Reminder: Roman Polanski raped a child  —  Roman Polanski raped a child.  Let's just start right there, because that's the detail that tends to get neglected when we start discussing whether it was fair for the bail-jumping director to be arrested at age 76, after 32 years in “exile” …

FOX-TV CHICAGO ORDERED NOT TO RUN ANTI-OLYMPICS STORY  —  A local TV station that reported on Chicagoans NOT wanting the Olympics has been told NOT to run the report again, insiders tell the DRUDGE REPORT!  —  The Chicago Olympic Committee told FOX Chicago that its broadcast “would harm Chicago's chances” to be awarded the games.

Right-Wing Conference Tells Activists To Get Their Guns Ready For ‘Bloody Battle’ With Obama The Nazi  —  At the How To Take Back America Conference last weekend, conservative speaker Kitty Werthmann led a workshop called “How to recognize living under Nazis & Communists.”

Palin finishes memoir, ‘Going Rogue,’ out Nov. 17  —  NEW YORK — Sarah Palin (PAY'-lin) has finished her memoir just four months after the book deal was announced.  Her publisher says the release date has been moved up from the spring to Nov. 17.  —  Harper publisher Jonathan Burnham …

Secret Service probing Facebook poll on Obama  —  WASHINGTON—The U.S. Secret Service is investigating an online survey that asked whether people thought President Barack Obama should be assassinated, officials said Monday.  —  The poll, posted Saturday on Facebook, was taken off …

U.S. commander in Afghanistan talked with Obama only once  —  The military general credited with capturing Saddam Hussein and killing the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, says he has spoken with President Obama only once since taking command in Afghanistan.

The Public Option Lives On  —  Tuesday is a critical day in the saga of the public option.  Democrats Charles Schumer (New York) and Jay Rockefeller (West Virginia) are introducing an amendment to include the public option in the bill to be reported out by the Senate Finance Committee …

Boxer, Kerry Set to Introduce Climate Bill in Senate  —  Ending some nine months of closed-door deliberations, Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) will release global warming legislation Wednesday that they hope will be the vehicle for broader Senate negotiations and an eventual conference with the House.

Jet halted at LAX; two men are removed by police [Updated]  —  A plane was stopped from taking off from Los Angeles International Airport, and two men on board were taken into custody, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.  —  LAPD Lt. John Romero said the men …

The Limits of Charisma  —  Mr. President, please stay off TV.  —  If ubiquity were the measure of a presidency, Barack Obama would already be grinning at us from Mount Rushmore.  But of course it is not.  Despite his many words and television appearances, our elegant and eloquent president remains …

Daily Beast Seeks to Publish Faster  —  Having ramped up her metabolism from magazines to online journalism with The Daily Beast, Tina Brown now wants to speed up book publishing.  —  In a joint venture with Perseus Books Group, The Daily Beast is forming a new imprint, Beast Books …

24 Blue Dogs Have Said They Support a Public Option  —  The fact that a Blue Dog has supported a public option in the past does not mean that they will support one now — their principles tend to be lobbyist-flexible.  But Nate Silver's number crunching indicates that most of those who have done …

SAUDIS WILL LET ISRAEL BOMB IRAN NUCLEAR SITE  —  INTELLIGENCE chief Sir John Scarlett has been told that Saudi Arabia is ready to allow Israel to bomb Iran's new nuclear site.  —  The head of MI6 discussed the issue in London with Mossad chief Meir Dagan and Saudi officials …

Whitman, Fiorina reject California GOP ‘straw poll’  —  (CNN) - Two Republican statewide candidates in California are touting the results of a state GOP convention straw poll that showed conservative activists overwhelmingly rejecting the gubernatorial bid of former eBay CEO Meg Whitman …

CNN planning life after Larry  —  Larry King's contract with CNN is set to expire in 18 months — and the cable network's chiefs are busy lining up his successor in case he retires.  —  King, 75, has been interviewing celebrities since 1985.  Sources say CNN's first choice to succeed him would be

Cassandras of Climate  —  Every once in a while I feel despair over the fate of the planet.  If you've been following climate science, you know what I mean: the sense that we're hurtling toward catastrophe but nobody wants to hear about it or do anything to avert it.  —  And here's the thing: I'm not engaging in hyperbole.

Obama Administration Engages Sudanese Regime It Blasted  —  EL FASHER, Sudan — The volatility of this East African nation — from the Darfur conflict to the threat of renewed civil war in the south — is becoming a test of how President Obama will reconcile a policy of engagement …

One crucial B. McCaughey update  —  I have deliberately laid off the Betsy McCaughey theme for the past month-plus.  I had my say; she continues to have hers; people can make up their minds.  —  But revelations late last week by Tim Dickinson, of Rolling Stone, are at face value so important that they deserve to be underscored.

Iraq, the unraveling (XXIV): U.S. embassy vs. U.S. military, again  —  American insiders in Baghdad say the relationship between the top U.S. commander there, Gen. Raymond Odierno, and the top civilian official there, Amb.  Christopher Hill, is deteriorating rapidly.

3 teens charged with beating death of ‘innocent bystander’  —  Three teenagers have been charged with beating to death 16-year-old Derrion Albert, an “innocent bystander” who walked into the middle of a street fight between two groups of feuding teens last Thursday, according to prosecutors.

Lack of competitive open seats could hinder GOP election gains  —  Republicans have touted 2010 as their comeback year, but the GOP lacks one key ingredient that could turn a good election night into a great one: open seats to win.  —  In the last three “wave elections,” …

Dead Census worker: Victim of open borders?  —  Two weeks ago, Census taker Bill Sparkman died choking, hands and feet bound, hanging naked from a tree in a remote site in Daniel Boone National Forest in Clay County, Ky. Someone had scrawled “fed” on his chest with a felt-tipped pen.