Olive branch or declaration of war? White House senior adviser David Axelrod and Fox News head Roger Ailes chatted over coffee two weeks ago, Politico reports. The unlikely pair quietly arranged the "cordial conversation" while the president was in Manhattan visiting the United Nations. The administration is a bit miffed at Fox's extensive coverage of Obama critics, Politico reports, and to show their displeasure, Fox News Sunday was left off the list of Sunday talk shows the president granted interviews to this month. Not one to take a snub lying down, Fox declined to cover Obama's recent speech to a joint session of Congress and his recent prime-time news conference, citing coverage on other channels. Though details from the Ailes-Axelrod conversation are few, The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder speculates that a comment Axelrod made last week about a “very significant figure” on the right who believed Obama was conspiring “to start a national police force” could have been about Ailes.

Debate over military tactics in Afghanistan were at a fever-pitch Tuesday, but The New York Times reports that a meeting between President Obama and congressional leaders was civil—though not without its clashes. Obama promised he would not slash the number of troops in Afghanistan, trying to dispel the notion that the only options in Afghanistan are either doubling down or cutting out. Responding to a comment from John McCain that "This should not be a leisurely process," the president reportedly said, "John, I can assure you this won't be leisurely," adding, "No one feels more urgency to get this right than I do." Responding to General Stanley McChrystal's recent rebuke of Vice President Biden's proposal to scale back on Afpak, Obama allegedly voiced interest in Biden's ideas: "I'm the one who hired [Biden]," Obama reportedly said. "I put him there to give me a frank assessment." The 75-minute meeting was conducted in the State Dining Room and included the president, Vice President Biden, and some 30 members of Congress.

Can you hear the sighs of relief in the White House? California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg—both Republicans—endorsed President Obama’s health-care plan on Tuesday. “Our principal goals, slowing the growth in costs, enhancing the quality of care delivered, improving the lives of individuals, and helping to ensure a strong economic recovery, are the same goals that the president is trying to achieve,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. Bloomberg said, “The health-reform proposal that Congress will shortly consider is shaping up to merit broad, bipartisan support, incorporating Republican ideas and earning deserved support from Republican leaders such as former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.” Frist tepidly endorsed the plan last week, as did Bush-administration HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson on Monday.

Nothing like a Washington feud for some good old-fashioned he said-she said: Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz ridiculed the GOP as "80 percent male, 100 percent white" in response to the National Republican Congressional Committee's spokesman urging Gen. Stanley McChrystal to put House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "in her place." The NRCC's sneering statement was in response to Pelosi's comment on Charlie Rose—which echoed similar ones from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and National Security Adviser Jim Jones—that the Afghanistan commander should "go up the line of command" when pushing for his military strategy in that country, instead of, say, giving speeches in London. The NRCC's statement mocked the Speaker as "General Pelosi," and Rep. Wasserman Schultz interpreted the tone as sexist, saying of the Republican Party: "It's evidence they long for the days when a woman's place was in the kitchen. Now a woman is third in line for the presidency... But it's not surprising, coming from a party that's 80 percent male and 100 percent white."

Congress isn’t the only place inhospitable to Tom DeLay these days: The disgraced former House Majority Leader has dropped out of Dancing With the Stars due to escalating medical problems. On Monday night, DeLay declared himself "insane or stupid" as he performed the samba with stress fractures in both feet, and on Tuesday he paid the price: Saved from elimination and awarded an attractive Texas Two-Step dance routine, DeLay was forced to admit he could go no further. "If you can't practice, you make a fool of yourself out here," DeLay said, noting "I don't want to do that to Cheryl," his dance partner. Tom and Cheryl will perform their Texas Two-Step at the season finale, once DeLay has had time to heal his damaged heels.

