[I'll be bumping this to the top for a few days. Thanks to all who have contributed, I'll be sending thank you emails soon.]

I'm leaving Denver Sunday to attend and live-blog the Scooter Libby trial Monday and Tuesday (Jan. 29 and 30) in Washington, D.C., with a press pass graciously provided by Firedoglake. I'll be live-blogging on their site and cross-posting here.

I'll be returning to D.C. on Feb. 19 to live-blog the trial Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (Feb. 20-22)with a press pass from MediaBloggers.org

I'm not being paid for my blogging. I will be paying for these trips (not to mention losing seven working days from my day job.)

The travel expenses will amount to about $1,500.00 for both trips. While contributions from everyone who appreciates TalkLeft are welcome, I'm hoping that particularly you lurkers out there who read TalkLeft almost every day but don't comment or usually contribute, will chip in to help me recoup some of the expenses.

If you'd rather donate anonymously, please use Amazon here.

As always, thanks in advance. Your generosity is really appreciated. As an added incentive, the top three donors will get a free TalkLeft 4th Amendment Subway Tote.

A big thanks to TChris and Big Tent Democrat for posting the past few days while I've been at a seminar in Miami. I'll be home late tonight and back to regular posting Sunday at some point.

If we haven't covered your topic du jour in a few days, here's some space for you.

Finally, an open thread this week. It's a travel day for me, flying across the country. It will be late tonight before I see an internet connection again.

Hopefully TChris or Big Tent Democrat will have something to say, so feel free to check during the day. Some other stuff:

• Scribe has a new diary on current events in Germany and the culture of fear that he ties into our government's war on terror.

• Is That Legal has a a World-War-II counterexample to Cully Stimson's outrageous argument about the lawyers representing the Guantanamo detainees.

• Talking Dog has an interview with H. Candace Gorman, a Chicago based Civil Rights lawyer now representing two North Africans detained at Guantanamo, including one who the U.S. military itself deemed not an enemy combatant, a ruling overruled by the Pentagon higher-ups

• For all things Libby, check out Firedoglake.

• On a romantic note, check out Farrfeed's beautiful anniversary post.

Jane Hamsher, of Firedoglake, is not only an unbelievable blogger who has put together one of the best, brightest and most thoughtful blog communities on the Internets, she's an incredibly humble human being.

Please go give her some blog love as she reveals today she is about to undergo surgery for her third bout with breast cancer. And don't forget to read the 500 comments posted so far. What a community the blogosphere is.

No one has covered the Valerie Plame and Scooter Libby investigations more than Jane. Her insights and writing ability on all Plame topics have been unparalleled in the blogosphere.

How cruel that she worked for months to secure the only in courtroom press pass awarded to a blogger in the Libby trial, as well as a media courtroom pass, arranged for the FDL crew to have a house in D.C. while covering the trial, and now she can't be there because she's going in for surgery.

The only good news is that she expects to fully recover, and get this because it's pure Jane, anticipates being in D.C. to cover the trial beginning Feb. 4.

You go, Jane. You're not only a survivor, but a winner. My hat is off to you. Take care of yourself, listen to your doctors, and I hope to see you in D.C. in February.

At TPM Cafe, Matt Stoller kicked off a discussion about the nature of the Netroots. May chose to contrast it to the 1960s New Left. I don't see it that way. First, I am a Centrist Democrat who believes in a Big Tent and frankly, do not agree with many of my friends in the Netroots. A few examples: I think Atrios is wrong about Desert Storm; I never got so worked up about the Bankruptcy bill; I am a free trader. But I think I am part of the same Netroots as Stoller. So what are the ties that bind?

Ed Kilgore hints at some of it:

Matt differs from a number of other progressive netroots prophets (most notably Markos Moulitsas) in emphasizing the ideological, as opposed to simply partisan, nature of the "movement."

. . . Matt's brief note on the relationship of the netroots with the Kerry presidential campaign also doesn't quite get around to mentioning that the unhappiness of bloggers with KE04 was more than echoed by DC establishment Democrats. . . . So it's all a bit more complicated than the usual netroots versus Establishment--or left versus center--analysis tends to admit.

As anyone who reads progressive blogs or subscribes to progressive sites will readily acknowledge, the single largest political change enabled by the Internet revolution has been centrifugal, not centripital. Almost overnight, hundreds, maybe thousands, of well-informed and articulate advocates whose views would in the past have been consigned to the cranky confines of Letters to the Editor columns have been given a platform that rivals newspapers and magazines in readership and influence. . . .

Ed is right as far as he goes, but he downplays the key component that has been the glue of the Netroots - the very real rejection of the Establishment Media and Democratic Party by the Netroots. More.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Dr. King's Letter from the Birmingham Jail .

Today, Public Defender Stuff, written by investigators at Public Defender's Offices, hosts an excellent and eloquent tribute they call Welcome to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Blawg Review.

The 4th snowstorm in a month has hit Denver, this time with freezing temperatures in the teens and below. I'm really getting tired of this.

If any of you have a suggestion for a destination, anywhere in the world, with:

• a beach at least 1 mile long, to walk along at dawn and sunset
• a great spa, hiking, yoga classes, etc.
• restaurants serving primarily fresh vegetables, fruit and fish, as well as spirits
• wi-fi to be able to blog while I'm there
• that doesn't cost an arm and a leg

please let me know in the comments.

It's time for the Tuesday open thread.

Just a word of caution, I've been getting a lot of emails that several commenters are not abiding by the commenting policy here in that they are personally insulting others with different points of view from their own. Others are commenting more than 20 times a day and not adding thoughts of substance. If you have that much to say, please start your own blog.

Also, some are misusing the rating system. Please rate the comment, not the commenter. It's not a popularity contest.

The diaries have been moved to the inside right column. Scribe has one today examining Alberto Gonzales' testimony at the NSA warrantless wiretapping hearings, asking whether he testified falsely when asked whether the Administration was opening mail.

I'll be back to posting later this afternoon.

A ten year old political quiz is making its rounds, courtesy of Andrew Sullivan. Instapundit and Ann Althouse reveal their moderate scores.

I remember this quiz very well from 1994. It was in the Sunday USA weekend magazine section of the Denver paper. The TL kid, then in his early teens, came home from school a day or so later and said the teacher had assigned them to take the test with their parents.

Admittedly, at that time he attended an affluent private school where one wouldn't expect to find that didn't have many liberals among the parents. But the results were disturbing nonetheless. Here's why.

• Mr. Populist at Daily Kos has a nightmare to share.

• Chris at Southern Studies asks why Colorado could save the cattle using helicopters but no helicopters were used to save the Katrina Victims.

• What was the civil rights movement in the South in the 60's like? A new site presents the recollections of lawyers and activists who were there.

• Scotusblog reports on late-breaking news that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear seven cases.

There's another major snowstorm in Denver today. What's going on in the rest of the world? Here's an open thread.

In honor of our incoming Democratic majority in Congress.... Democracy, written by Leonard Cohen and performed by Don Henley in 1993 at President Clinton's MTV Inaugural Ball.

You'll need to turn your audio up. I recorded this from a VHS I made back in 1993 to a dvd, then converted it on the computer and uploaded it to YouTube. They all took their toll but if you turn the volume up, it's just great.