I've gotten tagged by the Blawg Review's La Meme Chose: Simply the Best. While they didn't name TalkLeft, others who got tagged did (thank you Law Sites and Deliberations) so now it's my turn.

Without further ado, here's my list of daily reads of blogs covering legal issues or blogging.

• Sentencing Law and Policy
• How Appealing
• Scotus Blog
• Balkanization
• Bench Conference
• WSJ Law Blog
• Stand Down Texas Project
• Drug War Rant
• Grits for Breakfast
• Real Lawyers Have Blogs

(Since LNILR contributes to TalkLeft, I'm not naming his Fourth Amendment blog -- or the blogs who named TalkLeft -- to avoid the appearance of favoritism and reciprocity.)

Honorable mention goes to Capital Defense Weekly, the DUI Blog, the White Collar Crime Blog and Think Outside the Cage.

There are many great law blogs out there and I hope you'll check all the lists going around.

There's quite a few new diaries on TalkLeft, I hope you will check them out and recommend those you like.

• Life Was His Sentence, Life Was What He Got Back

• Krugman, Economics and the Next Civil War

• Obama Begins His Offensive Against Hillary

• Phoenix Airport Fatality

• A Dominican Heroine

I just landed at O'Hare after a nine hour flight from Madrid and am waiting to change planes to get back to Denver.

One constant thought I've had since packing the night before I left: International travel is exceedingly overrated. Thanks to Lexis Nexis and Martindale Hubbell, all of the board members flew business class (first class on the domestic portions.) I flew Denver to Chicago on American and then Iberia Airlines to Madrid. Iberia was terrific, seats that converted to flat beds for sleep, electrical outlets, even excellent food and champagne. Once in Madrid we stayed at the five star Ritz -- elegant with a great location, across the street from the Prado Museum and Botanic Gardens.

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I get to celebrate my birthday today in Madrid which is pretty cool. Almost enough to make me forget I'm the same age as Bruce Springsteen and Barry Scheck (although still younger than Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.)

Have a great day everyone, and here's your open thread.

In the tpmcafe discussion of Matt Bai's new book,"The Argument," mcjoan writes one of the best pieces I've seen on what the Netroots is. A snippet:

Just about every lefty blogger I know came to online activism because of their core belief in a traditionally liberal governing philosophy. It's best summed up by Matt Stoller in response to Jonathon Chait's thoughtful look at the blogs in TNR from a few months ago.

Basically, we're a group of people who feel very betrayed by the leadership of our country, our media, and our party. We care about ideas because bad ideas implemented tend to kill lots of innocent people, and we don't like that. We are liberal because we believe in liberal ideas, and by and large, we've been proven correct. The Iraq war was a terrible idea. Bush has been a horrible President. Running on Iraq in 2006 was a good idea. Stopping Social Security privatization was possible and necessary. A 50 state strategy made sense because a wave election was foreseeable. Don't trust the telecom companies with the internet. Let's figure out this global warming thing.

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A big thanks to TChris and Big Tent for posting while I'm in Madrid.

The big news here is the military crackdown in Burma (now called Myanmar)in which Buddhist monks are being beaten and arrested. Eight people have been killed by police firing weapons into crowds of protesters. A Japanese journalist was also killed.

CNN keeps reporting that since journalists aren't being granted entry, it is getting its reporting from citizen journalists.

I'm off to our opening reception and dinner so here's an open thread for those of you with other topics to discuss.

Plane reading: The new Rolling Stone has an oral history of Hunter S. Thompson's early years by those who knew him then. It's great reading and available online here.

I liked a lot of the new diaries, but these stood out to me:

Will Life Imitate Art?, by Kristin Levingston of Brennan Blog, about a cop, Charles Crew, returning to the justice system that wrongly convicted him of murder, along with discussion other matters.

A Profile of Lula, by Randinho, discussing a NYTimes piece on the labor leader/political dissident who rose to become the President of Brazil.

