BP Agrees to Create Fund to Pay for Spill  —  WASHINGTON — The White House and BP agreed on Wednesday that the oil giant would create an independent $20 billion fund to pay claims arising from the worst oil spill in American history.  —  Multimedia  —  How does the public ensure …

Can The One Drop the Buzzer-Beating No. 23 Act?  —  Of the many exciting things about Barack Obama's election, one was the anticipation of a bracing dose of normality in the White House.  —  America had been trapped for eight years with the Clintons' marital dysfunction disastrously shaping national events …

Jobs Bill Bombs In Senate, 45-52  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Deficit concerns trumped jobless aid in the Senate Wednesday as a key vote on a bill to reauthorize several expired programs, including extended unemployment benefits, failed 45-52, with 12 Democrats voting against it.

O'Reilly Pwns Palin  —  A moment of truth on the Factor: … He clearly realizes what a total farce she is - and he slowly dismantles her mindless partisanship by the end of the segment.  Good for O'Reilly.  Particularly good for exposing just how little this phony knows about energy policy, her alleged expertise.

Amy Bishop charged with murder for 1986 shooting of brother  —  CANTON — Amy Bishop has been charged with murder for the 1986 shotgun slaying of her 18-year-old brother in their Braintree home, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said this afternoon.

Obama's Oil Spill Speech: Running On Empty  —  On Twitter, here was my insta-reaction to Obama's oil spill address from the Oval Office: … Unfair?  Maybe!  I mean, compared to Sarah Palin's (literally) incomprehensible burbling on Bill O'Reilly's show afterward it was a model of straight talk and reassurance.

The Debbie Schlussel Experience Part 2: The Fixation  —  Imagine, if you will, that you're a normal person and then one day a quasi-famous mentally ill blogger becomes fixated on you the way Gollum was fixated on the Ring.  Even though she hasn't been setting the world on fire lately …

More Dirty Details From My BP Mole  —  You know the story: Boy calls girl, girl goes to pick up boy, boy and girl go sit on a beautiful beachside deck to enjoy the night breeze and listen to the waves crash as he tells her a bunch of terrible things that are going on at an oil-spill cleanup site.

Banished by the FBI  —  This kind of stuff has become so commonplace in the post-9/11 world that we hardly even notice it anymore, but the case of Yahya Wehelie is really just outrageous beyond belief.  Keep in mind as you read that he's a U.S. citizen born and raised in Virginia:

More straight talk from Chris Christie - The day of reckoning is here  —  Dude, this guy needs no explanation because he does it so well himself.  I'll be honest, I can't get enough of Christie.  I need this guy to be president right freaking now!!!!  It's painful to hear such great words coming …

Realism in Afghanistan: Rethinking an Uncertain Case for the War  —  There is nothing more tragic than watching beautiful theories being assaulted by gangs of ugly facts.  It is time, however, to be far more realistic about the war in Afghanistan.  It may well still be winnable …

Dickensian Moment of the Day  —  BP's Chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, explaining to the press why President Obama is frustrated with his company: … Unless the discussion veered off into a direction that was unanticipated — i.e., a mutual cognizance of the struggles that dwarfs …

Texas, here we come  —  IN THE ten years I've lived in New York I forgot how to drive.  Lately I've been spending lots of time in Austin, Texas.  Enough so that I've had to start driving again.  When you go many years without driving, it becomes terrifying.

All about Sharron Angle  —  When Sharron Angle stepped into National Review's boardroom on Monday, she wasn't flanked by a phalanx of aides.  It was just her; her husband, Ted; and a friend.  They sat down, cracked open Diet Cokes, and began to chat.  Sen. Harry Reid, we thought, would be the main topic of conversation.

Poll: Enthusiasm dips for Democratic voters  —  USA TODAY's Susan Page mentioned findings from a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll in today's analysis of President Obama's Oval Office address, including a widening “enthusiasm gap” between Democrats and Republicans looking at the November elections.

Obama disappoints from the beginning of his speech  —  Less than a minute into President Obama's Oval Office address, my heart sank.  For the umpteenth time since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill began, an anxious nation was informed that Energy Secretary Steven Chu has a Nobel Prize.

8 House members investigated over fundraisers held near financial reform vote  —  The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating eight lawmakers who held fundraisers within 48 hours of a major House vote on a Wall Street reform bill or received substantial donations from business people …

Dems flirt with backing Crist  —  The emergence of a politically unknown billionaire self-funder in the Florida Senate race is prompting top Democrats in the state to say publicly what some have been whispering for weeks: If Jeff Greene, who got rich betting on the collapse of the housing market …

The golf card  —  Two vacations and a bunch of parties as well.  Works from 9:30 to 3:00-ish 5 days a week.  He does not like to work very hard.  —  The GOP is really plumbing the depths of stupid.  Keep it up, morons.  The latest poll has America down on the GOP, and stunts like this will keep that negative momentum going down.

British media fall out of love with Obama  —  The BBC reports of Barack Obama's speech last night are about as derisive as it would be possible to be about someone you were describing only a few months ago as the incarnation of Hope and Optimism.  Yes indeed, the romance is over.

Armey: Avoid ‘tea party’ label, MSNBC  —  Republican candidates popular with tea party activists should refrain from self-identifying as tea party candidates - and also should stay off MSNBC, Dick Armey said Wednesday.  —  The former House majority leader, who has emerged as a leading figure within …

Dershowitz backs Schakowsky challenger  —  The Harvard Law Professor and Israel hawk Alan Dershowitz is headlining a fundraiser for Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky's Republican challenger, turning that race into (yet another) minor rift in the Israel debate.  —  The candidate, Joel Pollak …

Brady leads Quinn, but margin reduced  —  Bill Brady is still favored to become the most obscure big state Governor in the country this fall, as he leads Pat Quinn 34-30 despite 56% of Illinois voters having no opinion about him.  But Quinn has reduced what was a 10 point deficit now to 4 points …

Obama's Missed Opportunity to Tell it Like it Is  —  The man who electrified the nation with his speech at the Democratic National Convention of 2004 put it to sleep Tuesday night.  President Obama's address to the nation from the Oval Office was, to be frank, vapid.

Congress Releases Personal Investments Today  —  Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts and at least three other federal lawmakers have sold their holdings in companies tied to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Center for Public Integrity learned ahead of today's disclosure of 2009 personal financial records by all members of Congress.

Winston Churchill's Cigar Goes Down the Memory Hole … Those who control the present share Adolf Hitler's disdain for smoking, so they went back in time and snatched away Winston Churchill's trademark cigar:  —  We are living in the novel 1984.  —  Worse still might befall Churchill …

Lenders go after money lost in foreclosures  —  After the bank foreclosed on Fernando Palacios's Gainesville home in March, he thought he was done with what he described as the most stressful financial situation of his life.  —  The bank sold the home for far less than Palacios owed on it, as often happens with foreclosures.