Liberal Suicide March  —  It was interesting to watch the Republican Party lose touch with America.  You had a party led by conservative Southerners who neither understood nor sympathized with moderates or representatives from swing districts.  —  They brought in pollsters to their party conferences …

Bowing to Veto Threat, Senate Blocks Money for Warplanes  —  WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 58-40 on Tuesday to strip $1.75 billion for seven more F-22 fighters from a military spending bill, handing President Obama a crucial victory in his efforts to reshape the military's priorities.

Gates Says He Is Outraged by Arrest at Cambridge Home  —  Prominent Black Professor Says He Will Use Experience to Further Academic Work  —  Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's most prominent scholars of African-American history, cast his recent arrest in his home in Cambridge …

AP NewsBreak: Palin implicated in ethics probe  —  ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An independent investigator has found evidence that Gov. Sarah Palin may have violated ethics laws by accepting private donations to pay her legal debts.  —  The report obtained by The Associated Press says Palin …

Benjamin: Too Heavy to Be Nation's Top Doc?  —  Leading Experts Say Dr. Benjamin, Though Stellar Nominee, Gives Wrong Message  —  Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, Obama's pick for the next surgeon general, was hailed as a MacArthur Grant genius who had championed the poor at a medical clinic she set up in Katrina-ravaged Alabama.

Should The GOP Take The Birther Threat Seriously?  Rush Does....  That's the thesis of the First Readers of NBC News, after viewing this astonishing clip from a town hall meeting that Rep. Mike Castle held in Delaware for his constituents.  What's most notable, to me, at least …

Dobbs wonders whether President Obama is undocumented.  —  Today, Political Wire posted a clip of an episode of Lou Dobbs' radio show in which he not only questions President Obama's citizenship and promotes the bizarre right-wing “birther” theory, but also insinuates that Obama might be undocumented:

More Disapprove Than Approve of Obama on Healthcare  —  President is rated higher on international than on domestic issues  —  PRINCETON, NJ — As the debate over healthcare reform intensifies, the latest USA Today/Gallup poll finds that more Americans disapprove (50%) than approve (44%) …

Health-Care Firms Have Supported Lawmakers Debating Reform  —  Key Senator Baucus Is a Leading Recipient  —  As liberal protesters marched outside, Sen. Max Baucus sat down inside a San Francisco mansion for a dinner of chicken cordon bleu and a discussion of landmark health-care legislation …

Sex and power inside “the C Street House”  —  Sanford, Ensign, and other regulars receive guidance from the invisible fundamentalist group known as the Family  —  Editor's note: Sharlet is the author of the bestselling “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.”

‘Huckabee to air Fox News show from disputed East Jerusalem site’  —  Former U.S. presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee plans to broadcast his weekend show on Fox News from the site of a disputed Israeli construction project in East Jerusalem, a New York politician has told Haaretz.

Three Myths about the Consumer Financial Product Agency  —  This guest post was contributed by Elizabeth Warren, chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel and the Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University.  (Update: more on the case for a CFPA in her YouTube video, released yesterday.)

President Barack Obama authorizes extended Secret Service guard for former VP Dick Cheney  —  WASHINGTON - Former Vice President Dick Cheney's Secret Service protection has been extended for at least another six months, beginning Tuesday.  —  Normally, ex-veeps only get six months of protection at taxpayer expense.

Top Earners' Pay Erodes Social Security  —  Fund Expected to Be Exhausted in 2037  —  The nation's wealth gap is widening amid an uproar about lofty pay packages in the financial world.  —  Executives and other highly compensated employees now receive more than one-third of all pay in the U.S. …

Most will carry Obama press conference; time shifted after NBC balked  —  UPDATED: After some hesitation and a time shift, three major broadcast networks have agreed to carry Barack Obama's latest primetime news conference.  —  The event was announced Friday afternoon as Obama battles …

Blue Dog Ross's Conundrum: Should He Battle Health Bill That Could Benefit His Depressed Town?  —  PRESCOTT, Ark. - Rep. Mike Ross, who grew up in this tiny town of 3,600, represents residents like 62-year-old Sandy Barham, a restaurant owner with a heart ailment who can't afford health insurance for herself or her employees.

Huckabee event left candidate in the red  —  One of the most curious fundraising reports of the second quarter came from Republican Les Phillip, who is looking to challenge Rep. Parker Griffith (D-Ala.) in a top national race.  —  If you've heard of Phillip, it's probably …

VPOTUS, overheard: ‘Many beautiful women’  —  From Peter Spiegel's pool report from Kiev:  —  VPOTUS and Yushchenko were seated a table in the back of the pub with their two translators, the mayor and vice mayor of Kiev, and the head of the presidential secretariat....  Yushchenko was talking about Ukrainian churches.

“Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the pain killer..”  —  He didn't really say that, did he?  I must say I was appalled when watching this ABC news clip of Obama making this ludicrous statement to the daughter of a now 105-year-old woman who needed a pacemaker (she needed the surgery at 99).

Senior Democrat says no consensus on health bill … WASHINGTON (AP) - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says House Democrats are struggling to reach consensus on overhauling health care, a divide that could delay House approval of a plan beyond lawmakers' scheduled vacation in August.

The Fed's Exit Strategy  —  The depth and breadth of the global recession has required a highly accommodative monetary policy.  Since the onset of the financial crisis nearly two years ago, the Federal Reserve has reduced the interest-rate target for overnight lending between banks (the federal-funds rate) nearly to zero.

Why American drivers should learn to love the roundabout.  —  Here is a narrative that has been playing out over the last several years in any number of American towns: Traffic engineers notice that a particular intersection has a crash problem or is moving traffic inefficiently.

The Downsizing Deficit Deal  —  [The so-called ‘Big Five’ announce the deficit deal.  Listen to the audio of this announcement above.]  —  A local government official made a comment Monday afternoon, a few hours before the $25 billion deficit deal was reached, that seems to encapsulate everyone's feelings.