False ‘Death Panel’ Rumor Has Some Familiar Roots  —  WASHINGTON — The stubborn yet false rumor that President Obama's health care proposals would create government-sponsored “death panels” to decide which patients were worthy of living seemed to arise from nowhere in recent weeks.

Climate Change Measure Should Be Set Aside, U.S. Senators Say  —  Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Senate should abandon efforts to pass legislation curbing greenhouse-gas emissions this year and concentrate on a narrower bill to require use of renewable energy, four Democratic lawmakers say.

Was Whole Foods CEO's Op-Ed in Bad Taste?  —  Branding Experts Say CEOs Should Stay Quiet When It Comes to Politics  —  Joshua has been taking the bus to his local Whole Foods in New York City every five days for the past two years.  This week, he said he'll go elsewhere to fulfill his fresh vegetable and organic produce needs.

Host Loses Some Sponsors After an Obama Remark  —  ABOUT a dozen companies have withdrawn their commercials from “Glenn Beck,” the Fox News Channel program, after Glenn Beck, the person, said late last month that President Obama was a racist with a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.”

Armey leaves firm amid health care flap  —  Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) is resigning from DLA Piper law firm amid a wave of negative attention his grassroots organization, Freedom Works, has drawn for helping to organize protesters at health care town hall meetings with members of Congress.

Republican Death Trip  —  “I am in this race because I don't want to see us spend the next year re-fighting the Washington battles of the 1990s.  I don't want to pit Blue America against Red America; I want to lead a United States of America.”  So declared Barack Obama in November 2007 …

Fear for Obama's Safety Grows as Hate Groups Thrive on Racial Backlash  —  Violent Signs, Gun, Standoff Latest in Emerging Anger Towards the President  —  Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric targeted at President Obama …

From ‘Yes, We Can,’ to 'No!  Don't!'  —  Obama turns out to be brilliant at becoming, not being, president.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Don't strain the system.  Don't add to the national stress level.  Don't pierce when you can envelop.  Don't show even understandable indignation when you can show legitimate regard.

Toxic Loans Topping 5% May Push 150 Banks to Point of No Return  —  Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) — More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bank's equity and threaten its survival.

‘Squeaky’ Fromme released from prison  —  (CNN) — Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was released from federal custody Friday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said.  —  Fromme was convicted in 1975 of pointing a gun at then-President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California.

Why I Interrupted Bill Clinton's Speech at Netroots Nation  —  I love Bill Clinton, but we all make mistakes.  Sometimes we even are forced to do things we don't want to.  That's why I was prepared to ask Bill Clinton a tough question last night as he delivered the opening keynote address at Netroots Nation 2009.

Down with the health insurers  —  Dear conservatives: Health insurance companies are not your friends.  Keep opposing a new government-run insurer, a single-payer plan, and new regulations on the HMOs.  But grant that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is correct on this: Insurance companies are villains.

Voters Say Carter Is Best of Living Ex-Presidents  —  For nearly one-out-of-three voters (32%), Jimmy Carter is the living ex-president who has done the best job since leaving the White House, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.  —  Carter, who served in the White House …

Obama: ‘TV loves a ruckus’  —  BELGRADE, Mont. — It was another town hall and another well-mannered crowd for President Barack Obama as he took his pitch for health care reform to the Rockies, telling residents of a small town in this big Republican state that none of the insurance nightmares raised by opponents will come true.

GOP thinks the unthinkable: Victory in 2010  —  It's a possibility many Republicans speak of only in whispers and Democrats are just now beginning to face.  After passionate and contentious fights over health care, the environment, and taxes, could Democrats lose big — really big — in next year's elections?

Speaking in Mexico, Obama Calls American Opponents of Immigration Amnesty ‘Demagogues’  —  (CNSNews.com) - At a joint press conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Guadalajara, Mexico on Monday, President Barack Obama referred …

Obama's Senior Moment  —  Why the elderly are right to worry when the government rations medical care.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Elderly Americans are turning out in droves to fight ObamaCare, and President Obama is arguing back that they have nothing to worry about.  Allow us to referee.

Income Inequality Is At An All-Time High: STUDY  —  Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, according to a recently updated paper by University of California, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez.

Out with “Mobs”...  ...in with There Are Far More Civil Town Halls Taking Place That Conflict-Loving Cable News Stations Aren't Covering.  —  Roll Call's John Stanton:  —  White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Thursday argued that despite extensive media coverage of the protests …

Bush as Hitler, Swastika-Mania: A Retrospective  —  At recent rallies, town hall meetings and “tea parties,” a few protesters have shown up with signs comparing Obama to Hitler (i.e. depicting him with a Hitler mustache), or displaying swastikas in the context of implying that Obama and/or his administration are Nazi-like.

Back at Work, Harlem Store Owner Recounts Shooting  —  A day after shooting four men who tried to rob his restaurant supply store, killing two of them, Charles Augusto Jr., 72, was back at work in Harlem on Friday morning.  His feelings the day after he pulled the trigger?  “I wish I didn't need to,” he said.

Palin signed resolution promoting end-of-life directives in 2008  —  Former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) recently claimed that the end-of-live provision in the healthcare reform legislation would create a government “death panel” to decide such issues.  But during her term as governor …

Mixed News for Burr  —  PPP's monthly look at Richard Burr's popularity brings good news and bad news for the first term Senator.  —  First the good news:  —He now leads 42-35 when tested against a generic Democrat.  That's an improvement from June when he trailed 41-38 on that measure and July when he led just 40-38.

Stamford Marriott claims woman was negligent in her own rape  —  STAMFORD — A downtown hotel being sued by a woman raped at gunpoint in its parking garage is claiming she was careless, negligent and “failed to exercise due care for her own safety and the safety of her children and proper use …

Afghan law savages women's rights  —  Rehashed legislation allows husbands to deny wives food if they fail to obey sexual demands  —  Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands' sexual demands …

Hagel Climbing the Ladder in Obama White House  —  Former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel (R), a senior administration official-in-waiting either later this term or in President Obama's second term (if there is one), is taking another step into Obama's national security team.

Mutation Tied to Need for Less Sleep Is Discovered  —  Researchers have found a genetic mutation in two people who need far less sleep than average, a discovery that might open the door to understanding human sleep patterns and lead to treatments for insomnia and other sleep disorders.

Nazis for Me, but Not for Thee  —  It's this week's fashion on the left, and among such fashionably contemplative moderates as Mort Kondracke, to blast Rush Limbaugh for comparing Democrats to the Nazis.  It's no surprise that the Obama hardcores are misrepresenting the sequence and substance of events …

Ørsted gets Google Doodled  —  Thanks to Google, hundreds of millions of people are today celebrating Hans Christian Ørsted's birthday without having much of a clue who he is ... so who exactly was he?  —  Probably not even the physics geeks remember much about Hans Christian Ørsted …

Obama's big problem in Big Sky country  —  LIVINGSTON, Montana (CNN) — Spend a day in this tiny town about 23 miles or so from where President Obama held a town hall meeting on Friday, and it's easy to see why his health-care push is facing big problems in Big Sky country — even from the people he's trying to help.