CNN Poll: Americans split on Obama's health care proposals  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - Americans appear split over President Barack Obama's health care reform proposals, according to a new national poll.  —  Fifty percent of those questioned in CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday morning …

Krauthammer's Take  —  From last night's All-Stars: On North Korea releasing U.S. journalists to President Clinton: Well, it's the return of hostages in exchange for stuff.  And we will learn about that stuff.  It's clear that this was wired in advance.  There probably was an apology [offered by President Clinton in Pyongyang].

William Jefferson verdict: Guilty on 11 of 16 counts  —  ALEXANDRIA, VA. - Former Democratic Congressman William Jefferson was found guilty of 11 of 16 corruption charges today by a federal jury.  —  The jury of eight women and four men returned a guilty verdict following five days of deliberation.

GOP turns tables on Democrats  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — National Republicans turned the tables on their political counterparts Wednesday by redirecting angry telephone calls coming into their switchboard to the Democratic National Committee.  —  The DNC released a Web video early …

Washington Post Kills ‘Mouthpiece’ Video Series  —  The Washington Post has brought down the curtain on “Mouthpiece Theater.”  —  Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli killed the satirical video series Wednesday after harsh criticism of a joke about Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton …

House Orders Up Three Elite Jets  —  Last year, lawmakers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to Washington, D.C., by private jet to attend a hearing about a possible bailout of their companies.  —  But apparently Congress is not philosophically averse to private air travel …

Liasson: ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program ‘is like a mini-Katrina.’  —  Last night, Fox News aired a clip of a woman at a Philadelphia town hall meeting over the weekend berating Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) about health care reform.  “What I see is a bureaucratic nightmare, senator. ...

Cornyn worried White House collecting personal data  —  Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) is worried that the White House will use a new media outreach program to collect the personal data of its political opponents.  —  Yesterday, the White House asked supporters to forward “fishy” …

Freshman Democratic lawmaker ‘physically assaulted at a local event’ by activists.  —  As lobbyist-run groups encourage conservative activists to “rattle” members of Congress at local town hall events, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the president of the freshman Democratic class has revealed that …

Obama: ‘Left-wing groups’ should back off.  —  OBAMA WAVES OFF LIBERALS: On the same day that MoveOn.org announced a new wave of ads to pressure centrist ...  ... Democrats on health care reform, President Obama told Senate Democrats he wished “left-wing groups” would back off.

CNN Refusing To Run Health Care Ad Critical Of Insurance Industry  —  What on earth is going on at CNN?  —  The network — already taking criticism for declining to run an ad criticizing Lou Dobbs — is now refusing to run an ad nationally criticizing the insurance industry, the group that tried to place the ad tells me.

Boxer: Protesters too well dressed to be sincere  —  Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) appeared on Hardball last night in support of the Left's attempt to discredit the people showing up to townhalls in protest of ObamaCare.  Boxer says she can tell that they're fakes, because they're too well dressed.

Obama's Domestic Policies Are Having Immediate Effects on Race for Va. Governor  —  Some Voters Who Backed President Disillusioned Over Economic Pledges  —  The coffee was still brewing when Chris Ann Cleland got her first reminder of the day that voting for Barack Obama might have been a mistake.

Mass. bashers take note: Health reform is working  —  PUNDITS and politicians who oppose universal healthcare for the nation have a new straw man to kick around - the Massachusetts reform plan that covers more than 97 percent of the state's residents.  In the myth that these critics have manufactured …

Shepard Fairey-designed Obama portrait on cover of upcoming Rolling Stone  —  Artist Shepard Fairey, whose iconic HOPE campaign poster of Barack Obama was a global sensation, is back with a new image that both questions and deifies the President.  —  Appearing on the cover of the Aug. 20 Rolling Stone …

Joker Obama Flyers Show Up At George Washington University & Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Updated)  —  Supposedly, prior to yesterday, the Joker Obama posters had only shown up in LA and Atlanta.  Well, now a few hundred have shown up at George Washington University.  Here are a few pics I was emailed yesterday.

Woman Who Tried to Kill Ford to Be Released Aug. 16  —  Manson Follower ‘Squeaky’ Fromme to Get Out of Prison  —  Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, the Charles Manson cult follower who tried to kill President Ford, is scheduled to be released from prison next week.

Lessons learned from: A) cash for clunkers B) the town halls C) the Clinton rescue mission  —  The “shout downs” organized by the Republican right meet one of the classic definition of “fascist” tactics—defined as using shouting and disruption to deprive the civil and respectful debate of ideas.

Think Progress, MSNBC ‘Manufacture’ a Story With Putative Smoking Gun ‘Mob’ Memo  —  When the “manufactured” outrage the Left is trying to demonize lines up so inconveniently with public polling, it's sometimes necessary to create evidence for the “manufactured” storyline.

Sen. George Voinovich and the GOP as a Party of the South  —  Southern writer Walker Percy liked to poke fun at Ohioans in his novels, just to even things out a bit.  —  “Usually Mississippians and Georgians are getting it from everybody, and Alabamians,” he once explained to an interviewer.

The Other  —  While I'm generally on the other side of the issue, Josh Marshall is one of several left-of-center bloggers I read because he's interesting, thoughtful, and generally fair.  But even he falls for a rather common trope: The belief that your opponents are crazy. … Now, none of that is wrong.

Obama Needed This Like a Hole in the Head  —  I give him the benefit of a doubt.  He may not himself have made the decision to honor the contemptible Mary Robinson, arguably a real bigot, with the Medal of Freedom.  But, then, there is someone in his entourage who is leading him astray, gravely astray.