Opposition to Obama's Health-Reform Plan Is High, but Easing  —  President Obama continues to face significant public resistance to his drive to initiate far-reaching changes to the country's health-care system, with widespread skepticism about central tenets of his plan, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

ACORN Video: Prostitution Scandal in New York, NY … So, we headed up to New York...  [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed.  Visit the blog entry to see the video.]  —  [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed.  Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Unamplified, Beck's Voice Still Carries  —  Establishment Outlets Missed Van Jones Story  —  It has become a familiar chain reaction: Talk-show hosts whip up a noisy controversy, which hits higher decibels as it spreads to the establishment media, which costs some unfortunate soul his job.

Government's Trial and Error Helped Stem Financial Panic  —  It was only a year ago that the world economy was enveloped in a financial panic of such dimensions that, if one believes Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, it threatened to produce a calamity as bad as the Great Depression.

House Dems: We Will Condemn Wilson For “Breach Of Decorum,” Not For “Speech”  —  The House Dem leadership has decided that it must condemn Joe Wilson for his “you lie,” outburst, and is likely to decry his “conduct” and his “breach of decorum” as early as tomorrow, rather than censure him for …

Some fear GOP is being carried to the extreme  —  The Republican establishment hopes cooler heads will prevail over strongly anti-Obama parts of the conservative base.  —  Reporting from Washington - Amid a rebirth of conservative activism that could help Republicans win elections next year …

Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession  —  The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore.  Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination …

Press Accuracy Rating Hits Two Decade Low  —  Public Evaluations of the News Media: 1985-2009  —  The public's assessment of the accuracy of news stories is now at its lowest level in more than two decades of Pew Research surveys, and Americans' views of media bias and independence now match previous lows.

I'm setting the protectionist threat level to safety orange  —  When the Obama administraton announced the decision to slap a 35% tariff on Chinese tire imports, I was pretty sure that free traders would be incensed.  And I haven't been disappointed — even the financial markets are freaking out over this one.

Media barred from Palin speech  —  Hong Kong - The first keynote speech outside North America by former US vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin will be closed to the media, organisers of the Hong Kong event said on Monday.  —  Palin, mocked during last year's presidential campaign for her lack …

Does Health Care Reform Debate Carry Risks For The GOP, Too?  —  One point that hasn't gotten the attention it deserves: When it comes to health care, Dems are not the only major American political party courting serious political risk.  —  The vast majority of commentary, understandably …

Obama May Do Back-to-Back TV Interviews Sunday  —  If there's one thing this White House doesn't seem worried about, it is that Americans will get tired of seeing President Obama.  —  After a week of speeches and rallies, the appearance on “60 Minutes,” the speech on Wall Street today …

A Simple Request  —  The Atlantic has done me the honor of putting my open letter to George W. Bush on torture on the cover.  Commercially, this is not exactly an easy call (although the magazine did alternate a few newsstand editions with a more sellable cover of Jon Stewart).

Murtha to Obama: No more troops  —  House defense spending cardinal John Murtha, an early bellwether of congressional opposition to the Iraq war, has made his strongest comments yet opposing more U.S. troops for the war in Afghanistan.  —  The Pennsylvania lawmaker and Vietnam veteran …

Boortz compares President Obama to a child molester.  —  Today, on the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, President Obama will speak on Wall Street to “try to breathe new life into efforts to overhaul the financial regulatory system.”  Hate radio host Neal Boortz used …

Aceh passes adultery stoning law  —  Indonesia's province of Aceh has passed a new law making adultery punishable by stoning to death, a member of the province's parliament has said.  —  The law was passed unanimously by Aceh's regional legislature, said assembly member Bahrom Rasjid.

Who are the undeserving “others” benefiting from expanded government actions?  —  The New York Times' Ross Douthat argues, uncontroversially, that the tea-party protests, townhall outbursts and related appendages aren't about specific health care proposals but, instead, are motivated …

Kanye West Storms the VMAs Stage During Taylor Swift's Speech  —  Leave it to Kanye West to produce one of the most infamous moments in VMAs history before the 2009 show was even an hour old.  It happened after Taylor Swift's victory in the Best Female Video category for “You Belong With Me …