Sotomayor Surprises Sessions  —  Jess Bravin reports on Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing.  —  Ouch!  —  Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), seeking to discredit Judge Sonia Sotomayor's judicial philosophy, cited her 2001 “wise Latina” speech, and contrasted the view that ethnicity …

America's Affordable Health Choices Act  —  The Chairmen of the three Committees with jurisdiction over health policy in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced comprehensive health care reform legislation on July 14 that will reduce out-of-control costs, encourage competition among insurance plans …

Hilarious: HuffPo Says Sarah Palin Had No Authority To Write An Op-Ed In The Washington Post  —  My, my, my.  —  In what is without a doubt the best foot stomping, squealing, hold-your-breath-until-you-turn- purple fit I've seen in quite some time, and it's all because Sarah Palin had the gall …

Jonah Goldberg Embarrasses Himself  —  In his Los Angeles Times column today, the man who styles himself the Churchill of opposition to liberal fascism takes aim at a surprising target. … Goldberg was just getting warmed up in these paragraphs, later adding:

OBAMA BOOED IN ST. LOUIS!... And Throws a Sissy Pitch (Video)  —  Barack Obama Booed at the All-Star Game in St. Louis On Tuesday!  —  And, he threw a sissy pitch:  —  It's going to be a rough 4 years.  He's only been in office 5 months and he's already getting booed.  —  ...And protested.

Sanford's office couldn't locate missing governor  —  E-mails, phone calls outline efforts to contact, cover for AWOL leader  —  Gov. Mark Sanford's chief of staff, Scott English, called the governor's cell phones 15 times during the governor's secret trip to Argentina to visit his lover last month.

The Same-Sex Marriage Switch  —  Former President Bill Clinton has come out in support of same-sex marriage.  —  After speaking at the Campus Progress National Conference in Washington, DC, on July 8, the former president was asked if he supported same-sex marriage.

Steele: GOP woos blacks with “fried chicken and potato salad”  —  The Young Republicans convention was held in Indianapolis last weekend and their election of a racist, middle-aged woman as President isn't the only controversial item to come out of the GOP gathering.

Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies  —  It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie.  —  A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling …

Hamas says Israel dumping aphrodisiac gum on Gaza  —  GAZA CITY (AFP) — Hamas suspects that Israeli intelligence services are supplying its Gaza Strip stronghold with chewing gum that boosts the sex drive in order to “corrupt the young,” an official said on Tuesday.

Another Phony Scandal  —  With Speaker Pelosi caught in the web of her own deceit over what the CIA told her about “torture,” and the Obama administration in the middle of its latest 180-degree reversal over CIA interrogators (Attorney General Holder is now considering prosecutions despite Obama's promise …

Obama's Chutzpah.  Sorry, Only Israelis Have Chutzpah.  So It's Obama's Haughty Condescension.  —  Frankly, I am sick and tired of President Obama's eldering—more accurately, hectoring—Israel's leaders.  It is, after all, they whose country is the target of an armed and ideological cyclone …

Goldman's Back, and Why We Should Be Worried  —  Should we breath a sigh of relief that Goldman Sachs has posted record earnings as revenue from trading and stock underwriting reached all-time highs (second quarter net income was $3.44 billion) — less than a year after the firm took $10 billion directly …

Smiling GOPers Ought to be Frowning  —  Watching Lindsey Graham's gotcha grin as he needled Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor with disingenuous and rhetorical questions you had to wonder what was so funny.  —  Does the Republican senator think it is amusing that he and his party's …

Thinking Clearly about Economic Inequality  —  Will Wilkinson is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and editor of Cato Unbound. … Recent discussions of economic inequality, marked by a lack of clarity and care, have confused the public about the meaning and moral significance of rising income inequality.

Saradise Lost: How Alaska bloggers dethroned Sarah Palin  —  It turns out that blogger Phil Munger hears all his big, breaking Sarah Palin news in the kitchen of his house, which overlooks Neklason Lake and sits just 10 miles from the center of Wasilla, the Southcentral Alaska town where Palin once served as mayor.

Sen. Jon Kyl Questioning at Judge Sotomayor Confirmation Hearing  —  SEN. JON KYL: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.  —  Judge, could I return briefly to a series of questions that Senator Feingold asked at the very beginning relating to the Maloney decision relating to the Second Amendment.

Poll: Majority of Republicans don't think Palin's qualified for prez  —  (CNN) — A majority of Americans think Sarah Palin is stepping down as Alaska's governor for political reasons, according to a new national poll, with a majority of Republicans now saying that they do not believe that Palin would be an effective president.