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 …

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.

Palin Speaks to Investors in Hong Kong  —  HONG KONG — Sarah Palin, in what was billed as her first speech overseas, spoke on Wednesday to Asian bankers, investors and fund managers.  —  A number of people who heard the speech in a packed a hotel ballroom, which was closed to the media …

Sen. Roberts: We Need To Give Health Insurance Lobbyists ‘At Least 72 Hours’ To Read The Bill  —  During the Senate Finance Committee's mark-up session of the health care reform bill today, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) — who has had a hard time staying awake during these meetings …

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.

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) …

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.

New poll: Democrat lead over GOP is smallest in five years; doubts about Obama continue to grow  —  The new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll asked respondents whether they would prefer to see next year's elections result in a Congress controlled by Democrats or a Congress controlled by Republicans.

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 …

Justice Dept. to Limit Use of State Secrets Privilege  —  WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is preparing to impose new limits on the government assertion of the state secrets privilege used to block lawsuits for national security reasons.  The practice was a major flashpoint in the debate …

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 …

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.”

The Moguls' New Clothes  —  TIME WARNER ANNOUNCED in May that it plans to spin off its AOL division by year end.  The new AOL's value will likely be barely 1 percent of the market price of the inflated stock that Time Warner accepted in the original $175 billion merger almost a decade ago …