False ‘Death Panel’ Rumor Has Some Familiar Roots  —  WASHINGTON — The stubborn yet false rumor that President Obama's health care proposals would create government-sponsored “death panels” to decide which patients were worthy of living seemed to arise from nowhere in recent weeks.

Republican Death Trip  —  “I am in this race because I don't want to see us spend the next year re-fighting the Washington battles of the 1990s.  I don't want to pit Blue America against Red America; I want to lead a United States of America.”  So declared Barack Obama in November 2007 …

Climate Change Measure Should Be Set Aside, U.S. Senators Say  —  Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Senate should abandon efforts to pass legislation curbing greenhouse-gas emissions this year and concentrate on a narrower bill to require use of renewable energy, four Democratic lawmakers say.

GOP thinks the unthinkable: Victory in 2010  —  It's a possibility many Republicans speak of only in whispers and Democrats are just now beginning to face.  After passionate and contentious fights over health care, the environment, and taxes, could Democrats lose big — really big — in next year's elections?

Host Loses Some Sponsors After an Obama Remark  —  ABOUT a dozen companies have withdrawn their commercials from “Glenn Beck,” the Fox News Channel program, after Glenn Beck, the person, said late last month that President Obama was a racist with a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.”

Fear for Obama's Safety Grows as Hate Groups Thrive on Racial Backlash  —  Violent Signs, Gun, Standoff Latest in Emerging Anger Towards the President  —  Experts who track hate groups across the U.S. are growing increasingly concerned over violent rhetoric targeted at President Obama …

Was Whole Foods CEO's Op-Ed in Bad Taste?  —  Branding Experts Say CEOs Should Stay Quiet When It Comes to Politics  —  Joshua has been taking the bus to his local Whole Foods in New York City every five days for the past two years.  This week, he said he'll go elsewhere to fulfill his fresh vegetable and organic produce needs.

Edwards' Love Child: Mandatory Gloating Edition  —  Edwards' Second Edifice of Lies Collapses: Just when you are no longer all that interested in the John Edwards love child story—because the truth is kind of obvious—he goes and reportedly decides to admit paternity, allegedly after a DNA assesment.

Boswell: Obama willing to be one-term president  —  Congressman Leonard Boswell (D-Des Moines, Iowa) held a town hall meeting in Sigourney this afternoon.  Despite one group's ad which “thanks Boswell for his support” of health care reform, Boswell told the crowd he may vote against it.

Stamford Marriott claims woman was negligent in her own rape  —  STAMFORD — A downtown hotel being sued by a woman raped at gunpoint in its parking garage is claiming she was careless, negligent and “failed to exercise due care for her own safety and the safety of her children and proper use …

Why I Interrupted Bill Clinton's Speech at Netroots Nation  —  I love Bill Clinton, but we all make mistakes.  Sometimes we even are forced to do things we don't want to.  That's why I was prepared to ask Bill Clinton a tough question last night as he delivered the opening keynote address at Netroots Nation 2009.

From ‘Yes, We Can,’ to 'No!  Don't!'  —  Obama turns out to be brilliant at becoming, not being, president.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Don't strain the system.  Don't add to the national stress level.  Don't pierce when you can envelop.  Don't show even understandable indignation when you can show legitimate regard.

Newt's advice for Palin comeback  —  If Sarah Palin wants to make a 2012 political comeback, she'll need three types of speeches, some serious television face time, a credible organization and a bucket load of sheer determination.  —  Oh, and she might want to get a place outside of Alaska, somewhere in the lower 48.

Obama's Senior Moment  —  Why the elderly are right to worry when the government rations medical care.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Elderly Americans are turning out in droves to fight ObamaCare, and President Obama is arguing back that they have nothing to worry about.  Allow us to referee.

‘Squeaky’ Fromme released from prison  —  (CNN) — Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme was released from federal custody Friday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons said.  —  Fromme was convicted in 1975 of pointing a gun at then-President Gerald Ford in Sacramento, California.

Ørsted gets Google Doodled  —  Thanks to Google, hundreds of millions of people are today celebrating Hans Christian Ørsted's birthday without having much of a clue who he is ... so who exactly was he?  —  Probably not even the physics geeks remember much about Hans Christian Ørsted …

Toxic Loans Topping 5% May Push 150 Banks to Point of No Return  —  Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) — More than 150 publicly traded U.S. lenders own nonperforming loans that equal 5 percent or more of their holdings, a level that former regulators say can wipe out a bank's equity and threaten its survival.

Income Inequality Is At An All-Time High: STUDY  —  Income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high, surpassing even levels seen during the Great Depression, according to a recently updated paper by University of California, Berkeley Professor Emmanuel Saez.

Hundreds come out to rally in Jackson over health-care reform … Supporters of health-care reform drowned out the cries of opposition Thursday afternoon as the two sides took the heated debate to U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer's front door.  —  About 400 people — both opponents and proponents …

Iran inmates ‘tortured to death’  —  One of Iran's defeated opposition presidential candidates has said some protesters held after July's disputed poll were tortured to death in prison.  —  The claim by Mehdi Karroubi comes days after he said a number of prisoners, both male and female, had been raped.

E-mails from public overload House Web site  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - Amid a boisterous debate on health care reform, people flooded members of Congress on Thursday with so many e-mails that they overloaded the House's primary Web site.  —  Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the House's chief administrative officer …

Obama visits Mountain West, knowing vulnerability  —  DENVER (AP) - Perhaps no region of the country better illustrates Barack Obama's political vulnerabilities than the mountain West, a region traditionally wary of the federal government.  —  He's hoping to ease some of those concerns …

Trib boss Zell on way out  —  Sam Zell's days as a media titan in Chicago are nearly over.  —  The motorcycle-riding billionaire, renowned for his deft touch with real estate and corporate turnarounds, took Tribune Co. private in late 2007 promising to energize the lumbering company.

Morning Fix: Polling the Town Halls  —  The protests that have dominated town halls — and news coverage — for the first two weeks of this month are being closely followed by much of the country and are largely regarded as appropriate, according to several surveys on the events released in the last forty-eight hours.

Facing health care oblivion, the Left finally wonders: “Who really is Barack Obama?” … Yup.  It's heart-ache.  —  Take it away, Michael Brenner. … That last part may be a little too harsh, because it's clear that there's at least one thing Barack Obama is fully and fixatedly convinced of: himself.

Mixed News for Burr  —  PPP's monthly look at Richard Burr's popularity brings good news and bad news for the first term Senator.  —  First the good news:  —He now leads 42-35 when tested against a generic Democrat.  That's an improvement from June when he trailed 41-38 on that measure and July when he led just 40-38.