U.S. urges Americans to leave Syria “immediately”  —  Anger In The Arab World  —  BEIRUT - The U.S. Embassy in Damascus urged its citizens in Syria to depart “immediately,” and Turkey's foreign ministry urged Turkish pilgrims to opt for flights to return home from Saudi Arabia to avoid traveling through Syria.

Team Romney Crows About That Obama Ad: “It Worked” … - Spitzer: How Obama Can Make the Bush Tax Cuts a Winning Campaign Issue  — Why Tiny Thanksgiving Dinners Are Better Than Huge Ones - Exuberant, Sunny, Not a Bit Snarky: The Joy of the New Muppets Movie

First on CNN: Key social conservatives secretly meet to stop Romney in Iowa  —  Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) — Representatives for leading social conservative groups in Iowa held a secret meeting Monday as part of an effort with one main goal: find and support a Republican presidential candidate who can stop Mitt Romney in Iowa.

‘Company Policy: We are not hiring until Obama is gone’  —  “New Company Policy: We are not hiring until Obama is gone.”  —  “Can't afford it,” explained the employer, Bill Looman, Tuesday evening.  “I've got people that I want to hire now, but I just can't afford it.

Pa. revenue department overestimated tax collections from shale gas income  —  When it comes to money from shale drilling, state tax officials made a $50 million mistake this year.  —  The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue publicly overestimated by more than double what landowners around …

Bachmann: Roots Song On Fallon Sexist, Demands NBC Apology … Michele Bachmann has spoken out and demanded an apology for the song played by the Roots, the “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” house band, when she was introduced as a guest Monday night.  Bachmann called the song, “Lyin' Ass Bitch” …

German Bond Auction Fails  —  A year ago, Germany and France could probably have saved the euro—at least for a time—by stepping in to guarantee all the debts of the peripheral euro zone nations.  To be sure, this would have created quite a lot of other problems, but it would have saved their banks and their currency union.

GOVERNOR PATRICK SIGNS TRANSGENDER EQUAL RIGHTS BILL  —  Governor Deval Patrick today signed H.3810, “An Act Relative To Gender Identity,” historic legislation to legally protect transgender individuals from discrimination in housing, education, employment and credit.

Poll: Voters want court to kill Obama health care law  —  A new poll shows that most voters want the Supreme Court to overturn President Obama's health care law, with opposition and support falling largely along party lines.  —  Overall, voters oppose the law by 48-40%, according to the Quinnipiac University survey.

Army records at odds with Occupy veteran's claims  —  Demonstrator insists military data is incomplete  —  The claims of a dedicated member of the Occupy Buffalo movement that he saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan are not supported by Army records.  —  Christopher M. Simmance …

Robertson: “What Is This ‘Mac And Cheese,’ Is That A Black Thing?”  —  Pat Robertson continued to amuse on The 700 Club today, asking host Kristi Watts following her interview with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, “What is this ‘mac and cheese,’ is that a black thing?”

Debunking Obama's So-Called Leadership Failure  —  Various fiscal scolds have been scolding President Obama for failing to use his mind-control powers to force Republicans to accept a tax hike.  Michael Bloomberg sadly attributes the failure of the supercommittee to agree on reducing the deficit to a failure of “leadership.”

Jon Huntsman declares war on big banks and Too Big To Fail  —  With a brand new proposal, Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman is the only GOP 2012er to have moved beyond “repeal Dodd Frank” (which sounds like a return-to-the-status-quo) and fashioned a serious and comprehensive — and bold — financial reform plan.

How Perry's Fading Campaign Upended My Book Deal … Keywords: - Democrats, - Jason Stanford, - Texas Governor Rick Perry, - Perry for President  —  My first book came out last week.  The subject is constantly in the headlines, and the first review called it “wickedly witty” and “engaging, imminently readable.”

Wonkbook: The GOP's dual-trigger nightmare  —  Imagine if the Democrats offered Republicans a deficit deal that had more than $3 in tax increases for every $1 in spending cuts, assigned most of those spending cuts to the Pentagon, and didn't take a dime from Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare beneficiaries.

The Average Bush Tax Cut For The 1 Percent This Year Will Be Greater Than The Average Income Of The Other 99 Percent  —  As Occupy Wall Street protestors continue to demonstrate across the country, congress' fiscal super committee failed to craft a deficit reduction package due to Republican refusal …

Molotov madman who said on YouTube he would bomb Macy's is out of jail and back at Zuccotti Park  —  Nkrumah Tinsley is bailed out by Occupy Wall Street movement and has rejoined protest  —  Activist Nkrumah Tinsley, who was arrested last week after he appeared on video making terrorist threats including …

Pepper Spray's Fallout, From Crowd Control to Mocking Images  —  Some women carry it in their purses in a pink, lipstick-shaped container.  Hikers use it to deter bears.  People in most states can buy a small canister of it on a quick-release key ring on Amazon.com for $7.07.