• Christian Weller, economist with the Center for American Progress, calls in at 7:05am Pacific to update us on jobs, the economy, and holiday retail sales.

• Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) calls in at 8:05am Pacific to defend The Bronx, and to talk about health care reform and Afghanistan.

• Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) calls in at 8:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform, Afghanistan, and the cops that were killed in his district.

• Unflinching on a critical first test, Senate Dems closed ranks yesterday behind $460 billion in politically risky Medicare cuts at the heart of health care reform legislation, thwarting a GOP attempt to doom President Obama’s sweeping overhaul. The Senate also backed a guarantee for all insured women age 40 and older to receive mammograms with no out-of-pocket costs.

• President Obama promised at a White House jobs forum yesterday to take “every responsible step to accelerate job creation,” including some ideas he said could be put into action quickly. He cited an expanded program to make more U.S. homes energy efficient as an example.

• The White House as authorized an expansion of the CIA’s drone program in Pakistan’s tribal areas, paralleling President Obama’s decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

• Lorie Van Auken, 9/11 Widow and one of the “Jersey Girls,” calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about the ongoing debate about closing Gitmo and moving the trials to New York.

• John Fugelsang joins us from the NYC Bureau at 8:05am Eastern for another edition of “Fridays With Fugelsang.”

• Digging in for a long struggle, GOP senators and governors assailed the Dems’ newly minted health care legislation yesterday as a collection of tax increases, Medicare cuts, and heavy new burdens for deficit-ridden states. Sen. Reid has scheduled an initial test vote for Saturday evening and full debate is expected to begin after Thanksgiving.

• Defense Secretary Robert Gates is putting former U.S. Army Secretary Togo West and former Navy chief Vernon Clark in charge of a broad Pentagon review of the circumstances surrounding the Fort Hood shootings. The 45 day review will look into gaps in how the military identifies service members who might be a threat to others.

• “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” an iconic broadcast that grew over two decades into a daytime television powerhouse and the foundation of a media empire, will end its run in 2011 after 25 seasons on the air. Winfrey plans to announce the final date for her show during a live broadcast today.

• Christian Weller, economist with The Center for American Progress, calls in at 7:05am Pacific to give us an update on the economy.

• John Fugelsang joins us in studio at 8:05am Pacific for “Fridays With Fugelsang.”

• Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) calls in at 8:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform, the economy, and texting while driving.

• Military officials are starting today to piece together what may have pushed an Army psychiatrist trained to help soldiers in distress to turn on his comrades in a shooting rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 30 at Ft. Hood, Texas. The suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is on a ventilator and unconscious in a hospital after being shot four times by military police.

• Chanting “Kill the bill,” thousands of conservatives rallied at the Capitol yesterday against health care reform. “This bill is the greatest threat to freedom that I have ever seen,” House GOP leader John Boehner told the crowd.

• A drop in unemployment claims gave investors new reason to be optimistic about the economy and sent the Dow jumping by over 200 points to close above 10,000 yesterday.

• Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) calls in at 7:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform and the economy.

• Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA) calls in at 8:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform and the economy.

• Former Vice President Dick Cheney last night accused the White House of “dithering” over the strategy for the war in Afghanistan and urged President Obama to “do what it takes to win.” Cheney said that signals of indecision out of DC “hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries.”

• President Obama unveiled plans yesterday to refocus spending of the government’s $700 billion financial bailout away from Wall Street’s big financial institutions and toward small businesses. He announced initiatives that would make it easier for smaller community banks to provide credit to small businesses.

• Dems launched a drive at both ends of the Capitol yesterday to strip the insurance industry of its decades-old exemption from federal antitrust laws. The change would put an end to “price-fixing, bid-rigging, and market allocation in the health and medical malpractice” insurance areas.

• Christian Weller, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, calls in at 7:05am Pacific to talk about the economy and housing crisis.

• Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about the health care crisis and the rebuke of Rep. Joe Wilson.

• Comedian Hal Sparks joins us in studio at 8:05am Pacific to talk about all things politics and pop culture.

• Former President Jimmy Carter said yesterday that Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst to President Obama during a speech to Congress last week was an act “based on racism” and rooted in fears of a black president.

• The House formally rebuked Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) yesterday for shouting “You lie!” at President Obama during last week’s nationally televised speech. Lawmakers thought Wilson had violated basic rules of decorum and civility in his outburst.

