Liberal Suicide March  —  It was interesting to watch the Republican Party lose touch with America.  You had a party led by conservative Southerners who neither understood nor sympathized with moderates or representatives from swing districts.  —  They brought in pollsters to their party conferences …

DEMOCRAT CARNAHAN DISMISSES BLACK MAN AT TOWNHALL  —  Yesterday, I attended a townhall meeting on healthcare with Representative Russ Carnahan, where he dissed this black constituent.  For those of you unfamiliar with Missouri politics, the new breed of Carnahans are those who are riding …

AP NewsBreak: Palin implicated in ethics probe  —  ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An independent investigator has found evidence that Gov. Sarah Palin may have violated ethics laws by accepting private donations to pay her legal debts.  —  The report obtained by The Associated Press says Palin …

Should The GOP Take The Birther Threat Seriously?  Rush Does....  That's the thesis of the First Readers of NBC News, after viewing this astonishing clip from a town hall meeting that Rep. Mike Castle held in Delaware for his constituents.  What's most notable, to me, at least …

20 questions for the President's press conference  —  President Obama is scheduled to hold a press conference tomorrow (Wednesday) evening at 8 PM EDT.  —  I hope the questions are better than the one asked by Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times at the President's 100-day press conference on April 30th:

Gates Says He Is Outraged by Arrest at Cambridge Home  —  Prominent Black Professor Says He Will Use Experience to Further Academic Work  —  Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's most prominent scholars of African-American history, cast his recent arrest in his home in Cambridge …

Facing Blue Dog Rebellion, House Energy and Commerce Committee Cancels Markup for 2nd Day in a Row  —  At 5:54 pm ET the news came: “The Energy and Commerce Markup of H.R. 3200 - America's Affordable Health Choices Act for 7-22-09 has been CANCELLED.  —  Not a good sign for the Democrats trying …

Bowing to Veto Threat, Senate Blocks Money for Warplanes  —  WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 58-40 on Tuesday to strip $1.75 billion for seven more F-22 fighters from a military spending bill, handing President Obama a crucial victory in his efforts to reshape the military's priorities.

Dobbs wonders whether President Obama is undocumented.  —  Today, Political Wire posted a clip of an episode of Lou Dobbs' radio show in which he not only questions President Obama's citizenship and promotes the bizarre right-wing “birther” theory, but also insinuates that Obama might be undocumented:

Obama's birth: ‘Appeasing the nut-cases’  —  Listen to the cheers for the woman holding up her birth certificate and asking why the president won't share his.  —  Listen to the boos when a Republican congressman asserts rather assuredly that the president of the United States, a Democrat …

State budget deal reduces prison inmates by 27,000  —  The plan accomplishes this with a combination of measures, including having some prisoners complete sentences at home and shortening terms for those who finish rehabilitation programs.  —  Reporting from Sacramento …

Obama's Ominous Implication: Euthanasia of the Elderly May Be Necessary  —  Gee, socialized medicine sounds great — don't you think so, grandma and grandpa? … In other words, faceless bureaucrats in Washington — not your family — will decide whether your grandparents live or die.

‘Huckabee to air Fox News show from disputed East Jerusalem site’  —  Former U.S. presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee plans to broadcast his weekend show on Fox News from the site of a disputed Israeli construction project in East Jerusalem, a New York politician has told Haaretz.

DeMint: Obama ‘Played Right Into My Hands’  —  Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) stands by his comment that health care will be President Obama's Waterloo, a comment Obama derided in a health care speech yesterday.  —  “I think he played right into my hands,” DeMint told Neil Cavuto on Fox News this afternoon …

Benjamin: Too Heavy to Be Nation's Top Doc?  —  Leading Experts Say Dr. Benjamin, Though Stellar Nominee, Gives Wrong Message  —  Dr. Regina M. Benjamin, Obama's pick for the next surgeon general, was hailed as a MacArthur Grant genius who had championed the poor at a medical clinic she set up in Katrina-ravaged Alabama.

Waterless urinals miss the mark?  —  State workers say new devices leading to splashes, stink  —  ALBANY — The Department of Environmental Conservation's effort to maintain eco-friendly bathrooms at its downtown headquarters has made quite a splash but not in the way the state intended.

More Disapprove Than Approve of Obama on Healthcare  —  President is rated higher on international than on domestic issues  —  PRINCETON, NJ — As the debate over healthcare reform intensifies, the latest USA Today/Gallup poll finds that more Americans disapprove (50%) than approve (44%) …

Mayo Clinic calls House plan bad medicine  —  Obama loses support on reform  —  A world-renowned clinic that President Obama held up as an example of good medicine said Monday that the American people would be “losers” under the House's health care proposal, joining the growing chorus …

Top Earners' Pay Erodes Social Security  —  Fund Expected to Be Exhausted in 2037  —  The nation's wealth gap is widening amid an uproar about lofty pay packages in the financial world.  —  Executives and other highly compensated employees now receive more than one-third of all pay in the U.S. …

Why America Shouldn't “Buy American”  —  Is your iPod unpatriotic?  —  Its 451 parts are made in dozens of nations, and creating the little doodads employs thousands of foreigners.  Final assembly is done in China—a country that right-wingers and left-wingers alike fear is an economic threat to the U.S.

Why American drivers should learn to love the roundabout.  —  Here is a narrative that has been playing out over the last several years in any number of American towns: Traffic engineers notice that a particular intersection has a crash problem or is moving traffic inefficiently.

Obama: Health care shouldn't be political  —  President also addresses Brazil custody fight, Wall Street — and those jeans  —  President Barack Obama admitted that there is not enough money in the system to pay for medical coverage for the 46 million Americans who have none …

Sex and power inside “the C Street House”  —  Sanford, Ensign, and other regulars receive guidance from the invisible fundamentalist group known as the Family  —  Editor's note: Sharlet is the author of the bestselling “The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.”

Huckabee event left candidate in the red  —  One of the most curious fundraising reports of the second quarter came from Republican Les Phillip, who is looking to challenge Rep. Parker Griffith (D-Ala.) in a top national race.  —  If you've heard of Phillip, it's probably …

Obama: Stop Clinging to Failure America  —  Remember last April when then candidate Obama was recorded making a statement at a fundraiser in a posh section of San Francisco: … Well, now he's added health care to the list of things Americans cling to.  Watch:  —  Click here to view the embedded video.