The NYTimes: In a protest apparently assembled largely through a network of banned cellphones, inmates across at least six prisons in Georgia have been on strike since Thursday, calling for better conditions and compensation, several inmates and an outside advocate said. Inmates have refused to leave their cells or perform their jobs, in a demonstration that seems to transcend racial and gang factions that do not often cooperate. Among their demands: decent health care, nutritional meals and access...

On Meet The Press this morning: Bloomberg said…that his advisers should “cease-and-desist” with their suggestions that he run. The Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent says he’s focused on his job as mayor. He has occasionally been mentioned as a long-shot presidential candidate. Bloomberg says he wants to leave office having a reputation “as a very good, maybe the greatest mayor ever.” Not news says Eric Alterman who notes Bloomberg told CBS News this...

Today is the second anniversary of the arrest of Berne Madoff. This morning Madoff’s eldest son, Mark, was found dead in the living room of his Manhattan apartment. Every suicide is a tragedy. One sad detail from this one, Mark’s two-year-old son was asleep in an adjacent room. From the NYTimes: The steps that led to [Bernard Madoff's] arrest began when [Mark] and his brother, Andrew, confronted their father over his plans to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to employees...

This week we’re talking DADT, but the dynamic is the same for marriage. The public, the culture, has come to broadly accept lesbians and gays serving openly in the military; we support recognition and benefits for committed same-sex couples. Conservatives know this. So best to keep it from coming to pass through the legislature. Adam Serwer last week: The White House strategy on repealing DADT was premised on minimizing the potential for a backlash by appeasing all the essential stakeholders—Congress,...

Weighing in on that well-trod question, I think not. I join the fray after shouting at the radio last night as Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee was speaking on All Things Considered. He is the third ranking Republican leader in the Senate. Melissa Block asks him directly: How do you justify that a quarter of the tax savings in this deal go to the wealthiest one percent of the population? Help us understand why that’s fair. Sen. ALEXANDER: Well, the goal is to create jobs. And if you raise...

Disappointing to say the least: The Senate on Thursday dealt a severe blow to the repeal of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law, dimming the chances for the Clinton-era ban to be scrapped this year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) failed to garner the necessary 60 votes for a procedural motion to start considering the 2011 defense authorization bill, which contains a provision to repeal the ban on openly gay people serving in the military. The final vote was 57-40. Apparently Reid...

Susan Collins has released a statement on the DADT negotiations and reauthorization of the defense bill that would end the 17-year-old ban is on the Senate agenda for noon today. What do we expect will happen? Nate Silver notes that the debate is caught up in the tax cut crossfire: First, the tepid reaction among many left-leaning groups to the compromise brokered by President Obama and Mitch McConnell could raise the incentive for Mr. Obama to score a “win” with progressives. The debate in...

UPDATE: Senate Reid’s office confirmed late Wednesday that he will postpone the vote as negotiations continue with Republicans who support lifting the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. +++++++++++ Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is bent on bringing a defense authorization bill that reverses “don’t ask, don’t tell” to a vote tonight, but key negotiator (and repeal proponent) Joe Lieberman wants him to back off: “I’ve been pleading with...

Sarah on Sunday’s episode of Sarah Palin’s Alaska: Unless you’ve never worn leather shoes, sat upon a leather chair or eaten meat, save your condemnation. A scathing Aaron Sorkin (this is the gentlest part): I eat meat, chicken and fish, have shoes and furniture made of leather, and PETA is not ever going to put me on the cover of their brochure and for these reasons Palin thinks it’s hypocritical of me to find what she did heart-stoppingly disgusting. I don’t think...

So is Supreme Court justice a “public position?” CBS New Political Hotsheet: At a town hall meeting appearance in Manama, Bahrain on Friday, Clinton denied intentions to run for either president or vice president on the ticket with President Obama, who defeated her in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. Some experts have also speculated that she could replace Robert Gates next year when he retires as secretary of defense. “I think I will serve as secretary of state as my last...

The problem with streaming video to your television is not the technology. Apple TV is today’s case-in-point. Walt Mossberg: I’ve been testing the new Apple TV, including trying out AirPlay using various devices, and found that it performs as advertised. It has a clean, easy interface, does a great job of streaming content from your own computers, and it allows you to rent TV shows at just 99 cents an episode. It’s even almost invisible next to your TV—a 4-inch-square black box...

TPM explains how Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, asked and Amazon complied: Lieberman said in a statement that Amazon’s “decision to cut off Wikileaks now is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies Wikileaks is using to distribute its illegally seized material.” Committee staff had seen news reports yesterday that Wikileaks was being hosted on Amazon’s servers, a committee spokeswoman told TPM....

The Maccabeats, a group of Yeshiva University students, sing Candlelight and become a certified YouTube sensation. Enjoy… Background from The Jerusalem Post and The New York Post.

