Sens: Snowe's healthcare vote puts her top Commerce perch at risk  —  Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine) is risking a shot at becoming the top Republican on an influential Senate committee by backing Democratic healthcare legislation, according to senators on the panel.

Number of U.S. Troops in Afghanistan Overlooks Thousands of Support Troops  —  Additional Deployments Not Announced and Rarely Noted  —  President Obama announced in March that he would be sending 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.  But in an unannounced move, the White House has also authorized …

Let me ask you  —  The Internet has been around a while, now.  But, I still find it an amazing platform for innovation, not just in technology, but in life.  Beyond admiring the way it powers so many inventions and businesses, it has become a personal thing for me.

Liz Cheney takes on ‘radical’ W.H.  —  Former Vice President Dick Cheney's eldest daughter Liz will launch a new group aimed at rallying opposition to the “radical” foreign policy of the Obama administration which it says has succeeded only in undermining the nation's security.

Can I Vent?  —  Yesterday was probably the most embarrassing day yet for the progressive blogosphere during the short reign of the Obama administration.  So, now is probably a good time to just let loose and register my disgust with the movement I've been a part of for the last five years.

The Cable Effect  —  I got to the office a bit before 9AM today and within 20 minutes I felt incredibly agitated.  I was pissed off.  I also had a feeling of despair about the prospects for health reform.  I was mad, and I also felt helpless.  What was wrong?  Was it just a bad case of the Mondays?

BRUCE JENNER: BARACK OBAMA UNDESERVING OF NOBEL AWARD  —  TMZ has a video of former Olympian and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” reality star Bruce Jenner weighing in on President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize win.  —  “He's done nothing,” Jenner said.  “He's done absolutely nothing.”

Second Thoughts in Battle for Virginia  —  WASHINGTON — When State Senator R. Creigh Deeds defeated Terry McAuliffe, the former Democratic Party chairman and confidante of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton, to be the Democratic nominee for governor of Virginia, the argument among many Democrats …

White House Escalates War of Words With Fox News  —  Anita Dunn, White House communications director, calls Fox News a “wing of the Republican Party,” after the White House began using its government blog to criticize “Fox lies.”  —  FOXNews.com  —  Calling Fox News “a wing of the Republican Party …

Orly Taitz Sanctioned for $20,000  —  The “Birther queen” has been slapped with a five-figure fine for “wasting the judicial resources” of the Middle District of Georgia, where she'd filed one of her numerous lawsuits demanding that President Obama prove his citizenship before deploying soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan.

OBAMA 15TH HOTTEST HEAD OF STATE  —  President Barack Obama may have been granted a Nobel Peace Prize, but that doesn't mean that every top honor comes to him easily.  The new website “Hottest Heads of State” has ranked the attractiveness of 172 world leaders, and Obama comes in 15th behind …

Racism Is The New Black  —  Did I miss something?  Some Rubicon crossed, some tipping point?  When did it become okay for mainstream* wingnuts to be straight-up, unapologetic racists?  —  It's not that this sort of thing hasn't been seen before — fr'example this — but for the most part …

Don't Fail, or Reward Success  —  “Compensation continues to generate controversy and anger,” Lloyd Blankfein, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, said last month.  “And, in many respects, much of it is understandable and appropriate.”  —  On Thursday, Mr. Blankfein and his colleagues …

Dems undermine free speech in hate crimes ploy  —  What does a hate crimes bill have to do with money for U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq?  —  Nothing, except that the National Defense Authorization Act, which will win final passage in Congress and be sent to the president's desk this week …

Obama Dollar Retreats Most Against Commodities in Wealth Shift  —  Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama's effort to lead the world economic recovery by spending the U.S. out of its recession is undermining the dollar, triggering record commodities rallies as investors scour the globe for hard assets.

A Question of When Dishonesty Becomes Criminal  —  In February, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that federal prosecutors had developed an unseemly crush on a particularly vague law, one that had “been invoked to impose criminal penalties upon a staggeringly broad swath of behavior.”