Filibuster reform is short of needed votes  —  Senate Democrats do not have the votes to lower the 60-vote threshold to cut off filibusters.  —  The lack of support among a handful of Senate Democratic incumbents is a major blow to the effort to change the upper chamber's rules.

50 Most Beautiful People 2010  —  Take a look at the most beautiful people on Capitol Hill.

Rendell: Obama Could Face Primary Challenge Over Afghanistan (VIDEO)  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell predicted on Tuesday that if the president escalates America's military involvement in Afghanistan he could very well face a primary challenger in 2012.

L.A. union members, activists to caravan to Arizona to protest immigration law  —  More than 550 people representing 32 unions plan to travel in 11 buses for a rally at the state Capitol and a vigil with local groups on the day the law is set to take effect.

On the Surface, Gulf Oil Spill Is Vanishing Fast; Concerns Stay  —  The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected, a piece of good news that raises tricky new questions about how fast the government should scale back its response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

In Speech to Turkey, PM David Cameron Goes Full Idiot  —  Cameron gives a begging, blubbering pander of a speech to the Islamist goons in Turkey.  (Also read Claudia Rosett: “Prime Minister, It's Not a ‘Prison Camp’”  —  British Prime Minister David Cameron's July 27 speech in Turkey will not live on in history.

Mass. Legislature approves plan to bypass Electoral College  —  The Massachusetts Legislature has approved a new law intended to bypass the Electoral College system and ensure that the winner of the presidential election is determined by the national popular vote.

WikiLeaks Reportedly Outs 100s of Afghan Informants  —  Hundreds of Afghan civilians who worked as informants for the U.S. military have been put at risk by WikiLeaks' publication of more than 90,000 classified intelligence reports which name and in many cases locate the individuals, The Times newspaper reported Wednesday.

Lawyer: Blago's not ‘sharpest knife’  —  Rod Blagojevich's own lawyer said Tuesday that his client is “foolish” and not the “sharpest knife in the drawer,” but said that is no reason to convict the former Democratic governor of Illinois of corruption.  —  In his closing argument …

Our Divisive President  —  Barack Obama promised a new era of post-partisanship.  In office, he's played racial politics and further split the country along class and party lines.  —  During the election campaign, Barack Obama sought to appeal to the best instincts of the electorate …

My Apology to Shirley Sherrod — Withdrawn  —  Last week, I jumped the gun (as did many others) in taking what was a complex story and boiling it down to an video clip without its proper context.  I apologized to my readers and to Shirley Sherrod.  —  I hereby withdraw the apology to Mrs. Sherrod.

SEC Says New FinReg Law Exempts It From Public Disclosure  —  So much for transparency.  —  Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases …

New Calculator Shows How Much More Taxes Will You Pay Next Year  —  We are on the precipice of the largest tax increase in United States history.  On January 1, 2011, the 2001/2003 tax relief will expire.  All Americans who earn income will see their taxes go up as a result …

Should President Obama Appear on ‘The View’?  PD Writers Weigh In  —  Today's question: President Obama sitting down for an interview with the ladies of “The View” — smart, or not?  —  Where a president goes to speak — each venue, each city — is part of the overall effort in every White House …

In Study, 2 Economists Say Intervention Helped Avert a 2nd Depression  —  WASHINGTON — Like a mantra, officials from both the Bush and Obama administrations have trumpeted how the government's sweeping interventions to prop up the economy since 2008 helped avert a second Depression.

K Street goes to the defense of Charlie Rangel  —  Every person accused of a crime or an ethics violation deserves a competent defense.  Charlie Rangel's legal defense, fittingly, comes from K Street.  —  Two of the three firms providing legal counsel to Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., in his pending ethics cases are lobbying firms.

How Did We Know The Stimulus Was Too Small?  —  Those of us who say that the stimulus was too small are often accused of after-the-fact rationalization: you said this would work, but now that it hasn't, you're just saying it wasn't big enough.  The quick answer to that accusation is that people …

Why Some Republicans Want to ‘Restore’ the 13th Amendment  —  No, it's not about slavery; like so much of our politics these days, it's about Barack Obama.  —  If there is an aspect of the human condition that is unaddressed by the platform of the Republican Party of Iowa …

GM Volt's price induces some sticker shock  —  The long-anticipated Chevrolet Volt, General Motors' electric car, will cost $41,000, the company announced Tuesday, leaving consumers to decide whether its environmental appeal is worth a price far above that of similarly sized conventional autos.

Two women to face off in Oklahoma  —  Republican Rep. Mary Fallin and Democratic Lt. Gov. Jari Askins won their gubernatorial primaries Tuesday evening, ensuring that Oklahoma will elect its first female governor in November.  —  Fallin enters the fall campaign as the favorite …

The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers  —  How much do your kindergarten teacher and classmates affect the rest of your life?  —  Economists have generally thought that the answer was not much.  Great teachers and early childhood programs can have a big short-term effect.  But the impact tends to fade.

Netroots Schizo  —  I had a good time in Vegas, so I didn't spend a huge amount of time at NN, but I did spend enough time to take in the mood, and it was schizophrenic.  About half the people there are some combination of angry, disappointed and bitter with Democrats in general and Obama in particular.

Feds demand diversity on Wall Street  —  A little-noticed section of the Wall Street reform law grants the federal government broad new powers to compel financial firms to hire more women and minorities — an effort at promoting diversity that's drawing fire from Republicans who say it could lead to de facto hiring quotas.

Who's the Extremist?  —  As a progressive, I tend to think the Republican Party is much more ideologically extreme than the Democratic Party.  There are many reasons, some of which may be more legitimate than others.  But it turns out that my opinion isn't representative.

House Approves Money for Wars, but Rift Deepens  —  WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives agreed on Tuesday to provide $59 billion to continue financing America's two wars, but the vote showed deepening divisions and anxiety among Democrats over the course of the nearly nine-year-old conflict in Afghanistan.

Sherrod Critic: She Used ‘Lynching’ To Gin Up Democratic Voters  —  On Monday, former Reagan administration official Jeffrey Lord astonished the left and the right by penning an article in the conservative American Spectator attacking former-USDA official Shirley Sherrod for using the term …