memeorandum: A Missing Ingredient in Health-Care Coverage (Andrew Alexander/Washington Post)

11:20 AM ET, August 30, 2009

Top Items:

Lockerbie bomber ‘set free for oil’ — The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.

Discussion: Guardian, Raw Story, Liberty Street, Wizbang, Conservative Dallas, Don Surber, The Corner on National …, Gateway Pundit and Jules Crittenden

Times of London:
Secret letters reveal Labour's Libyan deal

Discussion: Moe_Lane's blog

Amy Gardner / Washington Post:

Va. Candidate McDonnell Says Views Changed Since He Wrote Thesis — Va. GOP Candidate Wrote on Women, Marriage and Gays — At age 34, two years before his first election and two decades before he would run for governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell submitted a master's thesis …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Blue Virginia and Pam's House Blend

Eleanor Clift / Newsweek:

All The Senator's Women … From the magazine issue dated Sep 7, 2009 — The city editor at a small daily in Iowa sent a reporter out last week to gather reminiscences of Senator Kennedy. “Be sure to ask about Chappaquiddick,” he said, a request that drew a blank look.

Discussion: National Review, Hot Air, Althouse, Pajamas Media and Townhall.com

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

BEATS ME.... Kevin Drum recommends we take a moment to get “back to basics.” … Reading this, it reminded me just how challenging the right's sales pitch was going into the debate over reform. In some ways, conservatives couldn't possibly win the argument — the status quo is ridiculous.

Discussion: Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! and MoJo Blog Posts

Washington Post:

Ex-Intelligence Officials Cite Low Spirits at CIA — IG Report's Release, Looming Investigation Into Detainee Interrogations Blamed — Morale has sagged at the CIA following the release of additional portions of an inspector general's review of the agency's interrogation program …

Discussion: Right Wing News and Emptywheel

Scott Shane / New York Times:

A.C.L.U. Lawyers Mine Documents for Truth — WASHINGTON — In the spring of 2003, long before Abu Ghraib or secret prisons became part of the American vocabulary, a pair of recently hired lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union noticed a handful of news reports about allegations of abuse of prisoners in American custody.

Discussion: Balkinization

Now! Hampshire:

Shea-Porter Instructs Security to Remove a Former Peace Officer from Town Hall — In four short years Carol Shea-Porter has evolved from a rabble-rousing, town hall disrupting anti-war activist who once had to be forcibly removed from a President George Bush event in Portsmouth to a Member …

Discussion: Redhot

Las Vegas Review-Journal:

SHERMAN FREDERICK: Enough is enough, Harry — Stop the childish bullying — This newspaper traces its roots to before Las Vegas was Las Vegas. — We've seen cattle ranches give way to railroads. We chronicled the construction of Hoover Dam. We reported on the first day of legalized gambling.

Discussion: Glenn Thrush's Blog and Doug Ross

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

It's come to this: Dems task Teddy's grandson with leading funeral prayer for ObamaCare — The boss has been writing about the left's use of kids as sympathetic “human shields” for their policies for years and years, but even so, I'm amazed. I thought the moral authority of the religious setting …

Discussion: RedState, The Mahablog, Flopping Aces, The Western Experience, Patterico's Pontifications, Scared Monkeys, theblogprof, Sister Toldjah, Macsmind, Pundit & Pundette and protein wisdom

Motoko Rich / New York Times:

Students Get New Assignment: Pick Books You Like — JONESBORO, Ga. — For years Lorrie McNeill loved teaching “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Harper Lee classic that many Americans regard as a literary rite of passage. — But last fall, for the first time in 15 years, Ms. McNeill, 42, did not assign “Mockingbird” — or any novel.

Discussion: Jezebel, On Deadline and Eschaton

New York Post:

LI ‘OBAMA CARE’ PLOY IN ROBBERY — Three people posed as insurance agents hawking President Obama's health-care reform plan to gain entry to a Long Island home, where they pistol-whipped, shot and robbed two women and a man, authorities said. — Vance Jackson, 46, of Yonkers …

Discussion: Don Surber and NY Daily News

Jesse Lee / WhiteHouse.gov Blog:

Eulogy for a Lion — (President Barack Obama attends the funeral mass for Senator Edward Kennedy at the Basilica of — Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston, Massachusetts, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2009. — Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy) — The President's full remarks …

Discussion: Gothamist

New York Times:
Edward Kennedy Jr.'s Remembrance of Senator Kennedy

Discussion: DISSENTING JUSTICE, CNN, The Moderate Voice and TalkLeft

Steven Ertelt / LifeNews.com Pro-Life Headlines:

Terri Schiavo's Father Robert Schindler Dies, Pro-Life Group Mourns His Death — St. Petersburg, FL (LifeNews.com) — Robert Schindler, the father of Terri Schiavo, whose former husband subjected her to a painful 13-day starvation and dehydration death, died overnight.

Discussion: BizzyBlog, Michelle Malkin and The Corner on National …

Washington Post:

How a Detainee Became An Asset — Sept. 11 Plotter Cooperated After Waterboarding — By Peter Finn, Joby Warrick and Julie Tate, Page A01 — After enduring the CIA's harshest interrogation methods and spending more than a year in the agency's secret prisons, Khalid Sheik Mohammed stood …