This is what it has come to:

The top legal adviser within the US state department, who counsels the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, on international law, has declined to rule out the use of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding even if it were applied by foreign intelligence services on US citizens.

Let's be clear. Until the Bush Administration, there has been NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER that waterboarding was torture and a violation of American and international law. What is the issue now? The issue is the Bush Administration authorized waterboarding. The Bush Administration committed war crimes. So now, to try and save themselves from this fact, they will accept the torture of Americans. Truly the most disgraceful Administration in history.

Actually, most of what Joe Wilson says about Obama is right. But his defense of Hillary's vote of Kyl-Lieberman is wrong. First the part that is right:

. . . During the debate, Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois deleted reference [in K-L] to "military instrumentalities" and added: "Nothing in this Act should be construed as giving the president the authority to use military force against Iran." . . . Senator Barack Obama was absent when the vote on Kyl-Lieberman was taken, though that has not prevented him from criticizing colleagues who participated in the debate and voted for it. He has also opted not to sign the letter to the president. . . . Senator Obama's criticism of the vote and refusal to join with his Democratic colleagues on the letter to the president appear to be based more on the politics than the substance. The entire Senate was notified a day beforehand about the vote on the Kyl-Lieberman resolution. If he truly had a sense of urgency on the issue he should have made a point of participating in the debate and voting, when he would have had the opportunity at the time to air his substantive disagreement with his home state colleague Senator Durbin, rather than waiting to raise the issue afterwards in a purely political context and using it as a campaign tactic.

All very true. But where Wilson is dead wrong is in the belief that there was any positive merit to K-L. The simple fact is the Bush Administration can not be trusted on anything or at any time. These are not normal times where the Congress can work with the President on such issues. The Congress' main job now is to be vigilant and oppose the Bush Administration's belligerent impulses on foreign policy. It needs to make sure no more damage is done. K-L hurt that effort. Clinton was very wrong to vote in its favor.

Geekesque rightly points out that this from Wilson was simply awful:

He has also made clear that for him the paramount enemy is George W. Bush, not an organization that has a history of involvement in terrorism and has been actively targeting American troops in Iraq.

Shame on you Joe Wilson.

Disgraceful. How bad can CNN get? I am with Digby:

I just saw Jeanne Moos do one of her cute little feature stories on ... waterboarding. Lots of adorable stories of people trying it and timing themselves and laughing about it afterwards. Funny, funny stuff. I only wish they'd put her in a stress position for 48 hours naked so we could see how hilarious that is too.

Truly outrageous.

Frank Rich correctly rips Hillary Clinton for voting in favor of the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment. But he fudges the facts on the performance of the other Presidential contenders. In particular, he gives Barack Obama's failure to vote on K-L a pass. Rich writes:

This time around, with the exception of Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic candidates seem to be saying what they really believe rather than trying to play both sides against the middle. Only Mrs. Clinton voted for this fall’s nonbinding Kyl-Lieberman Senate resolution, designed by its hawk authors to validate Mr. Bush’s Iran policy. The House isn’t even going to bring up this malevolent bill because, as Nancy Pelosi has said, there has “never been a declaration by a Congress before in our history” that “declared a piece of a country’s army to be a terrorist organization.”

I am starting my own contest, the Maureen Dowd Substance Watch. No, not substance abuse. Substance. Please identify the last time she discussed an actual issue. For the second column in a row, I do not see any.

Come on girlfriend, at least find an issue to attack Hillary on. It takes a lot of gall to write about politics and not actually know anything about any issue.

I've decided to spend my extra hour driving to the mountains. If I don't turn my clocks back till I get there, I'll make it to Aspen in 2 1/2 hours instead of 3 1/2. Pretty cool.

What are you doing with your extra hour?

Here's an open thread to discuss what's in the news, on the blogs or on your mind.

Question: How can bloggers support the writers' strike? If federal mediation attempts fail today, it starts tomorrow. 300 strike captains are ready to go. Why? It's the money.

