We are on a last-minute, unexpected assignment in Manhattan, after having spent the morning in court in Colorado, afternoon on a plane and evening at dinner with our son. So, posting will be light until we get back on Thursday.

The plane ride ended unusually. After landing, the pilot came on to tell us that we wouldn't be deplaning for a while as the police were coming on board to "meet someone." Sure enough, some uniformed cops accompanied by someone who looked to us like a federal agent came on board and headed into the coach section. (We had snagged a last minute upgrade to first.) A young man, early 20's, dark hair, dressed more like a student than a terror suspect, strode up the aisle and left with the police. The pilot then said the first class section could deplane but those on coach had to stay on board a little longer. As we deplaned, there were lots more uniformed police lining the jetway.

We never did find out why the young man was arrested. The flight attendant told us that it was not a surrender-- that the young man did not know he was going to be arrested before the plane landed. We asked a policeman on the way out if the young man had a lawyer, but he just laughed.

We can't help but wonder whether the arrest was the product of the Government's new passenger screening program --and if so, what is in the program that would cause the police to board a plane to publicly remove a passenger that way. It was creepy.

P.S. There were 150 emails waiting when we logged on tonight. The hotel's high speed connection is down, so it's unlikely we will read most of them before tomorrow evening. If you sent a submission or comment, and we haven't responded as quickly as usual, please understand.

We're glad to report that skippy is back from his Alaska vacation and sounds just like, well, Skippy. And Howard Bashman of How Appealing is back from his week at the shore and blogging away. We missed both of them and found ourselves checking in to read some of their older stuff.

We're still waiting for Jim Capozzola of Rittenhouse Review to return from his labor day weekend break, and Lisa English of Ruminate This to come back after getting her kids settled into their first week of the new school year, and then we'll feel like things are right side up in the blogosphere.

Elsewhere around the hood, Kevin of Reach M High Cowboy has an interesting post about Bernard Henri Levy's book on the murder of Daniel Pearl, which is about to be published in English. Kevin says the book will be controversial, and likely cause more French-bashing but that Levy is "not so easily pigeonholed." In an interview, Levy says, "I am alarmed by the way anti-Americanism is becoming globalized. Through Danny Pearl's experience, I had the feeling that the idea of America as a magnet for the worst was becoming a global phenomenon."

In other globalization news, check out the blog Earth Info.net which has the latest on the The World Trade Organization's Ministerial Conference taking place in Cancun, Mexico from September 10th-14th.

Nathan Newman has the first post in a new series on the importance of labor unions and on unionization as the key to progressive social change. Today's entry is Nathan's personal story of how he became so committed to unionism.

Liberal Oasis has an interview with Paul Krugman, about his new book, The Great Unraveling.

And Buzzflash was on the job all through this holiday weekend, so if you took a few days off from the computer, you can catch up there in no time.

Labor Day. It has us thinking about the many political and social justice bloggers--on the left and right--who toil long and hard hours in front of their computer screens to keep their readers as up to date as possible on issues and events.

We suggest visiting your favorite bloggers today and dropping a few bucks in their tip jars. In appreciation of their work--and recognition that their blogs are the fruit of their labor. Nothing big, just something that says, "Hey, thanks for the time and effort you spend writing, I enjoy reading you."

Well, we've succumbed. We're headed up to Vail for today and tomorrow-we'll be hosting a barbecue back home Sunday night, so blogging will resume either late Sunday or Monday. Have a great weekend.

Right Wing News has released the "Left-Wing Bloggers Select The Greatest Figures In American History" article. You can see the selections here.

Say hello and welcome to Corrente--a new blog by Leah, Lambert, Tresa and the Farmer, who did such a good job filling in for Atrios this summer while he was in Europe.

Good postings today:

Update: Buzzflash on the Weekly Standard v. Buzzflash and Blumenthal.

Media Horse on Bill O'Reilly's unsucessful attempt to have David Westerfield's criminal defense lawyers sanctioned by the California disciplinary commission. And, in a nutsell, on why the lawyers did nothing wrong.

The Westerfield attorneys were well within ethical boundaries to suggest scenarios consistent with the facts of the case regardless of what they knew, and that is what they did. It was the jury's job to decide how plausible those scenarios were based on the facts, and that is what they did (Westerfield was convicted).

Jeanne D'Arc of Body and Soul on the death of Torrance Cantwell, the autistic boy who died in church.

Hessiod of Counterspin on Bush's pledge to keep up his warplan and some thoughts on the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Tapped and Calpundit invite us over to Washington Monthly for the Mendacity Index on which President has told the biggest whoppers. No surprise there. It's interactive, and you can do your own rating.

