The first YearlyKos in Las Vegas was such a hoot, mainly because I got to meet so many of the people I’d been conversing with for months on end on FDL. It was such a great family moment at our first FDL gathering.

Early Show: Tift Merritt “Hopes Too High”
Late Show: Bibi Tanga Et Le Professeur Enlassable “It’s The Earth That Moves”

Bibi Tanga “It’s The Earth That Moves”

Phil Musser is not claiming to be a national security expert—he just plays one on TV. And in this midweek appearance opposite Lawrence O’Donnell, Musser, another of those ubiquitous Republican strategists, says that he can walk through Guantanamo and spot the evildoers just by looking at them.

I suppose I should be used to it by now, but I’ve always found it remarkable just how easily conservatives can make statements that are the exact opposite of reality. And now that the depths of the Bush administration’s criminal brutality have been exposed, we find them – of necessity – at the very top of their game.

The torture architects received a document that warned that torture–yes, it used that term–was likely to elicit false confessions.

On the one hand, Norm’s folks are backslapping themselves, at least in public, over the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision to accept most of Team Coleman’s proposed appeal schedule. On the other hand, they’ve got to be seriously ticked off in private. The Minnesota Supreme Court looks to be continuing the Election Contest Court’s policy of making any Federal appeal — which in this case will likely be a stay request to Strip-Search Samuel Alito — very, very difficult to justify.

When 9-11 happened, NYC let out a bunch of no bid emergrancy contracts to work on “the pile” at Ground Zero. The Commissioner of the NYC Dpet. of Investigations, the late and great Ed Kurianksy, went to then Mayor Giuliani and insisted, that since there was great chaos and confusion at Ground zero and money was just being thrown at the problem, there would be a huge opporunity for waste fraud, and abuse.

President Obama informs Republican congressional leaders that they won’t “have veto power over health care policy.” They wonder why he’s being thin-skinned.

Congratulations to NY-20′s new Congressman, Democrat Scott Murphy!

Greg Sargent got a hold of Cheney’s FOIA request for the documents that will prove–he claims–that torture was effective. He’s asking for two documents, both of which were stored in his “detainees” file in his files.