I found an interesting bug. I updated my robots.txt, it validates fine according to google webmaster central. when I try to use the removal tool, it says no wildcards may be used... despite the fact that's apparently fine according to webmaster central. anyone else had that happen? is there any way to expediate the removal?
Are you using the wildcards exclusively for Google? Not every search engine has adopted those, and the validator may be looking for a specific Google exclusion section to allow the use of the wildcards. Just a guess, though.