[Illustration by ALEX FINE] WASHINGTON POST: President Obama signaled that he would extol the value of a “public option” in health insurance reform when he addresses Congress Wednesday night on the issue but that he would stop short of threatening to veto a bill that does not include the provision. Obama’s much-anticipated nationally televised speech to a joint session of Congress at 8 p.m. Eastern time is aimed at providing details and clarification on where he stands as he attempts to push through an overhaul of a system that he says threatens to drag down the U.S. economy over time […]

[Photo by VIOLINSOLDIER] THE TELEGRAPH: General Stanley McChrystal tried to contact his subordinates after a Nato strike killed 125 civilians, but too many had been “partying it up” and could not be raised. General McChrystal, head of International Forces in Afghanistan (Isaf), has since put a stop to drinking, admonishing staff for not having “their heads in the right place” on Friday morning a few hours after the attack, the Times reports. The diktat means that the coffee shops and bars where commanders used to be able to enjoy a beer or three will now be dry. The Isaf headquarters […]

WASHINGTON POST: One of a national series of rallies for health-care reform took a violent turn Wednesday night when, according to authorities in Thousand Oaks, Calif., an unidentified man bit off the tip of another man’s pinky finger. The Thousand Oaks event attracted only about 100 people — a small group compared to the turnout at congressional town halls, which have drawn up to 1,500 people. But their passions were running high, and when a supporter of health-care reform wound up among a group of about 25 counter-protesters, an argument and fistfight broke out, Ventura County Sheriff’s Capt. Frank O’Hanlon […]

MyFOXPhoenix: A Phoenix-area pastor has started to draw protesters to his congregation after he delivered a sermon titled, “Why I Hate Barack Obama,” and told his parishioners that he prays for President Obama’s death. Pastor Steven Anderson stood by his sermon in an interview with MyFOXPhoenix, which reports that the pastor continues to encourage his parishioners to join him in praying for the president’s death. “I hope that God strikes Barack Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy and I hope it happens today,” he told MyFOXPhoenix on Sunday. He called his message “spiritual warfare” and […]

[By Brian McFadden via BIGFATWHALE.COM] PREVIOUSLY: THE TOWNHALL TEMPER TANTRUMS WILL BE TELEVISED PREVIOUSLY: TEABAGGED: ‘Outrage’ At Constitution Center Staged By Goon Squad Hired By Lobbyists For Big Medical PREVIOUSLY: Wall St. Dancing On The Grave Of The Public Option

[Click image to enlarge] HUFFINGTON POST: In a nod to the House Republicans who devised a chart supposedly showing the bureaucratic nightmare that would result from Democratic health care reforms, the Campaign for America’s Future has devised a chart of its own, titled “Who’s Paying to Kill Health Reform?” It’s a tangled web, with big lobbying firms, industry groups, and Astroturf organizers all linked to townhall meetings. Reflecting a widely-held view among progressives, the big kahuna behind it all is the health insurance industry, via trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans.  MORE RELATED: Mike Enzi, one of three Republicans ostensibly […]

NEW YORK TIMES: The Justice Department’s ethics office has recommended reversing the Bush administration and reopening nearly a dozen prisoner-abuse cases, potentially exposing Central Intelligence Agency employees and contractors to prosecution for brutal treatment of terrorism suspects, according to a person officially briefed on the matter. When the C.I.A. first referred its inspector general’s findings to prosecutors, they decided that none of the cases merited prosecution. But Mr. Holder’s associates say that when he took office and saw the allegations, which included the deaths of people in custody and other cases of physical or mental torment, he began to reconsider. […]