WASHINGTON – The Federal Election Commission said Thursday that comedian Stephen Colbert can use his TV show’s resources to boost his political action committee, but he must disclose some major expenses as in-kind contributions from the show’s corporate owners.

Colbert played it straight during his appearance before the commission, letting his attorney do most of the talking while saving his trademark quips for a crowd that gathered outside the commission building after the meeting.

“I don’t accept the status quo,” he told the crowd, brandishing a portable credit card processing machine. “I do accept Visa, MasterCard or American Express.”

Many in the crowd handed Colbert their credit cards or dollar bills as contributions.

Asked what point he was trying to make about corporate America, Colbert did not miss a beat. “None,” he quipped. “I want their money.”

Colbert, who plays a conservative TV pundit on “The Colbert Report,” is forming Colbert Super PAC, a type of political action committee that will allow him to raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions and individuals. The money will be used to support or oppose candidates in the 2012 elections through independent expenditures such as TV ads.

Colbert has not indicated what kinds of candidates he might support.

Gaga’s latest album sales mimic her airport walking

LOS ANGELES – On a trip through London’s Heathrow Airport earlier this week, Lady Gaga tumbled off the impossibly high heels she was wearing and took a nose dive onto the facility’s linoleum floor.

She quickly righted herself and continued on her way; her new album, however, isn’t showing the same resilience.

Five weeks after posting the biggest first-week sales figure for any album in more than six years, “Born This Way” has slipped to No. 8 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart on sales last week of just 49,000 copies – that’s only slightly ahead of “Alpocalypse,” the latest from novelty artist “Weird Al” Yankovic, with a single parodying Gaga.

Glenn Beck leaves Fox for his online network

NEW YORK – Glenn Beck said goodbye to Fox News Channel on Thursday, airing his final show before going into business for himself. He told his fans that he was determined “to his last breath” to fix this country.

The colorful commentator will begin streaming a daily two-hour show for paying customers on his own Internet network, GBTV, in September.

His finale was vintage Beck, a continued monologue walking among his signature chalkboards. He took some shots at critics, promised fealty to his fans, came close to tears but didn’t succumb and even poked some fun at his image.

“I’m the only host who is supposedly the most dangerous person in America because of my influence and the least influential person in America because my ratings are supposedly declining,” he said.

Beck’s conservative populism resonated almost immediately with Fox viewers when he started the day before Barack Obama’s inauguration as president in January 2009, drawing audiences unseen before in a late afternoon time slot on cable news. At his peak in January 2010, Beck’s show averaged 2.9 million viewers each day. He’d warn darkly of things going wrong in the world, sometimes spinning complex theories on his blackboard. Occasionally, he’d be moved to tears.

His popularity faded, although Beck still led his time slot. He was averaging 1.86 million viewers a day this year, down 23 percent from the same period in 2010, the Nielsen Co. said.