Writing in The Hill, Kos brings a welcome antidote to the Netroots Identity Crisis:

D.C. is a funny place. No one seems to have gotten that resounding message, certainly not Bush and the new Republican minority. More surprisingly, Democrats also failed to get the message. On issue after issue, the Democratic norm has been to capitulate to the slightest pressure from the GOP. And while the public has meted record-low approval ratings for this Congress in response, the lesson apparently remains unlearned. Whether it’s Iraq funding or the Michael Mukasey confirmation, Democrats continue to give away the store without receiving any concessions in return. It’s a one-way street in a town that has ceded Article I of the Constitution for a unitary, non-compromising executive. The public is sick of this administration’s betrayals. Why aren’t Democrats?

Hear! Hear!

At Daily Kos, Welshman provides strong evidence that he misunderstands the only effective role the Netroots can play to promote progressivism. He bemoans the mean attacks on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, arguing, more or less, that she is doing the best she can.

MORE on why Welshman is wrong on the other side.

I'm not quite ready to drive down the mountain yet. Until I get home tonight, here's an open thread for you. And a picture of the peacock who lives in the house I'm staying at.

I see there's a new attack on the Eagles' new album for promoting fear about global warming and not attacking islamo-fascism.

There's a Wal-Mart in Glenwood Springs I have to pass on the way to I-70. I think I'll stop in and buy it for the ride home and see for myself.

I've decided to spend my extra hour driving to the mountains. If I don't turn my clocks back till I get there, I'll make it to Aspen in 2 1/2 hours instead of 3 1/2. Pretty cool.

What are you doing with your extra hour?

Here's an open thread to discuss what's in the news, on the blogs or on your mind.

Question: How can bloggers support the writers' strike? If federal mediation attempts fail today, it starts tomorrow. 300 strike captains are ready to go. Why? It's the money.

Guild members are being asked to sign up for a shift beginning at 9 a.m. or 1 p.m. and will be given signs, chants and red T-shirts emblazoned with "United We Stand" when they arrive on site, captains said. Each member is expected to picket four hours every day. Of the guild's 12,000 members, about 8,000 are in WGA West, with the remainder in WGA East, which plans to picket in New York.

Many of the members will picket outside the studios in which the shows they were working on are made, while others will be assigned to locations based on where they live.

The Writers Guild of America (West) site is here.

Okay, that's my Sully recognizing name for Kevin Drum's Worst Blog Post of All Time Contest:

All-Time Wingnuttiest Blog Post Contest (Choose up to 5)

Ann Althouse: "Let's take a closer look at those breasts."

. . . MORE

I wrote this piece for the Guardian America's online Comment if Free on the Rightroots. A highlight:

While the liberal blogosphere, or netroots, has had a very rocky transition due to Democrats gaining the majority in Congress, its conservative counterpart, the rightroots, has had a similarly difficult time transitioning from supporting a Republican party in control of Congress to trying to discover a new agenda. Truth be told, the rightroots has been flailing, trying to discover the new kerning scandal while doing the usual cheerleading for President Bush's Iraq debacle. It reached a nadir when senator Mitch McConnell's office sent them on the noxious attack against 12-year-old Graeme Frost and his family on the S-Chip issue.

How about another open thread today as I have court all morning and yesterday's is filling up.

To get you started (but feel free to pick other topics):

• Hollywood writers say they will strike. TalkLeft has some readers who are Hollywood writers. We fully support you. Let us know how we can help. The Writers' Guild Site is here.

• Iran: Hillary and 29 Senators write a letter, Obama goes his own way and introduces legislation. Thoughts on the difference between the two approaches? Will either restrain our unitary executive?

• "American Gangster" is a hit.

• Resurrect the DREAM Act (but don't count on the Democrats to do it.)

• Chris Dodd writes about the questions the candidates should have been asked during the debate.

• Arianna on Rudy's Testosterone Binge

[Cross-posted earlier today at Firedoglake.com]

Finally, a little relief is at hand for the vastly disparate and draconian crack cocaine sentences meted out by federal courts. New federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine offenses went into effect today.

