Protesters drown out Tampa health care summit  —  TAMPA - Bitter divisions over reforming America's health care system exploded Thursday night in Tampa amid cat calls, jeering and shoving at a town hall meeting.  —  “Tyranny!  Tyranny!  Tyranny!” dozens of people shouted as U.S …

Republicans Propagating Falsehoods in Attacks on Health-Care Reform  —  As a columnist who regularly dishes out sharp criticism, I try not to question the motives of people with whom I don't agree.  Today, I'm going to step over that line.  —  The recent attacks by Republican leaders …

Taliban Leader in Pakistan Was Killed, His Aides Say  —  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of Pakistan's fearsome Taliban militia, was killed Wednesday in a C.I.A. missile strike, two Taliban fighters said Friday, adding that a meeting was taking place to determine which of his top deputies would replace him.

Twitter, Facebook attack targeted one user  —  A Georgian blogger with accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal and Google's Blogger and YouTube was targeted in a denial of service attack that led to the site-wide outage at Twitter and problems at the other sites on Thursday, according to a Facebook executive.

Sotomayor Confirmed by Senate, 68-31  —  WASHINGTON — Voting largely along party lines, the Senate on Thursday confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the 111th justice of the Supreme Court.  She will be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the court.

WH to Dems: Punch back twice as hard  —  Top White House aides gave Senate Democrats a recess battle plan on Thursday, arming the lawmakers with tips for avoiding disastrous town hall meetings while showing them polling on popular aspects of the reform effort.

Lincoln retracts description of health care protests as ‘un-American’  —  LITTLE ROCK — Efforts to disrupt town hall meetings on health care reform are un-American, U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said today, though she later issued a statement retracting the remark.

Whose Swastikas, Speaker Pelosi?  —  BEGIN TRANSCRIPT  —  RUSH: Greetings to you, music lovers, thrill-seekers and conversationalists all across the fruited plain.  Welcome to the leader.  I am the Mobfather Rush Limbaugh here at the Excellence in Broadcasting Network and the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies.

Director John Hughes dies at 59  —  ‘Breakfast Club’ helmer died of a heart attack  —  John Hughes, who captured the zeitgeist of 1980s teen life as writer-director of “The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles” and produced and scripted family hits such as “Home Alone,” died Thursday of a heart attack in Manhattan while taking a walk.

247,000 Jobs Lost in July; Rate Falls Slightly to 9.4%  —  The American economy lost 247,000 jobs in July, and in a reversal, the unemployment rate fell slightly, to 9.4 percent, the government reported Friday.  —  Although businesses are expected to keep cutting jobs through the rest of the year …

Meet the Mob  —  You've heard a lot about this crazy, scary, vicious mob on some shadowy GOP payroll.  By the way the DNC, Rachel Maddow, and President Obama talk, you'd think it was a motley crue of Hell's Angels.  —  Let me introduce you to the mob:  —  I am the mob.  My kids are the mob.