After prolonged suspense, it appears the U.S. is steering General Motors into bankruptcy next week in a plan that will shrink the company while also pumping billions of dollars of public financing into it. The U.S. will inject somewhere around $30 billion more into GM in return for 50 percent of the restructured company and the right to name members to the board of directors. The U.S. plans to lift Chrysler out of bankruptcy in the coming weeks, hoping that both companies will transform themselves into leaner competitors in the global marketplace. Bankruptcy was a last resort—the administration negotiated for months with the union, creditors and dealers in the hopes of reducing costs without going to bankruptcy court.

The four men who were busted by the Feds and NYPD last night as they tried to implement their plot to make "a fireball that would make the country gasp" despised Jews and "were filled with rage." New York Sen. Chuck Schumer said that if there was anything gain from the scary incident, it is that the would-be terrorists were unsophisticated, unconnected to any terrorist organization, and noticed by the authorities early on. An informant was fundamental to the operation against the quartet, as he was the driver of their getaway SUV. After the men planted bogus C4 in several cars in front of a Bronx synagogue, the authorities descended upon them, blocking their route with an 18-wheeler. Another armored vehicle pulled up, and authorities emerged, smashed the windows of the SUV, and handcuffed the men on the ground. One official told the New York Times the entire plan was "fully controlled at all times."

Controversy-loving filmmaker Michael Moore will turn his camera to the global economic meltdown in a film due out this October. Moore is staying secretive about the project, but a statement he released suggests the film will target the men and women behind the economic crisis with the same fiery outrage as his former projects attacked President Bush or the health care industry. "The wealthy, at some point, decided they didn't have enough wealth," he said in the statement." They wanted more—a lot more. So they systematically set about to fleece the American people out of their hard-earned money. Now, why would they do this? That is what I seek to discover in this movie."

In a blistering review printed in The New Republic, former TNR editor Michael Kinsley tears Newsweek—and its latest reinvention—a new one. Though Kinsley says Newsweek editor Jon Meacham is "a very smart and thoughtful guy," he completely misunderstands his medium. Now that the internet has rendered Newsweek's weekly current event summaries obsolete, Kinsley argues that glossies like Newsweek and Time "should stop worrying about that and hope to find appeal in trends, service pieces, fine writing, muckraking exposes, provocative argument, and other traditional non-news magazine fare." Instead, Kinsley says, the new Newsweek clings to out-of-date departments and stiff, impractical hierachies. Among the offenders: Letters to the editor, which forces the magazine to revel in two-week-old content despite internet comment board's ability to provide feedback faster and better; frivolous use of infographics; and Meacham's own profile of Obama, which falls prey to the "stale formula" of anecdote-centered newsmag profiles.

Anyone searching for videos of teen celebrities like the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana on YouTube may have gotten a surprise Thursday, as the Web site was bombarded with hundreds of uploaded porn videos. The BBC reports that many of the videos began with footage appropriate for children before the "graphic sex acts" began. The videos appear to be part of a coordinated attack from an online community called 4Chan. The group describes itself as being the "home of the sickest, strangest, and most horrifying stuff on the Internet." One of the group's members, contacted by a BBC reporter, said the attack was meant to prove that not even a major Web site owned by Google could completely control its content.

President Obama will nominate key Democratic fundraiser and investment banker Louis Susman to be the country's ambassador to the Court of St. James. Susman bundled $300,000 in donations towards Obama's inauguration, and was a major fundraiser for Senator John Kerry's campaign as well. Susman, 71, retired in February from his post as vice chairman of Citigroup. Ambassadorships are frequently meted out as rewards to a successful campaign's high-rollers. Obama said in January that he would probably appoint some top donors as ambassadors: "It would be disingenuous for me to suggest that there are not going to be some excellent public servants but who haven't come through the ranks of the civil service," he said.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's rage against the stimulus lives on. On Thursday Palin announced that she is vetoing $80 million of the state's budget, and cited federal stimulus cash as the source of the problem. According to the Anchorage Daily News, "Palin argued that the $28.6 million in stimulus money is tied to building codes that the state would be required to entice local communities to adopt. Legislators dispute that, saying Missouri was able to take the money without a statewide code." The details of Palin's veto are still unclear, but ADN reports that an accounting transfer of $35 million from the state's oil and gas tax credit fund to the state's general fund could also be troubling the governor. According to state law, legislators have the chance to override the governor's veto afterwards.

