It's Lou Dobbs' birthday today! CNN's resident immigrant-basher is 63. (If you're interested in hiring a mariachi band to show up at CNN's offices and sing for him, go here.) Dobbs isn't the only cable news personality who will be blowing out candles today. Hannity & Colmes' Alan Colmes is 58. Others celebrating: Brooklyn Academy of Music President Karen Brooks Hopkins is turning 57. My Big Fat Greek Wedding's Nia Vardalos turns 46. Actor Kevin Sorbo is 50. And the WWE's Stephanie McMahon, better known as the daughter of Vince McMahon, turns 32.

The Observer has a roundup of New York real estate titans and which political candidates they've been busy handing over cash to in recent weeks. Just in case you were thinking that Donald Trump's endorsement of John McCain last week was merely another opportunity for Donald to worm his way into the spotlight, think again: "The whole adult family—Donald Sr., Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric—has been generous to McCain, giving well over $50,000 to the campaign since May and another $29,000 to the Republican National Committee." [NYO]

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♦ Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke's visit to Washington did little to reassure lawmakers, who were almost uniformly critical of the government's proposed $700 billion bailout. [NYT, WSJ, WSJ]
♦ By the way, how much is $700 billion? Slate runs the numbers. [Slate]
♦ The FBI is now involved in the meltdown. The agency has opened preliminary investigations into possible fraud at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG. [NYT, WSJ]
♦ Warren Buffett's $5 billion investment in Goldman is viewed as a strong sign of confidence. And Goldman's stock is way up, not surprisingly. [NYT]
♦ Three top Lehman execs including Dick Fuld sold shares after Lehman filed for bankruptcy, with Fuld selling 3.17 million shares at an average of 21 cents a share. [WSJ]

♦ The first painting of Kate Moss ever to be sold at auction—"a self-portrait in lipstick marked with her own lip prints and stains of her former boyfriend Pete Doherty's blood"—is expected to go for between £30,000 and £40,000 in London on Saturday. Meanwhile the subject of an upcoming show at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris will be "the Kate Moss myth" in advertising. [Telegraph, WWD]
♦ Video of the new Prada collection (and models falling on the runway) from the show in Milan earlier this evening. [NYT]

Warren Buffett, the world's richest man and the founder of Berkshire Hathaway, is planning to invest $5 billion in Goldman Sachs. That sound you just heard? That's Lloyd Blankfein exhaling. [NYT, WSJ]

♦ A look at the restaurants inside JetBlue's new terminal at JFK. [Eater]
♦ Masaharu Morimoto explains why why Wagyu beef is so special. [GS]
♦ Photos of Archipelago, the new Japanese-French restaurant by Hisanobu scheduled to open on Monday. [GS]
♦ Don't get too excited about a Sam Talbot restaurant in Chelsea just yet. [Eater]
♦ A sneak peak at the Trader Joe's in Brooklyn. [Urbanite]
♦ Hearst and MSN launched new food site today called Delish.com. [PRN]
♦ Martha Stewart's staff tasted the 14 best hot dogs they could get their hands on. Nine of them hailed from New York. [Martha Stewart]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke in front of the U.N. General Assembly today. (We didn't catch the speech but apparently he said something about the "the American empire being near collapse," which, given the events of the past week, sounds about right.) Then President Bush took to the podium and Mahmoud responded by, in the words of one reporter, "jabbing his thumb downward."

