Via HuffPo, on the Daily Show last night, Hall and Oates sang goodbye to Alan Colmes who is leaving Hannity and Colmes in January. (Alan asked to leave the show and will be staying with the network in another capacity.)

Oates has a new album out, 1,000 Miles of Life, that was recorded in Nashville and includes performances by Blues Traveler’s John Popper, Bela Fleck, Blind Boys of Alabama, Steve Cropper, Bonnie and Bekka Bramlett. His home? Since the 1980's it's been Aspen, Colorado where he spends a lot of time shredding.

This is an open thread.

I find it interesting that Cole endorses the Obama as conventional pol interpretation offered by Daniel Larison:

Having finally recognized that Obama is a savvy political operator who is interested in effective government to pursue what are still broadly progressive goals, and having started to grasp that Obama is not a neo-McGovernite radical dove but is actually rather hawkish and establishmentarian in his instincts . . . People have a hard time making sense of a politician who can appear as the friend of the Hyde Park Independents and the Daley machine when each connection suits him, because it isn’t supposed to work that way.

I am not at all sure why it is not supposed to work that way (FDR worked with Tammany and reformers) - but I do find it amusing that this interpretation of Obama as conventional pol is now considered singularly insightful, when it was once considered an affront (I know this because this has always been my interpretation of Obama and I affronted most Obama supporters with it).

Speaking for me only

Attorney Maureen Martin makes the legal case for Gov. Rod Blagojevich in the Chicago Tribune today.

She says it's questionable whether a federal crime was committed and Fitz should have waited for the grand jury to indict before arresting him. She says this should be a state bribery case, brought in state court.

Food for thought. A few of her arguments are below:

Omar Khadr, the Canadian captured as a teen on the battlefield in Afghanistan, has a hearing today in his military commissions proceeding at Guantanamo.

Most human rights and legal experts say the evidence against Khadr seems too weak to be able to hold up in a US civil court or an ordinary military tribunal.

Khadr could then become the first beneficiary of the closing of the Guantanamo detention facility.

The ACLU is monitoring from Gitmo. [More...]

Congrats to Anita! Her book, The Gonzo Way, on her late husband Hunter S. Thompson, has won the Grand Prize at the London Book Festival.

She will accept the award in person on Dec. 18. Background on the book is here.

There's also a very interesting interview with Anita in the Sunday Scotsman Herald, which as a result of the final few paragraphs, has been noted by Esquire, Gawker, Britain's First Post and our local news.

As to Gonzo Way:

“The Gonzo Way: A Celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson” written by his wife, Anita Thompson, is the grand prize winner of the 2008 London Book Festival.

[More...]

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has asked the state supreme court to declare Gov. Rod Blagojevich unfit to serve.

The move came as the governor prayed with several ministers in his home before heading to his office, telling them he is innocent and will be vindicated "when you hear each chapter completely written," according to one of the pastors.

Madigan will hold a press conference on her motion today.

At least it is midday where I am.

This is an Open Thread.

Bob Stein:

In killing the Detroit bailout yesterday, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Toyota joined his colleagues Dick Shelby of Honda and Bob Corker of Nissan in upholding a basic American principle: Blame all economic woes on greedy unions. . . . [This]is a perfect example of what the great journalist Murray Kempton described half a century ago [-] “There is a certain kind of politician who stays safely in the hills during a battle and then comes down and shoots the wounded.”

More...

You know who I really want to hear on this, John McCain:

President Bush and the Treasury Department signaled on Friday morning that they stood ready to use some of the $700 billion bailout program for financial institutions for the Big Three car makers, after Republican senators refused to support a compromise proposal to rescue the automakers. “Under normal economic conditions we would prefer that markets determine the ultimate fate of private firms,” said Dana Perino, Mr. Bush’s spokeswoman, in a carefully nuanced statement released just minutes before the New York financial markets opened. “However, given the current weakened state of the U.S. economy, we will consider other options if necessary — including use of the TARP program — to prevent a collapse of troubled automakers.”

John McCain had a lot to say about "socialism" during the campaign. I am curious to hear him on the subject now. I think we all know President Bush is trying to avoid being a modern day Herbert Hoover. But will the GOP stick to Hooverism as its competing vision to the Democratic agenda?

Speaking for me only

In its editorial today, the New York Times quotes Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell thusly:

Senate Republicans determined to block the $14 billion rescue package for Chrysler and General Motors have trotted out predictable rhetoric about the dangers of Big Government. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, warned on Thursday that “a government big enough to give us everything we want is a government big enough to take everything we have.”

Herbert Hoover lives! In the Republican Party.

Speaking for me only

Jesse Jackson, Sr. today denied he was the "emmissary" named in the Blagojevich complaint.

He flew to Chicago today and is expected to be interviewed by the FBI tomorrow or Saturday. The critical conversation: [More...]

As BTD noted below, a bipartisan Senate Committee has released a new report on the Administration's abuse of detainees in Iraq and at Guantanamo. Senator Carl Levin's press release is here. From WaPo:

The Senate Armed Services Committee report accuses Rumsfeld and his deputies of being the principal architects of the plan to use harsh interrogation techniques on captured fighters and terrorism suspects, rejecting the Bush administration's contention that the policies originated lower down the command chain.

"The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own," the panel concludes. "The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees."

How it began: [More...]