MARGARET CARLSON: Forget Petraeus: The Problem Is The FBI. “What’s criminal here is that the agency kept investigating even after realizing what it had on its hands was a reckless affair — and aren’t they all? — not a threat to national security. We’re not Saudi Arabia. We don’t stone adulterers. The punishment suffered privately is more than enough.” Well, an affair exposes you to blackmail from inside and outside the government. But then, that’s because they’re punished.

UPDATE: Obama defends FBI on Petraeus.

AN AMERICAN OIL FIND THAT holds more oil than all of OPEC.

HAMAS COMMANDER KILLED as Israel launches major offensive into the Gaza strip.

WHILE PEOPLE ON STATEN ISLAND & CONEY ISLAND FROZE AND STARVED: In Sandy response, some Red Cross, FEMA workers stayed in plush NYC hotel.

Related: Superstorm Sandy: FEMA Reportedly Failing To Find Temporary Housing For Storm Victims. Hey, I’ve got an idea . . . .

Plus: “FEMA’s slow housing response to Superstorm Sandy was reportedly forewarned in a Congressional investigation following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.”

KATRINA ON THE HUDSON: After Sandy: The Long Road Ahead: Some still without power after two weeks in NY and NJ.

SARAH HOYT: Stop Yer Whinin’ And Get To Work. “We are a week past the election. They won by less than one percent. I’m sick and tired of people (few in these comments) saying it’s all gone.”

DESPITE OUR OIL BOOM, Why The U.S. Won’t Join OPEC.

WHERE’S HILLARY? Iranian Blogger Dies in Prison, Likely Tortured. “Iranian blogger and online dissident Sattar Beheshti has just died in prison, likely after being tortured by Iranian authorities. He is but the latest casualty of Tehran’s crackdown on free press and political activism.”

FALSE DAWN: Another Solar Failure.

MARC AMBINDER: What The Heck, FBI? “Since this part of the story continues to unspool, there’s quite a bit we don’t know about when the FBI agents investigating the case executed orders, subpoenas, or warrants on the parties in question. But operating from our semi-veil of ignorance, it does seem clear that the FBI did the following based on the complaints of one person in Tampa who knew a bunch of generals.”

YEAH, THEY ONLY ENFORCE THAT LAW AGAINST PEOPLE WHO RECORD STUFF LIKE BAD COPS, RUDE CIVIL SERVANTS, AND POLITICIANS SOLICITING BRIBES:

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, at a Monday news conference, didn’t like questions about whether his press office had recorded reporters’ conversations without first seeking their consent.

That’s a big no-no under the Illinois Eavesdropping Act, one of the toughest two-party consent laws in the country.

One woman, Annabel Melongo, spent 20 months in Cook County Jail before a judge finally freed her.

Her crime: She had recorded a couple of phone calls with a court clerk. We’re talking felony, folks.

Emanuel, invoking “Will” Shakespeare, dismissed such bothersome questions about his press office doing the same as “much ado about nothing.”

In Chicago, laws are for the little people. Kinda like the rest of America under the Chicago crowd.

UPDATE: Remember this? Chicago State’s Attorney Lets Bad Cops Slide, Prosecutes Citizens Who Record Them.

Meanwhile, will Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, who prosecuted Tiawanda Moore for recording cops’ efforts to pressure her into dropping a sexual harassment complaint, go after Rahm Emanuel? Not too likely. Tiawanda Moore was one of the “little people.” Rahm is not.

I don’t think Emanuel can claim a due process right to record the police, either — since, you know, he was recording journalists.

AT AMAZON, 25% Off On Select Fisher-Price Toys.

Also, today only: “Alien Anthology” on Blu-ray, $25.00. All four Alien movies.

TOM BLUMER: 3 Windows Into Obama’s Dangerous Second Term.

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Retail Sales in U.S. Decrease for First Time in Four Months. Pay no attention — it’s all because of the Japanese Tsunami! Er, I mean, Sandy! Well, no.

RACISTS: Back in Congress, Nancy Pelosi and Democrats applaud Rep. Allen West’s defeat.

CHANGE: Chinese Yuan hits record high against dollar.

REP. PETER KING: ‘Hard to believe’ Obama didn’t know about Petraeus.

King was asked directly on CNN if he took Obama at his word that he didn’t find out about the affair and investigation until after the election.

“It’s hard to believe,” King said.