First Lady Michelle Obama resisted moving with her husband away from Chicago until the last possible moment—when he became the leader of the free world. She managed the move by bringing her closest friends from Chicago along with her, including her personal trainer, who she's employed for ten years. Michelle's extensive support group might be part of the reason the first lady seems to be having so much fun. She unabashedly admits she stays out of politics (unlike Hillary Clinton, who sent an envoy to almost every single White House meeting), and is enjoying a domestic sabbatical from 20 years of working as a high-powered lawyer even as feminists decry her "Mom in Chief" self-designation. "I know women who have given up a lot of themselves," she said. "And there were times in my marriage where I put stuff aside. This isn't one of those times."

Somewhere, Rudy Giuliani is blushing: Dick Cheney referenced September 11 25 times in his speech this morning. “It's almost as if Cheney just grabbed a couple of copies of the Weekly Standard from January and pasted them together,” Steve Benen writes at Washington Monthly. Particularly egregious was Cheney’s attack on his critics for using “euphemisms that strive to put an imaginary distance between the American people and the terrorist enemy.” Benen asks, “Since when does Cheney find ‘euphemisms’ so offensive? We are, after all, talking about the leader of an administration that came up with some doozies in the euphemism department. … Cheney probably thought it would raise his stature to speak after the president on the same subject. The strategy was half-successful—he got the media to characterize this as some kind of showdown between relative equals. But the other half was a humiliating failure—Cheney came across as a small, petty man, trying a little too hard to undermine the nation's elected leadership while salvaging some shred of personal credibility.”

Anyone interested in the world’s most thankless job? It pays well: Edward M. Liddy, the chairman and CEO of AIG, announced today that he will step down once the board of directors finds replacements for those jobs. Liddy recommended earlier this week that the chairman and CEO be separated. He took over the job in September 2008 in order to try to rescue the company from the mess it had created for itself (and many, many others). The company also nominated six new directors to its board, who will stand for election at the end of June.

In his speech today, President Obama defended his commitment to closing Guantanamo, a plan Democrats roundly rejected in the Senate earlier this week—but it's unclear how many people he convinced. After the speech, Senator Harry Reid, who said earlier he would never allow the prisoners to enter the U.S., conceded he is willing to work on a "responsible solution" with the president. Nancy Pelosi said Obama was being "honest" with the American people. Republicans were still forcefully against the idea. "With all due respect to the president, what we need here is not a speech but a plan," Senator Mitch McConnell said. Texas Senator John Cornyn took a swipe at Obama for wanting to fight terrorism using criminal justice laws: "Are we really going to insist that the jihadist with a suitcase nuke captured in Times Square be read his Miranda rights?" he asked. Meanwhile, leaders of liberal groups like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union all berated Obama for his decision to hold some detainees without trial. "The president wrapped himself in the Constitution and then proceeded to violate it," said the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Dick Cheney may still be fighting George Bush’s battle, but Bush apparently isn’t paying attention: The former president watched neither Cheney’s nor Obama’s speeches today. “A source close to Bush said the former president was traveling at the time, enroute to New Mexico where he is the keynote speaker Thursday night at a fund raising dinner for a scholarship program for students at Artesia High School,” reports CNN.

Next month, Alysa Stanton will “become the first African-American woman ever to be ordained as a rabbi and the first African-American rabbi to lead a majority white congregation,” according to CNN. Stanton will lead the Congregation Bayt Shalom in Greenville, North Carolina. “A Cleveland, Ohio, native from a Pentecostal Christian home who moved to Colorado at the age of 11, Stanton was first exposed to Judaism as a child and converted more than 20 years ago during her college days.” She was convinced to attend rabbinical school by “her appreciation of the role of cantors, the beauty of chanting Torah and learning of a middle-aged man who didn't let his age get in the way of entering rabbinical school.”

