Welcome to the anti-stimulus  —  The good news: The private sector gained 64,000 jobs in September.  The bad news?  The public sector lost 159,000.  And they weren't all census jobs, either.  Local governments fired 76,000 workers.  In other words, this is the first jobs report in recent months that isn't driven by census layoffs.

An associate of Jerry Brown calls Meg Whitman a “whore” over pension reform (AUDIO)  —  In a private conversation that was inadvertently taped by a voicemail machine (audio below), an associate of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown can be heard referring to his Republican opponent Meg Whitman as a …

CNN Poll: Was Bush better president than Obama?  —  (CNN) - Americans are divided over whether President Barack Obama or his predecessor has performed better in the White House, according to a new national poll.  —  And a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday also indicates …

Caught Spying on Student, FBI Demands GPS Tracker Back  —  A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online.  The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real …

GLENN BECK REVEALS HE'LL UNDERGO MEDICAL TESTS FOR COMBINATION OF CONDITIONS  —  This morning on his radio program, Glenn Beck discussed in more detail some of the physical challenges he's been facing.  Glenn told his audience that he will be taking several days off next week to undergo tests at a hospital “out west.”

A Florida Double Crist?  —  Kendrick Meek might drop out of the Florida senate race and thereby pave the path to victory for Charlie Crist.  —  TAMPA — Republican leaders in the Sunshine State are fretting that a deal may be in the works to get Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek …

‘This is the biggest fraud in the history of the capital markets’  —  Janet Tavakoli is the founder and president of Tavakoli Structured Finance Inc. She sounded some of the earliest warnings on the structured finance market, leading the University of Chicago to profile her as a …

The End of the Tunnel  —  The Erie Canal.  Hoover Dam.  The Interstate Highway System.  Visionary public projects are part of the American tradition, and have been a major driver of our economic development.  —  And right now, by any rational calculation, would be an especially good time to improve the nation's infrastructure.

Nobel Peace Prize Given to Jailed Chinese Dissident  —  BEIJING — Liu Xiaobo, an impassioned literary critic, political essayist and democracy advocate repeatedly jailed by the Chinese government for his activism, has won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of “his long and non-violent struggle …

Leading Nevada Republican endorses Harry Reid  —  Bill Raggio, the minority leader in the Nevada state Senate and a leading Silver State Republican, added a major new dimension to the U.S. Senate race there by blasting Sharron Angle for being radical and extreme, and endorsing Sen. Harry Reid (D) for reelection.

Donilon to Replace Jones as National Security Adviser  —  President Obama will announce on Friday that Gen. James Jones, the national security adviser, is resigning and will be replaced by Thomas E. Donilon, the principal deputy national security adviser, senior administration officials said.

Poll shocker of the day: Dingell at 39% in Michigan?  —  Michigan's 15th CD has had a John Dingell in Congress since before most of its constituents were born, first with FDR's inauguration in 1933 with John Sr., and then since 1955 with the current Representative, John Jr. Now …

Joe Miller Received Medicaid Benefits He Thinks Are Unconstitutional  —  Alaska GOP Senate candidate Joe Miller has repeatedly claimed that federal health care benefits violate the Constitution.  It turns out, however, that “Mr. Noun, Verb, and Unconstitutional” doesn't actually think that the Constitution applies to himself.

How Dumb Can They Get?  —  The people who run the New York Times, along with columnists like Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd, are so ill-informed and out of touch that their efforts to tell the rest of us what to think grow more pitiful every day.  This is from today's NYT Corrections Section.

Sarah Palin in West Palm Beach: “I'll run for president if the American people want me to!”  —  Former vice-presidential hopeful and governor of Alaska Sarah Palin told a small studio audience during the taping of a Newsmax.com webcast Wednesday in West Palm Beach that she would run for president in 2012 if …

Duke Winces as a Private Joke Slips Out of Control  —  DURHAM, N.C. — For nearly two weeks, many here on the Duke University campus had been aware of a certain senior “thesis” that a recent graduate wrote, apparently as a private joke, about her sexual exploits with 13 student-athletes.

Foreclosure Fraud For Dummies, 1: The Chains and the Stakes  —  The current wave of foreclosure fraud and the consequences for the economy are difficult to follow.  As such, I'm going to write a few posts to simplify what is going on so you can follow stories as they unfold.

A different way to make a big difference in 2010  —  As the election approaches, the buzz in Democratic activist circles is the need for GOTV.  If we can turn out the vote, and get the composition of the electorate back to what it was in 2008, then Democrats will win.

10/8: Obama Approval Rating at 43%, but Majority of Voters Confident in Obama's Approach  —  Half of registered voters nationwide — 50% — disapprove of the job President Barack Obama is doing in office while 43% approve.  Seven percent are unsure.  —  Little has changed since the last national McClatchy-Marist survey.

Why Barack Obama is an anti-colonialist  —  If you want to understand what is going on in the White House today, you have to begin with Barack Obama.  No, not that Barack Obama.  I mean Barack Obama Sr., the president's father.  Obama gets his identity and his ideology from his father.

The IRS and the latest licensing outrage  —  Who would you rather prepare your taxes?  A professional tax return preparer with over a dozen years experience in preparing tax returns for taxpayers without incident.  Or me, an attorney who has never so much as taken a law school class …

Ohio AG Cordray: “What We're Seeing is a Systematic Fraud on the Courts of Ohio”  —  Late yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with Richard Cordray, Ohio's Attorney General, who became the first to sue a mortgage lender over incidents of foreclosure fraud.

GUESS WHO'S VOTING?.... The other day, I had an idea for a short election-related video, so I jotted down a few notes.  Of course, I don't know anything about turning back-of-the-napkin ideas into a finished product, so I took the concept to my friend Bill Simmon, a skilled filmmaker …

Marijuana Placeholder Post  —  Murphy's Law of Blogging: Hit the road for a couple days to do some “real” reporting and suddenly bloggable topics will sprout like mushrooms in your absence.  A brief placeholder, then, on several marijuana-themed stories I'll weigh in on.  —  “It's Democrats' Secret Weapon!”:

Paladino Meltdown Watch.  —  Faced with a political race that didn't involve proving he hated Muslims more than the other candidate, Republican gubernatorial nominee Carl Paladino's candidacy has struggled to gain ground on Democrat Andrew Cuomo.  An initial Quinnipiac poll showed Paladino …

Christie Helped Lose Grant for Schools, Ex-Official Says  —  Before rejecting a compromise with teachers that would have won New Jersey a $400 million federal education grant, Gov. Chris Christie's main objection was that it would appear that he had given in to the teachers' union, a former education commissioner testified on Thursday.

The Cap-and-Trade Crackup  —  A Virginia Democrat with a ‘safe’ seat angers constituents with his anti-coal vote.  —  Even as Speaker Nancy Pelosi twisted arms for the final votes to pass her climate bill in June 2009, Democrats feared they might be “BTU'd.”

GOP hit list: 6 Dems under the gun  —  Conservative outside groups have poured millions of dollars into attack ads slamming vulnerable House Democrats - as much as $9.1 million during the last month alone, according to one estimate.  —  But that total may pale in comparison to what's going to be spent over the next 25 days.