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.

Conrad says he won't support government-run health care program  —  CARRINGTON, N.D. — Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. presented his cooperative health care proposal here Thursday and told an audience of 100 that he would not vote for a government-run health care program.

Advertisers deserting Fox News' Glenn Beck  —  Cable host calls Obama ‘racist’ and sponsors move to distance themselves  —  STORY QUOTES COMMENTS SCREENER (1815) … NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — In what is shaping up to be one of the more effective boycott campaigns in years …

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 …

Obama embraces the new “exception not the rule” strategy on town halls  —  The double-down on the town hall drama — highlighting the outbursts and deeming protesters as “mobs” — was probably untenable for the White House and Dems.  —  For one thing, it's tough for members of Congress …

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.

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.

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.

Septuagenarian Twitter Flame War: Grassley Warns Specter He Never Said “Death Boards”  —  Earlier today, I reported that Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) planned to call his old friend Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to admonish him that health care legislation will not result in the creation of death panels.

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.

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.

Brooklyn Mobsters: ‘You Are Bankrupting Our Country.  You Guys are Crooks’  —  Angry, un-American evil-monger dares to question a Democrat  —  Keep in mind as you read this that Anthony Weiner's district votes overwhelmingly for him every two years, and prior to that it was Chuckie Scumer's …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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.

Deadly gun battle in Gaza mosque  —  At least 13 people have been killed and at least 85 injured in a fierce gun battle in Gaza, emergency services say.  —  Eyewitnesses say hundreds of Hamas fighters and policemen surrounded a mosque where followers of a radical Islamist cleric were holed up.

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 …

‘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.

When the kooks take the stage  —  IT'S HARD TO SAY what's more amusing, the wild-eyed rants at town hall meetings or the conservative attempts to portray those snarling sentiments as genuine mainstream anger about the president's health care plans.  —  Some Republicans are gleeful in the hope …

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 …