For death penalty defense lawyers, or those who'd like to train to be one, Capital Defense Weekly has a calendar of upcoming training seminars (affectionately called "death camps" by those in the defense bar.) If you are a lawyer in a big firm who is not feeling challenged or stimulated enough, maybe you can get your firm to sponsor you and then take some pro bono cases. There are hundreds of death row inmates in the south without any representation at all for post-convction proceedings.

The Tom Paine blog has details about the planned 2004 Republican Counterconvention in New York.

Cursor has the latest on the State Department's crackdown on leisure trips to Cuba.

Joe Conason says Chris Matthew's Hardball should be renamed Softball. One of these days we're going to pay for a Salon subscription, we just can't bring ourselves to do it yet. At least the day pass ads aren't bad.

Jeff Cooper keeps up his attempt to fill in for vacationing Howard Bashman of How Appealing. He's finding it tougher than he thought. We give him an A for effort, though.

Andrew Northrup of the Poor Man is blogging for Wesley Clark at The Clark Sphere.

Eric at the Hamster says Carol Mosely Braun has picked up some endorsements.

Skippy's still somewhere off the coast of Alaska, but he has blogged in.

That's a wrap from us today--back late tonight.

Say hello to Summary Opinions - daily source for Liberal Commentary on the Web --thanks to Sideshow for the link.

Since we are not journalists or writers by trade, even though we write plenty of legal briefs, we often get stuck trying to figure out grammar when writing for TalkLeft. Help is here at last. Via Making Light, we have found Copy Editing, Damnit. We have high hopes.

The indefatiguable Howard Bashman of How Appealing is on a much deserved vacation. Howard has the premier appellate law blog in the country, making note of noteworthy appellate decisions and news as they come down. Law Professor Jeff Cooper, who has his own great blog, Cooped Up, is going to try to stand in for Howard over at Cooped Up. We're glad...we thought of doing it here but it's way, way too much work. To make matters worse, John Wesley Hall, who updates on fourth amendment law daily over at FourthAmendment. com is in the Hague this week.

We can't even have a good laugh about it because Skippy, who always at least gets a smile out of us, also is on vacation--he took Mrs. Skippy on an Alaskan cruise.

There's a lesson in here somewhere, like maybe we should give it a rest for a while, but we have lots of law work to do and since we have to work, we may as well blog. Besides, there aren't many prettier, more laid back places to be than Colorado, especially around Labor Day and the month of September when the aspen change. We're staying put.

Update: As we typed this, Skippy blogged in from Alaska, go read.

Meanwhile, Say hello to Autopsy Report, a new blog about autopsies--written by a medical examiner. Lawyers will find it pretty helpful. The blog's author likes the site Virtual Autopsy. [link via lawsites]

And check out Lisa English of Ruminate This who has the latest on the Zogby poll commissioned by the folks at DraftWesleyClark. Very interesting results.

Remember the website "Turn Left", whose tag line was "the home of liberalism on the web"? Turns out it is no longer being updated and visitors are being directed to the daily blog of its webmaster, Mike Silverman. Silverman's blog, Red Letter Day, links to sites such as Little Green Footballs and U.S.S. Clueless. We couldn't identify any left-leaning blogs on its blogroll.

These were the issues addressed by the old Turn Left. We're sorry it's gone and feel somewhat cheated that it was maintained by someone who apparently did not believe in its core values.

Natasha of Pacific Views attended a public panel sponsored by Congressman Jay Inslee (D-WA) in Shoreline, WA, on the subject of the possible mishandling of the intelligence information that was used to lead America to war. Great quotes, and great reporting.

Eric at Hamster has Arianna's reply to Susan Estrich:

I assumed we were long past the argument over whether you could be a woman, a leader and a mother without having the powers that be shaking their heads and pulling out the slime. This kind of dirty politics is one reason more than 13 million Californians didn't vote in the last election. People are sick and tired of campaigns as demolition derbies, with candidates -- and their designated hatchet men and women -- attacking each other until there is only one candidate left standing.

Philadelphia bloggers make the Inquirer.

Jim Capozzola of Rittenhouse Review takes off on Ashcroft, and his dog and pony show to garner support for the Patriot Act.

Jesse of Pandagon has the latest on Bush's continued ratings slide, as measured by this new Zogby poll.

Matt Yglesias sends us over to the Clark Sphere for the daily meme.

Skippy details the unfair treatment accorded protesters at the Bush appearance in Portland.

Oliver Willis quotes the Constitution on the Alabama Ten Commandments Case....we agree, it seems simple to us, too. We're just not suprised the "homegrown fundamentalists" don't accept it. It's because they don't want to.