MR. GALT’S CORNER OFFICE IS NOW AVAILABLE: Top employees leave financial firms ahead of pay cuts. “Many executives were driven away by the uncertainty of working for companies closely overseen by Washington, opting instead for firms not under the microscope, including competitors that have already returned the bailout funds to the government, according to executives and supervisors at the companies.”

UPDATE: David Harsanyi: Rise of the Mob Economy.

COMING NEXT WEEK: SUPPORT THE TROOPS WITH PROJECT VALOUR-IT.

SINGULARITY UPDATE: Shadows of What May Be.

BUILDING A BRAIN inside a supercomputer.

COURY TURCZYN: The Complete James Agee film oeuvre.

RASMUSSEN: 73% of GOP Voters Say GOP Leaders Have Lost Touch With Base.

Bill Whittle, Dana Loesch, and I talked about this problem the other day.

UPDATE: GOP Favorable Rating Lowest in a Decade. And yet John McCain, their last candidate for President, was a media-loved moderate.

PETER WEHNER: Obama’s Enemies List. “We have seen from this White House Nixonian tendencies and, it would appear, a burning anger and resentment toward its critics. . . The Obama White House is showing a fondness for intimidation tactics that might work well in the wards of Chicago but that don’t have a place in the most important and revered political institution in America. To see these impulses manifest themselves so early in Obama’s presidency, and given all that he has said to the contrary, is rather startling. The danger is that as the pressures mount and the battles accrue and the political heat intensifies, these impulses will grow stronger, the constraints on them will grow weaker, and the voices of caution and reason will continue to be ignored. If that should come to pass — if what we are seeing now is only a preview of coming attractions — then the Obama administration, and this nation, will pay a very high price.”

IN THE MAIL: NIMBY Wars: The Politics of Land Use.

HMM: Amazon Kills U.S. Kindle, Drops International Price.

CHRIS DODD UPDATE: Dodd: It’s time to “move on” from talk of VIP loan. I’m sure he feels that way . . .

ARMS CONTROL: Russia Violating Treaty, Developing Missile.

MARINES LEAD THE WAY.

RISING: Share of Unemployed Described as “Permanent” Job Loss.

NOT PARTICIPATING IN THE RECESSION: “Amazon.com reported better-than-expected third quarter profit on Thursday and stronger sales outlook, sending shares up in afternoon trading.”

So I had to replace a water filter this week. Lowes and Home Depot were no help — Lowe’s said it could get me one in two weeks for a hundred bucks, Home Depot just looked confused. The big plumbing-supply wholesaler in town gave me a similar timeline. Went to Amazon, ordered two for fifty bucks with overnight delivery. Don’t know why I even wasted my time with the other folks.

ANN ALTHOUSE: “Those ‘progressive’ cities white people like? They’re really white.”

WAPO ON THE VIRGINIA RACE: Top Democrats seek to shield Obama in case of election loss.

GREG BEATO: How we will survive without newspapers.

BAILOUT EXECUTIVE PAY CUTS a sham?

POLITICO: White House Attacks Worry Moderate Democrats.

SOUPY SALES HAS DIED. Also Vic Mizzy, who composed the Addams Family theme song.

BEN BERNANKE left holding the bag? “Crossroads Mall is a good example of how the Fed can (and will) be left holding the bag for hundreds of commercial property investments that it acquired via last year’s massive bank bailouts. You can bet that a significant percentage of these properties are either blighted, redundant (as will be the case in areas like Phoenix and Vegas and Miami, where commercial property growth far outpaced the local economy, even during the boom years) or poor cash flow producers. To put it another way, the Fed ultimately wound up with them because private investors took a look and said ‘no thanks.'”

Related: FDIC Failed to Limit Commercial Real-Estate Loans, Reports Show. “The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. failed to enforce its own guidelines to rein in excessive commercial real estate lending by at least 20 banks that later collapsed, reports by the agency’s watchdog show.”

Remember, they’re telling us that more of the same will keep this from happening again . . . .

WHERE FORECLOSURES CLUSTER: An interesting interactive map from AP.

MICHAEL SILENCE: “If Fox News was running for office, it would have to list President Obama as an in-kind contributor.”

C-SPAN OUT, closed doors in?

BRIAN DOHERTY: A victory for rent control in New York. “…and a defeat for many people who are going to want to be able to find an affordable apartment in New York in the future.”