The National Journal has an interesting new site for folks to test their political prognosticating skills:

Welcome to National Journal's Political Stock Exchange. From now until Election Day '08 NJPSE is the best destination where you can test your political prognostication prowess ... for free! Sign up now and you can be using your 10,000 NJPSE fantasy dollars (NJ$) to compete with other politicos in minutes. By tapping into the most advanced prediction market on the web, Intrade.com, NJPSE lets you buy and sell contracts whose 'price' (always between 0-100) represents the percentage likelihood a given outcome will occur. Think Fred Thompson's rocky rollout has doomed his candidacy? Has Hsu sunk Hillary Clinton? Then sell! Sell! Sell! Do you believe John Edwards can ride an IA victory to Denver? You think John McCain's 'No Surrender' tour can win him NH? Then buy! Buy! Buy! . . .

Could be fun. Check it out.

I'll be in court most of the day, so here's an open thread for you. There's lots of good reading out today. Some things to check out:

• Huffington Post has added a new section, Living Now. Check out the post in the Mind, Body and Soul section by Dr. Timothy Brantly, highly praised by Howie Klein and Jane Hamsher

• Jason Leopold at Truthout reports the Senate Ethics Committee probe of Sen. Domenici is intensifying.

• I have an op-ed in the Washington Examiner today, TV Payback Time for O.J., criticizing those who think he should go to jail as some kind of karmic justice.

More...

A federal judge in Tennessee has ruled the state's death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

The protocol "presents a substantial risk of unnecessary pain" and violates inmate Edward Jerome Harbison's constitutional protections, U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger said.

The new protocol, released in April, does not ensure that inmates are properly anesthetized before the lethal injection is administered, Trauger said, which could "result in a terrifying, excruciating death."

For more on how the current cocktail of drugs fails to assure a pain-free death see the Human Rights Watch Report, So Long as They Die and this article submitted to TalkLeft in 2004, You Wouldn't Do a Dog This Way.

For more news coverage of the opinion, see the Stand Down Texas Project.

Update: Here are my photos of President Clinton taken this afternoon in Boulder.

*****

I may have a touch of the Norman Hsu political groupie syndrome. While I didn't bundle any money to attend, I'm off to see Bill Clinton at a Hillary fundraiser in Boulder -- even though it means I have to drive 60 miles afterwards to see a client in jail.

Here's an open thread.

I'll leave you with a quote from Judge Mukasey contained from an article, New York's Federal Judges Protest Sentencing Procedures (The New York Times December 8, 2003, available on Lexis.com) about the Feeney Amendment that raised criminal sentences, limited the ability of Judges to impose downward departures and imposed a reporting requirement on judges who granted downward departures. The report was to be submitted by the Chief Judge and made available to members of Congress.

More...

I've already got a full day's worth of blog posts up. Time to let you take over, while I head outdoors.

Check out the recent diaries and don't forget to hit the "recommend" button for those you like.

• Randinho in Coming to America - Two Tales and Two Methods on a terrible recent immigration death in the desert.

• Michael Gass has several, his latest is The Bush Middle East Oil Gambit.

• Scribe has a diary, If I Were President.

If you'd like to write a diary on TalkLeft, whether as cross-posts or new material, here's the basics.

In the ridiculous item of the day category, who smuggled underpants to two detainees at Guantanamo? The military wants to know. They accused the detainees' defense lawyers who adamently deny being involved.

Both prisoners were caught wearing Under Armour briefs and one also had on a Speedo bathing suit, items the military said were not issued by Guantanamo personnel or sent through the regular mail, according to a Defense Department letter obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

A spokesman at Gitmo, Army Lt. Col. Ed Bush says this is a very big deal.

"There is no room for error when working in a dangerous environment, and constant vigilance is of the utmost importance," Bush said.

More...

I'm not one to pick a fight (you can stop laughing now), but I do have a bone to pick with Matt Stoller's critique of critiques of Move On's ill advised "BetrayUs" ad. Matt writes:

[This] tut-tut message from a liberal wonk, an email by Rachel Kleinfeld of the Truman Project that actually encourages progressive veterans to write to military journals and denounce Moveon (thank God wonks can't organize). . . . MORE

I'm off to drive to this lovely prison on the other side of the state, away from the mountains, towards Kansas.

Here's an open thread for you.

In the diary rescue department, check out this new one on the Move-On ad by veteran Michael Gass, and Scribe's on Larry Craig's motion to withdraw his plea.

I'll be back tonight.

Speaking only for me of course

I have not been shy about the need to demythologize General Petraeus as the "honest broker" who will provide an independent assessment of the Surge. I wrote:

[T]his is not meant to doubt General Petraeus' integrity or competence. It is meant to treat him for what he is - not an infallible disinterested observer, but a soldier who believes he can accomplish an impossible mission and will view events in a manner that most favors that belief. This is to be expected from ALL human beings

What I must condemn is the use of the phrase "General Betrayus" by Move On in its ad today in the New York Times. This inexcusable use of the detestable Republican tactic of labelling those who disagree with you as "traitors" is something I have long objected to and I must, in good conscience, strongly condemn Move On's use of this deplorable tactic. Moreover, not only was this morally contemptible, it was political idiocy as the coverage of the ad clearly demonstrated. There is a way to take on the Petraeus myth. Glenn Greenwald demonstrated how to do it. And he is featured here showing how again:

Open Left has a petition you should sign.

Big Tent Democrat will be live-blogging Gen. Petraeus' testimony before Congress in other threads today.

For those of you who want to discuss other issues, here's an open thread.

Diary Rescue: Check out:

• Geekesque's diary, Obama to reboot his Iraq policy and rhetoric.

• Randinho (of Beautiful Horizens)'s diary, When Will They Learn Volume XX

• John Horse writing How Bush Used Lt Cmdr Speicher

Also check out the pix of some of your favorite bloggers partying in LA this weekend. Jane identifies them in comment #26.

I'll be waiting for Larry Craigs' plea withdrawal filing to hit the internet so I can parse it and give my opinion.

Media types are busy speculating who Al Gore will endorse in 2008. He has said he expects to make an endorsement before the primaries.

No one expects Gore to endorse Hillary. I suspect he will endorse Obama, who has been campaigning for his endorsement (as have John Edwards and Chris Dodd. Neither Hillary, Biden nor Richardson have met with Dodd.)

In 2004, Gore endorsed Howard Dean. A month later, Dean was history.

Does Gore's endorsement matter? As much or more than Oprah's?

If you're by a computer today and have something to say, here's a place.

If you'd like to post a diary, cross-posting is fine,I'll be back later to add a link here. Basic rules for diarists are here. If you don't yet have "diarist" status on TalkLeft, send me an e-mail and I'll adjust your permissions.

From the past few days:

• Take the damn ball, Obama by Geekesque

• Gore Says Yes On Protests: Study Shows Effectiveness by Patriot Daily

What I'm thinking about today: Oprah's fund-raising for Obama. Does she have enough clout to sway an election? What do you think?