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This is vile. Now that it’s been reported that the man who showed up to an Obama event in Arizona last week carrying an assault rifle attends Pastor Steven Anderson’s church and heard the sermon titled “Why I Hate Barack Obama,” the pastor is trying to explain himself. Today in an interview with Talking Points Memo, he argued that “No …

When last we checked with Swampland London correspondent Glen Levy, he told us the Brits were in a swivet over an American TV Show that is no longer on the air. His latest dispatch makes us wonder whether the show in question might actually be Punk’d.:

When you left us at the end of the previous episode, a rather intriguing plot …

Ted Kennedy’s death was not the only big news this week. Paul Slansky, as usual, finds plenty to mock. What does your index of the week’s events look like?

At least, Kennedy thought so: his refusal to cut a deal with Richard Nixon in 1971 on universal health insurance. (Well, it was his greatest public policy mistake.) As Steve Pearlstein writes in the Washington Post today, there are lessons in that for Democrats. I think Pearlstein’s prescription is generally ok, with one exception: the …

I don’t think anybody could do a better job than the Boston Globe’s coverage of Senator Ted Kennedy’s motorcade. Now lying in repose at the JFK Presidential Library, Kennedy’s body — in Irish tradition — will never be left alone: family and friends will take turns through the next three days holding vigil.

All along the route, …

“We’re not in it to make money.” How times do change.

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With his beloved blue-hulled 50-ft. schooner, The Mya, twisting on her anchor in front of the Kennedy compound – her flags at half mast – Senator Ted Kennedy’s body was loaded into a hearse at 1:47pm to begin his final voyage in this world. A Washington DC honor guard made up of nine members representing all branches of the

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Question #1: It has been documented that one of the major U.S. political parties sent out a push-poll “survey” asking questions about health care that have no relation to reality. The survey attempted to scare readers into thinking that Democratic lawmakers might use voter registration rolls to discriminate against Republicans in the …

The FBI’s Highway Serial Killings Initiative has a database of 500 murder victims from along or near highways. This video from Time.com explains what is going on.

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Matt Yglesias does good service by reminding us of the 2003 Senate vote on Medicare Part D, the budget-busting prescription drugs for seniors bill that passed the Senate 54-44, even though it wasn’t paid for (it adds trillions to the deficit over time). Here’s the vote: it is interesting to note that the two Gang of Six members who are …

Christopher Hayes, the Nation’s DC editor, has a long essay out explaining the history of the Church Committee, which was one of the most remarkable products in the history of any Democratic system of checks and balances. As a result of the committee’s work, we now know, as Hayes explains:

[T]he CIA contracted a Mafia boss to murder

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Of all the essays expounding on the meaning of Ted Kennedy’s life, and legacy he represented, I find this one the most insightful. But I may be biased, since it is written by TIME’s David Von Drehle, and appears in the next newstand issue. A taste:

But in the end, it will be said by all but his fiercest critics that Ted Kennedy walked

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On the Afghan elections and Obama’s next move.