ACORN Prostitution Scandal: California Here We Come!  —  **This is a Part I of the ACORN San Bernardino exposé.  Updates to follow...  [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed.  Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Snowe falls away, leaving Senate Dems without GOP health support  —  Senate Democrats are going to have to move forward on healthcare without a single Republican supporter after Sen. Olympia Snowe said Tuesday she could not back the Finance Committee's bill.

Obama Calls Kanye a ‘Jackass’ — The Audio  —  TMZ has obtained the audiotape of President Barack Obama calling Kanye West a “jackass” for hijacking Taylor Swift's acceptance speech during the VMAs.  —  The audio was recorded just before Obama went on camera to do an interview with CNBC.

Conservatives score string of scoops  —  The right-wing media's single-minded focus on a handful of targets over the past months and its success in pushing those stories into the mainstream have underscored the sharp divide between traditional news organizations and the bloggers …

Conservatives Draw Blood From Acorn, Favored Foe  —  WASHINGTON — For months during last year's presidential race, conservatives sought to tar the Obama campaign with accusations of voter fraud and other transgressions by the national community organizing group Acorn, which had done some work for the campaign.

Congressman Suggests People Will Don ‘White Hoods’ If Wilson Not Rebuked  —  In an obvious reference to the Ku Klux Klan, Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., says that people will put on “white hoods and ride through the countryside” if emerging racist attitudes, which he says were subtly supported by Rep. Joe Wilson, are not rebuked.

Tape shows beating on bus of Belleville West student  —  This video frame grab shows one student attacking another while on a bus ride to school at Belleville West High School on Monday.  Editor's note: The underage victim's face has been blurred to protect his identity.

Simple Arithmetic  —  This week we put out our annual benchmark survey of employer health coverage and costs.  Two numbers jumped off the pages.  —  The first number was the average cost of a family health insurance policy in 2009: $13,375.  To put that number in context, if you are an employer …

Questions about Bush's conservative principles  —  How many times during the last eight years did you hear that George W. Bush was a dangerous right-wing extremist?  Probably too many to count.  —  What you heard less often were expressions of the deep reservations some conservatives felt about Bush's governing philosophy.

Carter Claims There Is “Racist” Tone Against Obama  —  In an interview with NBC's Brian Williams, former President Jimmy Carter said he has been extremely bothered by the heightened climate of racial and other hate speech since the election of President Barack Obama.

Dan Riehl: Licking his chops (or is it soiling his pants?) for a race war  —  It's only going to get funnier and more terrifying, my friends.  Let's roll the tape: … Oh, this is delightful!  Riehl demonstrates how tough and rugged he and his 9/12 compadres are by bragging …

Acorn Runs Off the Rails  —  'We're just community organizers, just like the president used to be.'  —  On Monday, the U.S. Senate voted 83-7 to strip Acorn, the premier community organizing group on the left, of more than $1.6 million in federal housing money meant to assist low-income people obtain loans and prepare tax forms.

Fight Looming on Tax Break to Buy Houses  —  DALLAS — When Congress passed an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers last winter, it was intended as a dose of shock therapy during a crisis.  Now the question is becoming whether the housing market can function without it.

The Paranoid Center  —  On June 10, 2009, an elderly man entered the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, raised a rifle, and opened fire, killing a security guard named Stephen Tyrone Johns.  Two other guards shot back, wounding the gunman before he could end any more lives.

Devices “Useful Primarily for the Stimulation of Human Genital Organs" Going to the Supreme Court?  Friday, the Alabama Supreme Court upheld (by a 7-2 vote, in 1568 Montgomery Highway, Inc. v. City of Hoover) a state statute that criminalizes, among other things, “knowingly distribut[ing] …

Susan O'Connor  —  I just don't understand why everyone does not recognize that this health care reform is a sham.  Both sides have their own agenda and it is not the best interest of the public.  Why can we not have public forums and discussions as to what the public wants.

Poll: Corzine takes lead over Christie in gubernatorial race … Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine has for the first time gained the lead in the gubernatorial race among all registered voters, according to a new Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey Poll.  —  Among all registered voters polled …

Election 2010: Nevada Senate Race  —  Harry Reid Trails Republican Challengers in 2010 Election  —  In what is currently a difficult political climate for Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid trails two potential Republican challengers seeking to unseat him as he faces reelection next year in Nevada.

45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul  —  Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found.

Post Magazine Killed ‘Depressing’ Story  —  On one point, there is no dispute: Katharine Weymouth did not like the subject of a Washington Post Magazine story that was headed toward publication and the piece wound up being killed.  —  Weymouth, publisher of The Post, told the story's author …