‘I Am Not A Racist,’ Says Cop Who Wrote Gates Slur  —  Justin Barrett Suspended From Police Department, National Guard  —  BOSTON — A Boston police officer who sent a racially charged e-mail protesting newspaper coverage of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. apologized Wednesday night and said “I am not a racist.”

Dems warn Baucus with gavel threat  —  In an apparent warning to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), some liberal Democrats have suggested a secret-ballot vote every two years on whether or not to strip committee chairmen of their gavels.

Debra Burlingame: Revenge of the ‘Shoe Bomber’  —  The terrorist sues to resume his jihad from prison.  The Obama administration caves in.  —  Multimedia  — previous  — next  —  Health Care Reform  —  President Obama's effort to overhaul the health-care system may have momentum.

Exclusive: Earmark critic steered cash to blimp research  —  Rep. Pete Sessions — the chief of the Republicans' campaign arm in the House — says on his website that earmarks have become “a symbol of a broken Washington to the American people.”  —  Yet in 2008, Sessions himself steered …

Obama's Ratings Slide Across the Board  —  The Economy, Health Care Reform and Gates Grease the Skids  —  Barack Obama's approval ratings have suffered major declines.  The president's overall job approval number fell from 61% in mid-June to 54% currently.

EXCLUSIVE: No. 3 at Justice OK'd Panther reversal  —  Case involved polling place in Philadelphia  —  Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, the No. 3 official in the Obama Justice Department, was consulted and ultimately approved a decision in May to reverse course and drop …

Iran security forces retreat as huge numbers of mourners gather at cemetery  —  As many as tens of thousands of protesters meet at the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan, whose shooting death was videotaped.  Meanwhile, the first group of protesters arrested in the unrest heads to trial.

Officers Run Background Check On Obama; Placed On Leave  —  DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Two DeKalb County police officers have been placed on paid administrative leave after an investigation revealed they ran a background check on President Barack Obama.  —  A representative for the DeKalb County …

How nervous should those Blue Dogs be?  —  OK, as promised the other day, I've run some numbers about the Democratic Blue Dogs in the House of Representatives, and they're quite interesting.  Here's the deal.  This is a long post, but it's got lots of actual new information, and no difficult-to-discern irony.

U.S. Adviser's Blunt Memo on Iraq: Time ‘to Go Home’  —  WASHINGTON — A senior American military adviser in Baghdad has concluded in an unusually blunt memo that the Iraqi forces suffer from deeply entrenched deficiencies but are now capable of protecting the Iraqi government, and that it is time …

Poll: Obama loses ground on health care  —  NBC/WSJ survey also shows a drop in his overall job-approval rating  —  President Barack Obama discusses health care reform during a town hall meeting at Broughton High School on Wednesday in Raleigh, N.C.  —  Deputy political director

Tough on Israel  —  Why President Obama's battle against Jewish settlements could prove self-defeating  —  ONE OF THE MORE striking results of the Obama administration's first six months is that only one country has worse relations with the United States than it did in January: Israel.

Dan Rather wants Obama to help save the news  —  Login or register to post comments  —  Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called on President Barack Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press Tuesday night in an impassioned speech at the Aspen Institute.

50 Most Beautiful 2009 - Top 10 (HTML)  —  1. Rep. Martin Heinrich … Rep. Martin Heinrich has gone from climbing mountains to climbing stairs.  —  The avid outdoorsman, who once ran a wilderness adventure program for children and teens, now has to rely on his trips from his fifth-floor Longworth office …

Cash for Clunkers: Federal rebate revs up buyers  —  Dale Skreen, left, of Loretto, took a last look at his 1993 Ford F-150 pickup truck before he drove away in his 2009 Ford F-150 XLT pickup.  Salesman Adam Notsch helped Skreen get a federal rebate in the Cash for Clunkers program.

Despite Obama's Objections, House Appropriators Seem Intent on Earmarks  —  The Democratic-controlled House is poised to give the Pentagon dozens of new ships, planes, helicopters and armored vehicles that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says the military does not need to fund next year …

Dissent Of The Day  —  A reader writes: … Watching CNN and countless other “mainstream” news sources display blatant anti-healthcare reform bias has been like a punch in the gut.  Where are the journalists decrying the “rationing” of healthcare by income?

Texas Hospital Flexing Muscle in Health Fight  —  McALLEN, Tex. — One of the largest sources of campaign contributions to Senate Democrats during this year's health care debate is a physician-owned hospital in one of the country's poorest regions that has sought to soften measures that could choke its rapid growth.

Debts paid, Hillary Clinton builds $3+ million campaign fund for ...?  —  With all of the immense numbers coming out of Washington these days, former senator, ex-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign debt is chump change.  Make that, “was.”  —  Here's the news: There is no more Hillary Clinton campaign debt.

Self-Hating Jews and Other Sad Cases  —  I've received a lot of mail already in reaction to my post about the crisis in Israel — a crisis caused by the willful disregard of settler extremists to Israeli law, and by the Israeli government's impotence in the face of such law-breaking …

Obama Restores Credibility To The Presidential Medal Of Freedom  —  The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civil award, awarded to individuals who have contributed to: 1) the security or national interests of the United States, 2) world peace, or 3) cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

‘Auto-Tune’ the latest, greatest spoof  —  With his mashup of news, music and video called “Auto-Tune the News,” Michael Gregory is taking political satire into the digital era.  “Auto-Tune the News” is the brainchild of Gregory, 24, and his two brothers and sister-in-law.