A Palin of Our Own  —  TWO years ago today, Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential nominee, introduced the world to his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.  Chosen by Mr. McCain's campaign strategists as a cynical rejoinder to the ill-starred presidential bid of Hillary Clinton …

Fire at Tenn. Mosque Building Site Ruled Arson  —  Construction Equipment at Site of Planned Islamic Center Torched; Vocal Protests Against Mosque Have Been Ongoing  —  Federal officials are investigating a fire that started overnight at the site of a new Islamic center in a Nashville suburb.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson violated rules, steered scholarships to relatives  —  tgillman@dallasnews.com  —  choppe@dallasnews.com  —  Longtime Dallas congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson has awarded thousands of dollars in college scholarships to four relatives and a top aide's two children since 2005 …

The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party  —  ANOTHER weekend, another grass-roots demonstration starring Real Americans who are mad as hell and want to take back their country from you-know-who.  Last Sunday the site was Lower Manhattan, where they jeered the “ground zero mosque.”

MOVEMENTS ARE ABOUT SOMETHING REAL.... I tried to keep up on today's festivities at the Lincoln Memorial, but as the dust settles, I find myself confused.  —  For a year and a half, we've seen rallies and town-hall shouting and attack ads and Fox News special reports.

The role of information in American “Islamophobia”  —  One theme in the recent MSM hand-wringing about America's alleged “Islamophobia” is the notion that Americans are giving Muslims a more difficult time now than they did in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

For Obama, Steep Learning Curve as Chief in Time of War  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama rushed to the Oval Office when word arrived one night that militants with Al Qaeda in Yemen had been located and that the military wanted to support an attack by Yemeni forces.

Policy Options Dwindle as Economic Fears Grow  —  THE American economy is once again tilting toward danger.  Despite an aggressive regimen of treatments from the conventional to the exotic — more than $800 billion in federal spending, and trillions of dollars worth of credit from the Federal Reserve …

Mosque big owes 224G tax  —  Tweet  —  The mosque developers are tax deadbeats.  —  Sharif El-Gamal, the leading organizer behind the mosque and community center near Ground Zero, owes $224,270.77 in back property tax on the site, city records show.  —  El-Gamal's company …

THERE IS NO SECRET ‘BIG ECONOMIC INITIATIVE,’ BUT THERE COULD BE.... The lead New York Times editorial today begins, “If President Obama has a big economic initiative up his sleeve, as he hinted recently, now would be a good time to let the rest of us in on it.”

Tea Party Making It Harder for GOP: Fla. Dem  —  Wasserman Schultz Says Dems Will Defeat Far-Right-Wingers' Bush-Era Policies; Barbour: Voters Reject “Far to the Left” Dems  —  (CBS) A Democratic Congresswoman said today the potential victory of Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller …

Election 2010: South Carolina Senate  —  South Carolina Senate: DeMint (R) 63%, Greene (D) 19%  —  Republican incumbent Jim DeMint remains far ahead of surprise Democratic nominee Alvin Greene in the U.S. Senate race in South Carolina.  —  A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey …