The public option is dead. Long live the public option. That’s the situation now prevailing on a key sticking point in health care reform. GOPers hate the public option because they say it would symbolize the Obama administration’s encroachment into the private sector and be a huge step into socialized medicine. Democrats are split, with some progressives nearly making support of the public option in voting a litmus test for “real” Democrats akin to what Republicans conservatives...

As we noted two weeks ago, there has been considerable speculation that CNN’s Lou Dobbs is seeking to jump ship to Fox Business News — speculation that increased after he met with Fox News chief Roger Ailes. The latest development: Not if Fox’s Geraldo Rivera has anything to do about it. Geraldo even reportedly called Ailes who he says assured him it ain’t gonna happen (which does not mean 100 percent that it ain’t gonna happen…) Rivera has and is one of Dobb’s...

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It’s now official and in a stage beyond just warnings: President Barack Obama has declared swine flu a national emergency: President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation declaring swine flu a national emergency, the White House said Saturday. “In keeping with the administration’s proactive approach to H1N1 Flu, President Obama last night signed a proclamation declaring 2009-H1N1 Influenza a national emergency,” it said in a statement. “The proclamation enhances the...

Here’s a truly unflappable newscaster from Australia:

If you had any doubts that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin intends to run for President in 2012 and her upcoming book wasn’t enough for you, then here’s a second sign: she has sided with the party’s conservative activist base against the Republican party establishment to endorse the conservative party’s candidate in a closely watched New York state race. The LA Times’ Andrew Malcolm has one of the best takes on it: Sarah Palin, who a few people may recall was the vice...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly told the press that she has the votes for a robust public option — but a report in The Politico contends she has now run into trouble: Speaker Nancy Pelosi counted votes Thursday night and determined she could not pass a “robust public option” — the most aggressive of the three forms of a public option House Democrats have been considering as part of a national overhaul of health care. Pelosi’s decision—coupled with a significant turn...

Pie-throwing TV Golden Age comedian Soupy Sales has died at 83 — one more tidbit of news that signifies an end of an era for Baby Boomers but also the end of a personal story about an entertainer who had a rare gift: he did a show ostensibly aimed at kids that was loved and adored by many teens, college age kids and adults. And his adult fans included some of the biggest movers and shakers of show biz of his era. What was it about Sales? Most of the obits call him “rubbery faced”...

Just watch this video of 4 Year-Old hip hop dancer Miles Brown on the Ellen Show: Of course hip hop music is popular with ALL ages. Here’s a senior choir performing a medley of hip-hop:

There has been increasing speculation that Indiana Rep. Mike Pence is gearing up to run for the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination. But we now have proof? It certainly sounds like he is actively bowing down to courting Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

You wonder what bet the odds makers in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home state of Nevada are placing on his re-election, given his sagging poll numbers and unflattering political news such as this: Thirteen Democrats joined all 40 Republicans to block a permanent repeal of Medicare’s payment formula for doctors, with lawmakers concluding the legislation’s $247 billion 10-year price tag was too steep in an era of record deficits. The so-called “doc fix” is a near-annual...

The makers of Taser have now issued a warning to police: don’t aim the stun guns at suspects’ chests or it could be hazardous to their health (like, fatal)… The maker of Taser stun guns is advising police officers to avoid shooting suspects in the chest with the 50,000-volt weapon, saying that it could pose an extremely low risk of an “adverse cardiac event.” The advisory, issued in an Oct. 12 training bulletin, is the first time that Taser International has suggested...

A new Gallup Poll finds President Barack Obama’s approval rating sliped nine points during his third quarter — and he set a record of sorts…but not one the White House is likely to tout: In Gallup Daily tracking that spans Barack Obama’s third quarter in office (July 20 through Oct. 19), the president averaged a 53% job approval rating. That is down sharply from his prior quarterly averages, which were both above 60%. In fact, the 9-point drop in the most recent quarter is...

House Democrats reportedly continue to fine-tune the pricetag.

