Joe Scarborough suspended from MSNBC for campaign donations  —  MSNBC said Friday that it is suspending “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough for two days after he acknowledged giving eight previously unknown $500 contributions to friends and family members running for state and local offices during …

The Democrats have picked the wrong strategy on the Bush tax cuts  —  The Democrats are converging around a strategy on the Bush tax cuts that, if it works, would potentially eliminate the tax cuts for the rich.  The votes in the Senate are such that legislators on both sides say the strategy won't work …

Don't touch my junk  —  Ah, the airport, where modern folk heroes are made.  The airport, where that inspired flight attendant did what everyone who's ever been in the spam-in-a-can crush of a flying aluminum tube - where we collectively pretend that a clutch of peanuts is a meal and a seat cushion is a …

U.S. deploying heavily armored battle tanks for first time in Afghan war  —  The U.S. military is sending a contingent of heavily armored battle tanks to Afghanistan for the first time in the nine-year war, defense officials said, a shift that signals a further escalation in the aggressive tactics …

Senator John Ensign may support DADT repeal  —  Another step forward on Don't Ask Don't Tell, ladies and gents.  —  In a letter to constituents who have inquired about his position on DADT, GOP Senator John Ensign strongly suggests he is leaning towards supporting repeal of the policy …

Senate Democrats vent anger with Barack Obama  —  Senate Democrats - including typically mild-mannered Bill Nelson of Florida - lit into President Barack Obama during an unusually tense air-clearing caucus session on Thursday, senators and staffers told POLITICO.

THE WRONG QUESTION AT THE WRONG TIME.... CBS News sent around a press release yesterday afternoon about a special “In Focus: Debt and Deficit,” hosted by Katie Couric.  —  The release noted, “With this year's record-breaking deficit of $1.5 trillion — the biggest ever in U.S. history …

Axis of Depression  —  What do the government of China, the government of Germany and the Republican Party have in common?  They're all trying to bully the Federal Reserve into calling off its efforts to create jobs.  And the motives of all three are highly suspect.  —  It's not as if the Fed is doing anything radical.

Obama Forces Showdown With G.O.P. on Arms Pact  —  WASHINGTON — Just two weeks after an election that left him struggling to find his way forward, President Obama has decided to confront Senate Republicans in a make-or-break battle over arms control that could be an early test of his mettle heading into the final two years of his term.

At NATO summit, Obama's ride is talk of the town  —  Some heads of state are zipping around Lisbon, host city of the NATO summit, in no-emission electric vehicles.  Security dictates that Obama travel in the no-efficiency ‘Beast,’ a vehicle that fascinates the local press.  —  Lisbon

Meditation Diet  —  Now out of prison, a slimmed-down Bob Ney spends his days in India with devotees of the Dalai Lama.  —  Former Rep. Bob Ney and Tenzin Sherab by the prayer wheels at Sarah College.  —  Most Americans got their last glimpse of Bob Ney in 2006 when the powerful Ohio …

$#!% Joe Biden Says  —  Can he raise the rafters like his boss?  No. But nobody can flat-out talk like Joe Biden.  And these days, everybody's listening  —  There are only two reporters traveling coast-to-coast with the vice president on Air Force Two on a clear day in early October.

Worm Was Perfect for Sabotaging Centrifuges  —  Experts dissecting the computer worm suspected of being aimed at Iran's nuclear program have determined that it was precisely calibrated in a way that could send nuclear centrifuges wildly out of control.  —  Their conclusion, while not definitive …

Etheridge To Concede  —  Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) is expected to concede this afternoon after results from a completed recount are likely to show he didn't make up any significant ground in his race against Rep.-elect Renee Ellmers (R), according to campaign sources.

Minority Report  —  As the speaker of the House of Representatives, where Democrats just lost 60-odd seats as well as their controlling majority, you led your party into the worst electoral defeat in decades.  And yet you chose to run for Democratic leader in the next Congress.  Why not just step down?

Parking in New Haven  —  I never like to visit a place without checking out its local parking regulations.  So I found the New Haven zoning ordinance and I looked up the quantity of parking that you need to build in order to construct something in the designated zones for “General High-Density Residential”:

Maxine Waters Ethics Trial Put On Hold … On the day after the House Ethics Committee recommended a censure for Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), the committee announced Friday that it will not hold the trial of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) on Nov. 29, as scheduled.

TSA Backscatter X-ray Backlash  —  Things are happening so fast that I don't know if I should bother.  But here are some links and observations.  —  The head of the Allied Pilots Association is telling its members to avoid both the full body scanners and the patdowns.

Miller seeks to stop election certification  —  LAWSUIT: Candidate asserts misspelled votes shouldn't count.  —  The Republican candidate in the Alaska U.S. Senate race asked a federal judge Thursday for a preliminary injunction stopping officials from certifying the election.

Raising Social Security Retirement Age Could Cause Spike in Disability Payments  —  The purpose of raising the retirement age, we're told, is to save money and put Social Security on a path to long-term solvency.  But the bean-counting geniuses Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson didn't take one thing …

Incoming Labor Committee Chair Says Jobless Benefits Aren't A Priority: 'We Can't Fund Everything'  —  Yesterday, the House of Representatives failed to pass a (far too short) three-month extension of unemployment benefits.  If Congress does not act to extend benefits by the end of the month …

A Trailblazer With Her Eye on the Bottom Line  —  She grew up sheltered and privileged, in a middle-class Irish enclave of Chicago at midcentury, attending Catholic schools and riding horses at a country club where blacks and Jews were not allowed.  Yet from age 28, she blazed a trail for working women …