Guild members are being asked to sign up for a shift beginning at 9 a.m. or 1 p.m. and will be given signs, chants and red T-shirts emblazoned with "United We Stand" when they arrive on site, captains said. Each member is expected to picket four hours every day. Of the guild's 12,000 members, about 8,000 are in WGA West, with the remainder in WGA East, which plans to picket in New York.

Many of the members will picket outside the studios in which the shows they were working on are made, while others will be assigned to locations based on where they live.

The Writers Guild of America (West) site is here.

Okay, that's my Sully recognizing name for Kevin Drum's Worst Blog Post of All Time Contest:

All-Time Wingnuttiest Blog Post Contest (Choose up to 5)

Ann Althouse: "Let's take a closer look at those breasts."

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I'll believe it if it happens, but according to the New York Times, Bush administration officials are discussing providing more legal rights to the Guantanamo detainees it seeks to hold as enemy combatants.

The discussions are described as a step on the road to closing Gitmo. Why the change of heart? The Administration may be fearful the next case the Supreme Court decides will be too generous to the detainees.

The administration has fought for years in court and in Congress against granting the detainees more rights. In the latest instance, the Supreme Court is to consider a case brought by Guantánamo detainees who are seeking to challenge their confinement in habeas corpus suits in federal court.

If the administration loses that case, it could give the detainees even more legal rights and create a precedent limiting the president’s and the military’s power. Lawyers inside and outside of government said a detailed proposal from the administration to give detainees fuller legal protections could convince the justices that they need not resolve the case, Boumediene v. Bush.

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Eric Clapton, Live 1986, "Cocaine" (for Fred Thompson.) 2001 Live version here.

The Washington Post reports that Republican candidate Fred Thompson's good buddy since the mid-90's, Philip Martin of Tennessee, who also supplies the plane for Thompson's campaign trips, has a criminal past:

Martin entered a plea of guilty to the sale of 11 pounds of marijuana in 1979; the court withheld judgment pending completion of his probation. He was charged in 1983 with violating his probation and with multiple counts of felony bookmaking, cocaine trafficking and conspiracy. He pleaded no contest to the cocaine-trafficking and conspiracy charges, which stemmed from a plan to sell $30,000 worth of the drug, and was continued on probation.

So, he gets a deferred in state court for pot, violates probation, pleads "no contest" (same effect as a guilty plea) to coke (more than a kilo's worth, if my memory serves me correctly as to what coke sold for back then) and gets continued on probation with no jail time?

Sounds like he cooperated big time. [More...]

Rolling Stone Magazine is turning 40. It just released its first digital issue. I was a teenager when it first came out and read it religiously. I subscribed for years. I still read it from time to time.

So, it's painful for me to see there's been a brouhaha in the media this week about Jann Wenner and Corey Seymour's biography of Hunter Thompson. For a quick recap, check out:

• This NY Daily News article
• The LA Times Review which really hurt Hunter's wife, Anita Thompson
• This Washington Times article defending Hunter's later writing and Anita
• Anita responding on her Owl Farm Blog.

I'm not going to slam Wenner's book, I haven't read the whole thing -- just the 8 pages of excerpts in Rolling Stone last month, which I read on an airplane and enjoyed. Even Anita says there's some good stuff in the book.

But Anita very much disagrees with Wenner's characterization of Hunter (see the LA Times review)at the end of his life, his criticism of Hunter's ESPN reporting and the impression he gives that Hunter did nothing worthwhile after leaving Rolling Stone.

On Hunter's ESPN reporting, his activism and the impact he made during the final years of his life, I feel qualified to weigh in and I'm going to side strongly with Anita (and not just because she's my friend.)

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Bump and Update: Barack Obama did the "Live From Saturday Night" opening line...he was good!

****

It seems like an incongruous choice, but I bet Brian Williams is good tonight on Saturday Night Live.

From this new interview, he's got a sense of humor and may not be as strait-laced as he sometimes comes off doing the news.

What's your favorite medication?
Ambien.
....When's bedtime?
My natural body clock bedtime is 2 to 3 a.m. See Ambien.

On the human side:

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