Law.com has a long article today on Google's hiring practices when it comes to in-house lawyers.

Finding the right sort of lawyer to fit Google's playful ethos yet steely business sense is -- judging by the army of recruiters assigned to the job -- a challenge. This is not due to a lack of any interest on the part of candidates, according to Jones, but because it takes a very particular sort of person to fit the Google mould.

....Prospective Google lawyers can expect up to 15 interviews, including one with one of the company's founders, as a final hurdle before getting the job.

Over the past year, Jones, who reports to U.S.-based general counsel Kent Walker, has conducted a lengthy search for new members of the team and is now hunting for the right lawyers for Google's Amsterdam, Madrid, Zurich, Milan and Moscow arms, establishing a legal function in all these major European cities.

A few months ago I wrote about the Google hiring perks and checked their website. I couldn't find a single job, legal or otherwise, I was remotely qualified for. Maybe you'll have better luck.

atrios liked this from Stoller:

Also, while I'm doing a bit of ranting, stupid articles on what the 'netroots' does or does not do, such as this one, or this one, to take but two examples, that ignore the fact that no top-tier Democrat differs from Clinton on Iraq, are really really stupid. . . . [T]he blogosphere is [not] some top-down organization with centralized management that controls the Democratic party leadership rather than a network of people with somewhat highly trafficked websites held in mild disdain by most Democrats on the Hill with any decision-making authority or useful information. Although to be fair to the previous two really stupid articles, the latter two stupid articles were pretty stupid.

I wrote one of the "stupid" articles referenced. I think Stoller missed my point. I could not care less if the Netroots unites behind any Presidential candidate or blasts away at Hillary. Stoller defends himself by saying Hillary should be opposed (I guess.) He may be right but that is not my beef. Indeed, my complaint has been that the Netroots spends too much time talking about the 2008 presidential election and not enough time talking about the issues of 2007. In fact, I wrote:

Kudos to Markos and Daily Kos. The FEC issued an important ruling today, finding that blogs are media and like all media since 1974, media activity has been explicitly exempted from federal campaign finance regulation:

The Federal Election Commission announced today that it has unanimously resolved two complaints alleging that Internet blog activity is subject to Commission regulation, finding that the activity is exempt from regulation under the media or volunteer exemption.

In Matter Under Review (MUR) 5928, the Commission determined that Kos Media, L.L.C., which operates the website DailyKos, did not violate the Federal Election Campaign Act. The Commission rejected allegations that the site should be regulated as a political committee because it charges a fee to place advertising on its website and it provides “a gift of free advertising and candidate media services” by posting blog entries that support candidates. The Commission determined that the website falls squarely within the media exemption and is therefore not subject to federal regulation under the Act.

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(Photo of Haymarket Square, Chicago, 1886)

Blawg Review has a Labor Day Special Historical Edition. Here's the criminal law bloggers section.

Diary Rescue: Thanks to Edger and Andgarden for posting these new diaries:

• Can The Iraq Occupation Be Ended Before The 2008 Elections?

• "Odd Couple" or Ineffective Couple?

This may be the best Keith Richards compilation I've seen yet. I can't believe he was ever that young. Watch the whole thing.

Who cares what one critic in Sweden thinks?

Bump and Update: For those of you hanging out online this weekend, here's a new open thread.

And don't forget we're seeking new diarists this weekend.

We have three new diaries today, two written by AndGarden and one by Denver journalist Dave Cullen, all well worth reading.

• Still Blackmailing Homos
• The House, Not the Senate Will Win the War
• Matt Bai, Michiko Kakutani, and the Netroots

Please read them, and if you like them, hit the "recommend button."

TalkLeft is seeking new diarists this week. Details here.

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Inspector General Glenn Fine has responded by letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy and informed him that his office is investigating whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was truthful during his Senate testimony about the firing of U.S. Attorneys, the warrantless surveillance program and other issues.

Senator Leahy has issued this response:

"I am pleased that Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine will look into my concerns about potentially false, misleading or inappropriate testimony by the Attorney General. I look forward to the Inspector General's findings on the unprecedented firings of nine United States Attorneys, the improper political hiring of career officials within the Justice Department, the misuse of National Security Letters, and the efforts to bypass the Department's finding that a warrantless surveillance program was without legal basis.

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Say hello to Texas Prison Bid'ness... a blog about the private prison industry in Texas.

Their post today:

Willacy County Commissioners approved an additional $50.1 million in revenue bonds to expand the notorious MTC Tent City detention center. According to the Valley Morning News, the detention center, a series of tent-like structures made of windowless Kevlar pods that already has capacity to hold 2,000 ICE detainees, will expand by 1,000 beds.

What's it mean? The county will troll for inmates.

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Labor Day weekend is fast approaching. Blog traffic will be down with so many people taking advantage of the outdoors and symbolic end of summer.

I'll be blogging on a curtailed basis, and I'm not sure about Big Tent. TChris is on vacation. LNILR is free to chime in as always, but I don't know his plans either.

I'd like to see if diaries can fill the void. The problem is that they don't get enough attention. To correct that, what I'll do starting tonight (if there are any) is a "Diary Rescue" post like Daily Kos does. I'll read the diaries and then, in a blog post every night through Sunday, post links to those I think TalkLeft readers would enjoy reading.

If you blog elsewhere, you're welcome to cross-post here in a diary. Just note that it's been cross-posted at your site and hot-link your site. Hopefully, you'll get some extra traffic.

On diary topics, please make them relevant to the issues on TalkLeft -- elections, politics of crime, crime in politics, war, civil liberties, etc. The economy and environment, while important, are not TalkLeft topics. Yes, they should represent a progressive point of view. Conservatives have their own sites to post on.

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It's time for the Tuesday open thread. You're on your own here this afternoon.

Some things I'm following:

• The only officer to be charged in the Abu Ghraib scandal has been acquitted of all charges except failing to comply with a directive not to talk about the matter.

• ABC News reports Sen. Larry Craig will hold a presser this afternoon. My prediction: He won't run for re-election.

• MSNBC names some replacements for Gonzales, quoting a source close to the White House source as saying George J. Terwilliger III is looking good.

• Texas plans to execute Kenneth Foster Thursday even though he didn't kill anyone. The Dallas Morning News explains. Visit FreeKenneth and the NCADP action alert page and try to stop this wrongful execution.

I'm up in Vail, about to head out the door for an invigorating hike. It's gorgeous outside.

For those of you inside, here's an open thread.