The Cheney clan has had a busy year: As the former veep's first daughter, Elizabeth, works on her new political career, second daughter Mary is expecting her second child, reports blog True/Slant. Mary confirmed that she and long-term partner Heather Poe will welcome a second child to their family in mid- to late-November. Their first child, son Samuel David Cheney, drew political controversy from both the left and right: While Democrats like John Edwards have long questioned how Dick Cheney could oppose gay marriage in light of his daughter's longstanding gay relationship and family, conservative Focus of the Family founder James Dobson marked Mary's first pregnancy with an opinion column for Time magazine entitled "Two Mommies Is One Too Many." True/Slant columnist Kate Klonick notes that Liz Cheney's defense last summer of the "birther" movement has thrown the Cheney family into the far-right's eye: "It's anyone's guess how Mary's burgeoning alternative family and Liz's burgeoning conservative political career will reconcile themselves in the coming years."

The Detroit Tigers' protracted downward spiral didn't wind up until the bottom of the 12th inning on Tuesday night, when the Minnesota Twins' Alexi Casilla hit a one-out single, allowing Carlos Gomez to score from second base. The tiebreaker sends the Tigers into baseball's hall of shame—they're the first team in baseball history to blow a three-game lead with four games left—and the Twins to Yankee Stadium, where they'll play Game 1 of the American League playoffs on Wednesday.

The hypotheticals were both amusing and disturbing at the Supreme Court’s Tuesday hearing on the constitutionality of a ban on videos that depict animal cruelty. The law, created in response to "crush" videos—a fetish genre featuring barefoot or stiletto-clad women crushing small animals—forbids any recording "in which a living animal is intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded, or killed." In a surprise twist, conservative Justices Scalia and Alito seemed to take opposing positions: Scalia pointed to the interests of free speech, asking "What if I am an aficionado of bullfights and I think, contrary to the animal-cruelty people, that they ennoble both beast and man?" Alito, on the other hand, explored the limits of government leniency in the face of barbarism: Imagining if human sacrifice were legal somewhere abroad, Alito commented, "People here would probably love to see it. Live, pay per view, you know, on the Human Sacrifice Channel." The court's case deals with the only time the 1999 "crush" ban has been successfully prosecuted: the conviction of Virginian Robert Stevens' for compiling and selling not "crush" movies, but ones depicting dogfights.

Michelle Obama's fashion taste has been celebrated far and wide—but what about her taste in art? The White House has released a list of 45 works of art that Michelle chose (with a little help from a team of curators) to adorn the White House's walls, all of them on loan from American art museums. Michelle's famous love of bright colors will be present in three paintings from Bauhaus master Josef Albers' Homage to the Square series, which will hang in the private residence. The private residence will also feature 11 paintings by George Catlin—whose 19th-century career focused on portraits of Native Americans—as well as Sam Francis, Winslow Homer, Jasper Johns, and Edgar Degas (ballerinas for Sasha and Malia?). The West Wing's selection contains several historic artifacts—from Morse's Telegraph Register patent model to an Iroquois jar—as well as a portrait of Harry Truman, while the East Wing has laid claim to a single abstract work by African-American female painter Alma Thomas.

As the critics, bookies, and readers all predicted, this year’s winner was the heavily favored Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, the author of 12 acclaimed books. The novel—already a hit in the U.K., and scheduled for U.S. release next week—is the story of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's trusted and vilified minister, and his improbable rise and fall from power. But will the literary set's version of The Tudors be as big a hit Stateside? The New York Times' Janet Maslin notes, "This witty, densely populated book may experience a rough passage when it crosses the Atlantic."

She may have been his inspiration, but Beyoncé has been the only person who wouldn’t talk about Kanye West’s VMA meltdown—until now. In an interview with O: The Oprah Magazine editor Gayle King, the singer finally commented on the incident. It seems that West had been a “Single Ladies” superfan all along: “He told me before, when they said the nominees, he's like, 'You have this award,'" Beyoncé said. “When he walked on the stage, I was like, 'No, no, no!' and then he spoke, and I was like, 'Oh, no, no, no!'” In the aftermath of the VMAs, West canceled his Fame Kills tour with Lady Gaga, and may actually be making good on his vow to take time off to “improve.”

