Black Conservative's Attorney Sends Out Letter After Brutal Attack At Carnahan Town Hall Meeting  —  The attorney for Kenneth Gladney wrote the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition after the union thugs beat Gladney last night outside the Russ Carnahan Town Hall meeting.

SEIU Gets Threatening Phone Call: “You're Gonna Come Up Against The Second Amendment”  —  An official with SEIU, which has been sending members to town halls to counterbalance the Tea Party brigade, sends over this audio of a phone call the union says it received on its central voicemail system …

Palin: Obama's “Death Panel” Could Kill My Down Syndrome Baby  —  In a new posting on her Facebook account, former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) made a dire statement about health care reform — that it could result in an Obama-created “death panel” killing her infant son with Down Syndrome:

First on the CNN Ticker: Florida senator to resign seat  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Florida, will announce that he is resigning his seat, three GOP sources tell CNN.  —  The sources said that Martinez will officially announce his intention to step down on Friday.

Americans for Prosperity Compares Health Care Reform To Holocaust, Tells Protesters To Put ‘Fear Of God’ In Members Of Congress  —  During the course of the last week, you may have wondered why anti-health care reform activists are so riled up—what buttons are being pushed by the people encouraging the town hall disruptions.

Embattled S.C. Governor Sanford, Wife Are Splitting Up  —  Jenny Sanford, the wife of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, announced Friday morning that she and their sons will leave the governor's mansion in Columbia and settle in the Charleston area, a split that comes after the couple tried for seven weeks to mend their marriage.

41% View Town Hall Protesters Favorably, 35% Don't  —  Forty-one percent (41%) of U.S. voters have a favorable opinion of the people opposing health care reform at town hall meetings now being conducted by members of Congress, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

New Rule: Smart President ≠ Smart Country  —  New Rule: Just because a country elects a smart president doesn't make it a smart country.  A few weeks ago I was asked by Wolf Blitzer if I thought Sarah Palin could get elected president, and I said I hope not, but I wouldn't put anything past this stupid country.

White House Move to Collect ‘Fishy’ Info May Be Illegal, Critics Say  —  The White House has been under fire since posting a blog on Tuesday that asks supporters to e-mail any “fishy” information seen on the Web or received electronically.  —  FOXNews.com  —  The White House strategy …

Ben Stein finally Expelled from NY Times  —  You'll forgive me if I take some small measure of credit for this one: after something in the region of 35,000 words of the Ben Stein Watch, the world's worst financial columnist has finally been fired from the New York Times.  And I couldn't be happier.

So where's your birth certificate, congressman?  —  From POLITICO's Kathryn McGarr:  —  Last week, POLITICO asked the 11 House Republicans co-sponsoring the so-called “birther” bill — requiring presidential candidates to prove they were born in the U.S.— for copies of their own birth certificates.

Is This Health-Care Reform's Worst Idea Yet?  —  The Senate Finance Committee does not want to propose an employer mandate to promote health-care coverage.  But it doesn't want to let employers entirely off the hook, either.  So it has come up with one of the worst ideas in recent memory: A so-called “free rider” tax.

Another Hurdle for the Jobless: Credit Inquiries  —  Digging out of debt keeps getting harder for the unemployed as more companies use detailed credit checks to screen job prospects.  —  Out of work since December, Juan Ochoa was delighted when a staffing firm recently responded to his posting …

Reactions to Rush Limbaugh's Obama/Hitler comparison  —  [updated below (ADL) - Update II (Simon Wiesenthal Center) - Update III]  —  As I noted yesterday, the comparison of an anonymous person in the 2004 MoveOn.org ad contest of Bush to Hitler generated a massive media firestorm for a full week …

A Better Plan for Health-Care Reform  —  In 1986, Ronald Reagan and Bill Bradley created a legislative miracle.  They fashioned a tax reform that stripped loopholes, political favors, payoffs, patronage and other corruptions out of the tax system.  With the resulting savings, they lowered tax rates across the board.

Sincerely, John Hughes  —  I was babysitting for my mom's friend Kathleen's daughter the night I wrote that first fan letter to John Hughes.  I can literally remember the yellow grid paper, the blue ball point pen and sitting alone in the dim light in the living room, the baby having gone to bed.

Taliban Leader in Pakistan Is Reportedly Killed  —  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Baitullah Mehsud, the main leader of Pakistan's fearsome Taliban movement, was killed Wednesday in a C.I.A. drone missile strike, two Taliban fighters said Friday, though American and Pakistani officials could not confirm the reports.

What is progressivism?  —  Arnold Kling asks this question, so I thought I'd try a stab at it, but trying to cast progressivism in the best possible light.  Of course my answer is not exclusive to Arnold's, as we might both be right about the elephant.  From an outsider's perspective …

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 sitewide outage at Twitter and problems at the other sites on Thursday, according to a Facebook executive.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver in critical condition  —  (CNN) — Eunice Kennedy Shriver, sister of President Kennedy, is in critical but stable condition in a Massachusetts hospital with her family at her side, her family said Friday.  —  Members of her family flew in to Cape Cod Hospital …