Congressman: Centrist Dems talking healthcare coalition with GOP  —  Some centrist House Democrats have reached out to Republicans to explore breaking with their party leadership on healthcare and crafting a reform bill with the rival GOP, one congressman claimed Saturday.

What's Next, Mr. President — Cardigans?  —  Barely six months into his presidency, Barack Obama seems to be driving south into that political speed trap known as Carter Country: a sad-sack landscape in which every major initiative meets not just with failure but with scorn from political allies and foes alike.

A page out of the Chavez (leftist, in other words) Playbook  —  A [Spanish] Catalan newspaper is reporting that Honduran authorities have seized computers found in the Presidential Palace belonging to deposed president Mel Zelaya.  Taking a page right out of the leftist dictator's handbook …

Alliances Splinter in Debate Over Health-Care Reform  —  Once-Friendly Groups Split as Details Emerge  —  Months of relative cooperation among disparate interest groups in the heath-care reform debate appear to be coming to an end, as the major political parties and their surrogates unleash …

North Korean Test Missile Strikes Wisconsin Home  —  A North Korean missile struck a home near Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, this afternoon, but failed to totally detonate its warhead.  The prototype ‘Oscar Mayer Jong Il’ intercontinental ballistic missile spewed ketchup all over the place …

‘Integrity’?  Like Paul F***ing Anka, Baby  —  Ace of Spades mentions “integrity” in discussing his services last year “as an apologist for the horrible candidate John McCain.”  I traveled a good distance down that particular road myself — I'd link some of it, if only it weren't so …

No future  —  The “alarmism” of my book seems to be going mainstream.  Newsweek's economics editor Daniel Gross belatedly joins the demographic deathwatch on Japan: Japan's population peaked in 2004 at about 127.8 million and is projected to fall to 89.9 million by 2055.

Windfalls for Bankers, Resentments for the Rest  —  There was a time in this country when a company reporting a few billion in earnings could count its money while basking in polite, reverent applause.  —  That time ended Tuesday.  —  It was the morning that Goldman Sachs reported net income …

Captive G.I. on Video by Taliban  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The American soldier who disappeared June 30 in eastern Afghanistan, and was later confirmed to have been captured, appears on a video posted Saturday to a Web site by the Taliban, two United States defense officials said.

Obama Says Health Plan Won't Add to Deficit  —  WASHINGTON — With Congressional Democrats growing increasingly nervous about the cost of overhauling the nation's health care system, President Obama vowed on Saturday to reject any health legislation that would run up the federal deficit.

Beyond rationing: controlling more than “health”  —  First we'll talk about rationing.  But government-run health care will open the door for more than bureaucratic control over who gets the pace-makers and the Alzheimer's drugs.  —  Rationing will be necessary

Obama losing some support among nervous Dems  —  NEW YORK — Could it be that President Barack Obama's Midas touch is starting to dull a bit, even among members of his own party?  —  Conservative House Democrats are balking at the cost and direction of Obama's top priority, an overhaul of the nation's health care system.

Women on the Verge of the Law: From Anita Hill to Sonia Sotomayor  —  A lone woman sits at the witness table, hoping her Yale law degree will help her survive a charged Supreme Court confirmation hearing.  She faces a battery of powerful white senators on the Judiciary Committee …

What's really behind Obama's sudden plea for troubled health reforms today  —  Friday afternoons and evenings — as we've mentioned here previously — are usually a dumping ground for political news its originators do not want noticed much.  Especially entering warm summer weekends.