President Obama, Mitt Romney deadlocked in race, poll finds  —  AP - A pair of tepid jobs reports, landmark Supreme Court decisions on health-care and immigration laws, and an unprecedented barrage of negative ads have shaped the opening months of the fall presidential campaign.

Republican Rep: I Don't Think Someone Who Is Diagnosed With A Brain Tumor Should Have Health Care Provided  —  On Monday evening, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) said that insurance companies should be allowed to discriminate against people with brain tumors during a House Rules Committee debate …

THIS IS WHAT RIGHT-WINGERS DO.  THIS IS ALL THEY DO.  —  Lead story at Drudge around 7:00 last night:  —  The link goes to a Daily Caller story posted yesterday afternoon: … “A non-partisan association of doctors and patients”?  Really?  —  Not really: … So this is a blatantly partisan survey.

Senior Obama adviser: Romney backers trying to ‘purchase’ election  —  Senior White House adviser David Plouffe on Tuesday accused wealthy Mitt Romney supporters of trying to “purchase the White House,” one day after the presumptive GOP nominee announced a $106 million June fundraising haul that stunned the Obama campaign.

Dem.  Chair Invested in Swiss Banks, Foreign Drug Companies, and the State Bank of India  —  Disclosure forms reveal that Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Florida, previously held funds with investments in Swiss banks, foreign drug companies, and the state bank of India.

Fed Harms Itself by Missing Goals  —  Ben S. Bernanke has made transparency one of the defining themes of his time at the helm of the Federal Reserve.  The virtue of this transparency is that it's easy to evaluate how well the Fed is conducting monetary policy.

BRAD PITT'S MOM IN FEAR AFTER SLAMMING OBAMA  —  Quaking after being attacked for opposing same-sex marriage  —  Jane Pitt, mother of actor Brad Pitt, has been scared into silence by the hate-filled, vulgar and even violent reaction to her public assertion that Barack Obama is …

Chicago Mayor Appeals to Gangsters' ‘Values’: ‘Get Away From That Kid’  —  (CNSNews.com) - If Chicago's street thugs are going to attack each other, they should take their fight away from innocent children, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told the CBS Evening News on Monday.

Political Spending by Unions Far Exceeds Direct Donations  —  Organized labor spends about four times as much on politics and lobbying as generally thought, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, a finding that shines a light on an aspect of labor's political activity that has often been overlooked.

Mayor Bloomberg launches contest to stir development of tiny 300-square-foot apartments for singles  —  Larger than a jail cell, but smaller than mobile home, ministudios will reflect city's changing demographics.  They'll be big enough for bathroom, kitchen, sleeping and dining areas

Formal ethics investigation likely to dog Berkley for duration of Senate campaign  —  Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley was always going to have to face some tough music on the Senate campaign trail over allegations she used her seat in Congress to push for policies and programs that benefited her family's bottom line.

Embattled Dems buck President Obama on taxes  —  President Barack Obama's renewed push to raise taxes on people who make more than $250,000 is facing some strong head winds: Democrats running for Congress in 2012.  —  Several Democrats in critical House and Senate races say they prefer raising taxes …

Romney Courts Black Vote, an Obama Strength in '08  —  Four years ago, Barack Obama captured 96 percent of the black vote.  But this year, in an election in which every vote may matter, Mitt Romney is not giving up on that front.  —  On Wednesday, Mr. Romney will make a pitch …

Cracks Appear in Republican Unity on Health Law Repeal  —  WASHINGTON — A House vote to fully repeal President Obama's health care law was supposed to be the coup de grâce for “Obamacare,” a final sweeping away of a law that Republicans thought the Supreme Court would gut and leave for dead.

Let's Draft Our Kids  —  IN late June, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the former commander of international forces in Afghanistan, called for reinstating the draft.  “I think if a nation goes to war, every town, every city needs to be at risk,” he said at the Aspen Ideas Festival.