Report Reveals CIA Conducted Mock Executions  —  A long-awaited report on post-9/11 interrogation tactics will reveal harrowing new details about treatment of suspected terrorists. … A long-suppressed report by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general to be released next week reveals …

Constitutionality of Health Insurance Mandate Questioned  —  President Obama has called for a serious and reasoned debate about his plans to overhaul the health-care system.  Any such debate must include the question of whether it is constitutional for the federal government to adopt and implement the president's proposals.

'I've never seen anything like this'  —  MARIANNA, Fla. — Rep Allen Boyd (D-Fla.) is a skilled politician who has pretty much seen it all — a Deep South Democrat who's managed to dispatch all opponents in his conservative-leaning Panhandle district since winning election in 1996.

Monitors: Taliban cut off fingers of Afghan voters  —  KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) — Making good on a threat of election day violence, the Taliban sliced off the index fingers of at least two people in Kandahar province, according to a vote monitoring group.  —  After they cast their ballots …

Baucus does not represent his state, say Montanans  —  Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 8/17-19.  Likely voters.  MoE 4% (No trend lines)  —  Do you approve or disapprove of Senator Max Baucus' actions on health care?  —  Approve Disapprove Not sure  —  All 42 44 14

Why the Gang of Six is Deciding Health Care for Three Hundred Million of Us  —  Last night, the so-called “gang of six” — three Republican and three Democratic senators on the Senate Finance Committee — met by conference call and, according to Senator Max Baucus, the committee's chair …

Snowe Says No Public Option, White House Says “That's Democracy”  —  The Senate Finance Committee will not include a public option in its health care bill, one of the key Republican negotiators said on Friday — to which the White House responded, with a shrug: “That's democracy.”

“Wars of Necessity”  —  This phrase is getting kicked around a lot lately, I'm sort of in search of an operational definition.  Fortunately, here's Richard Haas: … If that's what people mean by “war of necessity” then I think we can probably do without the phrase.

White House Reveals Identity of Firm That Sent Unsolicited E-Mails on Health Reform  —  The White House revealed to FOX News that it hired a private communications firm to distribute mass e-mails, including unsolicited spam to help sell President Obama's health care plan.  —  FOXNews.com

Pentagon Shift Gives Names of Detainees to Red Cross  —  WASHINGTON — In a reversal of Pentagon policy, the military for the first time is notifying the International Committee of the Red Cross of the identities of militants who were being held in secret at a camp in Iraq and another …

Are You There, God?  It's Me, Charlie  —  Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL) is really taking his appeals to the state's religious right to a new level, in his campaign for Senate.  —  Town Hall reports that Crist was speaking to a group of real estate agents, and credited prayer notes in the Western Wall …

Stimulus hits a pothole  —  And Obamacare can't be rationalized on economic or medical grounds because it's not about that.  It's about moving America left.  —  Recommend  —  The other day, wending my way from Woodsville, N.H., 40 miles south to Plymouth, I came across several “stimulus” …

Critics Driven by Racial Bias, Paterson Says  —  ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson lashed out on Friday at critics who say he should not run for election, and he suggested that he was being undermined by an orchestrated, racially biased effort by the media to force him to step aside.

Obama to raise 10-year deficit to $9 trillion  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration will raise its 10-year budget deficit projection to approximately $9 trillion from $7.108 trillion in a report next week, a senior administration official told Reuters on Friday.