Some days, no matter how much time I spend blogging, there are topics I don't get to. Happily, others do. This is an open thread, and if you're looking for some good stuff to read, here's a start:

• The Higazy case: Cover-up: FBI Threatens Suspect's Family with Torture, with a well-deserved hat-tip to How Appealing's Howard Bashman. I would just add that I wish Hizazy's original lawyer, Robert Dunn, was alive to see the result. R.I.P Robert.

• Omar Kadhr update on the Guantanamo prosecutor who recently quit. My last post on Omar is here, one with more case background is here and one on the quitting of Gitmo prosecutor Morris Davis is here.

• Marcy of Next Hurrah typed her fingers off live-blogging the FISA hearings on Firedoglake and then updated on the WSJ op-ed supporting telecom immunity, noting Big Tent's post on that here.

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If this is true, I think Hillary's opponents are making a grave mistake:

Her rivals clearly remained delighted by the turn of events. Edwards, in an interview with liberal talk show host Ed Schultz, promised to "keep pounding the drum on making certain the voters know they have these choices" between what he described as the entrenched special interests in Washington, represented by Clinton, and advocates of change such as himself.

Special interests like undocumented aliens? The issues matter Senator Edwards. And your views on licensing undocumented alien drivers is still unknown. Your misleading doubletalk, and that of Sen. Obama, on lobbyist money, is the height of hypocrisy and gameplaying. Obama's performance in the McClurkin Affair smacks of pandering to bigots. Senator Dodd's position on the question of licenses was simply terrible.

We need a little straight talk from Hillary's opponents on REAL progressive issues. There is no doubt that Hillary Clinton does not provide the most straightforward answers. But those folks living in glass houses need to clean up their act before they start casting stones. I want to hear about issues first. Not Hillary. Speak to the issues and then contrast with Clinton. Do not put the cart before the horse.

I try to stay on top of what Congress is doing but this one escaped me. And, since I'm not seeing much about it in the news or on blogs, I'm not the only one.

On the same day last week that the House passed the Ammonium Nitrate bill, it also passed HR 1955, titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. The vote on this bill was 404 to 6. Meaning even progressive Democrats voted for it.

This is a thought-crimes bill, aimed at preventing domestic terrorism by judging the thoughts, including those expressed on the Internet, of American citizens.

If passed into law, it will also establish a co.mmission and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so called thought criminals. Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and uses vague language to define homegrown terrorism.

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Another blow for the death penalty in California yesterday:

California's stalled death penalty plunged deeper into disarray Wednesday when a judge tossed out the state's new lethal injection method. The judge's ruling added to the growing uncertainty over the status of capital punishment in the state.

Marin County Judge Lynn O'Malley Taylor invalidated the state's new procedure because state prison officials failed to treat the new execution method as a new state regulation, which mandates public comment among other requirements.

There are 667 persons on Death Row in California. Executions have been on hold since January, 2006 when federal judge Stanley Vogel ruled California could not use licensed medical professionals to carry out the execution.

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Go read Jane and newly-converted Democrat John Cole.

That's all. Oh, except for John Amato of Crooks and Liars who, while watching the debate with Jane last night, said to her of Russert, "“Why doesn’t he just ask her if she killed Vince Foster?”

This nonsense that Hillary did not do well in the debate, contradicted herself, flip-flopped or whatever is media hype and desperate, wishful thinking by supporters of the other Democratic candidates and Republican strategists.

The number of comments on this site today from "newbie" commenters, all attacking Hillary, is telling.

If you are a progressive, stop it. You are feeding Republican dreams. The enemy is not in here. It is outside this room. And this party.

Any one of the Democrats in the running for the Presidential nomination is light-years superior to what the Republicans have to offer and what we've endured under George Bush.

Bump and Update (10/31): The show starts at 10:00 pm ET. It's Channel 107 on Comcast, check their website for other cable systems.

Original post (10/30)

Maybe someone will tell Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey to watch Current TV tomorrow night at 10:00 pm ET.

On Wednesday, October 31st at 10pm ET/PT, Current TV gives viewers a real look at what Waterboarding entails when two ex-Survival, Escape, Resistance and Evasion (SERE) instructors administer a controversial interrogation technique to Current Vanguard Journalist Kaj Larsen.

