Saturday Night Live is back. Amy Poehler guest hosts tonight, with Katy Perry as the musical guest.

There's a Christine O'Donnell parody about mastur** (you can watch here) and New York Gov. David Paterson, a frequent target of the show, will be on. What does he have to say?

"Working in Albany is like watching SNL: a lot of characters, it's funny for 10 minutes & then you just want it over." -Gov Patterson

Amy Poehler and Seth Myers do the weekend update.

Last year, Georgia criminal defense attorney Mark Shelnutt was acquitted on charges of conspiring to launder money, 31 counts of money laundering, aiding and abetting a drug conspiracy, lying to federal agents, intimidating a grand jury witness, failing to report cash transactions over $10,000 and the attempted bribery of a federal prosecutor. He then sued the Government under the Hyde Act to recover his attorneys' fees.

Law enforcement didn't give up. Now, Georgia authorities have arrested him. The charges: eight felony counts of drug distribution. What did he do? Over a two month period, he gave 11 prescription pills to a long time friend, who happened to be working as a government informant. One percocet, 8 zanax and 2 hydrocodone pills, on 7 separate occasions.

At 4:30 pm MT (6:30 pm ET), there will be a debate on medical marijuana in Denver, hosted by actor Richard Belzer. It's part of the the Plant Medicine Expo and Healthcare Provider Conference being held at the downtown Denver Sheraton.

Belzer was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1984, and has since made a full recovery. The debate features Colorado elected officials and advocates on both sides of the medical marijuana issue.

Just Say Now and Firedoglake are live-streaming the debate. You can watch here. Among the participants is Stan Garnett, Boulder District Attorney, who is running for Colorado Attorney General against John Suthers. Full list below: [More...]

Last week I was 9-6. I now stand 22-18-1 (.550) on the year. Here are this week's picks:

GA Tech (-8) over NCState; Miami(OH)(+20) over Missouri; Air Force (-14) over Wyoming; USC (-22) over Washington State; Alabama (-7.5) over Arkansas; Stanford(-5) over Notre Dame; Nevada (-4) over BYU; Miss State (-1) over Georgia; Ole Miss (-2) over Fresno St.; Auburn (-2) over S. Carolina; Boise State (-18) over Oregon State; LSU (-10) over West Virginia; and Cal (+7) over Arizona.

Open Thread.

It's the peak weekend here for seeing the changing of the Aspen. Hope your weekend is getting off to a good start.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

California's executions have been on hold since 2006. A federal judge today cleared the way for them to resume. He said the problem regarding the method of injection is solved by allowing the inmate to choose between a one drug or three drug cocktail.

"Allowing a condemned inmate to make such a choice is consistent with Ninth Circuit authority in cases arising both in California and elsewhere," he wrote.

[More...]

Lindsay Lohan returned to jail today after a judge ordered her held pending an October 22 probation violation hearing for failing two drug tests since her release in June.

Lindsay's attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, filed an appeal asserting the Judge exceeded his authority.

The reviewing judge has reversed no bail order. Lindsay will be released within hours.

Judge Patricia Schnegg, Assistant Supervising Judge for the L.A. County Criminal Courts, just threw Judge Fox's bail decision out the window. Judge Schnegg has set bail at $300,000. Lindsay, who is in Lynwood Jail right now, should get out soon ... probably in a few hours.

I'm on the road and swamped. I will be posting my college picks tomorrow morning. Other than that, not sure when I'll be posting. J seems pretty swamped too with some computer problems to boot.

Open Thread.

I'm having major Windows 7 network connectivity issues with my new laptop. I'm sick of unplugging and replugging the modem and router, only to have it work for a few days and then go out again. (Right now my desktop and windows vista laptop is working, the windows 7 is not. Yesterday, the windows 7 worked and the Vista went out. The desktop, which not wireless, is fine.) Good thing there's a lot of TV tonight, from the premiere of Gray's Anatomy to The Apprentice, Project Runway and even a new episode of Jersey Shore.

There's also the premiere of Outsourced. I have no idea if it will be as good as the movie, which I not only liked, but credit with giving me more patience and a sense of humor when I am connected to tech support or customer service reps in India.

