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 …

DEMOCRAT CARNAHAN DISMISSES BLACK MAN AT TOWNHALL  —  Yesterday, I attended a townhall meeting on healthcare with Representative Russ Carnahan, where he dissed this black constituent.  For those of you unfamiliar with Missouri politics, the new breed of Carnahans are those who are riding …

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 …

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 …

Facing Blue Dog Rebellion, House Energy and Commerce Committee Cancels Markup for 2nd Day in a Row  —  At 5:54 pm ET the news came: “The Energy and Commerce Markup of H.R. 3200 - America's Affordable Health Choices Act for 7-22-09 has been CANCELLED.  —  Not a good sign for the Democrats trying …

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 …

Obama Wins Crucial Round in Senate Vote on F-22  —  WASHINGTON — With some of his political capital on the line, President Obama won a crucial victory on Tuesday when the Senate voted to strip out $1.75 billion in financing for seven more F-22 jet fighters from a military authorization bill.

Obama's birth: ‘Appeasing the nut-cases’  —  Listen to the cheers for the woman holding up her birth certificate and asking why the president won't share his.  —  Listen to the boos when a Republican congressman asserts rather assuredly that the president of the United States, a Democrat …

State budget deal reduces prison inmates by 27,000  —  The plan accomplishes this with a combination of measures, including having some prisoners complete sentences at home and shortening terms for those who finish rehabilitation programs.  —  Reporting from Sacramento …

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:

Obama: Stop Clinging to Failure America  —  Remember last April when then candidate Obama was recorded making a statement at a fundraiser in a posh section of San Francisco: … Well, now he's added health care to the list of things Americans cling to.  Watch:  —  Click here to view the embedded video.

Obama's Ominous Implication: Euthanasia of the Elderly May Be Necessary  —  Gee, socialized medicine sounds great — don't you think so, grandma and grandpa? … In other words, faceless bureaucrats in Washington — not your family — will decide whether your grandparents live or die.

DeMint: Obama ‘Played Right Into My Hands’  —  Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) stands by his comment that health care will be President Obama's Waterloo, a comment Obama derided in a health care speech yesterday.  —  “I think he played right into my hands,” DeMint told Neil Cavuto on Fox News this afternoon …

‘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.

20 questions for the President's press conference  —  President Obama is scheduled to hold a press conference tomorrow (Wednesday) evening at 8 PM EDT.  —  I hope the questions are better than the one asked by Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times at the President's 100-day press conference on April 30th:

Waterless urinals miss the mark?  —  State workers say new devices leading to splashes, stink  —  ALBANY — The Department of Environmental Conservation's effort to maintain eco-friendly bathrooms at its downtown headquarters has made quite a splash but not in the way the state intended.

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.

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%) …

Mayo Clinic calls House plan bad medicine  —  Obama loses support on reform  —  A world-renowned clinic that President Obama held up as an example of good medicine said Monday that the American people would be “losers” under the House's health care proposal, joining the growing chorus …

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.)

IG-Gate UPDATE: Behind the Scenes of the Investigations  —  Behind closed doors on Capitol Hill last week, I asked a Republican source about the investigative efforts of Democratic staffers for the House Oversight Committee.  —  “Honestly?” the source said.  “They're useless.”

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. …

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 …

Jackson Browne Defeats John McCain  —  (McCain: Face the Nation, Karin Cooper; Browne: AP, Matt Sayles)  —  Singer Jackson Browne has won his copyright battle against Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), getting an apology and an undisclosed sum of money from the 2008 presidential nominee …

President Obama Talks to Katie Couric  —  Obama Talks Health Care Reform, Blue Dog Democrats, Illegal Immigrants  —  (CBS) CBS Evening News Anchor Katie Couric interviewed President Obama at the White House on July 21, 2009.  —  President Obama: My working principle has been, number one …

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.

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 …