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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

57% Would Like to Replace Entire Congress  —  If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, just 25% of voters nationwide would keep the current batch of legislators.  —  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% would vote to replace the entire Congress and start all over again.

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 …

No Government Health Care!  (Except for Mine.)  —  “We need to protect Medicare,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele exhorted last week, “and not cut it in the name of ‘health-insurance reform.’ ” It was a rousing defense of government-run health care from the . . . conservative chairman of the GOP.

MCCAIN ON THE TEEVEE.... When I saw that John McCain was going to be on “Face the Nation,” I assumed it was simply to reflect on Ted Kennedy's legacy in the Senate.  It wasn't. … It's a very weak argument, but it nevertheless offers us another chance to ask why John McCain is making yet another Sunday morning show appearance.

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.

Majority Rule on Health Care Reform  —  The talk in Washington is that Senate Democrats are preparing to push through health care reforms using parliamentary procedures that will allow a simple majority to prevail in their chamber, as it does in the House, instead of the 60 votes needed …

Organizing for America Bus Tour: Manufacturing Consent  —  Denver - August 29 2009 - The Obama administration has sent out Organizing for America - the successor organization of Obama for America, which was Obama's campaign organization, to drum up support for his unpopular Obamacare initiative.

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 …

Israel has Iran in its sights  —  Unless Tehran responds to by late September to international proposals on its nuclear program, history strongly suggests the Israelis will act alone.  —  Iran has until late September to respond to the latest international proposal aimed at stopping …