Temporary Beltway Sanity  —  The doctor fix blows up in the Senate, no thanks to the AMA.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Yesterday saw some rare good news on the health-care front, with the stealth Democratic plan to move $247 billion in ObamaCare costs off the books collapsing in the Senate on a procedural vote of 47 to 53.

Reagan conservative in North Country  —  Doug Hoffman didn't have a chance to make his case to Republican voters in a primary in New York's 23rd Congressional District.  That's because the local GOP establishment chose its candidate behind closed doors, in a formerly smoke-filled room.

EVEN NPR.... Ken Rudin is the political editor for NPR.  To see him swallow the latest Republican attack meme whole is more than a little painful.  Here's his commentary on “Talk of the Nation” yesterday, complaining about the White House's criticism of Fox News. … I'd like to think Ken Rudin knows better.

Cheney's Speech Tonight  —  Dick Cheney that is, who will be speaking at the Center for Security Policy tonight.  The speech is a real humdinger.  Check back here at 6 for the full text of the former vice president's remarks.

Attention, Sarah Palin bashers: Lookalike book ‘Going Rouge’ is coming!  —  We know that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin can hunt, and even field-dress a moose, but how will she take to poachers on her book sales?  Start-up publisher OR Books has announced plans to publish Going Rouge …

How John Kerry got the Afghan leader to see sense.  —  Sen. John Kerry's successful mission to Kabul—in which he convinced Afghan President Hamid Karzai to hold a second-round runoff to August's fraud-soaked election—suggests that the Obama administration is putting the squeeze on Karzai …

Obama administration to cut executive pay at 7 bailed-out firms  —  NEW YORK — The Obama administration plans to order companies that have received exceptionally large amounts of bailout money from the government to slash compensation for their highest-paid executives by about half on average …

Fewer Americans See Solid Evidence of Global Warming  —  Modest Support for “Cap and Trade” Policy  —  There has been a sharp decline over the past year in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising.  And fewer also see global warming …

Iran, Israel attend secret nuclear meet in Cairo  —  Israeli and Iranian representatives recently took part in a conference in Cairo on nuclear non-proliferation in the Middle East, the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) said Thursday, but Tehran said the report on the meeting was untrue.

Torture songs spur a protest most vocal  —  Musicians call for release of records on Guantanamo detainee treatment  —  Was the theme to “Sesame Street” really played to torture prisoners held at Guantanamo and other detention camps?  What about Don McLean's “American Pie”?  Or the Meow Mix jingle?

Rape Victim's Choice: Risk AIDS or Health Insurance?  —  Huffington Post Investigative Fund  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Christina Turner feared that she might have been sexually assaulted after two men slipped her a knockout drug.  She thought she was taking proper precautions …

Tzipi Livni Shows Prime Ministerial Stuff on J Street Conference  —  The more I listen to Congressional Opposition chief John Boehner as of late, the more I wish he could find the dignity and common ground for big objectives that Israel's Opposition Party Leader, Kadima Party chief Tzipi Livni …

At n+1 Panel, the Cat Got Douthat's Tongue on Topic of of Gay Marriage  —  Ross Douthat, conservative op-ed columnist for the New York Times, was made visibly uncomfortable for a moment while onstage last night at the New School's Tishman auditorium.  Having sailed through a discussion titled …

7 Months After Stimulus 49 of 50 States Have Lost Jobs  —  America Now Over 6 Million Jobs Shy of Administration's Projections  —  The table below compares the White House's February 2009 projection of the number of jobs that would be created by the 2009 stimulus law (through the end of 2010) …

Obama Quarterly Approval Average Slips Nine Points to 53%  —  Largest second- to third-quarter drop for an elected president  —  PRINCETON, NJ — In Gallup Daily tracking that spans Barack Obama's third quarter in office (July 20 through Oct. 19), the president averaged a 53% job approval rating.

Republicans Overtweet  —  Twitter shuts down 33 fake accounts created by state Republicans in an attempt to lambast Dems  —  Barack Obama's victory last year left many Republicans bemoaning their party's ineptitude when it came to political exploitation of the Web.

Court Deals Blow to Owners of Huge Apartment Complex  —  The Court of Appeals dealt a financial blow on Thursday morning to the already beleaguered owners of the sprawling Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complexes in Manhattan when it ruled that they improperly began charging market rents on thousands of apartments..

Ethiopia asks for urgent food aid  —  The Ethiopian government has asked the international community for emergency food aid for 6.2 million people.  —  The request came at a meeting of donors to discuss the impact of a prolonged drought affecting parts of East Africa.