So much for giving peace a chance: A majority of Americans are skeptical of diplomatic efforts to get Iran to ditch its nuclear program and support a military strike should these efforts fail. A Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey found that, while 63 percent support direct negotiations, 64 percent believed they would fail, and 61 percent support military action. Last week, Iran agreed to enter into discussions with the U.S. and other U.N. powers regarding the nuclear issue, a move that Barack Obama called a "constructive beginning."

A month before the release of his film about an abused and troubled teenager, Tyler Perry is opening up about his own tough upbringing. Perry, who executive produced Precious (based on the novel Push by Sapphire) with Oprah Winfrey, wrote an open email to his fans disclosing terrible memories of his childhood–an abusive father and sexual molestation at the hands of a neighbor when he was 10. He even feared his own grandmother, who thought his weekly allergy shot was a waste of money. "She came and got me out of the living room leaving my Matchbox cars on the floor. She said she was going to kill these germs on me once and for all. She gave me a bath in ammonia,” he recalled. Since then, 38-year-old Perry has gone on to produce Tyler Perry’s House of Payne on TV and a slew of films that have banked over $400 million at the box office. “Forgiveness has been my weapon of choice,” he closed. “It has helped to free me.”

William Black was a regulator during the savings and loan crisis in the late 1980s, and now he’s back as a tough critic of the Obama administration in Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story. Black tells Newsweek that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is a “disaster” who “has been wrong about everything in his career.” The Obama administration, as a whole, is hardly better: “Nothing they're trying for would have prevented the current crisis had it been in place, and it's very unlikely that it will prevent crisis in the future.” As a point of reference, Black points out that, during the S&L crisis, regulators convicted more than 1,000 people. Today, there have been zero convictions. At the height of the S&L worries, there were 1,000 FBI agents on the case. In late 2006, there were only 150 FBI agents working on mortgage fraud.

It depends on what the meaning of the word “ethics” is. Senator John Ensign of Nevada, who may have broken ethics rules when he directed business toward his former mistress’s lobbyist husband, has denied doing anything wrong to CNN. “I think it's pretty clear,” he said. “I said in the past I recommended him for jobs, just like I recommended a lot of people. But we absolutely did nothing except for comply exactly with what the ethics laws and the ethics rules of the Senate state. We were very careful." When reporter Dana Bash asked him if he has considered resigning, Ensign said, "I am focused on doing my work. I'm gonna continue to focus on doing my work.”

Jon Gosselin may have allegedly cleared $230,000 out of the joint bank account he shares with estranged wife Kate, but that’s the least of the couple’s money troubles. The pair apparently have a hefty $720,000 mortgage to pay on their $1.12 million house, according to TMZ. Meanwhile, the first house they lived in at the beginning of the Jon and Kate Plus Eight series has been idling on the market for months. Those worried about the eight kids at the center of this mess can find relief in the fact that the couple have kept their hands off of a trust fund they established for their children that’s “well into the six figures.” Good news for the little ones; bad news for Jon and his expanding Ed Hardy wardrobe.

Fresno, CA came in last place in the Daily Beast's recent survey ranking the intelligence of the 55 largest cities in America. Now, Fresno's mayor has come to its defense. "This is a flawed study that uses indicators that don't accurately measure the intelligence and capability of the people in our city. Nevertheless, Fresno must always stay focused on improving the community's educational attainment. It's the single biggest determinant of any city's success,” said Mayor Ashley Swearengin. "I think the criteria they used to make, quote, dumb people is absolutely ridiculous," Fresno resident Carol Williams told local Fox affiliate KMPH (Learn the Beast’s methodology here). "Some people are pretty lazy, they don't care about the politics," added another resident.

Could Letterman's show get any more awkward? After last week's televised acknowledgement of having sexual relations with staff members, David Letterman apologized to his wife and staff during the taping of Monday night's episode. “I’m terribly sorry I put the staff in that position,” Letterman said, referring to the media attention garnered by his on-air admission. After thanking the staff for “once again putting up with something stupid I’ve gotten myself involved in,” the married host turned his attention to his wife, saying that she’d “been horribly hurt by [his] behavior” and that he “had [his] work cut out for him.” He closed the rambling interlude with a tongue-in-cheek item: "I'd like to apologize to the former Governor of Alaska."

