Preliminary Analysis of the Senate Finance Committee Chairman's Mark As Amended  —  CBO and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have just issued a preliminary analysis of the Senate Finance Committee Chairman's mark for the America's Healthy Future Act of 2009 …

BREAKING: Senate GOP Folding Over Health Care Reform  —  I am told quite reliably that in a meeting today on Capitol Hill, Republican Senators began to rapidly move toward concessions on health care because they are afraid they cannot hold their members.  Some Republicans are now thinking of supporting a government program.

Franken Wins Bipartisan Support For Legislation Reining In KBR's Treatment Of Rape  —  In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad.  She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water …

This, Apparently, Is Not a Joke — By: Kathryn Jean Lopez  —  Barack Obama has this hanging in the White House:  —  It proves a gift to Nick Schulz.

Rep. Waters: ‘Many members’ suffer from disclosure problems like Rep. Rangel  —  “Many members” of Congress suffer from the same disclosure issues as the embattled Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), one of his congressional allies suggested Wednesday.  —  Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) …

Latest Internal Whip Count: Nearly Three-Fourths Of House Dems Support Robust Public Option  —  Still more grounds for cautious optimism about the public option:  —  I've got the latest internal whip count numbers from Dem Rep. Raul Grijalva, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressional Caucus …

McCaughey And Me  —  I said my piece about this on this blog a while back.  I do not think it's professional to air the specifics of internal battles after the fact, and I take full responsibility for being the editor of the magazine that published the piece.  I accepted an award for it.

Thugs attack two transvestites... who turn out to be cage fighters wearing fancy dress  —  Two thugs who attacked what they thought were a pair of transvestites picked on the wrong men - when their intended victims turned out to be cage fighters on a night out in fancy dress.

Tom Shales: I'm Shocked to Be Told I Minimized Polanski's Crime!!  Here, Let Me Do It Again!  —  From a Washington Post chat with Tom Shales today (thanks to several readers): … I'm sure it was you, Tom Shales.  Evidently you need the citation, so here it is, from a column of yours dated June 9, 2008:

Reagan and Obama  —  Is America a city on a hill or a country in decline?  —  Ronald Reagan believed in America.  —  One way he expressed this faith was through the image of “a shining city on a hill,” a phrase Reagan uttered in one form or another in many of his speeches …

Gun Show Undercover  —  Ever wonder how criminals are able to get guns so easily?  It's depressingly simple.  On any given weekend, at dozens of gun shows held in states across the country — criminals can buy guns from “private sellers” who are not required to perform background checks.

Deep Denial  —  Toughened by their frontier ethos, steeled by serial wars, Israelis are not prone to flattery.  Most, in fact, eschew using the closest equivalent to the Hebrew word for flattery—chanupa— in favor of the derisive Yiddish-derivative, firgun.

Ayers Dreams of Obama — By: Jonah Goldberg  —  I am not sure what to make of the story that Ayers has now admitted to writing Obama's autobiography.  If it pans out, that is to my mind a very big story.  Stay tuned.  But I do think I should revise my earlier pooh-poohing of Jack Cashill's effort to prove the Ayers-Obama connection.

Election 2010: Louisiana Senate  —  Louisiana Senate: GOP Candidates Lead by Double Digits  —  Senator David Vitter holds a 10-percentage-point lead over Democrat Charlie Melancon in an early look at Louisiana's 2010 General Election.  The first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey …

Breitbart shapes conservative agenda  —  When Andrew Breitbart first saw video footage of workers from Acorn, a community activist group, telling two undercover reporters how to set up a brothel and avoid paying taxes he knew he had a big scoop on his hands.

NOW blasts Letterman over affairs with staff  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — The National Organization for Women has sharply criticized comedian David Letterman, accusing him of promoting a hostile, uncomfortable work environment.  —  “The latest Letterman controversy sheds new light …

Survivors in Afghanistan Need Immediate Help - 56 Soldiers Lost EVERYTHING  —  MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!  - Please read to the end of this update (7 OCT 2009 1930 hrs)  —  We are “mission accomplished” for the replacement of personal articles for the Soldiers from COP Keating.

Did the First Dog Leave a Number Two on Air Force One?  —  Elizabeth Williamson reports on the White House.  —  The mystery begins in a Pittsburgh bar where several high-flying airline types met last month.  —  The group swapped stories over drinks when three people present let loose with a good tale.

Ayers: I wrote Obama's book!  —  Ever since the heat of the 2008 campaign, a handful of conspiracy theorists have circulated the rumor that Bill Ayers ghostwrote Barack Obama's first book, “Dreams from my Father.”  —  Now Ayers is coming forward to confirm the rumor, and he's demanding royalties!