**Thanks to Noah Kunin for the following tip
Minnesota's Senate has live video coverage and archives the video, but how can you pull down this government video and edit it?
First get a free application called VLC
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
Find the link to the stream and copy it. The example here is mms://stream2.video.state.mn.us/Senate/cmte_stgov_010909.wmv which is a windows media file.
Now open up VLC
Go to "Streaming/Expoting Wizard" (under mac it's under File)
then
transcode/save to file
select a stream ( paste the link)
parial extract (if desired otherwise it will do it all)
do NOT transcode video (unless you need to but the container and code should match don't transcode into quicktime and give it a non quicktime container)
select ASF container (file extension)
save to (name a file somewhere, do not give it an extension)
Now to convert the file into something you can edit I suggest Quicktime Pro ($29) and a free plug in called Perian. Between the two you can open and transcode nearly anything.