• ABC News says it was wrong for its employees to Tweet that President Obama had called Kanye West a “jackass” for the rapper’s treatment of country singer Taylor Swift. ABC said some of its employees overheard a conversation between the president and CNBC and didn’t realize the conversation was off the record.

• Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners, calls in at 7:05am Pacific to talk about health care reform, and the national call-in with President Obama today.

• Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• Comedian Hal Sparks joins us in studio at 8:05am Pacific to talk about all things politics and pop culture.

• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the lead GOP senator in bipartisan health care negotiations, said yesterday that he urged President Obama this month to make clear he would accept a bill without a government-funded public insurance option. A White House spokesman yesterday expressed doubt that Grassley’s plea to Obama had any impact on weekend comments by Kathleen Sebelius that a public option is “not an essential element” of health care reform.

• Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday that information her husband brought back from North Korea has been “extremely helpful” by providing a window into what’s happening in the reclusive country.

• Hurricane Bill, the first hurricane of the 2009 Atlantic season, strengthened into a Category 3 storm yesterday with top winds near 125mph. It looks likely to miss the U.S. East Coast.

• Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-PA) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform.

• At a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire yesterday, President Obama complained about opposition scare tactics against a proposed health care overhaul, but said failing to fix the problems in the current system would be the scariest outcome of all.

• A hostile crowd shouted questions and made angry statements yesterday at a town hall meeting on health care in Pennsylvania led by Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA). At one point, Specter shouted into his microphone that demonstrators disrupting the proceedings would be thrown out.

• Under criticism for appearing extravagant, the House of Representatives is dropping a plan to make the Pentagon buy more civilian-style jets than it requested. The jets would have been used to transport D.C. officials, including members of Congress.

• Former White House adviser Karl Rove was deeply involved in the firing of a U.S. attorney in New Mexico, according to White House e-mails and transcripts of closed-door testimony released yesterday.

• Ian Millhiser, Legal Policy Analyst for the Center for American Progress, calls in at 6:30am Pacific to talk about the Sotomayor confirmation hearings.

• Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) calls in at 7:30am Pacific to talk about health care reform and the Sotomayor hearings.

• U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said yesterday that her hotly disputed judicial philosophy is, in fact, quite simple: Remain faithful to the law. In her first day of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sotomayor sat impassively as senators detailed a deep divide between Dems and GOP on whether she is the best choice to fill the vacancy left by Justice David Souter’s retirement.

• Congressional demands for an investigation grew Monday over new disclosures that a secret CIA program to capture or kill Al Qaida leaders was concealed from Congress for 8 years, perhaps at the behest of former Vice President Dick Cheney. The program was cancelled last month by CIA Director Leon Panetta shortly after he himself first learned of it.

• President Obama yesterday pressed Democratic leaders to pass health care reform legislation in both houses of Congress before August and expressed confidence about the ultimate outcome for his top domestic priority. “Don’t bet against us. We are going to make this thing happen,” the president proclaimed.

For those of you in Portland, OR who are wondering where The Stephanie Miller Show went, we have good news! You can now hear us LIVE every weekday from 6am to 9am Pacific on 970AM, The Talker!

• Eric Boehlert, Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, calls in at 6:30am Pacific to talk about his recent article, “Glenn Beck and the Rise of Fox News’ Militia Media.”

• Lawrence Korb, Senior Fellow at The Center for American Progress and former Assistant Secretary of Defense, calls in at 7:05am Pacific to discuss Obama’s foreign policy and how it relates to Iran.

• Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) calls in at 8:05am Pacific to talk about her recent trip to Cuba to meet with Fidel and Raul Castro.

• A U.S. warship arrived before dawn today near a 28-foot lifeboat holding four pirates and the kidnapped captain of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship. Also nearby was the Maersk Alabama – which had been seized early yesterday off the Horn of Africa. All 20 of its remaining crew members are in good physical shape.

• Fresh off a trip to Cuba that included a visit with both Fidel and Raul Castro, members of the Congressional Black Caucus are lobbying President Obama to lift the nation’s longstanding Cuba embargo, and open up lines of communication with the Castros.

• Vice President Joe Biden marked the return of the 18th Airborne Corps from Iraq at Fort Bragg, NC yesterday and told they troops that they left behind a country where “violence is being replaced by progress.”

• President Obama returned to Washington, D.C. in the early hours of yesterday morning, bringing his lengthy debut on the world stage – including his first stop in a war zone as commander in chief – to a close. Aides say he brought home achievements both large and small, evidence of the benefits of the extended travel.