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After last night's Russert gotcha moment, Senator Hillary Clinton unequivocally embraced New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to provide drivers licenses for undocumented aliens in New York:

Mrs. Clinton’s statement affirming her support of Mr. Spitzer in his office came less than a day after she offered a muddled and hesitant position on the bill, prompting a round of denunciations by her opponents. It signaled the extent to which her advisers viewed that moment as the biggest misstep she made in the debate, and one with long-term potential to undermine her candidacy. “Senator Clinton supports governors like Governor Spitzer who believe they need such a measure to deal with the crisis caused by this administration’s failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform,’” her campaign said.

Senator John Edwards had lot of criticism for Clinton, but little to say on the actual issue. That little game is over now. Where do you stand on the issue Sen. Edwards? We do not need any doubletalk from you.

Surprise in the case against former AUSA Richard Convertino, who prosecuted the fiasco of the Detroit terror trial. He's been acquitted on all counts.

He was charged with obstruction of justice for concealing evidence in the case.

Three defendants were convicted during the terror trial and the case was later reversed for prosecutorial misconduct. How did he get acquitted? I have no idea, but here was his defense:

During an emotional closing to the four-week trial, William Sullivan, the attorney for Convertino, pointed out that the terror suspects weren’t retried and said that the government had substituted Convertino and Smith for them.

TalkLeft covered the Detroit terror trial and Convertino extensively. See here, here and here as background.

The bribery trial of Brent Wilkes has gone to the jury.

Wilkes surprised everyone by taking the stand in his own defense, particularly prosecutors.

From accounts I've read, Wilkes was credible job on the stand, the jury liked him and laughed at his jokes and Geragos gave a good closing.

While everyone is focused on Michael Mukasey's refusal to acknowledge that waterboarding is torture, another story is being overlooked.

A must read: Wayne Barrett's latest in the Village Voice, No Skeletons in My Closet.

When Mukasey was nominated, I expressed concern about his closeness to Rudy Giuliani.That concern has just grown exponentially.

After reading Barrett, I'm wondering whether the reason Mukasey is willing to take on the Attorney General job for a short 14 months is because Rudy has promised to keep him in the spot should he become President.

Mukasey has said he'd recuse himself from the expected impending federal indictment of Bernie Kerik. But, as Barrett explains, Kerik is just one of many cases with connections to Rudy that the Justice Department will be handling. Mukasey's son, a partner in Bracewell-Guiliani, plays a key role in many of them.

There's also the question about whether Mukasey has been honest or complete in his description of his political activities on behalf of Rudy, particularly while he was a federal judge and not supposed to be politically active.

Here are but two examples:

Taylor Marsh has a great post about last night's Democratic debate and the behavior of NBC co-moderator Tim Russert.

Tim Russert asked 26 questions; 14 were to Clinton, with 5 directly targeting her personally....In contrast, Barack Obama got asked what he would do about air travel; whether there was life beyond earth; and the question on which all Americans' safety depends, What are you going to dress as on Halloween?

....But Russert's softballs to Obama when compared to Clinton were nakedly obvious to anyone paying attention.....Tim Russert who had no business taking sides. But he did anyway.

....Russert played a card [on the archives question] that was not only disingenuous and meant to bring in Bill Clinton into a debate where Hillary Clinton is running for president, but did so using innuendos and outright falsehoods, according to any objective player.

I agree with what she says about Russert playing debater against Hillary, joining the attack, rather than sticking to moderating.

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Via atrios and Molly Ivers, MoDo is particularly stupid and offensive today. As for the "politics of Hillary," she quotes someone saying:

That [Clinton political] tack, Caitlin Flanagan writes in The Atlantic, would only work if she were “willing to let us women in on the big, underlying struggle of her life that is front and center in our understanding of who she is as a woman . . .

Perhaps in the silly salons of Washington, DC that is true, but the polling indicates one thing for sure, Hillary's great strength is with women:

The consistent lead that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has maintained over Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and others in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination is due largely to one factor: her support from women.

Much to the chagrin of MoDo and her fellow Hillary-hating travelers, women think very well of Hillary and not so well of the silly people of the Washington salons. Poor Sally Quinn.