Conan O’Brien takes over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno in June, but will middle America take to Conan? Not least of all the obstacles to his success will be Leno himself, who will now start a 10 pm show. Author Lynn Hirschberg notes, “O’Brien (like his time-slot adversary, Letterman) does not have Leno’s cozy relationship to the Middle American viewer.” And Conan himself admits to being unhappy at first with the situation. “It took me about 45 minutes of, ‘Really?’ I think, realistically, that Jay will be doing the same show he’s doing now,” he says. “I knew that there was this thing that was starting to brew that poor Jay was being pushed out by Conan. Jay was clearly becoming unhappy, and it had the makings of a situation that would make me unhappy. … “What I realized is, I’m still doing The Tonight Show. That was my dream. When I can’t sleep and it’s 3 in the morning, I’m not thinking about Jay. I’m thinking about all the things I want to do on the show.”

Suzanna Tamin, a 30-year-old Lebanese singer who was once a star in the Arab world, was mostly washed up when she was found with her throat slit in a Dubai apartment. Her murder, however, has brought her back to the center of the news: Today, Egypt sentenced Hisham Talat Moustafa, a rich property tycoon, political insider, and friend of the Egyptian president, to hang for her murder. According to The Times of London, “Prosecutors alleged that Moustafa and Ms Tamin had been lovers for several months before she broke off the relationship and became engaged to the Iraqi kick-boxing champion Riyad al-Azzawi.” Moustafa then allegedly paid a former Egyptian police officer, Mohsen el-Sukkari, $2 million to follow Tamin from Egypt to London and finally to Dubai. El-Sukkari tricked his way into Tamin’s apartment by claiming to work for the owner of the property.

It isn't really a surprise that Sean Penn has a bit of a fiery temper and is prone to impulsive behavior. The two-time Oscar winner has withdrawn his request for a divorce from his wife of 13 years, Robin Wright Penn. A source close to the couple told the Daily News that the two "love each other like crazy but fight like crazy," adding that the move does not mean that all is happy in the Penn family. It remains to be seen whether Wright will agree to void the motion for a divorce. This is not the first time this has happened. In 2007 the duo also filed for divorce, only to have second thoughts months later. The motion for a divorce requested that Wright not be entitled to any of Penn's income once the separation was finalized. The star of Milk is expecting another big payday with the upcoming Three Stooges, which will also star Benicio Del Toro and Jim Carrey.

Miss Marple would be shocked. Iran's suspected first female serial killer says she was inspired by Agatha Christie's murder mysteries to lure old ladies into her car and strangle them, police say. The 32-year-old suspect, Mahin, is accused of killing at least six people and hiding her tracks through tricks learned in Christie's novels, which are very popular in Iran. She targeted elderly and middle-aged women, luring them into her car at shrines where they had been praying and then giving them fruit juice spiked with anesthesia. When the women passed out, Mahin strangled them and then stole their jewelry and money to help pay down her debts, police say.

Nouriel Roubini, the star economist who was one of the few to forecast the current economic disaster, conducts himself with an almost Noam Chomsky-esque air of superiority. Roubini is enjoying a moment in the spotlight, as his economic doomsday prophecies turned out to be all too true. A profile in The New Republic reveals that Roubini is finding that celebrity isn't all it's cracked up to be, as his image as an academic playboy, "a partying pessimist," annoys him to no end. This new status,along with his own humble past as a Jew with roots in Iran, have helped him maintain a bunker mentality in which he is still a genius who "no one listens to until it is too late." Nevertheless, just judging by the names that in the list of his former colleagues—Larry Summers and Tim Geithner—there is no doubt that his influence is widespread.

