Things you can do RIGHT NOW

At the request of Daily Kos, I'm posting the following action guidelines for making sure our voices are heard as Bush decides on his nominee to the Supreme Court:

• If you have a cell phone, sign up for People at the American Way's Mass Immediate Response site. This way you'll be able to receive text message action items instantly as events break. (If you signed up during the nuclear option fight, you'll need to re-sign up.)
• Also sign up with Save the Court, another PFAW website devoted specifically to this issue.
• Recruit friends and family members to the cause.
• Write to the President, telling him he should choose a consensus candidate to replace O'Connor. Contact your Senators to tell them the same thing.
• Sign MoveOn's "Protect Our Rights" petition.
• Contact members of the media and tell them you think Bush should nominate a consensus candidate. Please be polite, brief (200 words or less), and don't copy-and-paste -- put it in your own words.

Sandra Day O'Connor

beats William Rehnquist to the finish line. Statement from Bush in about a half hour, but apparently he won't name a replacement until he returns from the G8 next Friday at the soonest.

I don't think he can appoint the same person he's already got picked out to replace the Chief; an ultraconservative for an ultraconservative is one thing, but an ultraconservative for the Court's most important moderate and swing vote is something else entirely. Among many other ramifications, any nominee put forth who has the approval of James Dobson means that Roe will be, in short order, overturned.

Speaking for everyone on my side of the aisle, we cannot allow that to happen. So this will probably be the biggest battle of the summer (not to mention our lifetimes and that of our wives, sisters, and daughters).

So much for light blogging over the holiday ...

You know, this Live 8 is really going to be huge

I confess that I only paid attention a little when Bono succeeded in getting the developing nations' debt cancelled, but the Chronic has a rundown of the concerts:

On Saturday, stages in Philadelphia, London, Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Barrie (a city in Ontario, Canada), Moscow and Johannesburg will be joined by an estimated 1 million fans and 2 billion viewers. It's almost easier to list artists who are not playing on one of the stages than to name all who are involved.

Stateside, the bill at the Museum of Art in Philadelphia boasts Alicia Keys, Black Eyed Peas, Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, Def Leppard, Destiny's Child, Jay-Z, Josh Groban, Kaiser Chiefs, Keith Urban, Linkin Park, Maroon 5, P. Diddy, Rob Thomas, Sarah McLachlan, Stevie Wonder and Toby Keith.

And that's just one city. U2, Coldplay, Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, R.E.M., Pink Floyd, Elton John and Madonna are just a few of the artists playing elsewhere.

G8 leaders meeting in Scotland will -- maybe -- take note. Andrew will liveblog it (or at least take some pictures; Chris Bowers will be there also, but Annatopia is missing out). One.org has an action alert for us to click. And if all you want to do is watch the music, there's eight hours' worth on MTV starting at 11 a.m. CDT tomorrow and highlights on your ABC affiliate from 7-9.

Update (7/5): In the comments, Albert points out I got his name wrong. And Chris B.'s pictures turned out really good.