PREDICTING POLITICIZATION.... It looks like word went out yesterday about what leading conservative voices should say about Ted Kennedy's death: complain about the memorial service that hasn't happened yet. … All of this came the same day Kennedy's death was announced.

Richardson Probe ‘Was Killed in Washington’  —  New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration won't be criminally charged in a federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations.  —  SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members …

Pols eye once-in-a-generation opening  —  The death of Democratic titan Sen. Ted Kennedy, which creates the first Senate opening in Massachusetts in 25 years, is likely to release the pent-up ambitions of a long line of Democrats who will find the upcoming special election hard to pass up.

Steele Confused, Overwhelmed By NPR Interview: 'Now Wait A Minute.  Hold up. ...  You're Trying To Be Cute.'  —  In an interview with Michael Steele, NPR's Steve Inskeep repeatedly asked the RNC chairman to explain why Republicans keep defending Medicare at the same time they claim …

Democratic Health Care Bill Divulges IRS Tax Data  —  Posted by Declan McCullagh One of the problems with any proposed law that's over 1,000 pages long and constantly changing is that much deviltry can lie in the details.  Take the Democrats' proposal to rewrite health care policy …

Key Democrat suggests party moderates ‘brain dead’  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - A key House liberal suggested Thursday that party moderates who've pushed for changes in health care legislation are “brain dead” and out for insurance company campaign donations.  —  Moderate Blue Dog Democrats …

Palin won't show at fundraiser, denies accepting invitation  —  TONIGHT: Spokeswoman says ex-governor was never asked.  —  Organizers of an Anchorage event that has been billing Sarah Palin for weeks as a star speaker were left scrambling Wednesday after learning that the former governor …

Files prove Pentagon is profiling reporters … WASHINGTON — Contrary to the insistence of Pentagon officials this week that they are not rating the work of reporters covering U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Stars and Stripes has obtained documents that prove that reporters' coverage is being graded as “positive,” “neutral” or “negative.”

The Real CIA News  —  Interrogations were carefully limited, briefed on Capitol Hill, and yielded information that saved innocent lives.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Whoever advised people to be skeptical of what they read in the papers must have had in mind this week's coverage of the documents about CIA interrogations.

An Interesting Consequence of United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing: Am I right that the Ninth Circuit's Fourth Amendment decision in United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing has rendered every computer search warrant that has ever been obtained — and every offsite search — unconstitutional?

‘Clunkers’ Generates 690,000 Sales  —  The federal government's month-long “Cash for Clunkers” program ended after having spent almost the entire $3 billion allotted and putting 690,114 new, more fuel-efficient cars on the road, the Transportation Department said Wednesday.

The Stimulus Is Definitely Working?!  —  Proponents ignore both fact and reasoning.  —  The bloviators of the blogosphere have been in full roar the past few weeks over the claimed success of the economic stimulus program.  Much of this was ignited by Christina Romer …

‘Cruel and neglectful’ care of one million NHS patients exposed  —  One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today.  —  In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands …

Support for Health Care Legislation Has Stopped Falling, But Most Still Opposed  —  As August winds down, the good news for President Obama and congressional Democrats is that support for their proposed health care legislation has stopped falling.  The bad news is that most voters oppose the plan.

Elle Macpherson Can't Counter London Gloom as Americans Flee  —  Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — Andrew Wesbecher moved to London from New York in 2006 to sell software to banks and hedge funds.  This month he joined the exodus of American expatriates fleeing high taxes and the city's shrinking financial industry.

Ted Kennedy death gets expected coverage from cable news networks  —  To the casual viewer, cable news coverage of Sen. Edward Kennedy's death Wednesday lined up as neatly as the punch line in a joke about the alleged political agendas of those channels.  —  Starting from the safe premise …

Landrieu says she would likely oppose government insurance option  —  U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu told a relatively friendly overflow Monroe Chamber of Commerce crowd that she would likely oppose any government insurance option in health care reform and lobby against a proposed energy tax known as Cap and Trade.

Obtained: The RNC's Health Care Survey  —  I just chatted with Raymond Denny, the 64-year-old La Center, Wash., man who received the RNC's “2009 Future of American Health Survey,” which alleged that President Obama's health reform plans might discriminate against Republicans.  Here's the survey question:

The Secret Government  —  It is now clear that we are facing an implacable enemy whose avowed objective is world domination by whatever means and at whatever cost.  There are no rules in such a game.  Hitherto acceptable norms of human conduct do not apply.

The Spend-And-Borrow Economy  —  What's the exit strategy from the monetary and fiscal easing?  —  In the last few months the world economy has been saved from a near-depression.  That feat has been achieved by a range of extraordinary government stimulus measures: In the U.S. and in China …

How will the Tories run UK foreign policy?  —  A default conversation starter in political and media circles here in London goes something like “So, what will the Conservatives actually do once they take power next June?” (the assumption being that victory is inevitable; at the least very likely).