The Best Speech Obama's Given Since...Maybe Ever  —  Today, at Ft. Hood.  I guarantee: they'll be teaching this one in rhetoric classes.  It was that good.  My gloss won't do it justice.  Yes, I'm having a Chris Matthews-chill-running-up-my- leg moment, but sometimes, the man …

Executed: D.C. Sniper John Allen Muhammad Put to Death  —  The D.C. Sniper Who Terrorized Americans in 2002 Was Executed Tonight in Virginia  —  Just after 9 p.m. this evening — seven years and 12 days after he was captured and later charged with orchestrating a cold-blooded shooting spree …

Senior Official: More Hasan Ties to People Under Investigation by FBI  —  Alleged Shooter Had “Unexplained Connections” to Others Besides Jihadist Cleric Awlaki  —  A senior government official tells ABC News that investigators have found that alleged Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan had …

Blackwater Said to Approve Iraqi Payoffs After Shootings  —  WASHINGTON — Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode …

Clinton to Senate Dems: ‘We are winning’  —  Bill Clinton walks through Capitol Hill as reporters ask questions.  —  John Shinkle  —  With the issue he has positioned to be his crowning achievement as president at a crossroads, Barack Obama once again called on his former rival to help him follow through.

Boxer: Senate Has Votes To Block Stupak Amendment  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  With Reporting By Ryan Grim  —  One of Congress's foremost champions of abortion rights said on Monday that the Senate did not have the votes to add a more restrictive anti-abortion amendment to health care reform legislation.

Dunn leaving White House, Pfeiffer takes over  —  White House communications director Anita Dunn will step down from her post at the end of the month and Dan Pfeiffer, her deputy, will take over, according to sources familiar with the move.  —  Dunn, a longtime Democratic media consultant …

Obama's modest proposal: A Lieberman swap  —  A source at the White House for the president's meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reports that Obama ended the event with a modest proposal for the domestic politics of both men.  —  At the meeting's conclusion …

NEW YORK POST LAWSUIT: Shocking Allegations Made By Fired Employee  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  The New York Post editor fired after speaking out against a cartoon depicting the author of the president's stimulus package as a dead chimpanzee has sued the paper.

Breaking: Rajiv Shah for USAID administrator  —  An administration official has confirmed that Rajiv Shah will be nominated to be the next administrator of USAID.  —  POLITICO reported yesterday that the 36-year-old USDA chief scientist and undersecretary for research, education and economics …

China's zero-sum game  —  The Obama administration's worldview is still emerging, but its policies toward Russia and China are already revealing.  Its Russia policy consists of trying to accommodate Moscow's sense of global entitlement.  So far that has meant ignoring the continued presence …

An Object Lesson on Not Being Jerks  —  The closing bits of this WaPo piece on the NY-23 affair really sums it all up: … The funny thing about all of this is that no matter how bad all their ideas are, no matter how disastrous their governance has been, no matter how many horrible things …

Exclusive: Audio From ACORN Claims Jerry Brown Will Whitewash Investigation  —  On October 15th, local ACORN spokesman David Lagstein was the special guest of the East County Democrat Club in El Cajon, CA.  Lagstein is ACORN's chief organizer in the San Diego area.

Tampa police: Marine reservist attacked Greek priest he mistook for terrorist  —  TAMPA — A Marine reservist armed with a tire iron beat and chased a man he thought was an Arab terrorist and even called 911 to say he was detaining the man, police said.  —  But the man he assaulted was actually …

Internet Virus Frames Users For Child Porn  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Of all the sinister things that Internet viruses do, this might be the worst: They can make you an unsuspecting collector of child pornography.  —  Heinous pictures and videos can be deposited on computers by viruses …

Tough future for Snowe as a Republican  —  It looks like Olympia Snowe could have a pretty hard time getting nominated for another term in the Senate as a Republican.  —  There are now more folks in her party who disapprove than approve of Snowe's job performance.

Sens. squeeze Speaker over commission  —  Senators from both parties on Tuesday put new pressure on Speaker Nancy Pelosi to turn the power to trim entitlement benefits over to an independent commission.  —  Seven members of the Senate Budget Committee threatened during a Tuesday hearing …

Confessions of an ObamaCare Backer  —  A liberal explains the political calculus.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  The typical argument for ObamaCare is that it will offer better medical care for everyone and cost less to do it, but occasionally a supporter lets the mask slip and reveals the real political motivation.