To end the 4th of July, here's a piece of history and a blending of American and Brit with a little Canadian thrown in. Playing "My Back Pages" together.... Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn, George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Neil Young and Tom Petty, at Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden. Watch as they each take the lead in their own inimitable styles.

"I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."

Johnny Cash's 5th album in his American series, ''American V: A Hundred Highways," recorded in the months before he died while he was sick with diabetes and other ailments, is being released today. The New York Times has this review.

It's the most moving musical rumination on mortality since Warren Zevon's last album before lung cancer killed him.

You can buy a copy of the cd or download it now:

For the 4th of July, Ain't that America for You and Me: John Mellencamp and Pink Houses

Suggestions for tomorrow?

In honor of Bernie Kerik's name being stripped from the Manhattan Detention Complex, fomerly known as the Tombs, before it became the Bernard B. Kerik Detention Complex, here's Eric Burden and the Animals singing "The House of the Rising Sun."

I'm very proud to announce TalkLeft's first video promo. It was produced by Actor Will Keenan and designed and edited by 3rdi of Intellectual Design and Defcon Films 2006. The theme:

"Believe in people powered politics. Crises precipitate change. Let's right their wrongs before there is nothing left to talk about."

It's on You Tube, I hope you will watch and go over to rate it.

Thanks, Will!

One more shout of gratitude, to TalkLeft's anonymous artist, our man in Hollywood, C.L., for contributing so many outstanding graphics to TalkLeft. And of course, to TChris, who will be back from Europe this week, and Last Night in Little Rock, whom I hope gets a break soon from the trial trenches.

Matt at MyDD is having a YouTube open thread where commenters are posting links to videos. Here's one I have never seen this one before and it's a a crack-up -- Mick Jagger and David Bowie from 1985 performing Dancing in the Streets. Enjoy, and thanks to the commenter at My DD for pointing it out.

This is a classic, and reading the news about the possible transfer of Schappelle Corby and some of the Bali 9 heroin smugglers from the hellhole of Kerobokan prison in Bali to one in Australia, it just popped into my mind.

So baby, here's your ticket, put the suitcase in your hand
Here's a little money now, do it just the way we planned
You be cool for twenty hours and I'll pay you twenty grand

....It's a losing proposition, But one you can't refuse
It's the politics of contraband, It's the smuggler's blues

By the way, the blond in the video is Glenn Frey's ex-wife, Janie Beggs, a really cool lady.

Larger video version here.

President Bush rabel-rouses and calls the actions of the New York Times, in writing about the secret Operation Swift program that used national security letters to obtain records relate to international banking transactions, "disgraceful." Conservatives are rallying to his cry.

Who's sticking up for the Times?

Froomkim is a must read.

As far as I can tell, all these disclosures do is alert the American public to the fact that all this stuff is going on without the requisite oversight, checks and balances. How does it possibly matter to a terrorist whether the government got a court order or not? Or whether Congress was able to exercise any oversight? The White House won't say. In fact, it can't say. By contrast, it does matter to us.

This column has documented, again and again , that when faced with a potentially damaging political problem, White House strategist Karl Rove's response is not to defend, but to attack.

Arianna who has hardly been a pal to the Times this year comes out strongly in its camp:

This is actually one of my favorite Stone's songs--from Sticky Fingers -- and the only one I can play on the guitar and sing at the same time. The TL kid and I actually do a decent job of dual-guitaring it together.

But tonight, it reminds me of Rush. Dead Flowers, a classic of Mick and Keith together -- with a country motif.

Well when you're sitting there, in your silk upolstered chair
Talking to some rich folk that you know
I hope you don't see me in my ragged company
You know I could never be alone
Take me down, little Susie, take me down...

And we won't forget to put roses on your grave.

Larger video version here.

Listen to the second verse, and ask yourself, what's the difference between x number of oxycontin a day and a needle and a spoon? Answer: In America, those who can only afford the latter go to jail.

Bump and Update: The doctors may face investigation in Rush's Viagra case.

State attorney's office spokesman Mike Edmondson said his office also will look into whether Limbaugh violated that agreement with prosecutors. Prosecutors also will examine the possibility of "any doctor being complicit and the possibility of doctors being charged as well."

Update: Are the doctors really in trouble? Perhaps not. This is grounds for discipline:

® Prescribing, dispensing, or administering any medicinal drug appearing on any schedule set forth in chapter 893 by the physician to himself or herself, except one prescribed, dispensed, or administered to the physician by another practitioner authorized to prescribe, dispense, or administer medicinal drugs. Fla. Stat. § 458.331

If one doctor prescribed it to another doctor instead of to Rush for privacy reasons. what then? According to the Orlando Sentinel:

It is generally not illegal under Florida law for a physician to prescribe medication in a third party's name if all parties are aware and the doctor documents it correctly, said Mike Edmondson, a spokesman for the state attorney in Palm Beach County. He would not discuss specifics in the Limbaugh case Tuesday.

This is the first edition of TalkLeft's Late Night Music Club which I am shamelessly stealing (with permission) from John Amato at Crooks and Liars, who is a very accomplished musician in his own right. I am not. My selections will be performances I can watch over and over, either because I love the music or the words or because I just love watching the face of someone in the band.

I may not do it every night, but since YouTube is a becoming a new addiction, I hope to make it a regular thing. Feel free to use the comments to talk about your own favorite music.

Tonight's pick is the Goo Goo Dolls playing Iris and (Tom Petty's) American Girl at the 9/11/2001 Concert for New York City. I remember taping it at the time, and watching their version of American Girl over and over.

Update: Video removed from You Tube.

The video of the American Constitution Society's panel conference on leakers and the press is now online.

On June 17, ACS hosted a panel at the 2006 National Convention exploring the consequences of leaks of confidential and classified information by government employees and potential related prosecution. Panelists discussed government attempts to prosecute leakers and assertions that it can prosecute members of the press who report based on classified information. The panel also examined whether greater protections should be afforded journalists in protecting sources and the effect of leak prosecutions on debate in a democratic society.

The video is here. In the photo (larger version here): 9th Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt, me and conservative law professor Maimon Schwarzschild. Also on the panel were moderator and Law Professor Geoffrey Stone and media attorney Laura Handman. Happily, Professor Schwarzschild was outnumbered.