Finance Committee to drop end-of-life provision  —  The Senate Finance Committee will drop a controversial provision on consultations for end-of-life care from its proposed healthcare bill, its top Republican member said Thursday.  —  The committee, which has worked on putting together …

Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big Pharma  —  A memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week.

Sources: Edwards to admit paternity of ex-mistress' child  —  RALEIGH, N.C. — Sources have told WRAL News that they expect former U.S. Sen. John Edwards to admit that he is the father of his former mistress' 18-month-old daughter.  —  Edwards, a two-time Democratic presidential candidate …

Boswell: Obama willing to be one-term president  —  Congressman Leonard Boswell (D-Des Moines, Iowa) held a town hall meeting in Sigourney this afternoon.  Despite one group's ad which “thanks Boswell for his support” of health care reform, Boswell told the crowd he may vote against it.

Hardball: Lawrence O'Donnell Exposes Clueless Town Hall Protester  —  Lawrence O'Donnell filled in for Chris Matthews on Hardball Wednesday, and somehow managed to avoid savaging clueless town hall protester, Katy Abram.  Abram went on a moronic tirade at Senator Arlen Specter's town hall meeting on Tuesday …

“Death to Obama” Sign Holder Detained by Secret Service  —  Secret Service now involved  —  There were signs comparing President Barack Obama to a Nazi and showing him with an Adolf Hitler-style mustache, but federal officials believe another sign referencing the president and his family went too far.

Les Paul, Guitar Innovator, Dies at 94  —  Les Paul, the virtuoso guitarist and inventor whose solid-body electric guitar and recording studio innovations changed the course of 20th-century popular music, died Thursday in White Plains, N.Y. .  He was 94.  —  The cause was complications of pneumonia …

The GOP's Misplaced Rage  —  Blogs and Stories  —  Leading conservative economist Bruce Bartlett writes that the Obama-hating town-hall mobs have it wrong—the person they should be angry with left the White House seven months ago.  —  Where is the evidence that everything would be better if Republicans were in charge?

MSNBC Libtalker Ed Schultz: Opponents Want Obama Dead  —  THE ‘ED’ POOL  —  Schultz Claims Conservatives ‘Want Obama To Get Shot’  —  *** EXCLUSIVE TO THE RADIO EQUALIZER ***  —  With ObamaCare running into enormous public opposition, the effort by Democrats to demonize both concerned citizens …

BREAKING: Obama Official Linked to Racially Charged Boycott of Glenn Beck  —  A racially charged activist group called “Color of Change” founded by Van Jones, a special advisor to the Obama Administration, is trying to silence popular radio and Fox News personality Glenn Beck by calling for a boycott of Beck's TV advertisers.

It's Hip to Be Round  —  THIS summer the unvarying male uniform in the precincts of Brooklyn cool has been a pair of shorts cut at knickers length, a V-neck Hanes T-shirt, a pair of generic slip-on sneakers and a straw fedora.  Add a leather cuff bracelet if the coolster is gay.

Clyburn: Town Hall Protests Like Horrid Anti-Civil Rights Demonstrations  —  The third-ranking Democrat in the House of Representatives on Thursday compared the disruptive protesters at recent health care town halls to people who unleashed dogs and spat on civil rights demonstrators during the 1960s.

Air traffic controller suspended, was chatting on phone with girlfriend during Hudson River crash  —  See shocking new video below.  —  WASHINGTON — The air traffic controller at Teterboro Airport was on the phone with his girlfriend during Saturday's deadly air collision over the Hudson River, the Daily News has learned.

Mom in minivan tasered twice in Salina traffic stop; camera captures deputy's rough roadside arrest (VIDEO)  —  In January, an Onondaga County sheriff's deputy pulled over Audra Harmon, who had two of her kids with her in her minivan.  A routine traffic stop escalated quickly.

Muslims, Arabs among J Street donors  —  The J Street political action committee has received tens of thousands of dollars in donations from dozens of Arab and Muslim Americans, as well as from several individuals connected to organizations doing Palestinian and Iranian issues advocacy, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Obama Wants Big Banks To Pay More for Oversight  —  The Obama administration is pressing ahead with its broad overhaul of financial regulation by proposing to hike the fees big financial firms pay for federal oversight while easing the burden for smaller ones, officials said.

Preventive Care Isn't the Magic Bullet for Health Care Costs  —  In the 48 hours of June 15-16, President Obama lost the health-care debate.  First, a letter from the Congressional Budget Office to Sen. Edward Kennedy reported that his health committee's reform bill would add $1 trillion in debt over the next decade.

E-mails from public overload House Web site  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - Amid a boisterous debate on health care reform, people flooded members of Congress on Thursday with so many e-mails that they overloaded the House's primary Web site.  —  Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the House's chief administrative officer …

Tax Withholding Is Bad for Democracy  —  So is the payroll tax.  End them both and voters will have a healthier understanding of the government burden.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  America is supposed to be a democracy in which we're all in it together.