Derek and Meredith head to the chapel tonight on the 100th episode of Grey's Anatomy. Something tells me it won't go smoothly.

American Idol was a let-down last night, Allison was the wrong one to send home. What's on your screen tonight? Or on your mind if you aren't watching tv?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Jeffrey Rosen's now infamous piece on Second Circuit Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor has led to many evaluations of Rosen's intellect and qualities as a legal journalist. The consensus appears to be that Rosen is deficient and not considered a reliable source of information and analysis in this area.

Glenn Greenwald writes:

It's rock night on American Idol. The final four: Adam, Danny, Allison and Chris. Who are you rooting for?

If you're watching tv, tell us what you're watching. If you're not, what are you doing?

I'll be back to blogging news and politics tomorrow.

Citing Jeffrey Rosen's atrocious and embarassing piece, Marc Ambinder defines Rosen as the "Respectable Center."

There was nothing "respectable" about Rosen's piece, it was an embarassment. And his unbridled defenses and support for now Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito make clear that he is by no stretch of the imagination in the Center. He is Neocon Right Center - a sort of Stuart Taylor. That's not the Center. Marc Ambinder is simply accepting the Village Wisdom.

Interestingly, Ambinder deigns to give "advice" to the "Left" on how to fight these fights. My first piece of advice remains the same - NEVER EVER let people like Marc Ambinder define what the Center is. People like Rosen, Taylor and Ambinder are of the Center Right, at best. That's who they are. Knowing that and SAYING That is step one in this process imo.

Speaking for me only

Atrios writes (citing Josh Marshall):

The only way to get [Specter] to do the right thing is to have a credible primary challenger in the wings, whether that's Sestak or someone else.

Yesterday, I wrote Make Them All Work For It, arguing that the idea of holding Specter to account applies to all of our Dem pols - from Obama on down. I know everyone is ready to primary Jane Harman, and I am glad to hear it. But it should not just be Specter and Harman being held to account. What's most interesting about Specter is that the Netroots is prepared to defy President Obama for once (Obama has promised Specter his full support.) That is a good sign. See, e.g., Markos here - "[T]he party bigwigs who think they can deprive the Democratic primary electorate of democracy versus a new net- and grassroots army taking control of their own destiny." The head bigwig of course is named President Barack Obama.

Speaking for me only

To join the chorus, Jeffrey Rosen should be ashamed. It's one thing to misjudge badly on Roberts and Alito (yes, Rosen was a supporter of both "moderates"), but to write a hatchet job on Judge Sonia Sotomayor without even having read her opinions in any depth? Disgraceful

Of course, The New Republic has been an embarrassment for some time now.

Speaking for me only

I owe Stuart Taylor. Jr. some post time on the torture issue, and eventually I will get to that. But in the meantime, Scott Lemieux, via Atrios, demonstrates how Mr. Taylor views issues through a conservative prism, despite his claim to being a "moderate" (hey, we all do it, I call myself a "centrist"):

BTD has an open thread up here, but I'm starting another for tonight's tv.

I need a break from preparing for my Tuesday suppression hearing, so I'm watching The Ladies #1 Detective Agency, Desperate Housewives, Brothers and Sisters and Celebrity Apprentice.

What are you watching or enjoying?

Eric Boehlert's book,"bloggers on the bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press", is a tour de force about the rise of activist political blogging that deftly describes the rise of political blogging in the Bush Era. It takes the issue of political blogging and its effect on politics and journalism seriously and provides many first person accounts of how it came about. As part of the story, Boehlert reports on the period of the 2008 Democratic primary. That portion of the book will anger many in the blogosphere. Perhaps it should. But perhaps they should also consider whether the book portrays the episode accurately. I believe it does.

In this post, I will be discussing Chapter 9 of the book - the issue of sexism and how it was covered and REFLECTED in the blogosphere. The most startling quote on the subject in the book comes from Chris Bowers during the 2008 Presidential primary - "[Was sexism] somehow pervasive throughout the entire blogosphere? I certainly have not seen that." (Emphasis supplied.) Chris is a good man. But please. This is like a Right Wing blogger complaining that there is not "pervasive racial coding throughout the entire Republican Party." Define "pervasive" Chris. More . . .

In response to reporting like this post from TPM's Zachary Roth on the "Gosslings," Porter Goss' political hacks brought with him to the CIA, who many of us speculate are behind the smear campaigns against Jane Harman and Nancy Pelosi., CQ's unofficial "Gossling," Jeff Stein, is outraged:

Contra the racially tinged views championed by Andrew "Fifth Column/Bell Curve" Sullivan, Charles Murray and other racialists, David Brooks trots out the old "How do you get to Carnegie Hall joke? Practice, practice, practice." Brooks writes:

What Mozart had, we now believe, was the same thing Tiger Woods had — the ability to focus for long periods of time and a father intent on improving his skills. Mozart played a lot of piano at a very young age, so he got his 10,000 hours of practice in early and then he built from there. The latest research suggests a more prosaic, democratic, even puritanical view of the world. The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark. It’s not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success, even in realms like chess. Instead, it’s deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours (many more hours) rigorously practicing their craft.

[MORE . . .]

We don't really need another open thread yet, but American Idol is on and the Denver Nuggets are in the playoffs. 47 million people voted last night in AI. My prediction: Allison or Matt goes home tonight. I hope it's Matt.

Update: Adam is in the bottom two with Matt. Really a surprise. Next, Matt goes home, not a surprise.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.