More troubling news from the anti-terrorism. front. How serious is the situation now in Pakistan? So serious that the government has temporarily closed schools due to bombings: Pakistan closed schools nationwide for five days after suicide bombers struck a university in the capital, a step that may further erode public tolerance for the country’s Islamic militant movement. “Educational institutions under the federal government are all closed” following the bombings that killed five people...

The White House has stirred up a hornets’ nest of controversy in its “war” against Fox News (see our many posts here on TMV by scrolling down). Some call it a major political mistake. But the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, who was also critical of the White House, has begun to think that the White House may be “crazy like a fox…”

Our political Quote of the Day comes from the a Chris Cillizza Washington Post piece on a new poll which he notes has some big, fat, warning flags to Republicans who think that they have Barack Obama and the Demmies on the political ropes: Republicans in Washington can barely contain their glee at the turn of President Obama’s political fortunes in the first nine months of the year but a new Washington Post/ABC News poll suggests the GOP still faces serious perception problems in the eyes...

Last week we ran this post giving excerpts from Caroline Glick’s an intriguing article on RealClearWorld asking whether Turkey has left the West to join up with the Iranian axis. Now Steven Taylor, aka, Poliblogger has his own response. Here is a small part of it: Until Turkey quits NATO, rescinds its request to join the EU, and makes a public statement about joining Iran, any talk about the Turkey being “lost to the West” is absurd on its face. The longer, more involved, response: This...

Are new tensions about to swirl around Afghanistan? At a time when President Barack Obama and his advisers are huddled in comprehensive reviews of the war and what do do next, recent elections and the next phase of U.S. involvement, the New York Times reports that an audit of election results submitted today “appeared likely to show that President Hamid Karzai had won about 48 percent.” Attributing this tidbit to a “Western official familiar with: the results — which could...

If you thought the “balloon boy” story would float away, think again. With the latest news that a key law enforcement official has now branded the nationally covered incident a hoax, it will be more in the news than ever. Scroll below to read our blog posts, but here’s a cross section videos showing of how some of the news organizations are covering the latest news. Sheriff Jim Alderden of Larimer County calls it a hoax (CNN): Embedded video from CNN Video CNN’s earlier report...

If you were a fan of Luis Miguel Rocha’s best-seller The Last Pope, here’s the good news and the bad news about his latest thriller, The Holy Bullet: THE GOOD NEWS It’s a fast-paced amusement park ride for the mind — fast-paced with an intricate plot. It’s another great book from the Portugal-born Rocha. THE BAD NEWS: It’s a book you won’t want to put down. You’ll likely stay up later than you want once you start it. Some of the reviews for this book...

Has Turkey been lost to the West? Caroline Glick thinks so: Once the apotheosis of a pro-Western, dependable Muslim democracy, this week Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis. It isn’t that Ankara’s behavior changed fundamentally in recent days. There is nothing new in its massive hostility toward Israel and its effusive solicitousness toward the likes of Syria and Hamas. Since the Islamist AKP party first won control over the Turkish...

Pakistan is pressing its military battle against Taliban forces that seek to destabilize its government — and the region — into Taliban strongholds. in recent recent weeks, Taliban forces have staged a series of stunning attacks and now the Pakistan government seems to be saying in effect “it’s our turn.” Meanwhile, in Washington, recent Taliban bombings in Pakistan have been so dramatic that analysts say the violence is likely to be taken into account when President...

Fats Waller was one of the greatest jazz performers and showmen of the early-mid 20th century. Here he is performing his song “This Joint Is Jumpin” And one of his most delightful songs: “Your Feets Too Big”: Even though he died of double-pneumonia while on a train trip in 1943, he left a substantial recorded legacy that we can still enjoy.

A major story is breaking on the East Coast in New York City — a brutal gay beating hate crime that was caught on video tape. The victim, 49-year-old Jack Price, crawled to his apartment and managed to call police and identify his attackers before being rushed to a hospital where he is reportedly in a medically induced coma with multiple serious injuries. Here is the AP raw video embedded on You Tube offered with the embed codes (which means the AP allows for it to be embedded): Here’s...