The Defenders last night wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Jim Belushi and the young female associate were good. The other guy, Jerry O'Connell, is way too bland and goofy and his ADDHD mannerisms are not as cute as he thinks they are. Also, the sexcapades between him and the female D.A. are just cheesy.

On the other hand, Survivor Nicaragua is better than expected, with its old vs. young theme. The old people all seem to have a screw or two loose, a welcome change from the one-dimensional, over-jocked types they usually cast in people over 40. [More...]

Teresa Lewis was pronounced dead at 9:13 pm. Her last supper: fried chicken, peas and Dr. Pepper.

Teresa Lewis didn't pull the trigger. She confessed, pleaded guilty and cooperated with authorities. She had an IQ of 70, right on the border of mental retardation. She had no prior criminal record, and no prior history of violence. The triggermen in the murder got life without parole. Yet she was executed -- the first first female sentenced to death in Virginia since 1912.

The next time you hear a politician proclaim they are pro life, ask them to prove it by promising to vote to end the death penalty.

R.I.P: Our evolving standards of decency.

It's another busy work day. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Republicans unveiled their "Pledge to America" today. While it's laced with tea party slogans, there's not much to see here.

Here's one analysis:

It's a 21-page slog -- it just seems longer -- whose opening is an equal parts corny and clumsy (I counted two grammatical errors in the first paragraph alone) overreach for high-mindedness. In a desperate attempt to capture the Tea Party's flag-waving zeitgeist, the introduction borrows heavily from the Declaration of Independence -- inserting some phrases wholesale while paralleling the original's litany of charges against George III with indictments of President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats.

The first wave of health insurance changes take effect today. Which ones?

• No denial of children based on pre-existing conditions
• No more lifetime benefit limits
• No canceling policies of very sick and benefit-needy peoplefor technical errors on their application
• Coverage of kids up to age 26 on their parent policies
• No co-pays on some preventive procedures, including colonoscopies, mammograms and immunizations
• Allowing those on new plans to keep their own doctors and to appeal reimbursement decisions to a third party.

One area of immediate concern: In many states, insurance companies will stop offering child-only policies immeidately. "Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna Inc., UnitedHealth Group Inc., Cigna Corp., are among the companies that plan to halt all or part of their child-only policy sales." More here.

Here's the new White House website explaining the law, the changes and the benefits.

For TV, there's Survivor, America's Next Top Model and some new show called The Defenders, that I'll watch out of curiosity, even though I think it will be an unrealistic, exaggerated portrait of criminal defense lawyers. Hope I'm wrong.

The TL kid and I just got new laptops. I ordered him a Dell over Labor Day, which took two weeks to build and arrive, and when it did arrive, it had black screen death. After more than two hours on the phone with a very pleasant tech person in India, and later, his supervisor, it still shut down immediately after starting. Most likely, it had conflicting components, and since they stopped offering the 1G video card in that model last week, I'd bet that was the problem. But whatever the cause, since a replacement would have come with an integrated video card when I paid for a 1G, I went back to Sony, who I've always had good results with. They are having a sale too, and after hours of internet shopping, where everyone offers slightly different features, the best deal turned out to be at the local Sony Style store. And I liked the one I was getting for him so much, I ended up buying one for me as well.

I'm not bashing Dell, I love their desktops, and most likely will buy my next one from them, but it was a disappointment. At least the return process was simple, and as I said, their tech people tried really hard to figure out what was wrong and were very pleasant.

So while I set up my new laptop tonight, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Bob Woodward's book on the division between Obama and his advisors on the war in Afghanistan is making big news. Republicans hope they can play it up and gain votes in November. Sample over-the-top headline: The Guardian, which proclaims " Obama Presidency hobbled by discord."

The Obama presidency is hobbled by discord and mutual contempt among its senior policy-makers and top generals according to a new book which is likely to damage the administration in November's congressional elections and undermine its efforts in Afghanistan.

The book, Obama's Wars, by the veteran investigative journalist Bob Woodward, is out on Monday, but extracts published overnight by the Washington Post and the New York Times make it clear that it will hurt the administration in the runup to mid-term elections, in which Democrats are already struggling and in which they are expected to lose control of the House of Representatives.

I hope that was written by a Guardian opinion writer rather than a news journalist, because the conclusions it draws are anything but "clear" and "likely." The WaPo excerpt of the book is here. The White House says it's pleased with the book.