The British actress Lucy Gordon was found dead in her apartment on Wednesday, two days short of her 29th birthday. Gordon, who played a British reporter in Spider-Man 3 and stars as Jane Birkin in a Serge Gainsbourg biopic currently previewing at Cannes, hanged herself while her boyfriend was asleep in bed. Her motives for suicide are unclear.

Late night comedians around the country were deprived of an easy target last night after the Republican National Committee backed away from its much derided plan to officially rebrand the Democratic Party as the "Democrat Socialist Party." The decision was at least a partial victory for chair Michael Steele, who had recently pledged that Republicans would be more civil in their tone than Democrats were dealing with President Bush. But the RNC still couldn't resist tweaking their opponents: instead they passed an alternative resolution declaring Democrats to be "dedicated to restructuring American society along socialist ideals."

Is trouble brewing in Tehran? A missile test-fired in Iran is the longest-range weapon of its type to be launched by the Islamic Republic, U.S. officials confirm. The solid-propellent missile has a range of 1200 to 1500 miles, meaning that Israel, U.S. bases in the Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe are within Iran's striking distance. Unlike liquid-propelled rockets, solid-propelled rockets can be fueled in advance and moved or hidden in silos, enabling the owner to defy preemptive strikes. Defense Secretary Robert Gates confirmed on Wednesday that the test was "successful," but noted that technical issues continue to plague Tehran's weaponry. The presence of advanced long-range missiles in Iran may fortify arguments for American-supported anti-missile defenses in Israel. Speaking before a stadium audience in the province where the missile launched, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad held no punches: "Iran will send enemies to hell before they strike... Iranian people are so powerful now. If a bullet wants to be shot toward it, Iran will destroy the base and all its members before they shoot."

Wayne Allwine, the man voiced Mickey Mouse for over thirty years died from complications due to diabetes Monday, The Hollywood Reporter announced in a heartfelt obituary Wednesday. His wife Russi Taylor, who voices Minnie Mouse, was by his side at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. Allwine first lent his famous falsetto to the character for The New Mickey Mouse Club. He was an Emmy-winning sound effects editor whose voice reverberates at Disney parks, on television and in stage broadcasts around the world. When Allwine took over from original Mickey Jimmy Macdonald in 1977, Macdonald said: “Just remember kid, you're only filling in for the boss.”

Somewhere, Michael Phelps is laughing. People can’t help noticing that Vancouver’s high-tech design for the 2010 Winter Olympics looks like a hand-rolled marijuana cigarette, but organizers are staying cool. “We're not worried about it at all," the executive vice-president of the Vancouver Organizing Committee told reporters. The torch is supposed to "represent Canada through the contours of winter landscapes and lines of winter sports,” but its pinched edges seem to represent something else entirely. The torch will travel almost 30,000 miles in a relay across Canada that will end with the lighting of the Olympic Flame in Vancouver in February.

Maybe this will save NBC? Appearing on the Today Show this morning, the Blagojeviches announced that Patti will participate in NBC’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here—the reality show her husband wanted to participate in but was banned from by a federal judge. She said she hopes her appearance on the show will help her to demonstrate that she’s not the potty-mouthed spouse that was recorded on federal wiretaps. “I don’t think those characterizations were fair at all,” she said. Rod said that, though he won’t be a contestant, he’ll play a role in the show. In the meantime, he’ll take care of the couple’s two children.

Out with the old, in with the new: Bankrupt car company Chrysler LLC announced that C. Robert Kidder, the former chairman of Borden Chemical Inc. and Duracell, will replace Bob Nardelli as chairman of the troubled automaker. Kidder has very little professional experience with the auto industry. His only contact came while working for McKinsey and Co. Inc., where he had a client in the industry, according to the Detroit News. The new chairman expressed confidence that Chrysler will "will emerge from Chapter 11 a lean and powerful competitor." When the company finalizes its alliance with Fiat, it will appoint a new chief executive.