Though he’s only 23, Twilight star and fan favorite Robert Pattinson’s life is apparently interesting enough to be the subject of a feature-length documentary. U.K. distributor Revolver has acquired the rights to Robsessed, a film about Twilight and Pattinson, according to ScreenDaily. The movie will examine “the teenage phenomenon known as being Rob-sessed” while also delving into Pattinson’s meteoric rise to fame. It is slated to be released on DVD Stateside in November, which means Twilight fans will get a double serving of Pattinson as New Moon hits theaters on Nov. 20. And in yet another obvious attempt to cash in, a box set containing both the DVD and a 2006 drama starring Pattinson called Haunted Airmen will also be available for purchase.

Roman Polanski’s first appeal for bail was rejected by the Swiss Justice Ministry on Tuesday morning due to fears he’s a flight risk. Polanski was arrested in Switzerland on September 26 for fleeing the U.S. after being found guilty of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl back in 1977. The director of film classics such as Chinatown and Rosemary’s Baby was initially indicted on six felony charges including rape, sodomy, and child molestation. There has been an international warrant for his arrest since 2005. The 76-year-old filmmaker will remain in jail, probably for months, reports the Associated Press, while lawyers continue to appeal higher up Swiss courts and the U.S. files for extradition. The Federal Criminal Court in Switzerland said it will make a ruling within weeks.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics to Charles Kao, Willard Boyle, and George Smith—all of whom have American citizenship. (Kao and Boyle also hold British and Canadian citizenship, respectively.) Their work involves, according to the Associated Press, “the transmission of light in fiber optics and inventing an imaging semiconductor circuit.”

What’s Army lingo for “shut yer traps”? Defense Secretary Robert Gates used a speech on Monday to caution military and civilian leaders against publicly airing their advice for President Obama. "In this process, it is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations—civilians and military alike—provide our best advice to the president candidly but privately," he said at the annual meeting of Association of the U.S. Army. The remarks came four days after Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, used a speech in London to attack any plans to draw down troops in the country.

We’ve got Brangelina. We’ve got TomKat. And now we’ve got … CruzDem? Actors Penelope Cruz, 35 and Javier Bardem, 40, are secretly engaged, a source tells Us. The couple, which met while filming the movie Jamon, Jamon in 1992, “tried to keep it very private and quiet," according to the Us source. The New York Daily News reports that the couple may have decided to get married to make Cruz’s Catholic parents feel better in light of pregnancy rumors. Cruz, who has had longstanding relationships with some of Hollywood’s hottest leading men that have always ended amicably, has said she’s not sure marriage is in the cards for her. "I don't know if I believe in marriage," she told Psychology Today in August. "I believe in family, love and children. … When I [have children], I want to do it really well. I want it to be my best project in life."

Can the blogsophere be regulated? The Federal Trade Commission will find out after its new disclosure guidelines go online on December 1. According to the FTC’s new rules, online writers will be required to indicate when they are endorsing a product (or a celebrity) for compensation. The new guidelines are the first significant change to FTC rules involving advertising in over 30 years. Breaking the rules could result in up to $11,000 in fines per violation, but initially the FTC will focus on, “education, not enforcement.”

A report in The Independent—and picked up by the Drudge Report—that oil-producing countries are considering dropping dollar-based pricing sent gold prices soaring, despite denials from top officials. Gold, considered a safe investment as confidence in the dollar slips, hit a record $1,038 per ounce by midday Tuesday; silver and copper prices also jumped. Robert Risk reported in The Independent that Gulf states are plotting with China, Russia, Japan, and France to abandon the dollar-peg for oil trades, preferring instead the Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, euro, gold, and a new unified currency for the Gulf. At an IMF meeting, officials from Saudi Arabia and Russia denied the report.