Is your dry cleaning bill looking a little steep these days now that you're out of a job? An Australian wool company is here to help: They've created a business suit that can be washed in the shower, no iron necessary. Apparently it's huge in Japan! [Reuters]

A new man will be in charge at the Guggenheim beginning on November 4th. The board of the museum officially tapped Richard Armstrong, who recently headed up the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, as its new director. The Kansas City native and modern architecture fan will take over for the controversial, motorcycle-ridin' Thomas Krens. He also happens to be 6'5, in case you were wondering. [NYT]

After many months of denials, Lindsay Lohan has finally confirmed her relationship with Samantha Ronson. Calling into Loveline last night, Lindsay said the pair has been dating for "A long, a very long time." Congrats! But we're guessing the fact she's in a committed relationship still won't help her get into the Dakota. [Defamer]

♦ Not only is Rachel Maddow more popular than Keith Olbermann, she's now ahead of CNN's Larry King, too. [HuffPo]
♦ Sunday night's Emmy Awards generated the lowest ratings in history. [THR]
♦ MTV missed out on its chance to buy MySpace, but they have no plans to give up on their sixth-tier social network, Flux. [AdAge]
♦ Life magazine is back. For the third time. Time Inc. and Getty Images will use life.com to offer up "free, downloadable photos from world-renowned photographers." [NYP]
♦ Jeffrey Toobin, who says he "owes his TV career to [O.J.] Simpson," has no interest in covering him again, thank you very much. [TV Newser]
♦ Starbucks and ad agency Wieden & Kennedy are parting ways. [AdAge]
♦ Kanye West is teaming up with Comedy Central on a new series described as "hip-hop meets the Muppets." [THR]
♦ The Times recaps the service held on Monday night in memory of Clay Felker, the founding editor of New York magazine who died on July 1. [NYT]

Just in case your invite got lost in the mail, photos from the Metropolitan Opera's opening night gala last night. [Paper]

Another day, another dubious Forbes list that you can only read if you click through a neverending slideshow. Up today: The mag's list of the best-paid music stars. The winners: The Police, who took home $115 million last year, followed by Beyonce, Toby Keith, Justin Timberlake, and Madonna. [Forbes]

Dick Fuld has been missing in action for nearly a week now. The man who presided over Lehman Brothers as it plunged into bankruptcy, Fuld hasn't uttered more than a few words to the press since the firm went belly up last week. He hasn't made an appearance in the office (or has he?), although as we noted last week, his secretary is answering the phone outside his spacious 31st floor office at Lehman (Barclays!) headquarters at 745 Seventh Avenue. But what about the big man himself? We guessed he was holed up at his compound in Greenwich. But it turns out he's not at home either! Click on the video above and it will also become clear that despite the millions he's pocketed in recent years, Dick's yet to invest in a decent answering machine.

The most popular wine by the glass at San Francisco's Yield Wine Bar up until a few weeks ago? Palin Syrah, a certified organic wine from Chile with hints of white pepper and madrone. Not surprisingly—this is San Francisco we're talking about!—sales have plummeted since Sarah Palin was added to the Republican ticket. [Serious Eats]

One of the biggest polished gems in history has been unearthed from a diamond mine in Lesotho, Southern Africa. The "nearly flawless" 478-carat white diamond will be worth many millions, none of which will presumably go to the miners who risked life and limb to get it. Still, knowing that it'll make the perfect ring for the next time Jennifer Lopez gets engaged is no doubt reward enough. [Independent]

We thought this might have been a Photoshop prank when we first saw it, but the Post now confirms it: Barclays, the British bank that announced it was purchasing a bankrupt Lehman Brothers last week, changed the neon sign outside Lehman's headquarters at 745 Seventh Avenue this morning. Like you wouldn't do the same thing if a $1.5 billion office building landed in your lap for pennies on the dollar! [NYP]

Are you a financial executive, partly responsible for the economic meltdown and personally poorer as a result? Well, Slate wants to know why you haven't killed yourself already! The Great Crash of 1929 prompted lots of suicides, including four newsworthy leaps from buildings; the '87 stock market crash, while lacking any exciting window plunges, can at least boast of a murder-suicide, when an investor killed a Merrill Lynch exec and then himself.

The Daily News sent a Sarah Palin look-alike to hit the streets (with a camera crew right behind her, naturally). CNN's Jeanne Moos spent yesterday roaming around town with Barack Obama and John McCain masks. Did they move Halloween up a month or something? [Gawker, Mollygood]