A Hatchet Job So Bad It's Good  —  In the past, the insurance industry's power has been a major barrier to health-care reform.  Most notably, the industry paid for the infamous “Harry and Louise” ads that helped kill the Clinton plan.  But times have changed.

Shouldn't the Republican Establishment Help a Republican Win a Congressional Seat?  —  A new poll in the November 3 special election for the congressional seat, NY-23, vacated by Army Secretary John McHugh, confirms what knowledgeable observers have suspected for a while …

Don't Call Me a Slut  —  Blogs and Stories  —  Hours after The Daily Beast's Meghan McCain posted a self-portrait on Twitter it made national news and she was a pariah.  But she says it's the media who are the real boobs.  —  On Wednesday I posted a hastily-taken self-portrait on Twitter …

Exclusive: How Dems set stage for corporate-backed health care campaign  —  At a meeting last April with corporate lobbyists, aides to President Barack Obama and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) helped set in motion a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign, primarily financed by industry groups …

John Edwards, Sarah Palin Both See Favorable Ratings Slide  —  Edwards' popularity down 27 points since January 2008  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Former presidential and vice presidential candidate John Edwards, embroiled in personal scandal, is rated favorably by 21% of Americans and unfavorably by 59%.

No Nobel Results From Obama Foreign Policy  —  About the only thing more comical than Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize was the reaction of those who deemed the award “premature,” as if the brilliance of Obama's foreign policy is so self-evident and its success so assured that if only the Norway Five …

FOX News vs. White House: Round three  —  In Glenn Beck's pursuit of every member of the Obama administration who ever hung a Che Guevera poster on his college dorm wall, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn has become a new target for.... Well, for criticizing FOX News.

What's “Divisive”?  —  A postscript on the Rush Limbaugh/St. Louis Rams story, which I wrote about here: the conventional criticism of Limbaugh, by those not dumb enough to fall for the fake racist quotes, is that he is a “divisive” figure.  That, for example, was the objection …

The Reality Moment  —  That which can't continue doesn't.  A nation can spend and spend, pile debt upon debt, but eventually there comes a reality moment when some leader emerges to say enough is enough and when decent people, looking around at themselves and their own best nature, respond by demanding a return to responsibility.

Interracial couple denied marriage license in La.  —  HAMMOND, La. — A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.  —  Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish …

It's All Going According to Plan!  —  Peter Beinart thinks Obama's on track to success.  Actually, Beinart understates the favorability of the circumstances.  If, like me, you assume that the most desirable and popular part of Obama's agenda is health care reform, while the rest of it is studded …

Michigan Dem responds to GOP charges about Muslim interns  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is blasting charges by a group of Republican lawmakers that a Muslim activist group has planted interns on Capitol Hill in an effort to alter national security legislation.

Pence's trips to Iowa, South Carolina, spur White House chatter  —  In the unofficial race for president, just one Republican has been to both Iowa and South Carolina.  —  It's not former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty or former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

A Tea Party greets Obama in San Francisco  —  Even in San Francisco, Pres. Obama cannot escape protesters.  He held a fundraiser at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco tonight (Thursday) and a crowd turned out across the street on Union Square to let him know what they thought …

Interview Sets Off Skeptics of Balloon Drama  —  Falcon Heene, fearful of being punished for messing around with his father's balloon, had been hiding out above the garage at the family's home in Fort Collins, Colo., his parents said.  —  But on Thursday evening, after Falcon and his family appeared on CNN …

Patient Denied Care For Her Brain Tumor Says Insurers Want You To ‘Die Now, So We Can Save Money Later’  —  Yesterday, Dawn Smith — who has a brain tumor her insurer has refused to help treat — traveled from her home in Atlanta, Georgia to request a meeting with H. Edward Hanway, CEO of the health insurance giant CIGNA.

Glenn Beck Cries AGAIN On Air, Pining For A Simpler Time In America (VIDEO)  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Glenn Beck was in the middle of pining for a ‘simpler time’ in America when he decided the best way to illustrate this idea was to show two advertisements from said 'simpler …