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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

“I pledge to be of service to Barack Obama”  —  As if I needed any more evidence to bolster today's column about the Obama junior lobbyist campaign in America's schools, here's another item fresh from the headlines in Utah:

G.O.P. Support May Be Vital to Obama on Afghan War  —  WASHINGTON — As President Obama prepares to decide whether to send additional troops to Afghanistan, the political climate appears increasingly challenging for him, leaving him in the awkward position of relying on the Republican Party, and not his own, for support.

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 …

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.”

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.

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.

Buchanan's Apologia for Hitler  —  As if some neocon were setting out to parody dovish thinking on contemporary issues, paleocon Pat Buchanan has gone and written a “blame Britian first” account of the origins of World War II.  Apparently, according to Buchanan, Hitler was just seeking …

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?

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.

Greer Condemns Obama's Attempt to Indoctrinate Students  —  Tallahassee- Â Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer today released the following statement condemning President Obama's use of taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America's children to his socialist agenda.