Dominique Strauss-Kahn Resigns From I.M.F.  —  Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned Wednesday as head of the International Monetary Fund after explosive allegations that he had sexually attacked a cleaning lady in a midtown Manhattan hotel room.  —  “It is with infinite sadness that I feel compelled today …

Arab Spring Spurs Israel to Ice Peace Plan Before Obama Meeting  —  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been preparing to greet President Barack Obama at the White House tomorrow with a proposal to resurrect Middle East peace talks, advisers said.  —  That was until Palestinian …

Cornel West on Obama is no better than a birther  —  Anyone who knows me, and knows me well, knows that I have little patience for the “Blacker than thou” crowd.  These are the self-appointed guardians of what it means to be black — a decidedly limited and ignorant perspective …

MESpeech: President to back democratic reform with economic incentives — Huntsman focuses on U.S. competitiveness; doesn't hit Obama or rivals - Dick Cheney takes gloves off in book - Rummy's sequel  —  TWITTER AS THE NEW DIAL GROUP — TIME magazine “White House Memo: To spread the Gospel of Barack …

Romney, Daniels feel ‘death hug’ on their healthcare records  —  President Obama and his liberal allies tried to kill some of the Republicans' top presidential candidates with kindness on Thursday.  —  The president had fun at former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's (R) …

Sen. Grassley Accuses Asian-American Judicial Nominee Of Holding ‘Communist’ Chinese Worldview  —  Six years ago, Ninth Circuit judicial nominee Goodwin Liu published an op-ed in which he made the utterly banal point that a conservative interest group used the terms “free enterprise,"' …

Stephen Colbert's Free Speech Problem  —  The comedian runs up against campaign-finance law in an attempt to lampoon the Supreme Court.  —  Comedy Central funnyman Stephen Colbert, like most of his friends and allies on the left, thinks that last year's Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC is, literally, ridiculous.

Dick Ebersol to Leave NBC Sports  —  Dick Ebersol, who has run NBC Sports since 1989 and engineered the network's bids to acquire the rights to more Olympics than any other, resigned on Thursday when he said he could not come to an agreement on a new contract.

Senator McConnell leaves House Republican budget twisting in the wind  —  Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is leaving Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget plan to its own fate in the Senate by not whipping his GOP colleagues on the vote.  —  Republican senators say McConnell …

Rogue tweet by Secret Service!  —  How embarrassing, Secret Service!  (Gawker image)  —  Courtesy  —  Oh, the dangers of social media!  Those instant, regrettable outbursts of unvarnished truth and scantily clad photos.  Today's victim: the Secret Service!

Maria Shriver Hires a Divorce Attorney  —  Maria Shriver, who has split from husband Arnold Schwarzenegger amid a love-child scandal, has hired a divorce lawyer, sources tell PEOPLE.  —  Prominent Los Angeles family law attorney Laura Wasser is now representing California's former first lady, according to sources close to Shriver.

Private Prisons Found to Offer Little in Savings  —  PHOENIX — The conviction that private prisons save money helped drive more than 30 states to turn to them for housing inmates.  But Arizona shows that popular wisdom might be wrong: Data there suggest that privately operated prisons …

Palin: Pelosi telling ‘tight-faced lie’ on healthcare reform law waivers  —  Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) on Wednesday accused House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of telling a “tight-faced lie” in saying she had nothing to do with healthcare reform waivers granted to companies in her district.

The Debt Ceiling Fiasco  —  Fights over the budget are normal and proper in a democracy.  But threatening to default could have dire consequences for the dollar, interest rates and the economy.  —  The debt ceiling “crisis” started on Monday when the U.S. government reached the legal limit …

Revisionaries  —  How a group of Texas conservatives is rewriting your kids' textbooks.  —  Don McLeroy is a balding, paunchy man with a thick broom-handle mustache who lives in a rambling two-story brick home in a suburb near Bryan, Texas.  When he greeted me at the door one evening last October …

Pawlenty gets cash haul at Minn. ‘kickoff’ fundraiser  —  Hundreds of people attended a “kickoff” fundraiser for likely GOP presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty in his home state of Minnesota Wednesday night, designed to give his bank account a jolt before he makes his bid official.

GOP Donors Deserting Newt Gingrich … WASHINGTON — Newt Gingrich's catastrophic first week as an official Republican primary candidate may knock him out of the race before it even gets started.  And if he stays in, fundraising will now be much more difficult, and that could hasten his exit, Republican sources said.

How more stimulus could reduce the deficit, and vice versa  —  “Mentions of unemployment have been dwindling since they spiked to 154 in the month ending August 15, 2010; over the month ending Sunday, there were 63,” reports Clifford Marks.  “Deficit mentions, meanwhile …