Officials Say F.B.I. Knew of Petraeus Affair in the Summer  —  WASHINGTON — High-level officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department were notified in the late summer that F.B.I. agents had uncovered what appeared to be an extramarital affair involving the director …

Grover Norquist: Obama's goal is to raise energy taxes on middle class  —  PLAY CBS NEWS VIDEO  —  (CBS News) President Obama met with congressional leaders on Friday to tackle the upcoming fiscal cliff and over the weekend, several Republicans in Congress said there is momentum to make a deal before 2013.

The GOP's media cocoon  —  A long-simmering generational battle in the conservative movement is boiling over after last week's shellacking, with younger operatives and ideologues going public with calls that Republicans break free from a political-media cocoon that has become intellectually suffocating and self defeating.

Elmo Voice Kevin Clash Denies Sex w/ Underage Boy — Takes Leave of Absence from Sesame Street  —  Takes Leave of Absence from Sesame Street  —  EXCLUSIVE  —  Kevin Clash — the man known as the voice of Elmo — has taken a leave of absence from Sesame Street in the wake of allegations …

Kyrsten Sinema Wins Arizona House Seat, First Out Bi Member Of Congress  —  Sinema will follow Tammy Baldwin, elected to the Senate, as the second out LGBT woman in Congress.  —  Image by Ross D. Franklin / AP  —  WASHINGTON, DC — Kyrsten Sinema is the victor for a House seat in Arizona …

GOP's Red America forced to rethink what it knows about the country  —  HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — She arrived early to take apart the campaign office piece by piece, just as she felt so many other things about her life were being dismantled.  Beth Cox wore a Mitt Romney T-shirt …

MSNBC, Its Ratings Rising, Gains Ground on Fox News  —  On Tuesday night, with a minute to go until the polls closed in the battleground state of Virginia, the MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews received word through their earpieces that the state was too close to call …

Outrage Builds As Arizona Continues To Count Votes  —  Nearly a third of votes cast in Arizona remained uncounted the day after the election.  Most of them were probably cast by Latinos, organized and newly registered by multiple civil rights groups in the state to combat candidates …

‘We the People’ Petitions Filed in Nineteen States Seeking Permission to Secede from the Union  —  In the aftermath of last week's presidential election, residents in at least nineteen states have put up petitions on the government's “We the People” petitioning website seeking the right to secede from the rest of the country.

No Meat on Mondays in Los Angeles  —  (CNSNews.com) - The Los Angeles City Council is urging all residents to observe “meatless Mondays” from now on.  —  A resolution adopted on Oct. 24 reads: “Be it resolved, that the Council of the City of Los Angeles hereby declares all Mondays …

The 2013 Campaign  —  The shiniest such prize would be the achievement of a grand bargain on entitlements and tax reform: a bipartisan agreement that would put the nation's fiscal house in order for years, and maybe decades, to come.  The extent to which Obama pines for this was illustrated …

Man arrested for posting image of burning poppy on Twitter  —  A man has been arrested for posting an image of a burning poppy on a social network site.  —  Kent Police said in a statement that the man, from Aylesham, was detained last night on suspicion of making malicious telecommunications …

The New Math  —  A number of TPM Readers have written in this morning saying, “Josh, how can you of all people be surprised that Republicans or at least Republican pollsters had created their own alternative numbers reality (or in Megan Kelly's now immortal words, “Math you do as a Republican …

Cornel West: Obama A ‘Republican In Blackface,’ Black MSNBC Hosts Are ‘Selling Their Souls’  —  During an interview last week with Democracy Now, author and activist Cornel West offered harsh criticism of President Barack Obama, calling him a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface” …