Other News

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) hit at President Barack Obama's ability to lead on a day when unemployment rose faster than expected and Chicago failed to secure the 2016 Olympic Games.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released September's job numbers, in which unemployment rose at a faster-than-expected pace to 9.8%. Across the pond, the International Olympic Committee cut Chicago as a potential host of the 2016 games after Obama delivered a speech in an attempt to win over the IOC.

Gingirch took to Twitter on Friday to express his displeasure with Obama's decision to travel to Copenhagen without having assured success:

President Obama fails to get the Olympics while unemployment goes to 9.8% Iran continues nuclear program. America needs focused leadership

President Eisenhower had a rule that Presidents of the United States went to the meetings after success had been assured

Somehow charm and oratory dont (sic) seem to work in foreign affirs (sic) but historians have warned that foreign policy is different than campaigning

The president is expected to deliver remarks in the Rose Garden upon his return from Copenhagen. He is currently in-transit.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) has blocked approval of Sen. Jim DeMint's (R-S.C.) planned congressional delegation trip to Honduras.

Earlier on Thursday, DeMint had announced he would lead a delegation to the country ridden with political strife tomorrow.

The freshman member of the Foreign Relations panel tweeted this afternoon:

@JohnKerry (Foreign Rel. chair) trying to hide truth to protect Zelaya, blocking our fact-finding trip to Honduras at last minute

No U.S. Senator has yet been to Honduras to assess facts of crisis. @JohnKerry & Obama admin using bullying tactics to hide truth.

Kerry and DeMint are on opposite sides of the debate over whether the now-deposed President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, should be returned to power.

The military removed Zelaya from office in June after he attempted to change the constitution in part to eliminate presidential term limits.

While DeMint has backed the de facto government under acting President Roberto Micheletti, Kerry backs a U.S.-backed negotiated settlement to return Zelaya to power until the end of his term in December.

DeMint sought to travel to Honduras ahead of their November 29 elections, which are not recognized by the U.S. government.

The de facto regime had hoped the elections would bring an end to the political crisis.

Health ins. reform will help working families - Hilda Solis (Labor Dept.)
Rounding the bases - Manan Trivedi (D-Pa.)
Support offshore drilling - Rep. Gresham Barrett (R-S.C.)
Bernanke says... - Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.)
Bob Bennett's 'masterful' performance - Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah)
Students come to the Hill - Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine)
Green commerce - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.)
Keep kids off drugs - Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.)
Plenty to do back home - Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.)
Things you might not hear from Christie - Gov. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.)

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), in his harshest attack on primary opponent Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) to date, accused him of missing 122 votes in the House. Or is it 125?

In a letter addressed to Sestak today, Specter suggested he resign from Congress or step out of the race because of his missed votes. The letter said that he skipped 122 decisions?

But in a tweet mirroring the dis on Sestak, Specter accused him of missing 125 votes:

Rep. Sestak, it's time to decide: Serve or quit -- candidate or Congressman. With 125 missed votes, you can't be both. http://bit.ly/Il5s3

The Washington Post's congressional votes database says Sestak has missed 125 votes. But GovTrack says he has missed 122 votes.

So, which number is it?

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an increased number of incidents of hijacked social networking accounts have been reported to the agency.

The FBI put out a release today warning users of Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and similar sites to beware for a common hacking scheme that is becoming more frequent.

One of the more popular methods of hijacking involves the use of spam e-mail sent from a previously hijacked account. Opening the e-mail allows the hacker to access the user's passwords, then send other spam messages to the user's online friends. The messages entice recipients to open them by saying the sender is in medical or legal trouble.

The incidents have been reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a joint venture between the FBI, National White Collar Crime Center, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

The release said that the sites are still "generally a safe place to interact with friends," but urged users to be cautious of such schemes.

The IC3 has received 3,200 reports of hijackings since 2006, according to the release.

No incidents are known to have involved members of Congress.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) said on Thursday that he is leading a congressional delegation to Honduras tomorrow ahead of their November 29 elections.

Voters in Honduras will go to the polls next month to select a president and parliament, but the United States has indicated that it will not recognize the results of the election without a resolution to the political crisis there.

DeMint tweeted:

Leading delegation to Honduras tomorrow to support Nov 29 elections. Hondurans should be able to choose their own future.

