U.S. SENATE RACE: Reid takes lead on Angle  —  New poll shows Republican losing support among every voter group  —  U.S. Sen. Harry Reid has opened a strong lead over Republican opponent Sharron Angle after pummeling her in a ubiquitous TV and radio ad campaign that portrays the Tea Party favorite as …

Tim Geithner Opposes Nominating Elizabeth Warren To Lead New Consumer Agency  —  What's Your Reaction: … Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has expressed opposition to the possible nomination of Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a source with knowledge of Geithner's views.

Palin aide swats Romney team  —  In potentially the first inter-staff dust up of the 2012 presidential race, an aide of Sarah Palin is hitting back at Mitt Romney's camp for saying the former Alaska governor is “not a serious human being.”  —  A “Romney intimate” was quoted by Time's Mark Halperin …

Greenspan Says Lawmakers Should Let All Bush's Tax Cuts Lapse  —  Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, whose endorsement of George W. Bush's 2001 tax cuts helped persuade Congress to pass them, said lawmakers should allow the cuts to expire at the end of the year.

Attorney who helped terrorist gets 10 years in prison  —  A judge had resentenced a 70-year-old civil rights lawyer to 10 years in prison for letting a jailed Egyptian sheik communicate with his radical followers.  —  Federal Judge John Koeltl sentenced Lynne Stewart in Manhattan after she pleaded …

Oil Spill Capped for a Second Day, Offering Some Hope  —  NEW ORLEANS — The hemorrhaging well that has spilled millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico remained capped for a second day Friday, providing some hope of a long-term solution to the environmental disaster.

Dem Rep Sheila Jackson Lee Tells NAACP: “All Those Who Wore Sheets a Long Time Ago Lifted Them Off to Wear Tea Party Clothing” (Applause!)  —  Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) told the NAACP this week that those who wore sheets lifted them off and are now wearing tea party clothing.

News Analysis: Obama Pushes an Agenda, Disregarding Polls That Disapprove  —  WASHINGTON — If passage of the financial regulatory overhaul on Thursday proves anything about President Obama, it is this: He knows how to push big bills through a balky Congress.

Earthquake in Maryland felt across area  —  A 3.6 magnitude earthquake rattled the Washington area early Friday, with thousands of residents reporting that they felt the ground shake as they slept or were waking.  The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered in Montgomery County and struck at 5:04 a.m.

Goldman Settles With S.E.C. for $550 Million  —  Updated Updated with confirmation of The New York Times's report about Goldman's $550 million settlement.  —  Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the largest penalties ever paid by a Wall Street firm …

“Tea partier” Mark Williams writes ‘letter to Abe Lincoln’ ... from the ‘coloreds’  —  If you're feeling pissy that the NAACP condemned your witch doctor signage and you're out to prove that your movement isn't racist, wouldn't it help not to actually say anything that might be construed as racist?

Finding a Good Financial Bill in 2,300 Pages  —  What, exactly, is in the financial regulatory bill?  What good will it do?  —  The Senate's imminent passage of the sweeping regulatory overhaul will bring to a close a long-running legislative process.  Even ahead of the final Senate votes on Thursday …

On the road to find out  —  The Obama administration doesn't seem to have a clue about how businesses grow.  Its concerns lie elsehwere, with expanding the size and power of the administrative state.  Yesterday's passage of the gargantuan 2,300 page financial services legislation will contribute …

Mysterious ads attacking GOP candidate as ‘liberal’ paid for by ... Democrats?  —  The group responsible for branding Iowa Republican Terry Branstad a “liberal” who favors “government mandates” and hangs out with liberals like Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama is none other than ... the Democratic Governors Association?

Scott Brown slams Kathy Griffin for calling daughters ‘prostitutes’  —  Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) lashed out at comedienne Kathy Griffin on Thursday for describing his daughters as “prostitutes.”  —  Brown strongly condemned remarks Griffin made on CNN in which she mocks Brown's daughters, Ayla and Arianna.

AFFIDAVITS: Former DOJ Colleagues Confirm Whistleblower Adams' Accusations.  “Sworn affidavits from Hans A. von Spakovsky and Karl Bowers, who worked with J. Christian Adams in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, offer broad confirmation of the whistleblower's accusations of bias in enforcing voting rights.”

Median Duration of Unemployment  —  Click on graphic to enlarge.  —  This recession looks very different, and much more troubling, than those in the recent past.  I wonder how this dramatic change in the nature of unemployment will alter traditional macroeconomic relationships, such as Okun's Law and the Phillips curve.

A curious unemployment picture gets more curious  —  At first blush, the second quarter statistics from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (commonly referred to as JOLTS and released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) suggest little has changed recently in U.S. labor markets: