Harkin says he has the votes to pass public option bill in the Senate  —  The Senate has the votes to pass a healthcare reform bill including a public option, a key Senate chairman said Tuesday.  —  Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa.), the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) …

GOP Rep. Trent Franks Calls Obama “An Enemy Of Humanity”  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  A Republican member of the House of Representatives accused President Barack Obama of being “an enemy of humanity” during a conservative values forum this past weekend.  —  In a speech Saturday …

Europe's Socialists Suffering Even in Downturn  —  PARIS — A specter is haunting Europe — the specter of Socialism's slow collapse.  —  Even in the midst of one of the greatest challenges to capitalism in 75 years, involving a breakdown of the financial system due to “irrational exuberance …

S.D. ghostwriter mum on Sarah Palin memoir  —  One San Diegan knows all the details of Sarah Palin's soon-to-be released memoir, but don't ask her about it.  She can't tell.  —  Lynn Vincent, Palin's ghostwriter, has signed a non-disclosure agreement.  She has been hard at work on the book …

Right-Wing Panel Agrees Obama Is The ‘First Muslim American President’  —  At the How to Take Back America conference last weekend, attended by several Republican lawmakers, former Reagan official and prominent neoconservative Frank Gaffney, right-wing historian Bill Federer …

Obama to Afghanistan?  —  A prediction: President Obama will add a “surprise” visit to Afghanistan to his Olympics-lobbying trip to Copenhagen.  —  The president and his advisers must realize, in Mark McKinnon's words, that “people elected Obama to be president—not the head of the Illinois Chamber …

NEWLY DISCOVERED: COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS APPEAR TO ‘PRAY’ TO PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA  —  The Gamaliel National Clergy Caucus held “a New Orleans style funeral procession as they deliver a casket symbolizing the death of old ways of providing health care and pray for a new day for health care in America.”

Massive Voter Fraud in NY Linked to ACORN  —  The Working Families Party and local Democratic Party Officials are at the center of a massive voter fraud scandal in Troy, NY.  —  According to the Times Union: … What isn't mentioned is that WFP is nothing more than a front group for ACORN.

Time for Obama to Act Like a President  —  Sooner or later it is going to occur to Barack Obama that he is the president of the United States.  As of yet, though, he does not act that way, appearing promiscuously on television and granting interviews like the presidential candidate he no longer is.

Start making your case.  —  Use the entry form to send us a short opinion essay (400 words or less) pegged to a topic in the news and an additional paragraph (100 words or less) on yourself and why you should win.  Entries will be judged on the basis of style, intelligence and freshness of argument …

Did ACORN Elect Al Franken?  —  Robert Samuelson scorns the egomaniacal “quest for glory” of Congressional Democrats who are trying to pass health care reform.  But of course the quest for glory may be the only reason a worthwhile reform could still pass.  It ain't going to pass it because it's popular!

Morning Fix: Attack Dog Needed?  —  AP Photo/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dawn Majors  —  The national debate over President Obama's health care plan has exposed a weakness in the Democratic Party apparatus: it lacks a high profile surrogate to push back — hard — against the rhetorical arguments put forward by Republicans.

Berkeley may sign onto U.N. treaties  —  Berkeley would become the first city in the United States to independently try to comply with U.N. treaties on torture, civil rights and racial discrimination, if the City Council passes a measure on the issue tonight.

Public Support For Health Reform Increases in September, Reversing Summer Declines as Congress Takes Up Legislation  —  Survey Finds Support For New Proposals For Fees And Taxes on Insurance Companies to Help Pay For Overhaul  —  MENLO PARK, CA — Public support for health reform ended its summer slide …

Fund-Raiser Hsu Sentenced to 24 Years  —  NEW YORK — A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced former Democratic fund-raiser Norman Hsu to more than 24 years in prison for illegally funneling tens of thousands of dollars to U.S. political candidates and for his role in a Ponzi scheme.

U.S. to Israel: Probe alleged Gaza war crimes to advance peace  —  The United States called on its close ally Israel on Tuesday to conduct credible investigations into allegations of war crimes committed by its forces in Gaza, saying it would help the Middle East peace process.

The Neocons Make a Comeback  —  Neocons are back because Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il and Vladimir Putin never went away.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  The other day I was asked by a writer for a mainstream French newspaper to say something about the “return” of the neoconservatives.

EXCLUSIVE: Porn surfing rampant at U.S. science foundation  —  Number of cases overwhelms watchdog, costs taxpayers  —  Employee misconduct investigations, often involving workers accessing pornography from their government computers, grew sixfold last year inside the taxpayer-funded foundation …

400 Pages In Four Months  —  That's Sarah Palin's achievement for Jonathan Burnham, who runs the marketing company, Harper Collins.  Several questions naturally arise.  Did she actually write those 400 pages?  Please.  Her peregrinations in the couple of months since she quit her “day-job” …