It's the final night the long holiday weekend. Aside from the Iowa caucuses which I have no interest in, there's not much to write about.

There's also little on TV, other than the premiere of The Bachelor, starring Ben from last year's totally boring season with Ashley. I think this season will be another dud, but I'll watch anyway. After 16 seasons, the formula has become dated and predictable. I wish they'd try something new.

Colorado is getting $400 million from the NDAA, with a big chunk for electronic surveillance. $70 million will go for construction of a new NSA building at Buckley Air Force Base:

The NSA building at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora will cost a total of $141 million to complete. It will provide space for 850 people whose offices are now in temporary buildings.

Buckley is home to a large contingent of secretive agencies, including the NSA and the National Reconnaissance Office​; the Aerospace Data Facility-Colorado; Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine intelligence and information units; and Marine and Coast Guard cryptologic units.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The picks:

Houston -7½ over Penn State (3 units), Georgia -3 over Michigan St. (3 units), South Carolina -3 over Nebraska (5 units), Oregon -6 over Wisconsin (3 units).

My best bet of many years was discussed weeks ago - Oklahoma State (-3) over Stanford (50 units.) Today the line is -5.

Go Gators!

Open Thread.

Most New Year's Days, we'd be preparing to watch a day of college football. But Sundays are ruled by the NFL. The bowl games have been moved to tomorrow.

Tim Tebow faces a make or break game for the Broncos, and I suspect, for his career. While it seems likely Tebow will get the starting nod for the Broncos next year, if he wins today, advancing the Broncos into the playoffs, he probably gets the whole season.

That's a lot of pressure and the Broncos also have to deal with the fact that they unnecessarily handed the Chiefs their QB for today, Kyle Orton. That was a pretty inexcusable move by Elway and I am a bit surprised that more is not being made of it in Denver. While Orton is a terrible QB in pressure situations, when nothing is on the line, he can be good. The Chiefs and Orton have nothing to lose so I expect they will play well. And win.

Which means that whether the Raiders give up ANOTHER 1st round pick for Carson Palmer depends on the Chargers and Phillip Rivers saving the Raiders from themselves. Cuz if the Raiders make the payoffs, they get bounced in the 1st round and lose another 1st round pick. Since it is the Raiders, that is what is going to happen. Raiders beat the Chargers.

The big game to night is Giants-Cowboys. I think the Cowboys win.

Open Thread.

It's already 2012 in Auckland, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Dubai and celebrations are underway. From Sydney:

Sydney's harbour erupted in a blaze of colour and light on the stroke of midnight on Saturday with a 12-minute pyrotechnic display drawing more than 1.5 million people to crowded foreshores and city landmarks.

Times Square is expecting a million people -- many of whom have already arrived.

What's on your agenda for this evening? I'm cooking lasagne. Whether you are out celebrating or avoiding the noise and crowds, we wish you all a happy, healthy, prosperous, freedom-filled New Year.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

President Obama today signed into the National Defense Authorization Act, which contains the controversial and objectionable provisions on indefinite detention and restrictions on transfers of detainees from Guantanamo. He issued a signing statement with it that doesn't ameliorate the damage.

The ACLU says:

While President Obama issued a signing statement saying he had “serious reservations” about the provisions, the statement only applies to how his administration would use the authorities granted by the NDAA, and would not affect how the law is interpreted by subsequent administrations.

[More...]

Happy New Year's Eve morning!

We are now in college bowl season in earnest. I was saved from complete disaster yesterday by a garbage time back door cover by Oklahoma.

Today will be better. The picks: UCLA +3 over Illinois (2 units), Texas A&M; -10 over Northwestern (12 units), Vanderbilt -1½ over Cincinnati (2 units), Utah +3 over Ga Tech (2 units), Auburn -3 over Virginia (2 units.)

Have a great day.

Open Thread.

The Big Lebowski: Are you surprised at my tears, sir?
The Dude: [Smoking a joint] Dude, f--in' A!
The Big Lebowski: Strong men also cry... strong men also cry.

