There's a ton of stuff I'd like to write about today, some are subjects of the articles listed on the newsfeed on the left, like the prisoner killed on the prison bus while it was going back to the jail from court; Chertoff and Gonzales'; new torture documents; Martha Stewart starring in the Apprentice when she gets on home detention; and not listed, five CT death row inmates have begun a hunger strike and Colorado's Governor Owens has called for the resignation of Professor Ward Churchill due to his remarks about 9/11.

But I'm juggling too many things at work right now to write about any of them, so you go ahead, and no need to stick to what I would have written about--pick your own topics if you'd like.

Go ahead, live blog or comment, - your turn. Here's a segment of the speech:

Thirteen years from now, in 2018, Social Security will be paying out more than it takes in. And every year afterward will bring a new shortfall, bigger than the year before. For example, in the year 2027, the government will somehow have to come up with an extra 200 billion dollars to keep the system afloat - and by 2033, the annual shortfall would be more than 300 billion dollars. By the year 2042, the entire system would be exhausted and bankrupt. If steps are not taken to avert that outcome, the only solutions would be drastically higher taxes, massive new borrowing, or sudden and severe cuts in Social Security benefits or other government programs.

And one more:

Because marriage is a sacred institution and the foundation of society, it should not be re-defined by activist judges. For the good of families, children, and society, I support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage.

Don't miss this article in the Weekly Standard on Markos and the Daily Kos, and why politicans need to take him seriously.

The Daily Kos is the most popular and important force in the blogosphere; it's a fact with which Democrats are just now coming to grips.

It recaps the history of Daily Kos, Markos' shrewd instincts, his up front acknowledgment that he is an activist, his at times in-your-face style and the undeniable fact that his is the most influential voice in the blogosphere.

And in the spirit of full disclosure, Markos designed TalkLeft in its current incarnation.

We've been blogging like crazy the past few weeks, and could use some help with donations, particularly from our most frequent readers and commenters. If you can throw in a few bucks, it would be most appreciated. Many thanks.

• PayPal
• Amazon (anonymous)

Related Note: Superbowl spammers are out in force. MT-Blacklist does a great job with comments, but the spam is getting through the trackbacks. There were 30 today I had to delete. So I've turned off trackbacks until next week. If you don't have a weblog, no need to even wonder about what this means. If you do, you might want to block strings with "super-bowl" to save your sanity.

Forget live blogging, it's time to pre-blog. Here's Regular Staple's minute by minute account of tomorrow's State of the Union Address. [via Wonkette.]

TalkLeft will not be live-blogging SOTU. I'll be debating what's wrong with mandatory minimum drug sentences on Reggie River's show (PBS, Colorado.) To be honest, I probably wouldn't watch anyway, unless someone paid me. The late night cable and morning-after news coverage, the transcript and blogger reactions will be plenty for me.

Many bloggers are joining together over at Daily Kos to argue against the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General.

Unprecedented times call for unprecedented actions. In this case, we, the undersigned bloggers, have decided to speak as one and collectively author a document of opposition....With this nomination, we have arrived at a crossroads as a nation. Now is the time for all citizens of conscience to stand up and take responsibility for what the world saw, and, truly, much that we have not seen, at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. We oppose the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General of the United States, and we urge the Senate to reject him.

Watch this film from Human Rights First on Gonzales. And via Norwegianity:

We have court, court and more court today, with no chance to see the news. Here's a open thread to keep everyone advised as to what is going on. I'll ge back tonight. If something's on your mind, let us know.

I was going to answer Hugh Hewitt, but August at World o'Crap does it so well, I won't bother.

Good one: Mark Fiore on the Office of Truth Enhancement--"When the truth gets in the way, we get to work." [hat tip Avedon Carol at Sideshow, who also tells you where you can buy your Saddam Hussein Killed Laci Peterson t-shirt.]

Zephyr Teachout keeps digging herself into a bigger hole. But, she's cagey. Today, she apologizes to Jerome of MyDD but not Markos of Daily Kos, and makes Joe Trippi out to be the ethical villain. Then, to get everyone talking about a topic other than her, she decides there should be a political bloggers' code of ethics. Her key idea is this:

...one thing we should do is engage citizen watchdog groups in finding out what bloggers are tied to what consulting companies, and prominently publish any contracts – and ask candidates not to hire any of the truly prominent bloggers unless they, like Jerome did, agree not post while consulting.

Cagey, because her latest idea will be so offensive to so many bloggers that her inaccurate allegations of last week unjustly smearing Jerome and Markos' reputations will be forgotten as everyone jumps into a discussion of whether bloggers should be policed.

My advice: Ignore her and don't take the bait.

This is a follow-up post to one we wrote last night on Hugh Hewitt's appearance on O'Reilly's Fox News in which they say that no one knew Markos and Jerome were working for Howard Dean. (Background here.)Here's a quote from the Fox transcript of the show (available on lexis.com):

HUGH HEWITT, "BLOG" AUTHOR: Bloggers on the take are very bad for the business of blogging. Blogging are real journalists and people like Powerline and like InstaPundit, like myself, we don't like it when Daily Kos shows up on the take of the Howard Dean campaign. Now Dailey Kos says -- this is one of the bloggers from the left -- he disclosed it, but not to the satisfaction of anyone who was watching. I didn't know.
O'REILLY: Oh, this is bunk. This is bull. Nobody knew about this.
HEWITT: That's right.

O'Reilly and Hewitt should read the news. Not only did Markos keep a disclaimer on his site, it was widely reported in the media. Here are some examples:

Atrios has the response of Laura Gross , spokeswoman for Dean for America, to the Wall Street Journal article (free link) based on inaccurate information provided by former Dean staffer Zephyr Teachout claiming Markos of Daily Kos and Jerome of MyDD were paid to blog nice things about Dean (background here).

I got a call Thursday from the Jeanne Cummings, The Wall Street Journal reporter who covered the Dean campaign.....Next thing I know there appears in the WSJ an article so sloppy and so inaccurate that I spent the morning trying to track Jeanne down to find out what happened....

Jeanne's colleagues committed a journalistic no-no: they took her background conversation with me and made up a quote from "a Dean spokeswoman". Their fake quote had this spokeswoman apparently admitting that the bloggers were paid for promoting the campaign. They completely mischaracterized our conversation -- and Jeanne was rightly upset about it. I was, and am, too.

The WSJ should get to the bottom of this.