Honduras has experienced political turmoil since the army in June deposed President Manuel Zelaya in a bloodless coup. Zelaya had attempted to change the country's constitution in part to eliminate presidential term limits.

DeMint has been an outspoken critic of Zelaya since the constitutional crisis began. The conservative senator at times has criticized the government's response to the crisis, saying they should give a stronger rebuke to Zelaya.

Under the current constitution, both acting President Roberto Micheletti and Zelaya are ineligible for re-election.

More information about the visit is forthcoming from DeMint's office.

Cross-posted to the Briefing Room

The Department of Justice has joined the Twitter, making it one of several executive branch entities that use the microblogging site.

The department will tweet under the handle @TheJusticeDept. The account became active early this morning and has tweeted twice today. Currently, 105 people follow the account.

In addition to launching a Twitter feed, the Department of Justice overhauled their website and created YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook sites.

"Today's launch is just the first step towards creating the most open, accessible and transparent Justice Department possible," wrote Tracy Russo on the department's blog.

Russo works on online outreach for the Department of Justice and previously served as a staffer on John Edwards' presidential campaign.

Other administration offices on Twitter include the State Department, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.

The president of one of the country's largest unions is hardly sparing a tear for embattled Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, who announced on Wednesday he would resign his post at the end of the year.

Rather, Andy Stern, the chief of Service Employees International Union, expressed satisfaction with the news in his most recent tweet:

Ken Lewis leaving Bank of America after SEIU coalition led effort to highlight Bank's poor credit card, financial management, and CEO pay

Stern and Lewis have long been at odds. Their relationship grew most tenuous earlier this year, after SEIU leaders learned that Bank of America was spearheading a campaign to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, one of SEIU's top policy priorities.

The news, combined with the reports that Lewis had offered large bonuses to newly acquired Merrill Lynch employees, soon prompted the union to become the first to demand the embattled CEO's ouster.

“Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis just doesn’t get it," SEIU wrote in an e-mail to supporters at the time. "The era of greed and irresponsibility is over ... Enough is enough. Bank of America must fire CEO Ken Lewis.”

Lewis, however, tacitly dismissed on Wednesday any suggestion that he had been forced out of his job.

"The Merrill Lynch and Countrywide integrations are on track and returning value already," Lewis said in a statement. "Our board of directors and our senior management include more talent, and more diversity of talent, than at any time in this company's history. We are in position to begin to repay the federal government's TARP investments. For these reasons, I decided now is the time to begin to transition to the next generation of leadership at Bank of America."

It is still unclear who will replace Lewis as CEO next year.

A Twitter dispute between two House lawmakers has now evolved into a last-minute Republican fundraising pitch.

The feud began earlier this week when Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) suggested the Census Bureau end its relationship with the Service Employees International Union because of the latter group's ties to ACORN. At the time, Rep. Mark Ellison (D-Minn.), annoyed with that suggestion, invoked McCarthy and tweeted in reply:

More blah, blah, blah re ACORN. Member drills rep of SEIU re association w/ ACORN. Are you now or have you ever been associated w/ ACORN?

Kirk, however, fired back at Ellison on Wednesday, urging his supporters to contribute to his Senate campaign before the Federal Election Commission's midnight filing deadline:

#Dems say #ACORN is "blah blah." http://br.st/0gl Contribute to our campaign b4 midnight 2 help stop this corruption! http://br.st/0gE

Interestingly enough, the SEIU previously endorsed Alexi Giannoulis (D), Kirk's Democratic competition in the race to fill Illinois' open Senate seat.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday could not resist cracking a harmless quip at a reporter's expense.

It began earlier this afternoon when McCain met January Jones, who plays Betty Draper on AMC's show "Mad Men," and escorted her on a tour of the Capitol. Tweeted McCain:

http://twitpic.com/jq8qw - Great meeting & tour of the Capitol with January Jones, who is an advocate for sharks. I'm a huge fan of Mad Men!

Jones is a staunch advocate against shark finning -- a practice in which a shark's fin is cut off, sometimes for use in shark fin soup, and its carcass is thrown back into the sea. The actor was in the District on Wednesday to lobby Congress in support of a bill that would ban the hotly debated practice.

But that news perhaps came as a bit of a shock to ABC's Jake Tapper, or so his tweeted reaction suggested:

@SenJohnMcCain sharks???

Replied McCain:

@jaketapper shark fin soup - duh Jake...