70% of troops. 75% of Americans. What will Republicans do? President Obama on the DADT survey: With our nation at war and so many Americans serving on the front lines, our troops and their families deserve the certainty that can only come when an act of Congress ends this discriminatory policy once and for all. The House of Representatives has already passed the necessary legislation. Today I call on the Senate to act as soon as possible so I can sign this repeal into law this year and ensure that...

I’ve always hated the lottery. Then today I learned from this Freakonomics Radio podcast of a lottery idea I like: Prize-Linked Savings (PLS). In a nutshell, PLS is a kind of savings account that pools some of the interest from all depositors and pays out a big lottery prize every month or so. It combines the thrill of the lottery with the safety of a savings account. It’s sometimes called a “no-lose lottery,” since a depositor is automatically entered into the lottery but can’t lose...

To begin with, what Facebook announced yesterday is not email. The new offering has three main features: 1) Seamless Messaging, 2) Conversation History, and 3) Social Inbox. Zuckerberg at 10:07 PST, “It is not email.” And it’s not a Gmail Killer. Zuckerberg at 10:33, “Gmail is a great product [and] email is still really important to a lot of people.” So what is it? Called Messages, it’s email and more. Messages brings together a single, unified, social inbox that...

Apparently the handful of priests in the U.S. who are trained exorcists have been overwhelmed with requests from people who fear they are possessed by the Devil. The NYTimes: American bishops are holding a conference on Friday and Saturday to prepare more priests and bishops to respond to the demand. The purpose is not necessarily to revive the practice, the organizers say, but to help Catholic clergy members learn how to distinguish who really needs an exorcism from who really needs a psychiatrist,...

Ok Go’s latest has an autumnal theme and utilizes 2,430 pieces of toast. Mashable: “Last Leaf”… was made possible in part by Samsung, who spurred the creation of the video by asking, “What’s your next project?” The band told the electronics company that it wanted to work with Nadeem Mazen and Ali Mohammad, founders of Serious Business Design, on a sketchy concept — literally. Samsung then furnished the guys with a Samsung NX100 camera, with which the project was shot (each...

The first real iPad competitor runs Android, has a 7″ screen, a white plastic back, front and rear cameras with a flash, video, exposure controls and special effects and it plays [cough] Flash videos. And it weighs 13 ounces compared with 1.5 pounds for the iPad. David Pogue: the dawn of the would-be iPad is upon us. But the Android tablet concept represents more than just a lame effort to grab a slice of tablet hype. As with Android phones, it represents an alternative that’s different...

The Hollywood Reporter: TLC is set to make one of the biggest bets of the year by taking arguably the most polarizing figure in politics and giving her a reality show… “Look at what happened in the election: A lot of people will tune in for Sarah Palin,” says Gary Carr, senior vp at media buyer TargetCast. TLC president and GM Eileen O’Neill is likewise confident Palin will pay off. “I’m really optimistic,” she says. “I think it could be one of our strongest shows out there. There’s...

Engineers began testing the Ground Zero memorial waterfall yesterday. The 30-foot black granite fountains, “Reflecting Absence,” will be the largest man-made waterfalls on the continent. They are set to open next year in time for the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attack. National 9/11 Memorial website. AP video: Flickr Photo via Flatbush Gardner.

A report [pdf] out today from Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity looks at fast food marketing targeting kids. Among the findings, of 12 fast food restaurant chains offering more than 3,000 kids meal combinations only 12 meet the nutritional guidelines for preschool-aged kids. CNN: “The worst meal was at Dairy Queen,” said Jennifer Harris, director of marketing initiatives at the Yale center, and the lead study author. “It was a cheeseburger, french fries, a...

If you, like me, use your inbox for reminders, NudgeMail will be your friend: NudgeMail provides one feature: it turns any e-mail client into a reminder system. So say you receive a message that necessitates a reply, but not until Friday. Simply forward the e-mail to “friday@nudgemail.com” and, on Friday, the message will be sent back to you for response. You can also schedule items for particular dates; for example, for the 22nd of November, you would forward the message to “11222010@nudgemail.com.” You...

While we wait for election results, the New Left Media take on The Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear (WARNING: Some adult language)… You may remember that New Left Media is a project of Wright State University students Chase Whiteside (interviews) and Erick Stoll (camera). It turns out that Whiteside is gay. He is profiled in the current issue of The Advocate. Late in the video we learn just how apolitical the event was — of those interviewed for the segment, none knows who’s...

The magician and escape artist Harry Houdini died on Halloween in 1926: Houdini spent the final years of his life relentlessly exposing the trickery of spirit mediums who claimed they could contact the dead. “He told the Los Angeles Times in 1924 that it takes a flimflammer to catch a flimflammer,” said [Jewish Museum curator Brook Kamin] Rapaport. “And he folded aspects of his anti-spiritualist crusade into his theater performances.” Which is what made his deathbed pact...