Sonia Sotomayor asked 36 questions in her first hour as a Supreme Court justice—more than her colleagues, the Los Angeles Times reports. While both rookie and veteran justices have sat in silence for days—or even years (Clarence Thomas has not asked a question in three years)—Sotomayor set a precedent for herself by going head to head with another fast-talking justice from New York: Antonin Scalia. The icing on the cake? Although both justices are die-hard Yankees fan, Sotomayor was invited to throw the opening pitch in a recent Yankees game. Scalia has never been asked.

It’s not quite a second stimulus, but is more relief on the way? The New York Times reports that the Obama administration is discussing extending several safety-net programs and creating tax incentives in order to help jumpstart hiring. In his radio address on Saturday, Obama said he would “explore additional options to promote job creation.” That could mean giving employers a $3,000 tax credit for each new hire. Meanwhile, on the safety-net side, Democrats are considering extending extra unemployment assistance and health benefits through 2010 and keeping the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers.

Expect to hear a lot of jokes about “green apples” over the next few days. Joining  Nike, Exelon and PG&E, Apple left the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Monday over the group’s conservative attitude toward climate change and opposition to the EPA’s attempts to reduce greenhouse gases. Catherine A. Novelli, the company’s vice president of world-wide government affairs, wrote that Apple “supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions” and described the Chamber’s stance as “frustrating.” The business group recently called for a “21st-century Scopes trial” to determine the truthfulness of climate change.

As if health care, green energy, and a (failed) Olympic bid weren't enough: The Obama administration plans to unveil a 35-page report pushing for sweeping changes to America's immigration detention system on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reports. Under George W. Bush, immigration-detention expanded sharply due to Dubya's tough stance on illegal immigrants; Obama's team will tackle a range of problems that have cropped up with the rising numbers of immigrant detainees, including medical care and phone access. The White House plans to seek private-sector solutions, while Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano plans to unveil a new classification system that will keep criminal and non-criminal detainees separate and will screen for medical and mental problems among the detainee population. America's immigration detainee system includes 32,000 beds at 350 local jails, prisons, and private facilities; 400,000 people cycle through the system each year.

The tyrannosaurid family just keeps growing. Following the surprise discovery last month of a human-sized Tyrannosaurus ancestor, paleontologists have unearthed yet another T. rex cousin from the Gobi desert. Previously unknown to scientists, Alioramus altai had eight horns, a long snout, and a sleek physique: "Instead of [its] big bad boy... relatives, this one is more like a ballerina," said American Museum of Natural History’s Stephen Brusatte. Alioramus had two horns above each eye and two extended downwards from each cheek—a first for carnivorous dinosaurs. The cheek horns likely served as sexual ornamentation for attracting mates, much like a peacock's feathers. National Geographic reports that alioramus had an "unusually airy skeleton" and "thinner, steak knife-like teeth," suggesting a more diverse picture of the tyrannosaurids than scientists had previously imagined.

Ohio postponed two executions on Monday—with one delay issued by Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and another by a federal appeals court—as a result of the failed execution of inmate Romell Broom on Sept 15. Broom, who was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a teenage girl in 1984, waited two hours while prison technicians unsuccessfully attempted to inject him with lethal intravenous drugs. Broom is the third Ohio inmate with a “troubled execution” since 2006, reports The New York Times. The postponed executions are for Lawrence R. Reynolds, 43, who was convicted for murdering a woman in 1994, and Darryl Durr, who was convicted for the kidnap, rape and murder of a 16-year old girl in 1988; their executions have been rescheduled for the spring of 2010 so that changes to the lethal injection procedure can be made and backup procedures established. A hearing to determine Broom’s fate will be held on Nov. 30.

Let them eat stock: Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s pay czar, is preparing to slash salaries at the seven firms he oversees, according to The Wall Street Journal. In mid-October, he is expected to shift a chunk of annual salary to stock that will not be accessible to employees for several years. The seven affected companies are AIG, Bank of America, Citigroup, General Motors, Chrysler, Chrysler Financial, and GMAC Financial Services. The restrictions could complicate efforts by some of the companies to attract new executives—for example, Bank of America, whose CEO, Ken Lewis, recently resigned.