On Newt Gingrich's Endorsement  —  A lot of people have called me and emailed me to say that the original post that was here was too rough on former Speaker Gingrich.  I'll concede that this could be the case and replace the text with this instead.  —  For several weeks conservative leaders …

Lefty anger splits Dems — and may sink them  —  “Harry Reid abdicates his leadership role,” reads the headline at the lefty Daily Kos Web site.  “Why Joe Biden should resign,” reads the headline at the Huffington Post.  “Whiner in Chief,” reads the headline at The Nation, referring to President Obama.

White House Says No to Antigay Referenda  —  In response to an inquiry from The Advocate, the White House sent the following statement regarding President Barack Obama's position on same-sex relationship recognition voter referenda in Maine and Washington.  —  “The President has long opposed divisive …

NFL Owners Who Use the N-Word and Wet Their Pants On Stage  —  And now a word from an NFL owner: … Amidst the uproar over Rush Limbaugh having to step aside from his participation in the bid to purchase the NFL's St. Louis Rams over racially insensitive statements he never actually made …

Elder Bush Decries Lack of Civility in Politics  —  Posted by Peter Maer Former President George H.W. Bush told CBS News that President Obama “is entitled to civil treatment and intellectual honesty when it comes to critics.”  —  Referring to the tone of national discourse he said, “I don't like it.

The Very Separate World of Conservative Republicans  —  The self-identifying conservative Republicans who make up the base of the Republican Party stand a world apart from the rest of America, according to focus groups conducted by Democracy Corps.  These base Republican voters dislike Barack Obama …

Sen. Harkin: Three ways to public option  —  The Senate has more than one way to get to agreement on the controversial public option, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said Friday.  —  Though Harkin insisted he continues to support a “robust” …

C.I.A. Is Still Cagey About Oswald Mystery  —  WASHINGTON — Is the Central Intelligence Agency covering up some dark secret about the assassination of John F. Kennedy?  —  Probably not.  But you would not know it from the C.I.A.'s behavior.  —  For six years, the agency has fought …

The Shoddy Statistics of Super Freakonomics  —  Super Freakonomics is getting a lot of flak for its flip contrarianism on climate change, most of which seems based on incorrectly believing solar panels are black (they're blue, and this has surprisingly large energy implications) and misquoting important climate scientists.

Fox News Reportedly Fires Liberal Analyst Marc Lamont Hill  —  Yesterday, Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid announced that at today's annual News Corp. meeting, he would urge Chairman Rupert Murdoch to fire Fox News analyst Marc Lamont Hill, whom he called a “left-wing cop-killer apologist.”

Interview Sets Off Skeptics of Balloon Drama  —  Updated |  10:45 a.m. It was, apparently, a heartwarming tale — the 6-year-old Colorado boy who was reportedly carried aloft in a wayward helium balloon on Thursday, only to turn up several hours later after a frantic, widely televised search.

Cao: 'It's pronounced Gow'  —  Louisiana Rep. Joseph Cao (R) is trying to put an end to the debate — over how to pronounce his last name.  —  The Republican congressman admitted in a half-serious press release on Friday that he has long struggled to watch his fellow lawmakers …

Oy!  Noam Chomsky Compares Right-Wing Media To “Nazis”  —  Add Noam Chomsky to the growing list of people using the Nazi analogy lately.  Speaking to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, he alluded to right-wing media as “substantive content — crazy content, but it does give answers,” …

U.S. to Engage Sudan Leaders to Uphold Pact With Rebels  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has formulated a new policy for Sudan that proposes working with that country's government, rather than isolating it as President Obama had pledged to do during his campaign.

Obama team makes it official: Budget deficit hits record.  By a lot.  —  The Obama administration has released new deficit numbers, and they are not pretty.  —  The deficit for Fiscal Year 2009, which ended Sept. 30, came in at a record $1.42 trillion, more than triple the record set just last year.

An Unconstitutional Nobel  —  People can, and undoubtedly will, argue for some time about whether President Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.  Meanwhile, though, there's a simpler and more immediate question: Does the Constitution allow him to accept the award?

The Race Card, Football and Me  —  My critics would have you believe no conservative meets NFL ‘standards.’  —  David Checketts, an investor and owner of sports teams, approached me in late May about investing in the St. Louis Rams football franchise.  As a football fan, I was intrigued.

Ted Turner Passed Cash ‘Like a Joint,’ Now Feels ‘Like a Dummy’  —  Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) — Ted Turner, the cable television pioneer who became one of the richest Americans, recalls the pain of losing his job at Time Warner Inc., his wife, the actress Jane Fonda, and $7 billion of his fortune.