Columnist Ann Coulter Shocks Cable TV Show, Declaring 'Jews Need to Be Perfected by Becoming Christians'  —  Slash-and-burn columnist Ann Coulter shocked a cable TV talk-show audience Monday when she declared that Jews need to be "perfected" by becoming Christians, and that America would be better off if everyone were Christian.

EXCLUSIVE: E-mail Reveals That McConnell Staffer Propagated Smear Campaign Against Graeme Frost  —  Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported that there was mounting evidence that a staffer for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) may have been involved in the right-wing campaign to smear Graeme Frost and his family.

Police: Columbia Won't Turn Over Video  —  NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University has refused to turn over security videotape that could help identify who hung a noose on a black professor's office door, police said Thursday.  —  Investigators began asking on Wednesday for tapes from cameras in the building …

UPDATE - Gore cancels appearance at Boxer fundraiser  —  Sen. Barbara Boxer's office just contacted us to say former Vice President Al Gore has been called "overseas" for a trip related to his work on global warming and has canceled his scheduled appearance Thursday in San Francisco at a fundraiser for Boxer's re-election effort.

Regula confirms: he's retiring  —  Longtime congressman Ralph Regula, whose years and power on the House Appropriations Committee made him a major player for northeast Ohio, confirmed to The Plain Dealer that he will not run for re-election next year.  —  More coverage

Not Ready To Make Nice  —  Well this gets a big, fat "hell, no" from me.  Via e-mail from Liz Rose of the ACLU on the draft Senate version of the FISA bill, which is not yet publicly available and not being widely shared for review either: … If they didn't do anything wrong, why should they get retroactive immunity?

Please Blog...Fund Raising Drive to Bring Miracle and her family home to the Lower 9th Ward  —  Two weeks ago I posted about the Joseph family who lost their Lower 9th Ward home for the second time.  Kellie Joseph and her 6 children lost their home to Katrina.

Gibson knew school shooter was white because "[b]lack shooters don't" shoot themselves; "they shoot and move on" … On the October 10 broadcast of his nationally syndicated Fox News Radio show, while discussing 14-year-old Asa H. Coon, who earlier that day shot four people at his Cleveland high school …

Lynne Cheney: Terrorist Attacks Worldwide Don't Affect 'American Interests'  —  A frequent Bush administration talking point in defense of the "war on terror" is claiming that United States has not been attacked since 9/11.  —  Yesterday, Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Cheney …

Documents: Qwest was targeted  —  'Classified info' was not allowed at ex-CEO's trial  —  The National Security Agency and other government agencies retaliated against Qwest because the Denver telco refused to go along with a phone spying program, documents released Wednesday suggest.

Answering Ezra  —  Ezra Klein homes in on my own record in helping scuttle Hillary Clinton's dreadful healthcare reform plan in 1993 and 1994.  It's odd that Klein still supports a plan that Clinton herself has now conceded was misbegotten.  Her current plan is far more market-friendly and less bureaucratic.

Fred's Facts Check Out; Rudy's Don't  —  Thompson avoids error at his GOP debate debut.  But Giuliani commits multiple gaffes.  —  Former Sen. Fred Thompson got the facts straight for his GOP debate debut Oct. 9.  But former Mayor Rudy Giuliani added to a lengthening string of exaggerations and misstatements:

'No Gays in Iran'?  An Aide Says, Make That 'Not Many'  —  At Columbia University last month, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earned full-on belly laughs for the kind of sound bite that reporters on the campaign trail only dream about.  —  "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country," he said.

9 children killed in U.S. raid in Iraq  —  BAGHDAD - A U.S. attack killed 19 insurgents and 15 civilians, including nine children, northwest of the capital Thursday — one of the heaviest civilian death tolls in an American operation in recent months.  The military said it was targeting senior leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq.