Why We Must Ration Health Care  —  You have advanced kidney cancer.  It will kill you, probably in the next year or two.  A drug called Sutent slows the spread of the cancer and may give you an extra six months, but at a cost of $54,000.  Is a few more months worth that much?

Meghan McCain Will Be Heard  —  Call her the anti-Ann Coulter or an attention-seeking cynic, the daughter of the former presidential candidate is proving that you can rally for gay marriage and still be Republican.  —  “Does it sound campy to say I love gay men?” asks Meghan McCain …

DEM HEALTH RX A POI$ON PILL IN NY  —  TERRIFYING 57% TAX LOOMS FOR BIGGEST EARNERS  —  Congressional plans to fund a massive health-care overhaul could have a job-killing effect on New York, creating a tax rate of nearly 60 percent for the state's top earners and possibly pressuring small-business owners to shed workers.

Could we be wrong about global warming?  —  Could the best climate models — the ones used to predict global warming — all be wrong?  —  Maybe so, says a new study published online today in the journal Nature Geoscience.  The report found that only about half of the warming that occurred during …

Huckabee warns Palin: Don't leave GOP  —  (CNN) — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has a warning for Sarah Palin: Don't abandon the Republican Party.  —  The former presidential candidate and potential future White House rival of Palin's said Tuesday he's concerned about speculation …

It's Not An Option  —  Congress: It didn't take long to run into an “uh-oh” moment when reading the House's “health care for all Americans” bill.  Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.  —  IBD Exclusive Series: Government-Run Healthcare: A Prescription For Failure

CIA Assassin Program Was Nearing New Phase  —  Panetta Pulled Plug After Training Was Proposed  —  CIA officials were proposing to activate a plan to train anti-terrorist assassination teams overseas when agency managers brought the secret program to the attention of CIA Director Leon Panetta last month …

BofA Under Secret Sanction  —  Bank of America Corp. is operating under a secret regulatory sanction that requires it to overhaul its board and address perceived problems with risk and liquidity management, according to people familiar with the situation.  —  Rarely disclosed publicly …

As Republicans gain control, face of Oklahoma Democrats changes  —  Democratic Congressman Dan Boren sits behind a desk with two bucks mounted on wooden plaques peering over each of his shoulders.  The sleeves of his button-down shirt are rolled almost to his elbows, and like everyone milling about outside, he is sweaty.

1.5 million homes in foreclosure in '09  —  Homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments in record numbers during the first six months of 2009.  The future doesn't look much better.  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The foreclosure plague is not going away — it's only getting worse.

Takeover opportunities grow for House Dems  —  The troubles House campaign committees face when their most vulnerable members run for higher office is a familiar topic for Backroom readers.  But, in this cycle, Republicans are getting hit hard.  —  Rep. Jim Gerlach's (R-Pa.) …

Fed officials see higher unemployment  —  Federal Reserve officials see signs of a turnaround in the economy but expect unemployment to remain high through 2010, according to minutes of their June meeting released Wednesday.  —  The officials predicted a range in unemployment of between 9.7 …

40 Years After Apollo 11 Moon Landing, It's Time for a Mission to Mars  —  On the spring morning in 1927 when Charles Lindbergh set off alone across the Atlantic Ocean, only a handful of explorer-adventurers were capable of even attempting the feat.  Many had tried before Lindbergh's successful flight …

Triumph of the will  —  In his post on President Obama throwing out the first pitch at the All Star game on Tuesday night in St. Louis, Paul noted the weird camera angle Fox used to show the pitch (video below).  Andrew McCarthy directs interested readers to the video posted here (24 seconds in) …

The New Stars of the Blogosphere  —  Americans trying to understand the nail-biting financial trauma of the past several months are flocking by the millions to a surprisingly lively source of enlightenment: blogs written by economists.  —  Such blogs are thriving in this recession …

Oh my: Obama drops nine points overall, 15 points among indies, in one month  —  Net approval: Down 15 points since June.  Net who say they'd vote to reelect The One rather than vote for someone else: A measly +3, down 13 points.  Number who say they're confident the stimulus will turn the economy around …

Why Poor Countries Won't Curb Emissions  —  And new U.S. tariffs won't make them.  —  If I were an environmental activist, I would be despairing right around now about ever getting meaningful action on global warming.  Over the last eight years, eco-warriors had managed to convince themselves …

Beck “lose[s]” his “mind;” screams at caller: “Get off my phone you little pinhead!”  —  From the July 15 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' Glenn Beck Program:  —  Please upgrade your flash player.  The video for this item requires a newer version of Flash Player.

Coburn might have some “splaining to do”  —  A funny, slightly cringe-inducing exchange just now between Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, who was pressing Sonia Sotomayor on the Second Amendment.  —  Sotomayor, jokingly produced a hypothetical in which she went back to her apartment …

Police kill suspected shooter  —  Police shot and killed a man near Upper Senate Park Wednesday after he attempted to flee from a traffic stop, officials said.  —  In a statement emailed to reporters, the Capitol Police said the shooting was “an isolated incident unrelated to the security …

Blue Dogs threaten to bring down Pelosi's healthcare bill  —  Centrist Democrats are threatening to oppose their party's healthcare legislation unless House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accepts changes that make the bill more to their liking.  —  Seven Blue Dogs on the House Energy …

Soldier who says Obama isn't president doesn't have to deploy, Army says  —  U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, the reserve soldier who says he shouldn't have to go to Afghanistan because he believes Barack Obama was never eligible to be president, has had his deployment orders revoked, Army officials said.

House 2Q 2009 Fundraising Roundup  —  The second quarter reporting deadline for congressional candidates has now come and gone, so it's time for SSP to gather up all the noteworthy fundraising numbers for 2010's hot (and not-so-hot) House races.  —  Here's the full chart, but if you see anything we missed, let us know in the comments:

Twitter's Financial Forecast Shows First Revenue In Q3, 1 billion users in 2013  —  Our negotiations with Twitter (or rather Twitter's lawyers) over our intention to publish a small subset of the 310 hacked confidential documents continue.  We published the first document …

For Clinton, '09 Campaign Is for Her Turf  —  WASHINGTON — When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped back to center stage here on Wednesday to present an ambitious blueprint for America's role in the world, the State Department billed it as a major foreign policy address.

DFL's Tarryl Clark to Take on Bachmann in 2010  —  Minnesota could again have one of the most closely watched congressional races in the country in 2010.  —  It could be a close race if Rep. Michele Bachmann faces off against a prominent Democrat who could raise a lot of money and national support.

Bush's Justice Dept. blacklisted LGBT groups  —  Affiliation with Immigration Equality, GMHC may have doomed intern candidates  —  Applicants for Justice Department internships and honors programs may have been rejected based on their membership in LGBT groups during the Bush administration, the Blade has learned.

Fundraising shows mayor race is open  —  The four major candidates for Houston mayor have already raised about $2.5 million, far less than the previous competitive mayoral contest in 2003 that shattered city spending records.  —  The campaign finance data, released Wednesday …

Federal judge orders Irving to adopt single-member districts for city council  —  From Staff Reports  —  A federal judge has ruled that Irving's system of electing City Council members at-large violates the Federal Voting Rights Act and ordered that the city not conduct any more council elections until …