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.

TalkLeft needs a lot more votes to make it to the finals in the Koufax awards. A few other blogs have received blocks of votes from their readers. So if you haven't already voted and you think we are the best single issue or expert blog, please go on over and vote or vote by email. A recap from an earlier post:

TalkLeft is nominated in two categories, "best expert blog" and "best single issues blog." We won the award for "best single issues" blog in 2002 and 2003.

The Koufax Awards are named for Sandy Koufax, one of the greatest left handed pitchers of all time. They are intended to honor the best of the left of blogtopia (ysitp). At its core, the Koufax Awards are meant to be an opportunity to say nice things about your favorite bloggers and to provide a bit of recognition for the folks who provide us with information, insight, and entertainment usually for little or no renumeration.

You can vote here for best expert blog and here for best single issues blog. Just scroll down and leave your vote in a comment. You can vote once in both categories. If you'd rather email your vote, you can do that here: Email Mary Beth or Email Dwight.

On Bill O'Reilly now on Fox News. Unbelievable that this non-story has risen to the level of national cable talk shows. (Update, Crooks and Liars has the video up.)

O'Reilly gets it wrong, he says Kos was paid by Dean to blog nice things about Dean. Right wing blogger and radio host Hugh Hewitt is on by himself. He slams Kos and praises right wing bloggers like himself and Power Line and Captain's Quarters and Roger Simon and Instapundit (who I don't put in the same category) and says that none of them are on the take. Newsflash to Mr. Hewitt: Neither is Markos or Jerome.

Fair and balanced? Not tonight.

On the other hand, major Kudos to DNC chair hopeful Simon Rosenberg, who writes today defending Markos and Jerome and says:

Here's the 23rd Sigh - Oy to the World

Bush is my shepherd;
I dwell in want
He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests.
He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness.
He restoreth my fears.
He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace for his ego's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war, I will find no exit for thou art in office.,

As if there isn't enough news to write about, the Wall Street Journal (free link) picks up on a spat that's going on in the blogosphere over fallout from the Armstrong Williams consultancy flap. It repeats what Markos of Daily Kos and Jerome of MyDD told their readers ages ago - that they had been hired by the Dean campaign as consultants for a period of time. Jerome shut down MyDD while he was working for Dean and Markos kept the disclosure on the front page of Daily Kos for the duration of his consultancy.

Very few bloggers make a living by blogging. Most are lucky to take in a few bucks through donations and advertising. There is nothing wrong with bloggers being consultants. In this case, Jerome and Markos went the extra mile to disclose it. So where's the story? Answer: There is none.