Top Chef has its season premiere tonight on Bravo.

I'll be watching the Country Music Awards which will have performances by the Eagles, Kid Rock and Keith Urban, among others. Full list of nominees is here.

What are you watching tonight?

I posted it in the Open Thread but I think it is worthy of its own post - Greenwald on John Brennan:

It simply is noteworthy of comment and cause for concern -- though far from conclusive about what Obama will do -- that Obama's transition chief for intelligence policy, John Brennan, was an ardent supporter of torture and one of the most emphatic advocates of FISA expansions and telecom immunity. It would be foolish in the extreme to ignore that and to just adopt the attitude that we should all wait quietly with our hands politely folded for the new President to unveil his decisions before deciding that we should speak up or do anything.

Speaking for me only

More bad news on the economic front. The Dow Jones dropped more than 410 points today.

The Dow Jones industrials dropped more than 410 points, and all the major indexes lost more than 4 percent. The stock market has lost about $1 trillion over the past three days, according to the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, which reflects the value of nearly all U.S. stocks.

Among the reasons:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he was backing away from buying troubled mortgage assets and would focus on the capital needs of both banks and non-bank financial institutions.

[More...]

I am out for the rest of the day. So this will be an Open Thread.

Just for kicks, a trip down memory lane when the new Obama Bots attacked me in years past - on the New McCarthyism in 2005 and on Alito later that year. Ancient history of course. Maybe John Brennan can be discussed sometime soon.

One last thing, Greenwald on John Brennan: [More...]

Don't they know they are supposed to leave Barack alone? Labor did not get the memo:

At a private meeting tomorrow in Washington, D.C., the most powerful and prominent leaders of the labor movement are planning to finalize the details of a major public campaign to push for what labor is hoping to get from the incoming Obama administration and the new Congress.

How dare they plan to pressure the President-elect? It is just plain wrong to ask for action on issues you care about from the people you helped elect. Ridicule is in order.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

The Washington Post has more on President-Elect Barack Obama's Guantanamo plans. Shorter version: We'll study the matter and get back to you. [Warning, this is a very long post.]

The Obama administration will launch a review of the classified files of the approximately 250 detainees at Guantanamo Bay immediately after taking office, as part of an intensive effort to close the U.S. prison in Cuba, according to people who advised the campaign on detainee issues.

....Although as a candidate Obama publicly expressed his desire to close the detention facility, his transition team stressed this week that the president-elect has not assembled his national security and legal team and that no decisions have been made "about where and how to try the detainees," Denis McDonough, an Obama foreign policy adviser, said in a statement issued Monday.

[More...]

Remember Mark Foley? He'd like to make a comeback.

"I'm trying to find my way back," Foley said in an interview with The Associated Press, his first public comments on the scandal since resigning from Congress on Sept. 29, 2006.

Foley had "lurid, sexually explicit" electronic chats with teenage interns when he was a Congressman. If Foley wants to "find [his] way back" to a political or public career, or even a job as a previously owned car salesman, he needs to show a bit more understanding of his conduct than this: [more ...]

The LA Times reports gun sales are up in the wake of last week's election. The Denver Post reported last week the election has spurred a rush on gun sales in Colorado due to fears an Obama Adminstration will restrict Second Amendment gun rights. The Kansas City Star recently reported gun sales are up all over the country since October, when Obama seemed poised to win the election. Sales are also up in Iowa.

I have a post at 5280.com today asking whether this is a rational fear or propaganda from the National Rifle Association (NRA)? FactCheck.Org says the NRA's claims are false. [More...]

Believe it or not, beyond the blog pi**ing contests, John Brennan's potential role in an Obama Administration matters a lot. Digby explains why:

On torture, there can be no more blurring of definitions. . . . The CIA needs to know up front that Obama will not have their back if they engage in torture --- and that the torture legal framework under Bush is no longer operative in any way. There really is no other choice on this and I expect that he will do it. He knows very well that his foreign policy will be in complete shambles the minute it is leaked --- and it will be --- that the Obama administration has sanctioned torture, either through commission or omission. His great opportunity across the world to prove that America has changed will be lost.

If this is concern trolling, then we should all be concern trolls.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Many thanks to Newsweek and the Media Bloggers' Association for including me and TalkLeft in its campaign blog, "The Ruckus." For months, every post we wrote on the election also appeared at The Ruckus. Now that the election is behind us, the Ruckus is disbanding. [More...]

They got me. You see I wrote this:

I am sorry to continue to harp on the need for a Unity Ticket, but I feel it is important. . . . [I]s no one but me worried about needing a unified Democratic Party in November? I pray there are grownups in the Obama camp that will give him a reality check on this.

See what a concern troll I was? I wanted a Unity Ticket!! You see, I thought that was the surest (the Cult does not understand the concept of maximizing your chances) bet for winning in November. But the funny thing is they could have gone even further back. I wanted a Unity ticket after Super Tuesday. But I guess they missed my August 6, 2008 post explaining Why Obama Is A Shoo In And How He Can Win In a Landslide:

Boy, was I ever wrong about Baucus on health care. Steve M., you were right. Baucus proposes:

Baucus of Montana, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a health-care blueprint released today that only a mandate could ensure people didn't wait until they were ill to buy health insurance, forcing up the price for everyone. The 89-page proposal revives a debate from the Democratic presidential primaries about how to overhaul the U.S. health- care system. Obama supported requiring coverage only for children, saying adults would buy coverage voluntarily if it were affordable. Senator Hillary Clinton of New York said insurance must be mandated for everyone.

[More...]