24's Kiefer Sutherland left the Glendale City Jail after serving 48 days for his latest DUI conviction.

Sutherland -- the star of Fox television's drama, "24" -- has spent his sentence cleaning sheets, pillowcases and blankets on laundry duty, Balian told The Associated Press on Friday.

"He was very humble, never complained," Balian said. "He didn't give us any problems at all."

Here's a short video of Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee sharing a pew and singing today at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Here's a live-stream of the service which is still going on. Clinton acknowledged Huckabee in his remarks:

He acknowledged a litany of people, before beginning his remarks on MLK, including his “fellow Arkansan, and a competitor for the presidential nomination. Governor Huckabee welcome.”

” We worked together for several years on something that concerns everybody in this church: trying to turn the tide on childhood obesity, and childhood diabetes,”Clinton said.”A good man.”But he also said that they didn’t agree much on anything.

I hope we all take a few minutes today to reacquaint ourselves with the extraordinary wisdom, vision and passion of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Some of my favorites:

• A one-minute video that features excerpts from Dr. King's 1967 speech, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence , April 4, 1967, Riverside Church, New York City, amidst images of King, Vietnam, Bush, Iraq and more.

• Letter From Birmingham Jail (pdf), April 16, 1963

• I've Been to the Mountaintop: April 3, 1968. Dr. King's last speech, the day before his assassination, in support of the striking Memphis sanitation workers.

No word yet on how this will affect the striking Hollywood writers, but the film and TV directors have settled with the motion picture industry.

Hollywood’s movie and television directors agreed Thursday afternoon to a new contract with production companies. The accord would appear to send a none-too-subtle message to striking screenwriters: This is not the time to get hung up on new media.

Some deal terms below:

No blogging for me today. 5:00 am wake-up calls just don't agree with me and before court this morning, I had a 6:00 am conference call that lasted over an hour.

This thread is for those who want a break from all the primary and election coverage. What else is going on out there?

I'll be in court most of the day and off-line. For those looking for a place to share news and thoughts about matters other than the presidential race and politics, here's a thread for you.

I've received a few e-mails asking me when the blog is going to resume coverage of crime and injustice issues. A typical complaint:

There are civil liberties violations, judicial
decisions, the conviction and death of the
innocent...Isn't that worth a little discussion?

Here's the response I just sent to the sender of the most recent one.

In the past two days, I've written posts about the sixth anniversary of Guantanamo detentions and the ACLU's "close Guantanamo" campaign, yesterday's federal court decision throwing out four detainees' lawsuits against Rumsfeld and other military officials, Marion Jones being sentenced to 6 months for lying about steroid use, O.J. Simpson's arrest and jailing pending a bail revocation hearing, a federal judge's decision to stop a planned deportation to Egypt because of possible torture there, delays in implementing the Real ID Act, a PA exonerated death row inmate who will receive $4 million compensation, and the Supreme Court oral arguments in the Voter ID law case.

I don't think I've ever left the topics of crime and injustice. There's just additional coverage of the primaries now, because it's primary season.

Suggestion: If you think the coverage is all political, just scroll down the front page of 15 posts and if you want more, click on the link to the previous 15 posts. You'll see it is not. We just write a lot here.

We haven't had an open thread yet this week and I'm off to court for the afternoon.

You pick the topics, all are welcome, and I'll be back late this afternoon or tonight.

Update: Bill Richardson will hold a press conference at the N.M. state capitol at 3pm ET. Hope someone writes what he said in the comments.

Update: Something else I wanted to mention, given the new group of frequent commenters here. TalkLeft does have diaries, and you'd like to write one, you can e-mail me to change your user permissions to "diarist." When we get a few posted, I do a "diary rescue" (like this) to bring greater attention to them. As for diary rules, they are below:

Speaking for me only.

Barack Obama is the strong frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. His smashing win in Iowa has been the catalyst. In the RCP average, he holds and 8 point lead over Clinton and a 19 point lead over Edwards. His path is clear. Win New Hampshire big. Roll the big Mo to South Carolina and and then hold the upper hand on Super Tuesday February 5.

Hillary Clinton has a conceivable path to the nomination. Run close to Obama in New Hampshire (if she keeps it within 5, I think she can spin it to a draw maybe), perform well in South Carolina and beat Obama on Super Tuesday. I think the chances are slim of any one of these things happening, let alone all of them.

John Edwards has no conceivable path to the nomination in my view. Even if he has a miracle second in New Hampshire, Obama will have buried him. Moreover Obama is already the change candidate and Edwards' reluctance to go after Obama, both in Iowa and in New Hampshire, demonstrated to me at least, that Edwards really is not running for President, he is just running against Clinton.

More . .

Iowa is behind us. This was a great experience and I want to thank the readers who sent in donations to help with the cost. (It was expensive.)

I won't be going to New Hampshire but Big Tent and I will blog about it anyway.

I'll also be returning to blogging about crime and injustice issues.

I'm leaving for the airport now. I have to say, cold as it was, Iowa is a fine place to visit with very nice people. It was a pleasure to be here.

This is an open thread, all topics.

Update [2008-1-4 12:7:33 by Big Tent Democrat]: Jeralyn did a fantastic job giving us on the ground coverage. I think we owe her some support for her great efforts. I urge you to contribute to TalkLeft to thank Jeralyn for her wonderful efforts.

Most of you probably aren't old enough to remember the movie Wild in the Streets, about a politician running for Congress on the platform "Never Trust Anyone Over 30."

The Hillary and Obama events today in Cedar Rapids and Coralville made me think of the film, because the caucuses are shaping up to be a battle between the middle-aged and geriatric vs. the young. And then, there's Edwards, whose support of the working person and the poor encompasses all age groups.

More....

I'll be watching college football the rest of the day. I am not sure when J will check in.

Go Gators!

This is an Open Thread.

Update [2008-1-1 18:23:53 by Big Tent Democrat]: Hail To The Victors.