A Systems Analysis of Iraq, by John Horse, discussing the an analytical systems approach to evaluating the Iraq failures.

More great stuff in the recommended and recent diary lists. Check it out.

I'm getting ready to leave leaving for Madrid for the annual Lexis-Nexis Legal Advisory Board meeting.

Big Tent Democrat, TChris and maybe LNILR will be posting in my absence, so be sure to check in. The Dems are debating tonight and Larry Craig's plea withdrawal hearing is today, and I'm pretty sure they will cover those as well as any other big news. We'll also do diary rescues, (details here) so feel free to contribute your own posts.

I'll be checking in occasionally. In the meantime, here's an open thread.

Update: For legal readers out there, if you have an opinion of what Lexis Nexis and/or Martindale Hubbell are doing right and what they need to improve, or are willing to share your perception of their value and service to your practice, please send me an e-mail. I won't share your name if you ask me not to. They really would like to know. (And I might get extra brownie points at the meeting.)

Today is the 50th Anniversary of the [forced] Integration of Little Rock's Central High. Streaming video starting at 10 am CT or earlier is available on the local ABC affiliate's website. It has been a topic of local news for more than a month, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has online (sub. req.) all of the newspapers from that time period. The former Arkansas Gazette won a Pulitzer for its reporting and editorials from that event. The weekly Arkansas Times with refuges from the Gazette has coverage as well.

It is a solemn occasion here, hardly a celebration in my view because of the black eye that 1957 created for this city thanks to former Gov. Orval Faubus, and all of the "Little Rock 9" are present. Their mentor, Daisy Gaston Bates, died years ago. Last night was a black tie dinner with former President Clinton, Jesse Jackson, and others in attendance. Five thousand seats are reserved for today, and we are wondering what national figures will show up.

Little Rock's Central High sits between 14th & 15th Streets and Park on two square blocks. 14th Street was changed to Daisy Gaston Bates Street many years ago. Without her keeping the students strong, it would never would have happened.

Christy at Firedoglake writes about Newt Gingrich's lastest announcement that if he can raise $30 million in the next three weeks, he'll hop in the presidential race seeking the Republican nomination.

Perhaps Newt thinks his marital history won't matter. Before examining his political record, let's take a look back at his personal story. From a post I wrote in 2002, Republican Sexual Hypocrisy:

In 1981, Newt dumped his first wife, Jackie Battley, for Marianne, wife number 2, while Jackie was in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment. Marianne and Newt divorced in December, 1999 after Marianne found out about Newt's long-running affair with Callista Bisek, his one-time congressional aide. Gingrich asked Marianne for the divorce by phoning her on Mother's Day, 1999. [Source: New York Post, July 18, 2000, Newt's Ex Wife Aiming to Pen Book by Bill Sanderson, available on lexis].

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Fall weekends are my favorite. While it's still summer-like weather here, the leaves are beginning to turn and I'm heading outdoors.

If you're online, here's a place for you.

Also, check out our new Diaries:

• Randinho, Weldon Calls it Quits.
• Geekesque, The Vote That Counted
• LarryE, Are You Shocked

Chris Bowers writes:

[T]he current conservative governing coalition of George Bush, Bush Dogs, congressional Republicans, and anti-MoveOn, anti-Reid Feingold Senators is opposed to the will of 60% of the American people on Iraq.

This conflation of criticism of Move On's ill advised ad (which is, I suppose, what Bowers is referring to; I condemn Move On for the ad and for its efforts to support the horrible Iraq Supplemental this Spring (Bowers also supported at times) and for its silly waste of a "ratchet up the pressure"/Wait for the Godot Republicans strategy this summer) withsupport for continuation of the war is ridiculous.

And it is unfortunate that Chris chose to demand fealty to Move On in this post as he makes a point of mine of longstanding - there is no compromise on Iraq. The choices now are binary - are you for ending the Iraq War? Then support ONLY funding with timelines. Anything else is de facto support for continuation of the Iraq Debacle.