“And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)

“This was, in my view, the unfinished Bobby Kennedy campaign – the idealism, the passion, the inspiration he gave to people, it was organic and it was real and it wasn’t manufactured at a tactical level in the campaign.”

Steve Schmidt, McCain Campaign Manager on the Obama campaign

“There was no actionable intelligence gained from using enhanced interrogation techniques on Abu Zubaydah that wasn’t, or couldn’t have been, gained from regular tactics. In addition, I saw that using these alternative methods on other terrorists backfired on more than a few occasions — all of which are still classified. The short sightedness behind the use of these techniques ignored the unreliability of the methods, the nature of the threat, the mentality and modus operandi of the terrorists, and due process.”

My Tortured Decision - by Ali Soufan an F.B.I. supervisory special agent from 1997 to 2005

Interesting video. For those of you out there who still believe that waterboarding is not torture, watch this.

This is a little uncomfortable to watch, but funny, nonetheless…

Harry Kalas, the longtime voice of the Philadelphia Phillies passed away today while getting ready to call a game in Washington, D.C. He was adored by all Philadelphians and he will be deeply missed. He was one of the voices of my childhood and I hope wherever he is tonight, there is a good ball game on TV.

Watch CSN’s Tribute to Harry Kalas:

CSN Tribute to Harry Kalas from Mike Meech on Vimeo.

The White House - Slideshow - In Europe

The White House - Slideshow - The Troops in Iraq

“I was incredibly honored a couple of months ago to get the opportunity to go work in the White House. I got to know the President and some of the staff during the campaign and had expressed interest in working there, so I’m going to be the associate director in the White House office of public liaison. They do outreach with the American public and with different organizations. They’re basically the front door of the White House. They take out all of the red tape that falls between the general public and the White House. It’s similar to what I was doing on the campaign.”

Actor Kal Penn, of ‘Harold and Kumar’ and ‘House’

"Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage — and the first to do so with a legislature’s vote.

The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas’ veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House."

Gay marriage legalized in Vermont | The Burlington Free Press