Obama and the Bureaucratization of Health Care  —  The president's proposals would give unelected officials life-and-death rationing powers.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Writing in the New York Times last month, President Barack Obama asked that Americans “talk with one another …

Our One-Party Democracy  —  Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.

Tide turns against public option on eve of President Obama's address  —  Political momentum appeared to swing sharply against the public health insurance option prized by liberals Tuesday, on the eve of President Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress.

GOP Lawmaker's Graphic Sex-Bragging Caught On Tape  —  We've all seen those stories where a careless politician gets a little too candid when speaking into a hot mic.  But this one's really in a whole different league.  —  Michael Duvall is a conservative Republican state representative from Orange County, California.

Attacks on Sunstein Frustrate Conservative Fans  —  On January 8, The Wall Street Journal broke the news that Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein would be nominated to run the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.  It was a surprising choice for a job, created in 1980 …

Are the Days of Drudge Over?  —  Just over a month ago, Linda Douglass, a former ABC News correspondent and current communications director for the Obama administration's Health Reform Office, appeared in a video posted on the White House's official blog titled “Facts Are Stubborn Things.”

Seized Times Reporter Is Freed in Afghan Raid That Kills Aide  —  Stephen Farrell, a New York Times reporter held captive by militants in northern Afghanistan, was freed in a military commando raid early Wednesday, but his Afghan interpreter was killed during the rescue effort.

'We're pinned down:' 4 U.S. Marines die in Afghan ambush  —  Smoke billows up Tuesday after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the military entrance to Kabul's airport, killing at least three.  Read the story.  (Photo by Hal Bernton of the Seattle Times.)

Baucus moves forward with bill  —  Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said Wednesday that he will push ahead with a comprehensive health care reform bill with — or without — Republican support and start a committee markup the week of Sept. 21.

With one simple sentence, ABC News confirms the death of Beltway journalism  —  It's from an online report about the Obama school “controversy,” and it's written by Dan Harris.  In his piece, Harris notes that conservatives pre-emptively blasted Obama's stay-in-school speech even though conservatives …

Supreme Court sharply questions ban on corporate spending  —  Opponents of restrictions on campaign spending were ebullient Wednesday morning after arguments before the Supreme Court seemed to suggest a sweeping overhaul of a ban on corporate communications.

GOP Picks One-Time “Birther” To Rebut Obama's Health Care Speech [UPDATED]  —  UPDATE: An eagle-eyed reader points out that Boustany, after espousing his “Birther” views on camera, below, caved and retracted his statement on a Louisiana KPEL radio show.  —  Louisiana Rep. Charles Boustany …

Election 2010: Massachusetts Democratic Senate Primary  —  Coakley Takes Early Lead In Race To Fill Kennedy's Senate Seat  —  State Attorney General Martha Coakley is the early leader in the Democratic race to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of longtime Massachusetts Senator Edward M.

Boehner: GOP leaders haven't met Obama for health talks since April  —  The ball is in President Obama's court to reach out to Republicans if he wants a bipartisan bill on healthcare reform, House GOP Leader John Boehner (Ohio) said Monday morning.  —  Boehner told reporters that the president …

After Thesis Uproar, McDonnell's Strongly Worded Comments on Gays Resurface  —  ‘Homosexual Conduct’ Comments ‘Irrelevant’ to Campaign, He Says  —  In January 2003, then-Del. Robert F. McDonnell helped gavel in one of the most extraordinary judicial reappointment hearings in Virginia history …

The GOP vs Fiscal Conservatism  —  Charlie Cook and others are predicting a sea-change in public mood, with support for the GOP rising because of deficits.  This strikes me as an amazing thing.  It makes Charlie Brown, the football and Lucy look like the model of intelligent interaction.

‘Doctors told me it was against the rules to save my premature baby’  —  Sarah Capewell begged them to save her tiny son, who was born just 21 weeks and five days into her pregnancy - almost four months early.  —  They ignored her pleas and allegedly told her they were following national guidelines …

Less Spocky, More Rocky  —  As soon as I started covering Barack Obama, I knew he was going to be trouble.  —  Not Global Trouble, like W. and Dick Cheney.  Or Hanky-Panky Trouble, like Bill Clinton and John Edwards.  Or Tedious Trouble, like John Kerry and Michael Dukakis.

A checklist for the President's health care speech  —  Here is a checklist I will use this evening as I watch President Obama's Address to a Joint Session of Congress (8 PM EDT).  I hope you find it helpful.  — Deadline - Does the President set any hard process deadlines?

Overspending on Debit Cards Is a Boon for Banks  —  When Peter Means returned to graduate school after a career as a civil servant, he turned to a debit card to help him spend his money more carefully.  —  So he was stunned when his bank charged him seven $34 fees to cover seven purchases …