Health Policy Is Carved Out at Table for 6  —  WASHINGTON — On the agenda is the revamping of the American health care system, possibly the most complex legislation in modern history.  But on the table, in a conference room where the bill is being hashed out by six senators, the snacks are anything but healthy.

Senate Panel Endorses Sotomayor in 13-6 Vote  —  WASHINGTON — The Senate Judiciary Committee voted, 13 to 6, on Tuesday to endorse the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, easing her path to likely confirmation as the first Hispanic member of the tribunal.

Hawaii: Obama birth certificate is real  —  In an attempt to quash persistent rumors that President Obama was not born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961, Hawaii's health director reiterated this afternoon that she has personally seen Obama's birth certificate in the Health Department's archives.

Blue Dogs still chewing on Waxman's offer  —  The fate of the House healthcare proposal rested in the hands of the Blue Dogs on Tuesday morning as the coalition review the healthcare compromise offered Monday night by Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).

Shatner Does The Palin Farewell Speech  —  I haven't blogged on Sarah Palin's bizarre farewell speech, but Conan O'Brien's inspired idea to stage a dramatic reading by William Shatner has wakened me from my dogmatic slumbers:  —  Of course the definitive bizarre Shatner vocal performances can be found on his album The Transformed Man.

Why Won't Obama Talk to Israel?  —  IN his global tours and TV appearances, President Obama has spoken to Arabs, Muslims, Iranians, Western Europeans, Eastern Europeans, Russians and Africans.  His words have stirred emotions and been well received everywhere.  —  But he hasn't bothered to speak directly to Israelis.

Frothy Diplomacy: What Beer Will Obama Pick?  —  The President Hopes to Ease Tensions by Drinking Beer with Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley  —  The easy part for President Obama might have been getting Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley and Harvard University scholar …

Sen. McCaskill's Office Holds Town Hall— TEA PARTY BREAKS OUT  —  Senator Claire “ACORN” McCaskill's office agreed to hold a town hall meeting on Obamacare.  —  A massive Tea Party Protest broke out!  —  Check this out:  —  This tea party protester fired up the crowd:

Sarah Palin's Gradual Descent Into Incoherency  —  Remember how Sarah Palin graduated from her fiftieth college with a degree in communications?  What the hell happened to addle this woman's mind so much that she can no longer form logical sentences?  We went to the tapes to investigate.

Obama's Health-Care Reform Plan Is Not the Answer  —  For the 85 percent of Americans who already have health insurance, the Obama health plan is bad news.  It means higher taxes, less health care and no protection if they lose their current insurance because of unemployment or early retirement.

Born in the U.S.A.  —  Pres. Barack Obama has a birthday coming up, a week from Tuesday.  We hope he takes the day off—or even the whole week, the briefest of respites from his busy schedule of truncating our liberties while exhausting both the public coffers and our patience.

GOP's teachable moment on the risks of Obamacare  —  Pick your average member of the House of Representatives, one who has a lot of work to do but hasn't been deeply involved in crafting the massive health care makeover bill.  Who knows more about what's in that bill — Mr. Average Democrat, or Mr. Average Republican?

Bashing Goldman Sachs Is Simply a Game for Fools: Michael Lewis  —  From the moment I left Yale and started working for Goldman Sachs, I've felt uneasy interacting with those who don't.  —  It's not that I think less of Goldman outsiders than I did while I remained among you.

Liberals Forgetting Keynes  —  In a striking turn in the unedifying history of business-cycle economics, John Maynard Keynes's masterpiece, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), was ignored by liberal and conservative macroeconomists alike until the collapse …

Newsweek's Obama Correspondent Joins Administration  —  Daren Briscoe, a Newsweek correspondent who was embedded with Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, has taken a job with the Obama administration, according to an email sent to a listserv of his classmates at the Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.

MEANWHILE, AT GUANTANAMO ...  These days, John C. Yoo, the author of the Justice Department torture memos, is traveling around the country and giving talks in order to defend his work for the Bush administration, as The Washington Post reports.  At the same time, prisoners at Guantanamo are waiting for news on their situation.