Obama's Speech to the United Nations General Assembly  —  Following is a text of President Obama's speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, as released by the White House.  —  Good morning.  Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen …

Excerpts of Sarah Palin's Speech to Investors in Hong Kong  —  Alex Frangos reports from Hong Kong on Sarah Palin's speech.  —  Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, delivered her first major international speech outside North America Wednesday in Hong Kong at an investor conference.

Triggering a Democratic Civil War  —  Media reports and insider buzz make it increasingly clear that key people at the White House have become obsessed with Olympia Snowe on health care, and are willing to do pretty much whatever she demands in order to get her on board.

Democrats nix putting pre-vote health bill online  —  WASHINGTON — Senate Finance Committee Democrats have rejected a GOP amendment that would have required a health overhaul bill to be available online for 72 hours before the committee votes.  —  Republicans argued that transparency is an Obama administration goal.

Carper Publicly Defends Secret PhRMA Pact; Deal Made in Exchange for Support Ads  —  In a stunning moment during the Senate Finance Committee markup Sen. Tom Carper defended a secret deal that the White House, Baucus, and PhRMA had reached.  The White House has long denied the deal.

ACORN files suit against filmmakers  —  ACORN filed suit today in Maryland against conservative filmmakers James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles and conservative Web site Breitbart.com for secretly taping the organization's employees at its Baltimore office.  —  In the complaint, ACORN alleges …

Kamikaze Obstructionism  —  You guys like polls, right? … The Republican Party's strategy against health-care reform has been something of a kamikaze mission: destroy the bill through a strategy that also destroys the party, at least in the short-term.  The hope is that if they win the war …

Obama Considers Strategy Shift in Afghan War  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama is exploring alternatives to a major troop increase in Afghanistan, including a plan advocated by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scale back American forces and focus more on rooting out Al Qaeda there and in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday.

Canada set to boycott Iran's UN speech  —  More Images »  —  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad listens to the opening statement at the 64th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, September 23, 2009.  Canada plans to walk out on Ahmadinehad's speech to the assembly on Wednesday.

Obama's time warp: The U.S. is still the bad guy  —  Senior Political Analyst  —  In the early 1980s, while planning a vacation in Latin America, I went to bookstores to find histories of the region.  All I could find were Marxist tracts arguing that “the people” were exploited …

All eyes turn to Patrick as he mulls appointee for Kennedy seat  —  With the Massachusetts Legislature approving a bill today that would allow an interim senator to fill the seat vacated by the death of US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, all eyes are turning to Governor Deval Patrick.

Glenn Beck, Post-Modern Conservative  —  Buried in the cross-tabs of the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll is a question that takes a temperature reading of Glenn Beck.  Beck actually makes out pretty well.  While just 24 percent of Americans have a favorable view of him (13 percent strongly so) …

Dancing Tom DeLay on Infighting in the ‘Leaderless’ GOP: ‘Even Rush and Hannity Are Doing It’  —  LOS ANGELES — Walking out of a restaurant in Los Angeles last week, the former House Majority Leader was stopped by a stranger.  —  “Aren't you Tom DeLay?” the man asked.  —  “Yes, I am.”

GOP Favors Public Option for Property, Not People  —  Atop the front page of the New York Times today is a color photo of Georgia homes flooded up to their rafters, an image that illustrates how when it comes to insurance our Congress applies two standards, separate and unequal, one for property and a lesser one for people.

Wife: Gov ‘stunned’ O wants him out  —  Gov. Paterson's wife — emotionally stunned at President Obama's request that her husband not run for another term — ripped into him today, saying that it's “very unfair” the president asked New York's “first African-American governor” not to seek office.

Khadafy booted from Camp Trump  —  W'chester foils Trump guest  —  Unwelcome Libyan thug Moammar Khadafy briefly found a comfy spot to rest his foul head yesterday — at Donald Trump's palatial estate in suburban Westchester.  —  But town officials in tony Bedford put the kibosh …