New York Magazine has a ten page excerpt from the new book, Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, which hits the stores Monday.

You'll feel like taking a shower after reading it.

Adis Medunjanin, 25, a U.S. citizen of Bosnian origin and Zarein Ahmedzay, a 24-year-old man of Afghani origin, both high school buddies of Najibullah Zazi, the 24 year old arrested last summer in Denver and charged with terror offenses, have been charged in federal court in Brooklyn with crimes related to Zazi.

At a Saturday arraignment at Brooklyn federal court, Medunjanin was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, Pakistan, and one count of getting military-style training from al Qaeda.

...Zarein Ahmedzay, a 24-year-old man of Afghani origin, also was arrested on Friday and pleaded not guilty to a charge of making false statements to the FBI -- specifically, that he lied about where he had visited in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

This has probably been brewing for a while as according to docket information on PACER, the Government advised the court in Zazi's case on December 3, 2009 that there likely will be a superseding Indictment. The next conference is set for Feb. 25. [more...]

Dan Froomkin weighs in on the faulty claims perpetuated by the media that 1 in 7 released Guantanamo detainees have returned to the battlefield.

Here's the Pentagon's April 7 report entitled "Fact Sheet: Former Guantanamo Detainee Terrorism Trends" (which they uploaded as "return to the fight.") As we've reported before, the report has been debunked and criticized by a study directed by Seton Hall Law Professor Mark Denbeaux.

David Kenner at Foreign Policy presents the top 4 bad guys in AQAP in Yemen with photos: there's the group's leader, Nasir al-Wuhayshi, cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, former Guantanamo detainee Said al-Shehri (who was released into the Saudi Rehab program but left), Qasim al-Raymi and Hizam Mujali.

Gregory Johnson at Waq al-Waq says:

I think 'Adil al-'Abab, Ibrahim al-Rubaysh and Muhammad al-Rashad are much more important than Anwar al-'Awlaqi and Hizam Mujali. But there is little argument on the top three: Nasir al-Wahayshi, Said Ali al-Shihri and Qasimal-Raymi.

Johnson says al-Raymi is "the single most dangerous individual in the organization." While he was never at Gitmo, his brother is.

I also like this November, 2009 Australian think-tank study on the importance of AQAP's relationship with the tribes in Yemen.[More...]

Playoffs. NFL. They start today. In the afternoon game, the Jets travel to Cincy. Cincy is a 2.5 point favorite. the Jets demolished the Bengals last week, 37-0. The Jets are an emptional roller coaster team. They are up now. I like the Jets (+2.5).

In another rematch game, the Cowboys again host the Iggles. The Eagles are resilient. I think they bounce back from having been swept by the Boys. I like the Iggles (+3.5) tonight.

This is an Open Thread.

Update: This thread got trashed by a few commenters. It's closing and being cleaned.

If you're in Denver Monday night, consider stopping by the City Council meeting.

Here is the proposed ordinance, Council Bill 34, updated Jan. 4 (pdf), for licensing and regulating medical marijuana dispensaries. If adopted,according to Marijuana Policy Project, the regulations would:

• enact location restrictions requiring dispensaries to be at least 1,000 feet from any school, child-care center, or other dispensary, with an exception to grandfather in most existing dispensaries;
• prohibit patients from using their medicine on site;
• limit hours of operation to 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; and
• prohibit anyone with felony convictions in the last 5 years (including marijuana-related felonies) from opening a dispensary.

The regulations would not establish limits on the amounts of marijuana plants dispensaries can cultivate, which means cultivation operations would only be subject to existing zoning regulations. [More...]

Funny dkos diary. AdamB provides link to new "Lost In 8:15"

My favorite line of it? "The survivors see a boat. It's Desmond. He's drunk." That always made me laugh. For the record, I love Lost and would choose watching the premiere over the SOTU. I can always watch the SOTU later on You Tube.

Speaking for me only

From the comment thread of a much cited today Austin Frakt post:

The literature is clear that an increase in premiums will decrease the available pool of funds necessary for wages. However I would argue that a corresponding decrease in premiums would be ’sticky’ in any return to the employees. The problem of course is that we have never seen the premiums go down.

Austin Frakt [--] Excellent point. My thinking on this one is that it is a short-run/long-run question. In the short-run, wages will stick as you suggest, in the long run, they’ll go up [. . .].

(Emphasis supplied.) Any data to support that "thinking?" Why no of course. Alan Greenspan "thought" a lot of things too. Also, "In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long past the ocean is flat again." - John Maynard Keynes.

Also, The Eagles

Speaking for me only

If you're looking for something different for dinner, Dr. Andrew Weil has posted a recipe today for Hemp Crusted Salmon.

Colorado's battle over medical marijuana regulation is heating up again. Here's state senator Chris Romer's proposed bill (updated 12/30) and medical marijuana attorney Rob Corrie's opposition to it. Lots more legal details here.

I'm off to court for the rest of the afternoon, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab appeared in federal court in Detroit today. A guilty plea was entered on his behalf.

His head was shaved, which according to observers, made him look even younger than his 23 years.

He is represented by the Federal Defender's office. His parents have hired U.S. lawyers from Nigeria to observe the proceedings and keep them informed, but Federal Defender Miriam Siefer (an excellent attorney) told the court their office expects to continue to represent Umar.

Umar faces a possible life sentence on the first count in the Indictment, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

James Joyner:

Mike Tomasky and Matt Yglesias both argue that Alabama head coach Nick Saban showed a distinct lack of class by scoring a meaningless touchdown with 47 seconds left in last night’s championship game [. . .] I’m an Alabama alumnus and fan, so I’m biased. But having the backup running back score on a run up the middle with nearly a minute left in a national championship game you’re only leading by 10 points isn’t exactly rubbing it in.

It surely is not running up the score. But it also is probably not the optimal play. With Alabama up 10 with a minute left and Texas with one timeout, the victory formation was in order. What if Bama's running back fumbled? Does no one remember Joe Pisarcik, Larry Csonka and Herman Edwards?

I am sympathetic, for my own personal reasons, to people charged with not disclosing conflicts of interest. For the most part, I doubt that people say things they do not really think because someone gave them a check. I think they generally get the check because of WHAT they think. I think that is the case with MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber, now embroiled in a brouhaha over his failure to disclose his government contract with the Obama Administration.

To be clear, it is my view that Gruber surely should have disclosed his government contract and the Obama Administration should never have referred to him as an "independent" voice. That said, the more intriguing question for me is what did the Obama Administration's contracting of Gruber mean about its views on health care reform? R.J. Eskew writes: