Sources: Checketts to drop Limbaugh  —  Rush Limbaugh is expected to be dropped from a group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams, according to three NFL sources.  —  Dave Checketts, chairman of the NHL's St. Louis Blues and the point man in the Limbaugh group attempting to buy the Rams …

Harry Reid abdicates his leadership role  —  Bill Frist never had 60 votes.  Bill Frist never cared.  Republicans ran the Senate as if they owned the place, even when enjoying razor-thin majorities.  —  Yet when Democrats took the chamber, the first thing Harry Reid did was complain …

So Much for the Post-Racial America — By: Andy McCarthy  —  I'm hunkered down on some projects and just heard about the phony attacks on Rush by the race-hustlers extraordinaire, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.  I know Rush has big shoulders and he'll handle it just fine.

Russia's Putin warns against intimidating Iran  —  BEIJING (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned major powers on Wednesday against intimidating Iran and said talk of sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear programme was “premature”.

Election 2010: Pennsylvania Senate Election  —  2010 Pennsylvania Senate: Toomey Leads Specter, Runs Even With Sestak  —  Republican-turned-Democratic Senator Arlen Specter trails potential GOP challenger Pat Toomey by five points in an early look at Pennsylvania's 2010 Senate race.

What Olympia Snowe Got for Her Vote  —  The list of senators charged with merging the Finance and HELP bills into the legislation that will actually come to a vote on the Senate floor is vanishingly small, and every participant is there for a reason.  Harry Reid will preside.

GOP senator's protest grinds Senate to a halt  —  Oklahoma's Coburn tries a filibuster after pet idea dropped from bill  —  WASHINGTON - The Senate ground to a halt Wednesday in a display of what an individual senator can do to protest his treatment by some of Capitol Hill's most powerful barons.

Boehner downplays Dow 10,000  —  Dow 10,000 just isn't that big a deal, House Republican leader John Boehner said Wednesday morning.  —  And anyone who places significance on the stock market hitting this symbolic number is “certainly not talking to the American people.”

House Republicans accuse Muslim group of trying to plant spies  —  Republican members of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus said the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) have tried to plant “spies” within key national-security committees in order to shape legislative policy.

Palin Plans New Political Group  —  Michael M. Phillips reports on the doings of conservative favorite Sarah Palin.  —  Sarah Palin fans can expect to see a new Palin political organization surface as her memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life,” hits the shelves next month.

He Did It: Watchdog Puts AIG Bonus Blame Squarely on Geithner's Shoulders  —  Barofsky Says Treasury Needs to Beef Up Oversight  —  Congressional lawmakers today expressed concern that another AIG bonus fiasco could soon unfold, on the heels of a new watchdog report criticizing …

Why Joe Biden Should Resign  —  Joe Biden met with CENTCOM chief Gen. David Petraeus this morning to talk about Afghanistan — an issue that has pushed the vice president into the spotlight, landing him on the cover of the latest Newsweek.  —  I have an idea for how he can capitalize on all the attention …

Daily Number: 15% - America's Health Care is ... Fairly Average  —  Only 15% of Americans believe that the U.S. has the best health care in the world.  Read more  —  THE TOP STORY INDEX  —  New Media Index  —  Celebrity Jeopardy: Polanski on Blogs  —  8 Oct 09 The Roman Polanski saga …

An Apartment Complex Teeters  —  High-Profile Tishman/BlackRock Property in New York in Danger of Default  —  The giant Stuyvesant Town apartment complex on Manhattan's East Side, shown Tuesday, was developed by MetLife for World War II veterans.  —  One of the biggest …

Poll: 51.8% plan to vote no on question 1  —  in - Central Maine Newspapers - Portland Press Herald  —  According to new poll data, 51.8 percent of people who plan to vote in November say they will vote no or are leaning in that direction on question 1, the people's veto of Maine's same-sex marriage law.

WSJ takes top spot among daily papers; staff toast at 5 pm UPDATE  —  Rupert Murdoch may have always wanted—still wants?—to own the New York Times, but the press baron can now boast of owning the top-circulating U.S. paper: The Wall Street Journal.  —  Staffers in New York were sent …

Stanley McChrystal's Long War  —  Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal stepped off the whirring Black Hawk and headed straight into town.  He had come to Garmsir, a dusty outpost along the Helmand River in southern Afghanistan, to size up the war that President Obama has asked him to save.

Perils of a Talking Head  —  Anyone who regularly does TV interviews knows that one is always required to do a pre-interview in which a producer feels you out as to what you will say in response to certain hypothetical questions.  It would be simpler if they just came out and said …

Obama to avoid the rabble on S.F. visit  —  The White House's fear of protests from Code Pink and other left-wingers has put the brakes on President Obama making any public appearances during his visit to San Francisco this week.  —  Obama is scheduled to parachute into Liberalville …

Blue Cross group blasts reform legislation  —  Premiums will rise up to 50 percent for individual policies and 19 percent for small group plans if healthcare reform passes, a new report released by a major health industry trade group claims.  —  Sponsored by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association …

Why GOP Leader Opposes Hate Crimes Protections for Gays  —  Last week, House Republican Leader John Boehner objected to House passage of a bill that would expand hate crime laws and make it a federal crime to assault people on the basis of their sexual orientation.