The 21-year-old Cambridge man who was gunned down in the basement of one of Harvard's dorms earlier this week might have been supplying its inhabitants with drugs. The Harvard Crimson reports that text messages sent from Justin Crosby's phone to a student suggest he was selling marijuana to Harvard kids. The student was given the man's number because he was told he could provide drugs, and received messages like, "Im gud allday today just hit me up asap stuffs gunna b goin fast” from the number. The student said he bought drugs from Crosby before. Crosby was arrested in 2007 for possession of drugs, and he was visiting an unidentified student at the dorm before he was shot.

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm’s appearance in D.C. two days ago had people speculating that she was President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court. But Federal Appeals Court Judge Diane Wood, one of the leading contenders, is also in Washington today. Her ostensible reason is to attend a legal conference at Georgetown, but she did not provide advance notice to her students at the University of Chicago Law School before cancelling class yesterday, and at the conference “she is not on the program as a panelist or participant,” according to Jan Crawford Greenberg at ABC News. According to Greenberg, Wood has undergone vetting and an FBI background check along with candidates Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Greenberg says Obama has not yet made his pick.

Kay Bailey Hutchinson supporters are demanding an apology from Texas Governor Rick Perry, whose top political strategist insulted her by throwing around the word 'whorehouse" in reference to moderate Republicans. In an interview last weekend, Dave Carney said the GOP should welcome new voters, but "that doesn't mean you take your principles and throw them out the door and become a whorehouse and let anybody in who wants to come in, regardless." Perry is backing off the statement, saying his adviser wasn't speaking for him and certainly wasn't referring to Hutchinson, his upcoming rival for the 2010 governor's race. Hutchinson, who is pro-choice, has said that the party shouldn't focus on social issues like abortion, but instead should rally around economic issues like lower taxes and smaller government.

Ahmed Ghailani, an al Qaeda suspect believed to be the main facilitator in the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Tanzania in 1998, will be brought to New York City for trial. He would be the first Guantanamo detainee to be brought to trial in U.S. civil criminal courts. Ghailani, along with other alleged al Qaeda conspirators, is facing charges in a 238-count federal indictment. The approximately 240 men who remain at the military prison are posing problems for Obama as he tries to deliver on his campaign promise to close the facility. European and other allies have made clear they don’t want them, and Democrats and Republicans alike have expressed concerns about having them in domestic prisons. But as Politico notes, the toughest problem the president is facing isn’t the worst-of-the-worst, whom everyone agrees should be imprisoned permanently. Rather it's the rank-and-file prisoners who may have played some role in Al Qaeda or Taliban activity, but aren’t suspected of taking part in any major attacks.

Congress has passed President Obama's sweeping credit card reform bill, after a 361-64 House vote on Wednesday and 90-5 Senate vote on Tuesday. The bill adds protections for debt-stricken credit card users, including limiting credit company's hidden charges and fees and restricting the ability of people under the age of 21 to acquire credit cards. The banking industry opposed the bill, arguing that it would limit credit at a time when consumers need it most. However Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT), chairman of the Banking Committee said the bill is a landmark success for consumers: "Many Americans depend on credit cards to get by in this eceonomy, and today they have won a giant victory that ensures they are protected from practices that would drive them further into debt, while also making our economy stronger." White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said President Obama will sign the bill as soon as he can.

Could the Taliban be negotiating an end to the war in Afghanistan? According to a report in the New York Times, leaders of the Taliban and other Afghan insurgent groups are talking with the Afghan government through intermediaries about peace. The talks may fall flat though, as the insurgents are demanding a timetable for an American withdrawal just as the U.S. has committed 20,000 more troops. While the Obama administration has publicly attempted to lure "moderate" Taliban fighters away from the struggle, it says it's not involved in these negotiations. On the other hand, the U.S. isn't trying to stop the talks, which Afghan officials believe is tacit support for the discussions. While the insurgents' initial conditions are nonstarters, they suggest that a political settlement may still be able to end this war.

