Anyone feel like taking the reins here for the afternoon? I've said all I have to say - it's your turn.

If you're not a blogger, this won't have any meaning for you. But if you are, and you're considering moving from Blogads to Pajamas Media, go read Ann Althouse....and let me know here what you think. Which one do you think is a better deal for bloggers?

Videoblogger Crooks and Liars has opened a Cafe Press store with some cool looking items that helps pay for bandwidth. My favorites are here .

TalkLeft recently added a Cafe Press store but it's not nearly as impressive, because I'm graphically challenged. But, I do like the 4th Amendment subway tote (click on larger version.) Somehow, it seems appropriate to hand a bag that reminds the officer searching through your personal items without a warrant or probable of the wording of that great Amendment.

My internet service is down - it's been intermittent since Saturday. Comcast installed a new modem today but their main server that handles modem registration is down so I can't get online until that goes back up. Dial-up is way too slow to blog with, so here's an open thread for you. I'll be back whenever the gods at Comcast so decree.

• Loretta Nall is all over the recent arrest of marijuana activist Marc Emery in Vancouver--and the U.S. attempt to make Canada the 51st state so that it can enforce its drug policy there. Here's the video of the DEA announcement of Emery's arrest.

• Flex Your Rights has the citizen's guide to refusing subway searches. (Also check out TalkLeft's new subway tote with the Fourth Amendment printed out on both sides to keep the searchers mindful of how they are violating the Constitution.)

• Grits for Breakfast on the increased use of pretext traffic stops to bring out the dogs and search for drugs

• Amnesty International now has a death penalty blog. One of the best death penalty blogs is Abolish the Death Penalty, written by David Elliot of NCADP.

It's your turn to pick the topics and opine.

5280, Denver's sole glossy monthly and nationally acclaimed magazine, for which I and several others blog daily on Colorado issues from politics and crime, particularly Tom Tancredo and Ken Salazar, to restaurants and cool events, got a great bloglift (yes, I coined that phrase, as Skippy would say) today -- if you get a minute, or if you are interested in Colorado goings-ons, check it out.

[Disclosure: I do get paid by 5280 for blogging. But I've been carping for months about their need to get a new look, and they more than exceeded my expectations.]

I can see from the comments people are itching to go off-topic. I'm headed to the jail to visit a client for the afternoon, so here's an open thread. Please play nice.

Noah of Defense Tech is blogging from Iraq.

I've been in Iraq for nearly two weeks, now. And, except for the sand storms, truck bombs, helicopter rides, and 140 degree heat, it's been exactly like home.

Stay safe, Noah.

Did anyone watch the hearing? Is there other news? Your turn.

Update: Much longer article with new title and links now available here. The first half of the article is about the mis-information about Edith Clement. Were journalists purposely misled to give them less time to research Roberts before the announcement?

Howard Kurtz has an article today in the Washington Post, Court Nominee In Eye of the Blogger Swarm.

This is the first Supreme Court nomination of the Internet age, meaning that liberal and conservative opinion-mongers are already blanketing cyberspace with arguments, facts, taunts, polemics, gossip and electronic links to raw data, hoping to rally the faithful and influence the mainstream media coverage.

Kurtz writes about a BlogPac call the night of Roberts' nomination with 50 bloggers.

The lightning-quick attacks came after 50 top liberal bloggers held a 45-minute conference call Tuesday night. "On the left, we've always talked about the need to have an echo chamber," says John Aravosis, a Washington lawyer and gay rights activist who writes at Americablog.com.

Kurtz reviews the various positions on Roberts taken by bloggers and notes that not all liberal bloggers are marching in lockstep:

There's plenty to talk about today, including the hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Reporter's Shield law. But, topics are open.