Miller holds slim lead in early Senate vote  —  Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was battling for her political life against Republican challenger Joe Miller in early primary election returns on Tuesday night.  —  Miller was leading Murkowski with nearly 52 percent of the vote to her 48 percent …

A city cab driver is in the hospital after being stabbed by a passenger who allegedly asked if he was Muslim, police tell NY1.  —  Investigators with the New York City Police Department say it all began Monday night when a 21-year-old man hailed a cab at 24th Street and Second Avenue in Manhattan.

Alan Simpson: Social Security Is ‘A Milk Cow With 310 Million Tits’  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Alan Simpson believes that Social Security is “like a milk cow with 310 million tits,” according to an email he sent to the executive director of National Older Women's League Tuesday morning.

Scott upset ripples beyond Florida  —  HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Millionaire businessman Rick Scott's surprise win in the Florida Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday left both parties scrambling over how to cope with a candidate who possesses both glaring flaws and considerable assets.

Key Senate Democrat suggests that he didn't read entire healthcare reform bill  —  Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), one of the chief authors of the healthcare law, suggested Tuesday he did not read the entire piece of legislation.  —  Speaking at a forum in his home state …

Obama to deliver Iraq address next Tuesday night  —  President Obama will deliver an Oval Office address Tuesday night.  —  Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama will deliver a major address on Iraq from the Oval Office next Tuesday night, according to the White House.

Error on ‘Race to the Top’ application costs N.J. $400M in federal funds  —  TRENTON — After making a high-profile bid for hundreds of millions of dollars in federal education reform money, New Jersey fell three points short of receiving “Race to the Top” funding, in part because of an error …

Am I also a bigot?  Pols clueless on Ground Zero mosque  —  If one of her sleuths knocks on my door, this opponent will readily state that I need no outside funding as a reporter who is deeply investigating the motivation of Imam Rauf's choice of this site of mass murder for the mosque.

New Forecast Shows Democrats Losing 6 to 7 Senate Seats  —  The Democratic majority is in increasing jeopardy in the Senate, according to the latest FiveThirtyEight forecasting model.  The Democrats now have an approximately 20 percent chance of losing 10 or more seats in the Senate …

Chris Young's surprise marriage proposal  —  Chris Young, Rhode Island's perennial gadfly candidate, was relatively well-behaved in tonight's mayoral debate.  (And as Dan McGowan points out, sometimes he makes good points.)  But he managed to steal the show toward the end when he used …

Cash for Clunkers, Indeed  —  It wasn't so long ago that everyone just loved Cash for Clunkers.  People thought I was a total crank when I scoffed.  Even some of my fellow ideologues wavered.  —  On my now-defunct blog, I wrote, … No, the appropriate course would be to generalize …

Third Person Once Removed  —  What's Your Reaction:  —  As Wyclef Jean announces his regrettable turn-about to contest Haiti's electoral rule of law (a law he has no previous record of dissension toward), his PR team is mobilizing.  See Ms. Marian Salzman's recent blog on the Huffington Post (August 23, 2010).

Romney: Sylvester Stallone is ‘right,’ the U.S. ‘does apologize too much’  —  Former Massachusetts Gov. and potential 2012 White House contender Mitt Romney (R) took a cue Wednesday from Sylvester Stallone when he tweeted: “Stallone is right.  US does apologize too much.”

Pastor says armed militia to protect church during Quran-burning event  —  (CNN) — An armed Christian organization, Right Wing Extreme, will protect a church that is planning to host an “International Burn a Quran Day” on the ninth anniversary of September 11, the church's pastor said on Tuesday.

Job Losses Over Drilling Ban Fail to Materialize  —  WASHINGTON — When the Obama administration called a halt to virtually all deepwater drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico after the Deepwater Horizon blowout and fire in April, oil executives, economists and local officials complained …

More Democrats targeted over health care  —  Crossroads GPS, the non-profit formed in consultation with Republican strategist Karl Rove, announced this morning that the organization is launching two additional ad campaigns in Kentucky and California attacking Democratic Senate candidates …

Research Desk: Where would unemployment and GDP growth be without the stimulus?  —  jimjinphx asks: … I can't account for the effects of a spending freeze, but the CBO's latest estimate (PDF) of the effect of the stimulus, used in conjunction with BLS unemployment figures and BEA GDP data …

Coffins Made With Brotherly Love Have Undertakers Throwing Dirt  —  COVINGTON, La.—Five years ago, Hurricane Katrina gave the Benedictine monks at St. Joseph Abbey a new calling.  —  After the storm pummeled much of a pine forest they had long relied on for timber and income …