Obama Aides Aim to Simplify and Scale Back Health Bills  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to address a joint session of Congress next week in an effort to rally support for health care legislation as White House officials look for ways to simplify and scale back the major Democratic bills …

Man's Finger Bitten Off in Scuffle at Health Care Rally  —  THOUSAND OAKS — A 65-year-old man had his finger bitten off Wednesday evening at a health care rally in Thousand Oaks, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.  —  Sheriff's investigators were called to Hillcrest and Lynn Road at 7:26 p.m.

WH withdraws call for students to ‘help’ Obama  —  The Obama administration late Wednesday withdrew a recommendation that school children who watch a video featuring President Obama next week write about how they might “help the president” as part of a classroom assignment.

Accountability, but at What Cost?  —  My friend and fellow columnist Eugene Robinson has written a characteristically passionate and well-reasoned piece commending Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to name a special counsel to examine possible law-breaking by interrogators of terrorist subjects during the last administration.

Kennedy Memoir Doesn't Ignore Lows  —  In a memoir being published this month, Senator Edward M. Kennedy called his behavior after the 1969 car accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne “inexcusable” and said the events might have shortened the life of his ailing father, Joseph P. Kennedy.

Sentenced to death on the NHS  —  Patients with terminal illnesses are being made to die prematurely under an NHS scheme to help end their lives, leading doctors warn today.  —  In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, a group of experts who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged as close to death.

Setback in Afghanistan  —  LAST MONTH we expected that Afghanistan's elections would mark a modest step forward for the country.  Now it appears that they could be a major reverse.  Though the election campaign was positive in many respects, Election Day itself is emerging as a disaster …

Extremism in Media's Glare  —  Health-care reform is said to be in trouble partly because of those raucous August town-hall meetings in which Democratic members of Congress were besieged by shouters opposed to change.  —  But what if our media-created impression of the meetings is wrong?

Vodkapundit: Keep your kid home from school for Obama's speech  —  Really?  One pap-filled 20-minute speech about working hard and serving others is so lethal a threat to tender minds that they have to be yanked off the premises for the day to shield them from it?

Obama and the Perfect Political Storm  —  It's hard to sell change voters don't think they need.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  August was the worst month of Barack Obama's presidency.  And he seems to know it—he is now planning to deliver a speech to a joint session of Congress 232 days …

I have been abducted by aliens, says Japan's first lady  —  Move over Michelle, watch your backs, Carla and Sarah.  There's a new kid on the first lady block, and she looks like upstaging the lot of you.  —  Miyuki Hatoyama, wife of Japan's Prime Minister-elect, Yukio Hatoyama …

9/11 Ad for WWF Causes Tsunami of a Crisis for DDB Brasil  —  Apology Doesn't Stave Off Global Compensation; Video Version Surfaces  —  An obscure ad that ran once in a small Sao Paulo newspaper months ago has come back to haunt DDB Brasil and its conservation client, the WWF in Brazil …

Schilling ineligible to run as Republican  —  Former Red Sox pitching ace Curt Schilling may be making noises about running for the Senate to succeed the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) but, according to Massachusetts election law, he's ineligible to run as a Republican.

The Revolt of the Masses  —  Electorates are casting a global no-confidence vote in their leaderships.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  When the political world arrives at the point where even the Japanese rise up to toss a party from office after almost 54 years in power, it's time to see something's happening here, Mr. Jones.

SPITZER'S BABE SLAPS THE SNOBS  —  TELLS WOMEN: YOU'RE NO BETTER THAN ME!  —  The high-paid escort who notoriously romped with disgraced ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer has a message to New York ladies: You're no better than me!  —  “Get real and get over yourself,” Ashley Dupre bluntly tells all the women out there who “just love to judge.”

STAFF AS ‘FORGETFUL’ AS THE BOSS  —  WASHINGTON — Charlie Rangel's “forgetfulness” is apparently contagious.  —  Two of his top aides are among about a dozen highly paid staffers on the powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee who have filed a flurry of amendments correcting their financial-disclosure statements since 2002.

The looming political war over Afghanistan  —  There was a time, not all that long ago, when the U.S. pretended that it viewed war only as a “last resort,” something to be used only when absolutely necessary to defend the country against imminent threats.  In reality, at least since the creation …

Poll: Guinta Gains on Shea-Porter after ‘Calamitous August’  —  Manchester Mayor and Republican congressional candidate Frank Guinta has pulled within the margin of error against embattled incumbent Democratic Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, a new NowHampshire.com poll shows.

Glenn Beck Finds “Communist” Art At NBC Headquarters At Rockefeller Center (VIDEO)  —  If you thought Glenn Beck's conspiracy theories couldn't get any more bizarre, you obviously don't watch that much Glenn Beck.  —  This time Beck is taking shots at the titan of American capitalism …

The Revenge of Levi  —  For the first time in my life, I feel sympathy for Sarah Palin.  —  Levi Johnston — you will remember him from his featured role as the father of Bristol's baby at the Republican convention — has written an article for the new issue of Vanity Fair.

Video: Rep. Pete Stark tells interviewer, “Get the f**k out of here or I'll throw you out the window”  —  Longtime readers of this blog are well aware of California Democrat Rep. Pete Stark (Raving Mad)'s unhingedness.  —  He has called a Republican opponent a “c**ksucker” …

MSNBC's Schultz: ‘I Believe Jesus Would Vote Yes for a Public Option’  —  What would Jesus do?  Well, Ed Schultz thinks he knows - that is on health care reform at least.  —  Schultz, on his Sept. 2 MSNBC program, “The ED Show” told viewers he believed Jesus would vote for a government public option.