Liberal blogger directly confronts David Axelrod, accuses White House of “hippie punching”  —  Top Obama adviser David Axelrod got an earful of the liberal blogosphere's anger at the White House moments ago, when a blogger on a conference call directly called out Axelrod over White House criticism …

Gov. Christie confronts heckler at California GOP candidate's political rally  —  LOS ANGELES — True to his tough-guy persona, Gov. Chris Christie mixed it up today with a political naysayer, who heckled California Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman at a political rally.

House Dems Also Punt On Upper-Income Bush Tax Cuts  —  The Senate's decision not to address the Bush tax cuts until after the election is the strongest indication yet that the game is over.  After a House Democratic caucus meeting this morning — but before the news broke on the Senate side …

Hidden Under Tax-Exempt Cloak, Political Dollars Flow  —  Alaskans grew suspicious two years ago when a national organization called Americans for Job Security showed up and spent $1.6 million pushing a referendum to restrict development of a gold and copper mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

Chrysler Auto Workers Busted  —  Jefferson North Plant in Detroit  —  myFOXDetroit.com Staff - We're all rooting for the auto industry to come back stronger than ever.  It affects every one of us here in metro Detroit and across the country because it's so important to our economy.

House approves small-business bill; Obama laments ‘needless’ stall  —  On a 237-187 vote, the House on Thursday approved a $42 billion bill to provide aid to small businesses.  —  The Senate approved the legislation last week, and President Obama plans to sign the legislation on Monday.

DOJ to Judge: Keep Enforcing DADT  —  The Department of Justice issued a request Thursday to a U.S. district court judge asking to keep enforcing the military's ban on gay and lesbian service members, challenging a request to stop its enforcement.  —  In a 14-page brief …

U.S. delegates walk out of Ahmadinejad's U.N. speech  —  The U.S. delegation to the U.N. walked out of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech before the general assembly Thursday after the controversial leader said some believe Americans were behind the 9/11 terror attacks.

Sarah Palin Drops The H-Bomb: ‘Barack Hussein Obama’ (VIDEO)  —  Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made headlines for suggesting in a TV interview she'd run for president in 2012 “if nobody else were to step up,” but little noticed in that segment was the one-time vice presidential nominee dropping President Obama's middle name.

DeMint chides GOP senators for protecting Murkowski  —  South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is publicly criticizing his Senate GOP colleagues for allowing Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski to keep her ranking membership on a key committee less than a week after she announced a write-in campaign to try to retain her seat.

Castle will test waters with poll  —  Rep. Mike Castle is planning on polling a potential three-way Senate race to test his chances as a write-in candidate, a Delaware Republican tells POLITICO.  —  Castle, who lost his GOP primary by a 6-point margin to tea party upstart Christine O'Donnell nine days ago …

Independents Oppose Party in Power ... Again  —  More Conservative, More Critical of National Conditions  —  For the third national election in a row, independent voters may be poised to vote out the party in power.  The Republican Party holds a significant edge in preferences …

Joe Miller: Social Security Is Something The Federal Government 'Shouldn't Have Gotten Into'  —  Earlier today, Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller was a guest on KWHL's Bob and Mark show.  ThinkProgress called in to ask him to clarify his previous suggestions that Social Security is unconstitutional.

Gates and Mullen Don't See Big Changes to Afghan Strategy in December  —  ABC News' Luis Martinez reports:  —  Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, both said today that they do not anticipate big changes in December when the White House reviews the Afghan war strategy.

Lies, Damned Lies - Obamacare 6 Months Later; It's Time to Take Back the 20!  —  It's now six months since President Obama took control of one-sixth of the private sector economy with his health care “reform,” and the first changes to our health care system come into effect today.

Angle slams mandated coverage for autism treatment in new video from Democrats' tracker  —  As key provisions of new federal health care legislation come into effect tomorrow, Democrats are emphasizing Republican senate candidate Sharron Angle's opposition to mandating insurance coverage for basic illnesses.

Newly Declassified Documents Show Bush Administration Looked For Excuse To Start War In Iraq In Nov. 2001  —  The Bush administration has long maintained they had not decided to invade Iraq until the days before it actually began and that they did “everything” they could to “avoid war in Iraq.”

U.S. Education Secretary Vows to Make American Children ‘Good Environmental Citizens’  —  “Today, I promise you that under my leadership, the Department of Education will be a committed partner in the national effort to build a more environmentally literate and responsible society,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

With Warning, Obama Presses China on Currency  —  UNITED NATIONS — President Obama increased pressure on China to immediately revalue its currency on Thursday, devoting most of a two-hour meeting with China's prime minister to the issue and sending the message, according to one of his top aides …

Lying With Graphs, Republican Style  —  The Republican “Pledge to America” is out, and I'll give them some credit: there are more concrete policies in there than I've seen Republicans suggest in a long while.  Sure, they ideas are largely terrible, overly simplistic, or some combination of the two.

Muslims Say They Face More Work Discrimination  —  At a time of growing tensions involving Muslims in the United States, a record number of Muslim workers are complaining of employment discrimination, from co-workers calling them “terrorist” or “Osama” to employers barring them from wearing head scarves or taking prayer breaks.

Landrieu to block OMB nominee unless oil drilling ban lifted  —  A Gulf Coast Democrat is vowing to block Senate confirmation of President Obama's budget director until the administration agrees to lift or ease a federal freeze on deepwater oil-and-gas drilling.

Ayers denied emeritus status after plea from Chris Kennedy  —  In a very unusual move, University of Illinois trustees today denied giving emeritus status to controversial retired professor William Ayers.  —  The vote, at a U. of I. board meeting in Urbana, was unanimous and came …

Getting Radical on Spending Cuts  —  I'm pretty sure nobody at CAP favors the 100 percent cuts scenario outlined in our “A Thousand Cuts” report detailing possible approaches to achieving primary balance of the budget by 2015.  But the econ team tried to be rigorous about what would be a good way to do that …

Six arrested in Gateshead over ‘Koran burning’  —  Six people have been arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred after videos emerged on the internet apparently showing copies of the Koran being burned.  —  Officers detained two men on September 15 and four more yesterday and all six …

Hey Cable Guys!  Cord Cutting is Real, and It's a Problem, Says Verizon CEO  —  The party line from cable executives is that the “cord-cutting” phenomenon-consumers swapping cable subscriptions for Internet video-is a myth.  Or, at best, greatly exaggerated.  Not so, says Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg.