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) …

Bill  —  I can think of nothing more disturbing than the use of fallen soldiers as political fodder.  Shame on you, you political hacks.  May God forgive you.  —  So the Pres doesn't have time to discuss the General's troop request, but has time to continue pushing Heathcare reform 60% …

Election 2010: Arkansas Senate Race  —  Another Democratic senator may be at-risk in 2010.  Arkansas' Blanche Lambert Lincoln trails all four of her leading Republican challengers in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey in the state.  —  Lincoln fails to get 50% of the vote …

The Politico Gets Played By ACORN  —  One thing that journalists don't seem to get about ACORN is that it is a strange, complex creature with tentacles that reach into the highest levels of the United States government, the Democratic Party, corporate America, the labor movement …

Release Polanski, demands petition by film industry luminaries  —  Woody Allen, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese add their names to a petition urging the immediate release of the director from detention in Zurich  —  Woody Allen, David Lynch and Martin Scorsese today added their names …

Newsmax columnist: Military coup “to resolve the ‘Obama problem’ ” is not “unrealistic”  —  From John L. Perry's September 29 Newsmax column:

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 …

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 …

First lady says ‘gloves are off’ in bid for Olympics  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — First lady Michelle Obama vowed Monday to “take no prisoners” as she and her husband launch an unprecedented bid for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid.  —  “It's a battle — we're going to win — take no prisoners,” …

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 …

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 …

Creepy O-cult video of the day: “Deliver us, Obama!”  Updated  —  I didn't think you could top those schoolchildren substituting Obama for Jesus in their public school praise hymn.  —  Now, thanks to Naked Emperor News and Breitbart TV, we have video of community organizers led by the …

Generals: Cheneys scaremongering  —  About a dozen retired generals and admirals, trying to add momentum to President Barack Obama's effort to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, are accusing former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz of scaremongering about the dangers of closing it.

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.

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!