It's that time of year when everyone is doing best of and worst of lists for 2011. Since I haven't found any on the year's most interesting criminal cases and issues that match what I found most interesting, I've prepared my own lists for TalkLeft. (Heads-up: "Most Interesting" is not the same as "Most Important". I will leave "Most Important" lists to others.)

First the court cases, then the cases that didn't make it to court, and then the top issues of the year. (With a few more categories thrown.)

The number one most interesting case of the year is easy: Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Full lists below: [More...]

End of year swampage plus deadlines.

Here are some bowl picks: Tulsa -1½ over BYU (5 units), Iowa State -1 over Rutgers (5 units), Mississippi State -7 over Wake Forest (3 units), Oklahoma -14 over Iowa (4 units.)

BTW, the Okla State line has moved from 3 1/2 to 4 1/2. It'll be 6 by game time. Make your investment early if you like Okla State, as I do (best bet in a long time imo.)

Open thread.

This video featuring Hillary Clinton,produced a few weeks ago by the State Department, is yet another example of the differences between a Republican and Democrat Administration. Can you imagine it coming from a Secretary of State appointed by Romney or Gingrich?

The media's obsessive focus on Iowa is beyond annoying. Who cares which Republican wins? What matters is keeping a Democrat in the White House and gaining enough of a Democratic majority in Congress to reduce the need to compromise and capitulate. Whether it's civil liberties, Medicare or the war on drugs, Republicans are always worse. They really don't deserve the attention they have been getting lately.

President Obama's re-election campaign released this video today, outlining five ways for Obama to win 270 electoral votes in 2012.

While the 9th Circuit upheld the consitittuionality of telecom immunity for warrantless wiretapping in one case today, in another case, it ruled a complaint against the NSA and Government officials for conducting "a communications dragnet of ordinary citizens" can proceed. The case is Jewell vs. NSA, and the opinion is here.

The complaint by plaintiff Carolyn Jewell and others (the case is a potential class action) alleges that the NSA attached surveillance devices to AT&T's network, diverting communications into "SG3 Secure Rooms" at AT&T facilities around the country, creating "an unprecedented suspicionless general search" throughout the AT&T network. The suit alleged the NSA and other government defendants performed or aided and abetted the scheme. (AT&T was not sued in the case.)

The district court had dismissed the case holding the plaintiffs didn't have standing to challenge the scheme, but the 9th Circuit disagreed and reversed. [More...]

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld the constitutionality of FISA's grant of immunity to telecom companies assisting the Government in terrorism investigations. The opinion is here.

The statute is § 802 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (“FISA”), 50 U.S.C. § 1885a, known as the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.

The complaints were filed in the wake of news reports in December 2005 that President Bush had issued an order permitting the NSA to conduct warrantless eavesdropping. Under a program known as the Terrorist Surveillance Program (“TSP”), the NSA “had obtained the cooperation of telecommunications companies to tap into a significant portion of the companies’ telephone and e-mail traffic, both domestic
and international.”

[More...]

Here are the personal residences of the top Republican candidates. Better photo viewing here.

House with the most mirrors: Newt Gingrich.

In 2008, the media did a similar feature on the homes of Democratic candidates.

Lots of end of year stuff to take care of. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

From Wired: The year intellectual property trumped civil liberties.

Update: ICE launches a hotline and new form for detained individuals "to ensure that individuals being held by state or local law enforcement on immigration detainers are properly notified about their potential removal from the country and are made aware of their rights."

... detained individuals can call if they believe they may be U.S. citizens or victims of a crime. The hotline will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by ICE personnel at the Law Enforcement Support Center. Translation services will be available in several languages from 7 a.m. until midnight (Eastern) seven days a week. ICE personnel will collect information from the individual and refer it to the relevant ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Field Office for immediate action.

The new form, available here, instructs law enforcement they may not hold a detainee more than 48 hours after the individual would have otherwise been released.