In the news:

• Robert Gates' confirmation hearing as Defense Secretary is underway. He says we are not winning the war in Iraq.

• Former President Bush dissolves into tears of love for son Jeb at a speaking event. Was he drunk?

• Hillary reaches out to Dems in New Hampshire and Iowa. Will she announce before the end of the year?

• Obama praises Hillary in New York. Once again, I see a Hillary-Obama ticket in our future.

What's on your news screen today?

At talking points memo, David Kurtz links to this fairly egregious article in the New York Times, titling his post "The Ties That Bind":

New on the Web: Politics as Usual

THE Netroots.” “People Power.” “Crashing the Gate.” The lingo of liberal Web bloggers bespeaks contempt for the political establishment. The same disdain is apparent among many bloggers on the right, who argued passionately for a change in the slate of House Republican leaders — and who wallowed in woe-is-the-party pity when the establishment ignored them.

You might think that with the kind of rhetoric bloggers regularly muster against politicians, they would never work for them. But you would be wrong. . . . [T]his year, candidates across the country found plenty of outsiders ready and willing to move inside their campaigns. Candidates hired some bloggers to blog and paid others consulting fees for Internet strategy advice or more traditional campaign tasks like opposition research.

Here is a listing of some of the most influential bloggers who went to work for campaigns this year, what they were paid according to campaign disclosure documents, and praiseworthy posts about their employers or critical ones of their employers’ opponents.

There is a very nasty implication of bloggers for sale to that article and David Kurtz chooses to endorse that. That is darned egregious of him. But he has shown disdain for the Left blogs for some time. He has never been a friend of the Left blogs. His right, but something to keep in mind when you read his work. He is an Establishment type through and through.

It's almost sunset here in Key West. Incredible weather, great company. I'm sitting at the dock of the bay on the Gulf of Mexico, 100 yards from the Atlantic Ocean. We're hoping to see the Green Flash.

Here's an open thread for you.

The ACLU (received by e-mail, on line link should be here later) brings our attention to a new Government program in the works called the Automated Tracking System:

The American Civil Liberties Union today condemned an unprecedented new program for generating terrorist ratings on tens of millions of travelers, including American citizens, maintaining those ratings for 40 years, and making them available throughout the government.

"Never before in American history has our government gotten into the business of creating mass 'risk assessment' ratings of its own citizens," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project. "That is a radical new step with far-reaching implications - but one that has been taken almost thoughtlessly by expanding a cargo-tracking system to incorporate human beings, and with little public notice, discussion, or debate."

Originally intended for cargo, it's now going to be applied to people, and scheduled to be implemented December 4.

Update: It also tracks what travellers eat.

I'm off to Key West for the annual NORML legal seminar where I'll be speaking Saturday on Terrorism and the War on Drugs. The full agenda is here.

It's just about my favorite seminar of the year, between getting together with other drug defense lawyers, the Pier House Resort and Spa (check out my favorite room) and the free-spirit, laid back style of Key West itself.

It's time for an open thread. I don't know if it's the four day weekend or what, but I'm having a hard time catching up with all that's going on. Please, fill us in.

I'm a soft-touch for college kids who start serious blogs. I've been reading Matthew Yglesias since he was at Harvard and Ezra Klein since he was at USC. Both have developed into excellent professional writers.

So when I got an e-mail today to check out the new Foreign Policy Watch Blog, described as "Diplomatic strategy, international news, and thoughtful political analysis" written by a 19 year old freshman at Brown University, Jeb Koogler, I took a look. From the blogroll, he leans left. And like Matt and Ezra, Jeb writes intelligently about serious stuff. I hope you'll check him out.

There is a new bio added. Less surprising to some than others one imagines. Check it out.

Open Thread.

Vis Susie Madrak at Suburban Guerrilla:

• Maxspeak, you listen.

• Atrios and the best Thanksgiving post ever.

• The full 18 minute version of Alice's Restaurant on YouTube.

I'm not in a particularly upbeat mood this Thanksgiving. I know we just won an election and hopefully have started on a path to end the War in Iraq and take back our country from the right-wing extremists who have ruled since 1994. I'm thankful that the days of appointing right-wing ideologues to our federal courts and the Supreme Court may be behind us.

But I live in a peculiar world, one that is filled with days spent visiting mostly non-violent prisoners in jails, and it saddens me that for them and their children and parents, I see little hope.

What's cooking at your house today? Are you home or away for the Thanksgiving holiday? And what are you most thankful for this year?

There's no cooking at my house, I'm going out to friends tomorrow evening for Turkey this year. I've also got clients all afternoon and the TL mom went back into the hospital yesterday afternoon, so it will be my second Thanksgiving Day in a row spent with her and the medical personnel who spend their day taking care of others.

I'll be blogging a bit through the holiday, so if you're on line, stop on by, add some good thoughts, and have a great holiday.

Don't forget to tune in to your local radio station tomorrow which is bound to be playing Arlo Guthrie's Alices' Restaurant about the draft way back when....and check out the Wall St. Journal today ( link) which profiles Alice and what she is doing today.

Dean Barnett says:

And Kos is different?

Yes. Although he rips Democrats when he’s of a mind to do so, he also brings something else to the party. He brings volunteers and money and buzz. Although my modem might well explode as I type these words, Jon Tester would not be a senator starting in January if it weren’t for the Daily Kos. Same for Jim Webb. He never would have made it out of the primary.

4) Okay. So we should be more like Kos?

Not me. I have no interest in being a tool for the Republican Party, or at least not anymore so than I already am. But, and again my modem might explode, there is no denying that the Daily Kos is an asset to the Democratic Party in terms of winning elections. Or at least it was this past cycle.

See also James Joyner and Ed Morrisey, and George Allen's blog man Jon Henke.

h/t Conn Carroll.