential apps."

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Happy Easter to those of you celebrating the holiday.

I'm not wild about ham or lamb, but if I could have these for dessert, I'd be a happy camper.

Are any of you cooking today? This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

If you haven't seen Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution, it's pretty good and a new episode is on ABC tonight.

There's another right-wing group making threats today. New York's top appeals court limited the scope of searches today -- nor more getting a search warrant for a place and searching everyone in it. The changes in airline screening seem like a step in the right direction, but it would be better if the watch lists were scrubbed.

What's on your agenda this weekend? What are you finding interesting? This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I am traveling this evening and will be wrapped up in a PI hearing all next week. There won't be much of me to kick around until 2 Saturdays from today.

Before I go my Final Four picks - Butler (-1) over Michigan State and Duke (-3) over West Virginia. I like Duke in the final.

This is an Open Thread.

More thread.

Open Thread.

Who's going home on American Idol? I'll guess Didi or Tim. So long as it's not Crystal, Casey or Lee, I'm okay with it. I'd like to see Andrew Garcia stay a little longer too. (No spoilers please.)

L.L. Cool J isn't the only one complaining about Fox's use of canned interviews for Sarah Palin's special show. Toby Keith isn't happy either. I bet Levi won't pull those kind of stunts on his new reality show, which he describes as Jersey Shore on Ice.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Open Thread.

Note to New Progressives ("Obama's announcment begins to give a clear picture of what those concessions will be"), get your stories straight:

[B]y announcing the drilling policy without seeking to extract concessions [. . .]

And I agree that off shore drilling is not like school uniforms. One of these policies actually matters. Guess which one?