EXPLOSIVE NEW AUDIO Reveals White House Using NEA to Push Partisan Agenda  —  **NEA conference call full audio and transcript here**  —  Should the National Endowment for the Arts encourage artists to create art on issues being vehemently debated nationally?

Glenn Beck: Harmful to the Conservative Movement  —  Unlike others associated with Time magazine, David von Drehle is a skilled, careful, and perceptive writer.  So I was interested in his cover story on FOX News's Glenn Beck, who is considered to be a red-hot commodity these days.

Biden on 2010: If GOP Succeeds, It's ‘The End of the Road for What Barack and I Are Trying to Do’  —  ABC News' Karen Travers reports:  —  Vice President Joe Biden said today that if Democrats were to lose 35 House seats they currently hold in traditionally Republican districts, it would mean doomsday for President Obama's agenda.

Key Senator Says He Will Alter Health Proposal  —  WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, said Monday that he would modify his health care bill to provide more generous assistance to moderate-income Americans, to help them buy insurance.

Secret interviews add insight to Clinton presidency  —  BALTIMORE — The call from the White House usually would come in late afternoon.  President Clinton had a few hours open in the evening.  Could he come over?  —  Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and civil rights historian …

Obama Tells Letterman: I Was Black Before the Election  —  Posted by Brian Montopoli Addressing suggestions that recent criticism of his health care reform efforts has been grounded in racism, President Obama this afternoon quipped, “I think it's important to realize that I was actually black before the election.”

Bush In 2008: “I'm Not Going To Tell Some Gay Kid In The Audience That He Can't Get Married”  —  Speechwriter Matt Latimer's new book trains its gaze on the lunacy of the late-era Bush White House.  And there was plenty of material.  —  Latimer, who first wrote speeches and congressional testimony …

Jeb Bush on Rubio, Obama and running for president  —  Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had plenty to say about a whole lot of different issues on Friday when he spoke to the Lakewood Ranch Republican Club.  —  I've already told you about his change of heart on oil drilling and his frustration …

Breaking news: ZELAYA BACK IN HONDURAS  —  According to Noticias 24 reports that deposed president Mel Zelaya is back in Honduras, staying at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.  —  CNN reports that State Department spokesman Ian Kelly confirmed the news,

Strangers to Dissent, Liberals Try to Stifle It  —  It is an interesting phenomenon that the response of the left half of our political spectrum to criticism and argument is often to try to shut it down.  Thus President Obama in his Sept. 9 speech to a joint session of Congress told us to stop …

41% of Minnesota Voters Give Franken Positive Ratings  —  Democrat Al Franken has been a U.S. senator for less than three months, but 41% of Minnesota voters think he is doing a good or excellent job.  —  The latest Rasmussen Reports finds that 31% of voters in the state say Franken …

U.S. charges Obama fund-raiser in $290 million fraud  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hassan Nemazee, a fund-raiser for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, has been indicted for defrauding Bank of America, HSBC and Citigroup Inc out of more than $290 million in loan proceeds, U.S. prosecutors said on Monday.

Fed Rejects Geithner Request for Study of Governance, Structure  —  Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve Board has rejected a request by U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for a public review of the central bank's structure and governance, three people familiar with the matter said.

Read the Speech  —  “Preserving a Free and Open Internet: A Platform for Innovation, Opportunity, and Prosperity”  —  Prepared Remarks of  —  The Brookings Institution, Washington DC  —  I'd like to thank Brookings for hosting me and this discussion about the future of broadband and the Internet.

Our war-loving Foreign Policy Community hasn't gone anywhere  —  (updated below)  —  Advocates of escalation in Afghanistan chose Bob Woodward to “reprise his role as warmonger hagiographer” by publishing Gen. Stanley McChrystal's “confidential” memo to the President arguing for increased troops.

Again with the Grossly Inflated Numbers, Part Deux  —  Tim Blair joins the crowd of right wing bloggers trying to spin up the attendance numbers at the Washington DC tea party, responding to my post about Metrorail ridership by quoting the Heritage Foundation, who, as we all know, are completely unbiased (ahem): BIGNESS ENSMALLENED.

The Feds' Attack on Freedom of Speech  —  Not the Fed, as in Bernanke, but the Feds, as in the federal government.  —  Here are excerpts from an AP news story that just came in: … And the most chilling two paragraphs: … One of the ways that governments try to “win” debates is to make debate by the other side illegal.

TPM Expansion Update  —  A couple months ago I told you we were expanding (actually doubling the size of) our reporting staff at TPM.  So I wanted to give you a quick update.  —  Over the summer I asked TPM's Managing Editor David Kurtz to relocate from Missouri to Washington, DC to head up a new TPM DC office.

Olympia Snowe's Amendments  —  It's becoming pretty common for Hill and administration sources to tell me that “Olympia Snowe is more of a Democrat than some of the Democrats.”  What they mean by that is that she's pushing for a level of affordability and subsidies and consumer protections …