In the ruins of Gadhafi's lair, rebels find album filled with photos of his ‘darling’ Condoleezza Rice  —  Msnbc.com and Associated Press report:  —  “Deeply bizarre and deeply creepy.”  —  That's how the State Department is describing a surprising find inside the compound …

For Bill Keller: A Score of Religious Questions for President Obama  —  I posted a link this morning.  After reading Keller's piece calling for more careful examination of people's religious beliefs I have to agree with Ace, he may regret this.  —  Keller takes pains to assure readers …

Kinky for Perry  —  Kinky Friedman once ran against Rick Perry for the Texas governorship.  So would the singer and writer vote for him for president?  Hell, yes!  The world's most famous Jewish cowboy on why he wants to live in Rick Perry's America.

AFL-CIO head: Labor to ditch Democrats  —  The growing rift between labor and their Democratic allies was on full display Thursday, as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told reporters that labor groups are planning to scale back their involvement with the Democratic Party in advance of the 2012 elections.

With Hurricane Bearing Down Cantor Spox Says Disaster Relief Should Be Paid For With Spending Cuts  —  Looks like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) will extend his requirement that federal disaster relief be paid for by cutting spending elsewhere in the budget to Hurricane Irene.

Fla poll: Romney beating Obama, neck and neck w Perry  —  A new Sachs/Mason-Dixon Florida Poll finds Barack Obama trailing Mitt Perry in America's biggest battleground and in a dead heat with Texas Gov. Rick Perry among Republicans.  —  “Unlike 2008, if the election were held today …

Special prosecutor: No charges for Prosser, Bradley in fracas  —  By The Associated Press and Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel  —  Madison - Neither Supreme Court Justice David Prosser nor fellow Justice Anne Walsh Bradley will face criminal charges for an altercation this summer involving the two …

Steve Jobs: America's Greatest Failure  —  Steve Jobs's announcement that he is stepping down as CEO of Apple is not surprising.  He's a very sick man; and running the world's largest market-cap technology firm can't be easy for someone with pancreatic cancer and who-knows-what other ailments.

Rep. Steve Chabot Criticized By Tea Party Activists For Seizing Cameras From Democrats At Town Halls … WASHINGTON — After banning and confiscating cameras at his town hall events, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) is taking heat from all sides — including from Tea Party activists Eric Odom and Judson Phillips.

Obama Leadership Image Takes a Hit, GOP Ratings Decline  —  Continued Dissatisfaction with Republican Field  —  OVERVIEW  —  The public is profoundly discontented with conditions in the country, its government, political leadership and several of its major institutions.

U.S. May Back Refinance Plan for Mortgages  —  The Obama administration is considering further actions to strengthen the housing market, but the bar is high: plans must help a broad swath of homeowners, stimulate the economy and cost next to nothing.  —  One proposal would allow millions …

Boy Scouts Of America Removed Mother From Troop After Discovering She Is A Lesbian  —  Andy Towle reminds us of the homophobia still prevalent among the Boy Scouts of America, pointing to this report about how the organization removed a lesbian mother, Denise Steele, as a scout master …

Robertson Suggests Crack In The Washington Monument Was A Sign From God  —  During The 700 Club's “The Sign Of The Times” series on the end of the world this week, Pat Robertson today addressed Tuesday's earthquake on the east coast that left a four-foot long crack in the Washington Monument.

Rick Perry Sought State Profits From Teacher Life Insurance Scheme … WASHINGTON — Two weeks before Thanksgiving in 2003, top officials from Texas Governor Rick Perry's office pitched an unusual offer to the state's retired teachers: Let's get into the death business.

Madoff: I'm a Victim, Too  —  Bernie Madoff is feeling pretty grand these days.  He's got reporters (including myself) hounding him for interviews and his insight into Wall Street and its misgivings.  He's the toast of the federal prison in Butner, NC., where he's serving a life sentence …

Irene an extremely dangerous storm surge threat to the mid-Atlantic and New England  —  Back in 1938, long before satellites, radar, the hurricane hunters, and the modern weather forecasting system, the great New England hurricane of 1938 roared northwards into Long Island, New York at 60 mph …

Why Libya sceptics were proved badly wrong  —  Let us do a thought experiment.  Imagine the UN did not vote to authorise the use of force in Libya in March.  Nato did nothing; Colonel Muammer Gaddafi over-ran Benghazi; the US stood by; the Libyan opposition was reduced to sporadic uprisings, quickly crushed.

Market crash ‘could hit within weeks’, warn bankers  —  A more severe crash than the one triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers could be on the way, according to alarm signals in the credit markets.  —  The cost of insuring RBS bonds is now higher than before the taxpayer was forced to step in and rescue the bank in October 2008

Fiscalization Watch  —  A correspondent informs me that Wolfgang Schaeuble, the German finance minister, has just given a speech asserting that excessive public debt caused the 2008 crisis.  In fact, I'm told, he said that … OK, we can prove that wrong immediately: I dispute it …

The Nice Guy And The Manic Pixie Dream Girl  —  This is a bit off topic, but it's my blog and my last week here so bear with me.  I recently watched The Adjustment Bureau, a sort of sci-fi romance where the world is regularly nudged away from extinction by a covert bureaucracy of otherwordly chaperones …