Senior Justice Department (DOJ) and FBI officials were aware as early as this summer that then-Director Petraeus was having an extramarital affair and that there were concerns national security might have been compromised.

The White House has said it was notified on Wednesday night that Petraeus might resign over an affair and that Obama was told Thursday morning.

Yeah, it’s not like anyone at Justice would be giving the White House a headsup or anything.

Meanwhile, I still have questions about John Kerry and Sheldon Whitehouse’s involvement.

TAXPROF: President Obama Calls For $1.6 Trillion Tax Increase.

OH, I RATHER DOUBT THAT: Politico: Hard Questions Await Obama At News Conference. At least, if so it’ll be the first time. Interesting to see Politico raise some of these issues so sharply, though their first “hard question” lets Obama off the hook by pretending to believe that he didn’t know anything about Petraeus until after the election, which is quite implausible.

Plus: “Here’s a very simple question for the esteemed press corps: Why did you repeatedly lie that the terror attack in Benghazi was a protest against a video nobody ever saw and why is the maker of that clip in prison?” Yeah, like anyone will ask that question.

HINT: IT’S NOT THE REPUBLICANS. Investor’s Business Daily: Look Who’s Refusing To Compromise To Avoid The Fiscal Cliff.

If President Obama wants to get a deficit deal done to avoid the fiscal cliff, his biggest challenge won’t be Republicans, but his own hard-core left-wing supporters.

Two days after the election, Obama’s favorite economist, Paul Krugman, set the tone for the intransigent left in a column titled: “Let’s not make a deal.” Boiled down, his advice to Obama was this: Don’t give in to any Republican demands, even if doing so would “inflict damage on a still-shaky economy.” After all, Obama would be better positioned to “weather any blowback from economic troubles.”

Krugman’s advice may be disturbingly cold and calculating, but he has plenty of company on the left.

Robert Kuttner, co-founder of the liberal American Prospect magazine, suggests Obama should just sit it out, let all the Bush tax cuts expire, the automatic spending cuts kick in and expect public pressure to force Republicans to give in entirely.

The left-wing Daily Kos called any kind of “grand bargain” between Obama and the GOP a “Great Betrayal.”

And several Democratic lawmakers have suggested that the correct approach would be to let the country go over the fiscal cliff, since that will only strengthen Obama’s position.

Especially since, no matter what, the press apparat will blame the GOP.

KATRINA ON THE HUDSON: Mary Katharine Ham rounds up more on FEMA’s failures.

ROGER SIMON: The Real Housewives of Centcom or Who Should Solve Benghazi? “No wonder those poor suckers were stuck in Benghazi with no backup. Who knows where everybody was?”

I will observe that the cast of characters in this flap is much more attractive than in the standard inside-the-beltway sex scandal.

KATRINA ON THE HUDSON: Andrew Cuomo’s Blame-Deflection Strategy Not Working.

Will Gov. Andrew Cuomo be the first witness to testify under oath in front of his newly appointed Moreland Commission?

And if so, will he be asked: “Governor, why didn’t you live up to your responsibility to fill long-vacant board seats on the Long Island Power Authority immediately after Hurricane Irene demonstrated its incompetence?”

As if. But it sure would be interesting to hear Cuomo thread his way through an answer under pain of perjury.

In recent days, he has come under withering criticism — spurred by an editorial on this page — for what amounts to nonfeasance regarding the LIPA board. Yes, he has been pounding New York’s public utilities black and blue since Sandy receded. Yesterday, he used his executive power to appoint a Moreland Act commission, with broad investigative and subpoena powers, to tighten the screws.

That move certainly serves at least one short-term interest:

It means Cuomo can now deflect all questions — such as why, in 22 months as governor, he never took charge of LIPA — by simply saying: “It’s under investigation.”

Read the whole thing. More background here.

CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER: Sex, Lies, and Benghazi: Focus of probe into Benghazi, Petraeus resignation shifts to Capitol Hill. “Senior intelligence officials and the FBI’s deputy director will face tough questioning Thursday from House and Senate intelligence committee members upset over the Obama administration’s mishandling of the Sept. 11 terror attack in Benghazi. The intelligence and law enforcement leaders also will be grilled about the FBI cyber probe into email messages that led to the resignation Friday of CIA director David Petraeus and this week ensnared the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan in an unfolding scandal.”