Four men attempted to bomb a synagogue in the Bronx Wednesday night—what the Post calls a "mission from hell"—only to be thwarted by the FBI. The men, from Newburgh, NY, planted explosive devices at the Riverdale Temple and Jewish Center just after 9 p.m. One problem: the explosives were fake, supplied by authorities as a part of an elaborate sting operation. The accused men are James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams, and Laguerre Payen. Cromitie told an informant that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and he was angry about the U.S. presence there. The men were apparently also planning to bring down a military plane with a stinger missile.

No apologies from Dick Cheney today: “In my long experience in Washington,” Cheney asserted, “few matters have inspired so much contrived indignation and phony moralizing as the interrogation methods applied to a few captured terrorists.” He asserted that “Torture was never permitted,” that the interrogations were legal, and reiterated that Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the methods. Cheney said to criticize the interrogations was “to libel the dedicated professionals who have saved American lives, and to cast terrorists and murderers as innocent victims.” He accused President Obama again of endangering the nation: “Releasing the interrogation memos was flatly contrary to the national security interest of the United States.” In one of the speeches harsher lines, he said “no moral value held dear by the American people obliges public servants ever to sacrifice innocent lives to spare a captured terrorist from unpleasant things.” He also used the occasion to grind his ax with The New York Times, lecturing the paper about its use of “euphemism,” which, considering Cheney later called waterboarding an “unpleasant thing,” may be a little much for some.

Kris Allen is the new American Idol in an upset victory over better-known Adam Lambert. Allen, an Arkansas native, sang “Kiss a Girl” with country star Keith Urban while Lambert joined KISS for an interpretation of “Detroit Rock City” during the two-hour season finale (which drew in the lowest ratings in Idol history. Lambert and Allen performed “We Are the Champions” with surprise guest of the night Queen. The surprise results came after nearly 100 million votes were cast.

In one of his first speeches, President Obama warned Congress to “don’t mess with Joe.” Perhaps because he reserves that privilege for himself? In a new book, Newsweek journalist Richard Wolffe writes Obama is so “distracted by his vice president’s indiscipline” that he has had to privately rebuke Biden. “He can’t keep his mouth shut,” says one senior Obama aide in Renegade: The Making of a President. Biden apparently insulted presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett when, after she had withdrawn her name from consideration as a replacement for Obama’s senate seat, Biden quipped at a meeting, “You should be in the Senate.” Afterward, Obama apparently told Biden "It's not funny."

Our friend Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse—the only surviving pirate from the attack on the Maersk Alabama—has plead not guilty to the 10 counts on which he was indicted earlier this week, including piracy under the law of nations, conspiracy, hostage taking, and kidnapping. Muse’s age is still subject to debate—his family has insisted that he’s as young as 15, but the magistrate judge said he can be tried as an adult since there’s evidence he is 18. According to the Associated Press, “Muse entered the plea in a soft voice with his head down.” The most serious charges carry a mandatory life sentence. "He's a boy who fishes and now he's ended up in solitary confinement," said one of the lawyers. "It's truly terrifying."

Don't let the dueling speeches distract you too much, there are still two wars doing on. A bomb blast in Baghdad killed three U.S. soldiers Thursday, one of a wave of bombings that has broken out in the last two days, killing at least 66 civilians, according to the AP. The soldiers' deaths come only mere weeks before American combat troops withdraw from cities in Iraq. It appears that a suicide bomber was responsible for the deadly blast which may have killed as many as 12 people along with the soldiers. The AP reports that there are more frequent periods of calm in Iraq that are punctuated by outbreaks violence. Despite the bombings, it appears likely that the Iraqi government will adhere to the scheduled withdrawal plan.

Among the disclosures at the Brooke Astor trial yesterday: the socialite's mental state had decline to the point where she once walked around her Maine mansion completely naked, a maid testified. Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, is charged with swindling millions from her estate while she suffered from Alzheimer's disease before her death at the age of 105 in 2007. The maid, Carol Stanley, was one of the prosecution's witnesses called to testify about Astor's condition. Stanley recalled that Astor once asked her, "What's my name? I don't know what it is. Who am I?" The trial, now in its fourth week, also included testimony from Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter yesterday, who said, "She was probably the most beautifully turned-out woman I've ever seen."