Media Matters has the transcript of Rush Limbaugh telling his audience that in the past, he told the reporter of a national newsmagazine he would dig into his past to come up with dirt on him in order to get the reporter to change his story. Rush felt the reporter's story was a hit job so he says he engaged in the "destructive" behavior himself. He says the statements did the trick and the reporter changed the story.

I've practiced it once. I am not going to tell you the story because I'm don't want to give it away, and I would have to mention names, and I'm not going to mention names. But there was a cover story on me coming out of one of the big news magazines, and it was going to totally mischaracterize me and what I do and how I do it. And we found out who was writing it and made a couple phone calls to the person writing it. And we said, "You know what? We're going to find out where your kids go to school. We're going to find out who you knocked up in high school. We're going to find out what drugs you used. We're going to find out where you go to drink and do -- we're gonna find out how you paid for your house. We're going to do -- and we're going to do exact -- and we're going to say that, you know what?

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Arianna at Huffington Post interviewed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday.

Speaker Pelosi made three promises in the interview:

• that the House will not take up a war appropriations bill this year
• that there will be no war appropriations bill next year that doesn't include a fixed date for bringing the troops home
• that House Democrats will put up a major fight over the Bush administration's desire to make permanent the FISA law passed in August, particularly over the issue of retroactive immunity that the Senate has already given in on.

Huffpo has videos up of the interview.

Since the Supreme Court agreed to decide whether the use of lethal injections to execute prisoners violates the Eighth Amendment, at least ten states have stayed executions. Nevada is the latest.

A killer's execution was halted 90 minutes before he was set to die amid arguments from death penalty opponents that the state should wait until the U.S. Supreme Court reviews the constitutionality of lethal injections. ... The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada appealed to halt any executions in the state.

I've got some jail visiting to do today and will be offline. Big Tent Democrat or TChris may be around this afternoon, but in the meantime, here's an open thread for you.

Also check out the new diaries:

WaPo Op Ed piece:

The Real Iraq We Knew

By 12 former Army captains
Tuesday, October 16, 2007; 12:00 AM

. . . As Army captains who served in Baghdad and beyond, we've seen the corruption and the sectarian division. We understand what it's like to be stretched too thin. And we know when it's time to get out.
. . . [T]he U.S. military has been trying in vain to hold the country together. Even with "the surge," we simply do not have enough soldiers and marines to meet the professed goals of clearing areas from insurgent control, holding them securely and building sustainable institutions.

. . . There is one way we might be able to succeed in Iraq. To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately. A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will spend more blood and treasure on a losing proposition.

America, it has been five years. It's time to make a choice.

The phone companies have responded to the request by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce for information about their participation in the NSA warrantless wiretapping program.

Verizon admits it supplied hundreds of its customers' records to the agency without a court order.

Verizon also disclosed that the FBI, using administrative subpoenas, sought information identifying not just a person making a call, but all the people that customer called, as well as the people those people called. Verizon does not keep data on this "two-generation community of interest" for customers, but the request highlights the broad reach of the government's quest for data.

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Rudy Giuliani is taking his (or Judy's) expensive tastes to the campaign trail.

Whether it was $2,010 at the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia, $4,034 at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., or $5,370 at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, the former mayor found himself top-notch lodging.

He also doesn't like to fly commercial. In addition to $800,000 for charter jets,

He also spent more than $565,000 reimbursing various corporate supporters for private jet travel.

Check out whose jets he's using:

The biggest chunk of those flights came via Elliott Asset Management, a New York hedge fund known by some as a "vulture fund," so-named because they buy debt cheaply from cash-starved countries, and then sue them for the full repayment. The head of the firm, Paul Singer, is in charge of Northeastern fundraising for Giuliani.

Bump and Update: The Rockies win. The crowd's screaming. The team is going crazy. The Diamondbacks are just staring. There's fireworks, I can see and hear them from my terrace a few miles away.

It's the Purple Reign. Congratulations, Rockies!

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The floodgates just opened in the 4th inning. It's 6 to 1 and if the Colorado Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight, they go to the World Series.

The crowd is wild. The Diamondbacks' manager looks totally defeated. The game is being broadcast on TBS. Even for a non-sports fan like me, it's very exciting. Tune in if you get a chance.

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Rudy Giuliani, who's running for President primarily on his record as Mayor of New York City during the 9/11 attacks, takes another hit today from The Real Rudy and Brave New Films.

Watch the new video. The firefighters on 9/11 were carrying the same piss-poor radios that malfunctioned during the 1993 WTC attacks. That's why the firefighters didn't get the call to get out of the buildings. More than 100 firefighters died. As Digby explains:

Giuliani came into office in 1994, shortly after the first WTC attack. He knew then that the radios didn't work properly and yet it took him seven years to deal with the problem. And when he finally got around to it, he gave Motorola a sweetheart, no-bid contract for radios that were never tested in advance. When the NYFD got them, they didn't work and they had to be reissued the same radios that had proved inadequate in 1993.

That's why, on September 11th, the firefighters didn't hear the warnings to get out of the buildings. The cops heard them. They mostly got out. Their radios could get the right frequency. The firefighters' old radios couldn't.

Rudy's history as a Mayor who failed to provide adequate emergency preparedness needs investigation. It also needs exposure. Who needs a leader of the United States who couldn't even provide for his city's first responders as Mayor?

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While the AP is reporting on questions Attorney General Nominee Michael Mukasey will be asked at his confirmation hearing Wednesday pertaining to detentions, material witness warrants and the like, don't be fooled.

He's headed to a quick confirmation.

Retired federal judge Michael Mukasey is a Republican with a conservative judicial record, yet he appears to have enough support in a Democrat-controlled Congress to assure relatively quick confirmation as attorney general.

Congress watchers, former attorneys general and politicians say Mukasey’s unusual bipartisan appeal stems from his combination of real-world experience, his distance from Washington politics and his independence, making the New York Republican more acceptable to Democrats than higher-profile, conventional conservatives who were considered for the job.

Mukasey will only serve for about 15 months. Whoever is elected in 2009 will appoint a new Attorney General.

Bump and Update: Craig has filed his appeal. It's four pages but doesn't go into the grounds. And don't expect a ruling anytime soon:

Craig's lawyers must first order and file a transcript of his Sept. 26 hearing. Once that has been filed, his lawyers have 60 days to file a brief outlining his appeal. Then, prosecutors have 45 days to file their response to his appeal. Once those are filed, the court sets a date for oral arguments -- which often occurs about six to eight months later. Ninety days after the oral arguments, the judge issue a decision.

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Original Post: Larry Craig Slams Romney, Will Appeal Conviction

Sen. Larry Craig is making the tv rounds. Sunday, he vowed to appeal the denial of the motion to withdraw his guilty plea.

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In the not-suprising news, two of O.J. Simpson's co-defendants have taken deals and will testify against him.

Of possible interest is that the co-defendants, Walter Alexander and Charles Cashmore, are pleading to felonies. While I'd expect them not to get jail time in exchange for their testimony, a felony conviction is no walk in the park. It also raises the bar for any plea deal for O.J. I think the prosecution would be hard-pressed to give O.J. a misdemeanor while forcing the others to cop to felonies.

Which means, we may see yet another O.J. trial. The preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 8 and 9th.