Snowe falls away, leaving Senate Dems without GOP support on healthcare  —  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.

Conservatives Draw Blood From Acorn  —  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.

Obama Admin: Cap And Trade Could Cost Families $1,761 A Year  —  Posted by Declan McCullagh The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.

12% Say Most Opponents of Obama Health Care Plan Are Racist  —  Twelve percent (12%) of voters nationwide believe that most opponents of President Obama's health care reform plan are racist.  The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% of voters disagree, and 21% are not sure.

Extremism in New Jersey  —  We've been uncovering a remarkable level of anger toward Barack Obama in a lot of our recent polling so for New Jersey we decided to go a step further in determining how extreme some people's feelings are about the President and asked respondents if they think he is the Anti-Christ.

Meet the man who changed Glenn Beck's life  —  On Saturday, I spent the afternoon with America's new breed of angry conservative.  Up to 75,000 protesters had gathered in Washington on Sept. 12, the day after the eighth anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks, sporting …

Rush Limbaugh hits racial bottom, digs  —  Gang, some of you are going to crack on me hard for this, but I just took down the post from earlier today about the white kid being beat up on the bus by the black bullies.  I used that incident to talk about black male violence …

As Right Jabs Continue, White House Debates a Counterpunching Strategy  —  Facing a near-daily barrage of attacks from conservative opponents, White House officials are engaged in an internal debate over how hard to hit back, even as they have grown increasingly aggressive in countering allegations they deem to be absurd.

Votes are lined up to appoint a senator  —  Top Democrats press for Mass. bill  —  Senate President Therese M. Murray has not pushed the bill.  —  Legislative leaders on Beacon Hill believe they have narrow majorities in both chambers to give Governor Deval Patrick the power to appoint …

EXCLUSIVE: W.H. collects Web users' data without notice  —  Social-media messages go into archives  —  The White House is collecting and storing comments and videos placed on its social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube without notifying or asking the consent of the site users …

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.

Waters: Probe ‘birthers and the teabaggers’ at rallies for racist views  —  The media should investigate the racial views of conservative activists like the ones who descended on Washington last weekend, one liberal congresswoman said Wednesday.  —  Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) …

The Man Who Defused the ‘Population Bomb’  —  One of America's greatest heroes remains little known in his home country.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Norman Borlaug arguably the greatest American of the 20th century died late Saturday after 95 richly accomplished years.

Conservative journalists post “sting” at ACORN's San Bernardino office  —  SAN BERNARDINO - The conservative Web site Big Government.com has posted a hidden camera video showing an ACORN employee apparently agree to help a “pimp” and “prostitute” set up a brothel employing underage immigrants to help finance a political campaign.

Ethics Panel Investigates Waters, Graves and Jackson  —  The House ethics committee revealed Wednesday it is investigating allegations involving three lawmakers in unrelated incidents.  —  The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, commonly known as the ethics panel …

Contest Semifinals: Vote for Member Who Just Won't “Walk the Talk”  —  I'll be on MSNBC at 3:30 pm today with David Shuster and Tamron Hall  —  Ever since the Democrats took over Congress, it's been one excuse after another as to why nothing but corporate-friendly, anti-progressive legislation gets passed.

If Jay Leno Wants Better Reviews He Can Start By Removing the Lapel Flag  —  Critics love David Letterman.  They love him because he's mean and liberal and does everything they demand: further the leftist agenda through the brutal use of humiliation to target any public figure (or their child) who might derail Leftist causes.

Ny Dems give ACORN pimp-slap  —  Cuomo probe & council $$ freeze in ‘brothel’ affair  —  State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo yesterday launched an investigation into pork-barrel grants given to ACORN by state lawmakers, as City Council Speaker Christine Quinn froze all city funding earmarked …

Evaluating Progress in Afghanistan-Pakistan  —  The goal of the United States is to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qa'ida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future.  —  Background: During his March 27, 2009 speech announcing our new strategy …

More Blasts Heard Near Biden in Iraq  —  BAGHDAD — Explosions were heard Wednesday evening in the area of the Iraqi prime minister's palace, as Nouri Al Maliki hosted Joseph Biden for talks on the second day of the U.S. vice president's three-day visit here.