I'm at the airport, heading back to Denver (slowly, having to change planes in Chicago) from rural Connecticut where I've spent the last five days with Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake and her three big poodles, Kobe, Lucy and Katie.

Jane is amazing. She is an eternal optimist and determined to get as much joy out of every day as she can, despite her cancer, which I'm convinced she is going to beat. We walked up and down the long winding hilly road to her house for 60 minutes every day. We cooked and ate only the freshest fish, greens, fruits and vegetables. She looks as gorgeous as always, has a strong appetite, laughs a lot and was great company. If I didn't have a day job, I would have stayed longer.

The dogs are incredibly smart, sensitive, respectful and loving. I'm going to miss them.

We didn't see much news, the days just kind of flew by, so here's another open thread to bring us all up to speed.

I should be back to regular blogging Tuesday or Wednesday.

There's good news over at Captain's Quarters. Ed's wife (the First Mate) has had a successful kidney transplant. She and the donor are doing fine. Ed's been blogging through the surgery to relieve the stress. Go on over and send some good wishes.

Hillary Clinton raked it in this quarter.

Shattering previous records, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton collected $26 million for her presidential campaign during the first three months of the year and transferred an additional $10 million from her Senate fundraising account, aides said Sunday. The New York senator's total included $4.2 million raised through the Internet.

The amount outdistanced past presidential election records and set a high bar by which to measure the fundraising abilities of her chief rivals.

I wonder how Rudy Giuliani did.

Update: John Edwards raised $14 million.

I'm still hanging out with Jane in Connecticut. I don't know where the hours go, but there hasn't been much time for blogging. We're just now sitting on the couch for the first time all day, turning the tv on to see the news, and logging on to check our e-mails. The poodles are great. By the time I leave on Monday, I'll be able to tell Lucy from Katie (Kobe's easier, he's taller.)

As always, thanks to Big Tent and TChris for blogging while I'm away. And say hello to two new blogs:

• JusticeLA

A new social justice site with a (nominal) grant from the USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism and

• Sparkmeter:

The concept of the site is that users submit news and everyone ranks the recent news as having a left-leaning bias, right-leaning bias, or objective. The most active news rises to the top. Users are also given the ability to rate other users as left, right, or objective. (think digg/reddit but for political news)

This is also an open thread.

More....

The GSA political scandal produces high hilarity.

Anyone who has taken a deposition has seen this approach before by a witness, but I never understood how anyone would try it in a public hearing. I love her put upon attitude, as if there could be nothing wrong with it. A strange performance. Some more fun here.

Via Atrios, via Yglesias, Karen Tumulty has a question:

What is a "concern troll"?

Atrios and commenters provide the answer. What other questions should be answered on blogging lingo? I imagine you know what a "purity troll" is by now. And you are all aware of the the "pimping" and "whoring" rampant in the blogs. A veritable Sodom, not to mention Gomorrah.

I claim authorship of one term, but I think both the term and the practice really has not caught on - "linky thread." This is an Open Thread that contains links to other posts from other blogs that you feel merit attention. Now a staple at daily kos and other sites.

My favorite insidery blog phrase was "Holden gets a pony." I think everyone knows that story, but if you do not, Google and Wikipedia have it. Just kidding, one of the leading atriots, NTodd, quoting athenae, explained:

I'm off to Connecticut today to hang out with Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake. I'll be staying with her through Monday, as she continues her battle with breast cancer.

We planned the visit while in D.C. at the Scooter Libby trial. I'm really looking forward to it. Jane is an inspiration, a warrior and a total trooper. She's going to win this battle.

Except for Wednesday and Monday which are travel days, I'll be blogging here as usual. Big Tent Democrat, TChris and Last Night in Little Rock will be here in my absence, as their schedules allow.

Let's start the day off with an open thread, where you can all weigh in with what's on your mind. I'll be following along as internet access allows.

I'll be live-blogging the Joseph Nacchio insider trading trial for 5280 this afternoon. There's a lot of posts up here already today, but in case you want more, here's an open thread.

There will also be an open thread tomorrow since it's a travel day for me.

I'm heading over to court and 5280.com to blog the Joseph Nacchio trial proceedings. Big Tent is out of pocket today. TChris or Last Night may stop in, but in case not, here's a place for you to bring everyone up to speed on the news and your thoughts.

Bump and Update: The LA Times is on the three fired U.S. Attorneys who opposed the death penalty.

Original Post:

Fired Margaret Chiara and the Death Penalty

On February 24, I wrote about the possibility Michigan U.S. Attorney Margaret Chiara was fired because of her anti-death penalty beliefs.

Quoting the Washington Post,

Chiara -- who had once studied to be a nun -- is personally opposed to capital punishment....Another of the fired U.S. attorneys, Paul K. Charlton of Phoenix, also clashed with Washington over the death penalty.

The Washington Post today has more on Chiara's firing and it isn't pretty for the White House. She was well-respected by the judges, federal prosecutors and defense lawyers in her district.

More...

As always the invective in this post is solely attributable to me

George Will uses unacceptable invective:

There are the tantrums -- sometimes both theatrical and perfunctory -- of talking heads on television or commentators writing in vitriol (Paul Krugman's incessant contempt, Ann Coulter's equally constant loathing).

Did George Will just compare Paul Krugman to Ann Coulter? To write that, Will must have been very angry, temporarily insane or just plain mendacious.

A new low for George Will. He thinks he is being clever in his vitriol towards Krugman. Foolishly angry George Will.

TalkLeft has been loading really slowly for me today. Colin at Scoophost says,

"There appear to be issues with a router owned by Time Warner, one of the upstream network providers through which you may access this site. The connectivity is fully redundant so only a small percentage of visitors will experience problems with some percentage of their requests. We are actively pursuing a resolution to this issue."

Update from Time Warner below: