Stage 7 of the Tour de France is going on today, ending at the summit of Arcalis in the Pyrenees. You can watch online here. UPDATE - Contador proves he is the man of this Tour, even though he is not yet wearing the yellow jersey. He sprints away from Armstrong and all the other main contenders at the summit. With 2 more days in the Pyrenees, Contador will likely be the Maillot Jaune in the next days and at the end of the Tour.

In other news, the NYTimes endorses the BTD Plan (snark) for the Honduran crisis.

This is an Open Thread.

We're grilling tequila lime chicken and watching Weeds (tivo'd from Monday) tonight.

For the one or two readers who watch The Bachelorette, don't miss Reality Steve’s interview of Wes Hayden (podcast link here). He's not the villain ABC has portrayed him to be.

What are you all doing and thinking about? This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Here is one of the funniest dkos diaries and threads I have read in some time. I think that most of the humor is unintentional. I admit to uncertainty on that point.

There has been a lot of "news" on the Sotomayor confirmation that I have not written about. I have chosen not to because well, they are pretty much just staged endorsement rollouts by the Obama Administration that, to me at least, add nothing to the story. I know they are doing their political job on this, and good for them, but I have no interest in writing about press releases on endorsements. I will return to the Sotomayor confirmation story when the confirmation hearings start and hope to see a real discussion about judicial philosophies. That would be of interest to me.

One last thing, the Tour de France begins in earnest tomorrow in Stage 7 with the first trip into the mountains. Can Armstrong or anyone stay with Contador? I say no. We'll see.

This is an Open Thread.

Huffington Post has hired Dan Froomkin. Great decision by Arianna.

Al Franken has been sworn in as U.S. Senator. The Dems now have their 60 majority.

The family motorcade is leaving Forest Lawn for the Staples Center. The motorcade includes a hearse which contains Michael Jackson's casket. MSNBC has medical examiner Cyril Wecht, fresh off the heels of the dismissal of fraud charges against him, providing commentary. Lots of talk about whether the doctors committed a crime in prescribing drugs to Michael Jackson. (Wecht lashed out last week at Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan (of Tommy Chong fame, the one who is asking Obama to keep her on as U.S. Attorney even though she was a Bush appointee.) More on the Wecht's case at the Pittsburgh Gazette here. I rarely agree with Cyril, but I like him personally.

This is an open thread, all topics -- related to the "most important entertainer on the planet" (per CNN) or not - welcome.

Michael Jackson mania continues. Do you really care who will be singing at his memorial tomorrow? I don't. It was his singing and dancing I liked and would want to hear, not his friends. Meanwhile, LA Observed tells us Michael will be buried tomorrow morning at Forest Lawn in the San Fernando Valley and lists several other celebrities who are interred there. Followed by:

Lucille Ball was originally interred there, but her ashes have since been moved, says Find A Grave.com.

Find A Grave.com? How gruesome. Is anyone covering the Obamas in Moscow? I think it's great that the Russian president wore jeans today , but all I've seen besides that are Michelle and the girls' outfits (very cute, especially Sasha, love this photo) and the very important news that the Obamas will vacation this summer at Martha's Vineyard. [More...]

Heat in the south is being mitigated by storms, but the rest of the country seems to be enjoying sunny, pleasant weather. You probably have better things to do than reading a blog, but if not, here's an open thread. It's open to all topics, but lets throw out a rhetorical question for starters: what kind of jerk boards an airplane, stranding his newlywed wife in an airport in Malaysia, because he thought she was taking too long in the bathroom?

In 2006, I wrote that "It's a Hollow Feeling This Fourth of July." Are we any better off this year? We haven't seen much tangible progress, but Bush and Cheney are gone and we do seem to be headed in the right direction, even if we are moving at a snail's pace.

So, yes, I'm going to celebrate. But I'm also not going to forget the freedoms we need to protect and defend, not just for our law-abiding citizens but for all who are living within our country, including those who continue to be detained at Guantanamo, who are languishing in our prisons, and who live in fear of being separated from their families and deported.

If you're looking for something to evoke a feeling of what today is about, here's one of my favorites:

What are your thoughts and plans this Independence Day? (Menu descriptions welcome.)

If you have something on your mind and aren't busy preparing to celebrate Independence Day (please folks, cherry bombs and M-60's [revolting video warning] are not toys -- be safe!), here's the place to express it.

Great tennis match underway between Serena Williams and Elena Dementieva in the womens semifinal at Wimbledon. Dementieva won the first set in a tie break and Williams up a break in the second. Well worth watching.

Serena wins the 2nd 7-5. Can Dementieva hold together emotionally? In the past she simply has not been mentally tough enough. We'll see.

Serena Williams wins, taking the 3rd set 8-6. Tremendous match.

This is an Open Thread.

Your turn.

One really great aspect of Al Franken becoming the junior Senator from Minnesota is it unhinges the crazies at the WSJ Editorial Board beyond their usual lunacy:

Mr. Franken now goes to the Senate having effectively stolen an election. If the GOP hopes to avoid repeats, it should learn from Minnesota that modern elections don't end when voters cast their ballots. They only end after the lawyers count them.

Allrighty then.

This is an Open Thread.

I've been stuck for two days trying to fix my Fujitsu "scansnap" scanner. A few weeks ago, it began scanning documents in 8.5 × 14 instead of 8.5 × 11, and the court told me they couldn't accept my attached filings that way. For some reason, the scanner software wouldn't open and I couldn't get into the program to change the setting. How do you even know who to call when these things happen?

After five uninstalls and reinstalls, I almost threw it out the window. The scanner still scans but the computer refused to recognize the software. Then I decided to use my HP all-in-one printer that has a scanner function but it wouldn't recognize my computer even though it's on the network. Since I wasn't about to throw two machines out the window, I went back to trying to uninstall and reinstall the Fujitsu software. About 4:00 this afternoon, after wasting about 8 hours on this, the scanner mysteriously reset itself to regular size pages. I still can't access the software but at least I can get my stuff scanned so I can file scanned documents with the court. What a waste of time.

Hope your Monday and Tuesday went better. Here's an open thread as I catch up on the news and watch Weeds and Nurse Jackie, both of which I missed last night. All topics welcome.

I think I have written enough about Ricci to last a lifetime.

Let's talk about something else. What's on your mind?

This is an Open Thread.