Pelosi: Town Hall Protesters Are “Carrying Swastikas”  —  Nancy Pelosi claims protesters are “carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare.”  VIDEO: Man At Town Hall: “You Need To Get The Government The Hell Out Of Our Way” VIDEO: DNC Web Ad Attacks Protesters …

Furor Over an Obama Puff Piece  —  Student Barack Obama in a 1980 photo shoot at Occidental College.  (Lisa Jack/Getty Images)  —  It was only a matter of time before someone combined a certain memorable image of a young future president with a jokey twist on his campaign slogan …

No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users  —  They Sit for Hours and Don't Spend Much; Getting the Bum's Rush in the Big Apple  —  A sign at Naidre's, a small neighborhood coffee shop in Brooklyn, N.Y., begins warmly: “Dear customers, we are absolutely thrilled that you like us …

Senate Committee's Bipartisan Health-Care Reform Talks Move Toward Center  —  Bipartisan Talks On Reform Move Toward Center  —  Senate negotiators are inching toward bipartisan agreement on a health-care plan that seeks middle ground on some of the thorniest issues facing Congress …

White House Affirms Deal on Drug Cost  —  WASHINGTON — Pressed by industry lobbyists, White House officials on Wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any Congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion.

Poll: Obama approval drops 7 points over last 100 days  —  CNN Deputy Political Director  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — As President Obama approaches 200 days in the White House, a new national poll shows his approval rating has dropped seven points since the 100-day mark in April.

Murdoch vows to charge for all online content  —  Rupert Murdoch has vowed to charge for all the online content of his newspapers and television news channels, going well beyond his prediction in May that the company would test pay models on one of its stronger papers within the year.

U.S. Considers Remaking Mortgage Giants  —  ‘Bad Bank’ Would Wipe the Slate Clean for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac by Taking Their Toxic Loans  —  The Obama administration is considering an overhaul of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that would strip the mortgage finance giants of hundreds of billions …

Barack's Progress Report  —  Barack Obama had his 48th birthday this week.  Since we learned during last year's campaign that he can be blamed for anything bad that's happened in this country since he was a toddler, perhaps this is a good time to suggest that it's his fault the Beatles didn't perform at Woodstock.

You can never say, “Y'know, that's a good point, maybe I'm wrong”  —  Marc Ambinder marches on past his intellect  —  And it isn't just people trying to rationalize why the hell they were all for invading Iraq six and a half years ago.  It applies to just about every villager when they get called …

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.

Obama's dissident database could be secret — and permanent  —  The White House request that members of the public report anyone who is spreading “disinformation” about the proposed national health care makeover could lead to a White House database of political opponents that will be both secret …

Obama Plans to Use More Than Bombs and Bullets to Fight Terrorism  —  The U.S. government must fundamentally redefine the struggle against terrorism, replacing the “war on terror” with a campaign combining all facets of national power to defeat the enemy, John O. Brennan …

Lynette ‘Squeaky’ Fromme to be released  —  (CNN) — The president she once pointed a gun at has been dead for nearly three years, and her longtime idol and leader, Charles Manson, remains in prison.  —  However, Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme is about to get her first taste of real freedom in more than three decades.

Protests at Democrats' Health-Care Events Spark Political Tug of War  —  Sparring Threatens To Drown Out Policy Debate  —  Hectoring protesters at a handful of Democratic town hall forums became a flash point Wednesday in the health-care debate, as party leaders cast the critics as …

Obama as The Joker: Racial Fear's Ugly Face  —  ‘Political’ Poster Turns On Violent Symbolism  —  Between Jack Nicholson's 1989 portrayal of the Joker in “Batman” and Heath Ledger's 2008 characterization in “The Dark Knight,” something sinister happened to the villain's iconic makeup.

Conservativism's Next Generation: Young, Dumb, and Full of...?  —  Remember these guys?  —  Well... I ran into them at the Young America's Foundation convention right after Gingrich's speech.  Of course, Gingrich lionized Reagan.  He's their legend.  And they named an airport after him!

At Meet-And-Greet, Rep. Chris Murphy Meets Some Hostility  —  Lincoln Griffiths of Windsor Locks, bottom center, points his finger while talking to Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5th District, far right, during one of Murphy's “Congress on Your Corner” sessions outside the Super Stop and Shop on Bushy Hill Road in Simsbury on Wednesday.

Healthcare debate gets uglier  —  Special interests are accused of organizing disruptive outbursts as Democrats try to answer voter concerns.  —  Reporting from Washington — An effigy of Rep. Frank Kratovil Jr. was hung outside his office on the eastern shore of Maryland.

Cornyn: Public anger on healthcare a good opportunity for GOP  —  Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) claims the anger shown by demonstrators at town hall meetings across the country will make his job of electing GOP senators all the more easy.  —  Several Democratic lawmakers …

Autocracy and the Decline of the Arabs  —  The Arab world is plagued by despots.  But don't expect the U.N. to give President Bush any credit for challenging this order.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  'It made me feel so jealous," said Abdulmonem Ibrahim, a young Egyptian political activist, of the recent upheaval in Iran. "