Starting today, many offenders sentenced in federal court for crack will receive a sentence about 16 months less than they would have yesterday.

By way of background, through mandatory minimum sentencing laws, the Feds have punished crack crimes far more severely than those involving powder cocaine. The U.S. Sentencing Commission followed suit by enacting guidelines that matched the mandatory minimums.

A crime involving five grams of crack cocaine carries a mandatory sentence of five years in prison, and 50 grams carries a 10-year penalty. However, it takes 500 and 1,000 grams of powdered cocaine to trigger the same five and 10 year sentences.

More....

Some days, no matter how much time I spend blogging, there are topics I don't get to. Happily, others do. This is an open thread, and if you're looking for some good stuff to read, here's a start:

• The Higazy case: Cover-up: FBI Threatens Suspect's Family with Torture, with a well-deserved hat-tip to How Appealing's Howard Bashman. I would just add that I wish Hizazy's original lawyer, Robert Dunn, was alive to see the result. R.I.P Robert.

• Omar Kadhr update on the Guantanamo prosecutor who recently quit. My last post on Omar is here, one with more case background is here and one on the quitting of Gitmo prosecutor Morris Davis is here.

• Marcy of Next Hurrah typed her fingers off live-blogging the FISA hearings on Firedoglake and then updated on the WSJ op-ed supporting telecom immunity, noting Big Tent's post on that here.

More...

I think I've stumbled on to Sully's problem with Hillary:

I think I've stumbled onto something that might explain why [Hillary] doesn't have more support from [some] Democrats, and it is actually somewhat disturbing. I work with a mid 20something [man] who is definitely on the way left of most issues, and he is not [Hillary] supporter . . . . Much of h[is] lack of support for [Hillary] seems to boil down to one major point: [H]e doesn't believe this country is ready to elect a [woman.]

This exercise is merely to demonstrate how easy it is to ignore the criticisms made against Obama OR Hillary and accuse critics of racism or sexism.

Coming from Mr. Bell Curve himself, the irony drips. He is incapable of addressing the arguments made, attacks on those who disagree with him is all he knows. I do not mind the attacks so much, I can dish it myself, but it would be nice if an answer to the actual criticisms made were also offered. But it would be foolish to expect that from Mr. Fifth Column (I got a million of em for Sully.)

Matt Yglesias smugly writes:

This is a presidential primary after all. Chris Dodd's already won my vote for Senate Majority Leader should the position come open. It seems to me that Obama needs to convince people that he would have a different, better Iran policy were he too become president and not that he has a better view of how he hypothetically would have handled Senate votes were he to have actually been in DC on the day of the vote.

I find that comment smugly . . . well, stupid. Obama, a sitting Senator, "needs to convince people that he would have a different, better Iran policy" and his performance as SENATOR is deemed irrelevant to that persuasion by Yglesias. I mean, honestly. Is Yglesias really such a believer in position papers that actual POSITIONS taken in ACTUAL VOTES are deemed irrelevant by him? I'm sorry, that is just irritatingly ignorant it seems to me.

On top of it all, Yglesias seems ignorant of the fact the Clinton campaign was pointing out - that Obama (and yes, my man Dodd too) favored designating the Iran Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization in the Fall of 2006, making their criticism of Clinton's vote on Kyl-Lieberman a bit nonsensical. But of course, if your view is that what someone does as Senator is irrelevant to their Presidential campaign, then it makes its own twisted sense. But then, you have to ignore Clinton's (and Dodd's) vote in favor of war with Iraq in 2002. But then, Yglesias favored the Iraq War at the time. So his position maybe does make sense for him.

I'm going to be spending the remainder of this beautiful fall day at the jail. If you're online and have something to say, please go right ahead.

We also have a few new diaries up:

♦ It's the Messenger - and the Method
♦ Introducing the SquareState Small Donor Committee
♦ Omnipotence and the War In Iraq