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.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

Rapping Joe's Knuckles  —  Joe Wilson, congressman, argued that Joe Wilson, chucklehead, should not be formally rebuked.  —  It would be a waste of time, he asserted on the House floor where, six days earlier, he had committed his conduct most unbecoming.  —  Other Republicans stepped …

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

BREAKING: DNC, OFA Dump Demand for the Public Option  —  Organizing for America has dropped the demand for the public option from their open letter to members of Congress.  As recently as Sept. 11, the letter featured on OFA's Health Care Action Center stated that health care reform must:

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.

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.

Judgment, candor questions led to Sanford security suspension  —  After Gov. Mark Sanford admitted leaving the country for a secret tryst in Argentina, the Department of Homeland Security suspended the governor's security clearance because of questions raised about his “lack of candor” and …

Fight in Congress Looms on Tax Break for Home Buyers  —  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.