Police kill Discovery building gunman  —  Three hostages safe, police say; man told NBC he had several bombs  —  on msnbc.com -

Sarah Palin the Sound and the Fury  —  Even as Sarah Palin's public voice grows louder, she has become increasingly secretive, walling herself off from old friends and associates, and attempting to enforce silence from those around her.  Following the former Alaska governor's road show …

Election 2010: Alaska Senate  —  Alaska Senate: Miller (R) 50% McAdams (D) 44%  —  In Rasmussen Reports' first look at the U.S. Senate race in Alaska, Republican newcomer Joe Miller holds a six-point lead over Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams.  —  The latest statewide telephone survey …

Glenn Beck's George Washington Whopper  —  The Fox host says he held the inaugural address of the famously truthful founding father.  Yeah right, says the National Archives.  —  Post Comment  —  During his much-ballyhooed “Restoring Honor” rally on Saturday, Glenn Beck told a whopper involving …

Gloom for Democrats as they look to November  —  The Gallup organization dropped a bomb on the political world this week.  In shorthand, the pollsters said Monday that if the midterm elections were held now, Republicans would take control of the House - and probably by a comfortable margin.

Obama adviser calls for tax cuts, spending ahead of resignation  —  Christina Romer, in her final speech as chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers, called on Wednesday for new tax cuts and government spending to boost the economy.  —  Romer defended the Obama administration's 2009 stimulus bill …

Wyden Pushing For Oregon Waiver From Health Care Law, Individual Mandate  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  One of the most innovative voices in the health care debate, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), is accelerating the process of exempting his state from some of the national reforms passed under President Barack Obama.

George Bush did not recognise Belgian prime minister  —  George W Bush did not recognise the prime minister of Belgium or understand why he was at a G8 meeting, Tony Blair has disclosed.  —  In his new book, A Journey, Mr Blair writes that the former US president was confused by the presence …

U.S. Unauthorized Immigration Flows Are Down Sharply Since Mid-Decade  —  The annual inflow of unauthorized immigrants to the United States was nearly two-thirds smaller in the March 2007 to March 2009 period than it had been from March 2000 to March 2005, according to new estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Labor and liberal groups to hold Oct. 2 rally on Mall to counter Beck, Tea Party  —  Labor leaders, liberal religious leaders and the NAACP will hold a rally on the National Mall on October 2, one month before the fall midterm elections, in an attempt to show they too have political clout …

The Economic Narrative  —  Why do people like me feel the need to revisit the fateful decision to go for an underpowered stimulus right at the beginning of the Obama administration?  It's not about “I told you so”, or at least not mainly.  It's about the economic narrative …

Miracle!  Man plunges from W. Side building, crashes atop of Dodge Charger and lives to tell tale  —  A young man plunged 39 stories Tuesday from a West Side high-rise, crashed through the windshield of a sports car - and lived to tell about it.  —  “My leg!  My leg!”

Conservative radio station polls listeners on whether the U.S. should “register” Muslims in a “national database” during “a time of war”  —  During the seemingly never-ending conservative freak-out over the proposed Park51 community center, right-wing media have dismissed the idea …

Obama is Not a Muslim  —  The nonsense about President Obama being a Muslim has got to stop.  I rise to defend him from this absurd accusation by pointing out that he is obviously an atheist.  —  Leave aside Obama's fanatical opposition to allowing Illinois hospitals to save the lives …

Tabloid Hack Attack on Royals, and Beyond  —  IN NOVEMBER 2005, three senior aides to Britain's royal family noticed odd things happening on their mobile phones.  Messages they had never listened to were somehow appearing in their mailboxes as if heard and saved.

Chiles to endorse Sink in Florida  —  Independent candidate Bud Chiles confirmed Wednesday he would drop out of Florida's race for governor and back Democratic nominee Alex Sink.  —  In a statement, aide Jim McClellan said Chiles would make the announcement official at a Thursday morning news conference in Tallahassee.

Tancredo: First Lady Wanted To Ban Christmas Artifacts At The White House  —  Tom Tancredo isn't going away.  The former congressman and one-time presidential candidate may have upended the Colorado gubernatorial race with his third-party run, but he's still not shy to air his controversial views on national issues.

Mark Halperin Says GOP Could Gain as Many as 60 Seats in Midterm “Tidal Wave” - Video  —  Here is video of Time's Mark Halperin talking to MSNBC's Chris Matthews about his prediction that the GOP could pick up as many as “60 seats” in this Fall's Midterm Elections.  —  Halperin said:

Homegrown Mujahideen  —  It's tempting to demonize conservatives with hyperbolic comparisons, but liberals have an obligation to the truth.  —  Observant readers (or bookshelf scanners) will notice that American Taliban, the new book by Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas …

Bush-Era Iraq War Architects Emerge To Demand ‘Credit’ For Iraq War ‘Success’  —  In April 2006, ThinkProgress produced a report titled “The Architects of War: Where Are They Now?”  We wrote at the time, “a review of the key planners of the conflict reveals that they have been rewarded — not blamed — for their incompetence.”

Mitch Daniels Inner Circle  —  Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels created a minor furor recently when comments he made to the Louisville Courier Journal were initially interpreted as him ruling out a run for president in 2012.  —  Upon closer inspection, however, Daniels was doing the classic tap dance of any potential presidential candidate.