Militant Group Is Out of Baghdad, U.S. Says  —  American forces have routed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi militant network, from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said today, allowing American troops involved in the "surge" to depart as planned.

AT&T Whistleblower: Telecom Immunity Is A Cover-Up  —  Earlier today we flagged that Mark Klein, who uncovered a secret surveillance room run by the NSA while employed as a San Francisco-based technician for AT&T, is in Washington to lobby against granting retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies.

Cheney's Impeachment Literally Fell 'Off the Table'  —  Maybe now we know what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) meant when she said impeachment was "off the table."  —  Lawmakers' voting cards on the issue were literally just that — off the table — during Tuesday's brouhaha …

Poll: Clinton lags in quest for male voters  —  WASHINGTON — More than eight in 10 Republicans and more than half the married men in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll say they definitely wouldn't vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton for president.  —  The poll provides an early snapshot of who's ruling out Clinton …

Pat Loves Rudy  —  Back in mid-2001, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani was busy committing adultery, lurching into his divorce and third marriage and rooming with a gay couple he promised to marry as soon as the law allowed, who among us would have imagined that one day he would be endorsed for president by Pat Robertson?

Tax Proposal From Rangel Could Benefit His Donors  —  The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has proposed legislation that would effectively halt some current tax audits of people who get a tax break for living and operating a business in the United States Virgin Islands.

Clinton's Tipping Point?  —  ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: Rule number one when campaigning at a diner: always leave a good tip — and, apparently, make sure it gets properly 'disbursed'.  —  In early October, Sen. Hillary Clinton's 'Middle Class Express' made a pit stop at the Maid Rite diner in Marshalltown, Iowa.

'Date rape' drug-tainted toys recalled  —  NEW YORK (CNN) — U.S. safety officials have recalled about 4.2 million Chinese-made Aqua Dots bead toys that contain a chemical that has caused some children to vomit and become comatose after swallowing them.  —  Scientists have found …

Disingenuous, moi?  —  Derb, I'm not being disingenuous.  You may regard the George Osmonds of Karachi as a problem, but it's not obvious that they're anything to worry about if you're in Karachi.  Pakistan exports its surplus manpower not just to Britain and Canada but to countries …

Study: 1 out of 4 homeless are veterans  —  WASHINGTON - Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.  —  And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans.

Wiretapping and the Telecoms  —  To the Editor:  —  Re "Uncle Sam on the Line" (Op-Ed, Nov. 5): Former Attorney General John Ashcroft leaves out a crucial point when he argues that telecommunications companies that allegedly cooperated with the administration's warrantless wiretapping program should be shielded from lawsuits.