Franken loses absentee ballot appeal  —  The state Canvassing Board today rejected Democrat Al Franken's request to count absentee ballots his campaign says were wrongly rejected by poll judges.  —  Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's team had argued that the board lacks the power to include those ballots in the recount.

Volcker Tapped for Advisory Role  —  Ex-Fed Chief to Lead New Economic Panel of Outside Experts Who Will Brief Obama  —  President-elect Barack Obama will appoint former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Wednesday to be the chairman of a new White House advisory board tasked with helping …

Joe Klein's extreme revisionism  —  (updated below)  —  Joe Klein, this week's Time Magazine, on George Bush's legacy: … Joe Klein, Face the Nation, May 4, 2003, with Bob Schieffer — 3 days after Bush's Mission Accomplished speech: … I'm glad that many people, including some journalists …

Exclusive: NY Rail Plot Details Based on ‘Reliable’ FBI Source  —  New Information in Last 48 Hours Led to Public Warning  —  Uniformed police officers have flooded New York City's Penn Station, home to the Long Island Rail Road, following a warning from the FBI of a “plausible but unsubstantiated” …

Michelle Obama's ‘Mommy’ Stamp  —  When Michelle Obama took to describing her new role as mom in chief, my first reaction was to wince at her words.  My second reaction was to identify with them.  —  I was okay, actually, with what Obama said.  But I worried: Did she have to say it out loud, quite so explicitly?

Why churches fear gay marriage  —  For author Richard Rodriguez, no one is talking about the real issues behind Proposition 8.  —  While conservative churches are busy trying to whip up another round of culture wars over same-sex marriage, Rodriguez says the real reason for their panic lies elsewhere …

President Bush readies more pardons  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Bush will grant clemency this morning in a special Rose Garden ceremony to two distinguished White House guests: The National Thanksgiving Turkeys.  —  Every president since Harry Truman has pardoned a turkey in the days before Thanksgiving.

Keeping Gates Signals Change  —  Keeping Bob Gates as Secretary of Defense was the most dramatic signal Barack Obama could have sent that he intends to implement major changes in defense policy.  That may sound counterintuitive, but it has the virtue of being true.

Send Bill Clinton to the Senate  —  Amid the blizzard of résumés blanketing Washington as the Obama era dawns, there is a superbly qualified candidate for full employment whose name has been overlooked.  We refer, of course, to William Jefferson Clinton, America's 42nd chief executive and commander in chief.

Where's Sock Puppet's Bailout?  —  Live from Congress, the infamous Pets.com mascot, Sock Puppet, comes to lobby Washington for a bailout.  —  Approximately two minutes and 20 seconds.  —  To embed this video at your website, go here.  —  “Where's Sock Puppet's Bailout?” was written and produced by Ted Balaker.

No New Torture Probes  —  There has been much speculation about how the Obama administration will deal with what many view as the Bush administration's harsh, abusive and illegal interrogation program.  Some have called for an investigation by Congress or the Justice Department, possibly leading to criminal sanctions.

Lori Drew Not Guilty of Felonies in Landmark Cyberbullying Trial  —  LOS ANGELES — Lori Drew, the 49-year-old woman charged in the first federal cyberbullying case, was cleared of felony computer-hacking charges by a jury Wednesday morning, but convicted of three misdemeanors.

So Who Picked Up the Tab?  —  More questions are being raised about the doubtful ethics of Representative Charles Rangel of New York, the chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.  The latest sniff of scandal — a breakfast meeting with a donor seeking tax protection …

Democrats may play hardball in Pennsylvania  —  MSNBC's Chris Matthews could be in the mix of candidates hoping to win Republican Sen. Arlen Specter's seat in 2010.  —  Reporting from Washington — The Northeast's dwindling cast of Senate Republicans has Democrats circling Arlen Specter's seat …

Obama beats record for press conferences  —  In the 22 days since winning the White House, President-elect Barack Obama has taken 22 questions from reporters and has done two sit-down television interviews.  —  The Democrat held his fourth press conference since Nov. 4 in Chicago Wednesday morning …

Re: Which History?  —  Mark K, while I was down in Australia a while back, they had a big Education Summit going on, and the then Prime Minister, the great John Howard, used a marvelous phrase to me about how they wanted to teach Oz history — as an “heroic national narrative”.  We don't do that.

“Unlikely” Or Lesbian?  —  Every now and again, someone gets the fame they deserve.  Rachel Maddow is photographed by Roger Erickson for the Out 100 this year, the magazine's tally of the 100 gay people who made the biggest impact in America in 2008.  From Julia Baird's profile in Newsweek: