Irving Kristol's Reality Principles  —  A great mind exposes ideological illusions, while thinking through better alternatives.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  The following are excerpts from essays that appeared in The Wall Street Journal by Irving Kristol, who died yesterday at age 89.

Obama Rejects Race as Lead Cause of Criticism  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama said Friday that he did not believe his race was the cause of fierce criticism aimed at his administration in the contentious national debate over health care, but rather that the cause was a sense of suspicion …

Tapper calls Fox ad ‘demonstrably untrue’  —  Jake Tapper, on Twitter this morning, took issue with a Fox News ad in today's Washington Post, that he says is “asserting that every other channel ‘missed’ the story of the 912 march.  Demonstrably untrue.”  —  He pointed out that Yunji de Nies …

Inquiry Into CIA Practices Narrows  —  Ex-Agency Directors Urge Administration To Drop Investigation  —  The Justice Department's review of detainee abuse by the CIA will focus on a very small number of cases, including at least one in which an Afghan prisoner died at a secret facility, according to two sources briefed on the matter.

Insane killer escapes on field trip to county fair  —  SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - A criminally insane killer from eastern Washington is on the run after escaping during a field trip to the county fair that his mental hospital organized.  —  Why such a dangerous person was out in public was a question many …

Source: Colo. Man in Suspected NYC Subway Plot Admits Ties to Al Qaeda  —  The Colorado man under FBI investigation into an alleged New York subway terror plot has admitted he has ties to Al Qaeda and is in negotiations to plead guilty to a terror charge, a source at the Department of Justice told FOX News.

Michelle Obama Says Women Are “Crushed” by Health-Care System  —  Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) — First lady Michelle Obama sought support for the administration's health-care plans from family advocacy groups and health-care professionals, saying the treatment of women under the current system is “unacceptable.”

Papers Show Insurers Limited Coverage for Acne, Pregnancy  —  A proposal to make preexisting health conditions irrelevant in the sale of insurance policies could help not just the seriously ill but also people who might consider themselves healthy, documents released Friday by a California-based advocacy group illustrate.

Obama's first dance at the U.N.  —  Tom DeLay may be Dancing with the Stars, but it's President Barack Obama who'll need some fancy footwork next week as he tries to dodge the dictators during his first-ever visit to the United Nations.  —  Stung by GOP criticism of his Hugo Chavez grip-and-grin in April …

Joe McGinniss, Palin Critic, Is Frontrunner On eBay For Dinner With Sarah [UPDATED, With Winner]  —  Earlier this month, I posted on how Ride 2 Recovery, the charity for wounded veterans, was offering one lucky person the chance to win dinner for five with Alaska Governor turned professional …

What They Really Think  —  Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright spoke at a forum in Omsk, Siberia.  Pravda reported that her speech “surprised the audience.”  No wonder.  The Russians in attendance must have wondered how they managed to lose the cold war: … There you have it.

President presses for financial regulations  —  Rejuvenating the U.S. economy will not be complete until the government enacts new rules to oversee the financial sector, President Barack Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio address.  —  A year after the financial crisis that launched …

New Rule: You can't complain about health care reform if you're not willing to reform your own health.  Unlike most liberals, I'm glad all those teabaggers marched on Washington last week.  Because judging from the photos, it's the first exercise they've gotten in years.

A Team Player Who Stands Apart  —  Tension Between Leading or Blending In Marks Clinton's Tenure at State  —  With the exception of former senator Edmund S. Muskie's brief turn as secretary of state at the end of the Carter administration, Hillary Rodham Clinton is the first politician …

Media Matters: This right-wing frenzy is reminiscent of Dallas 1963  —  Uh huh.  And we all remember what happened when a certain radical right-winger — who defected to the Soviet Union, married a Russian woman, and tried to assassinate a far-right anti-communist American general — got JFK in the crosshairs in Dallas.

Life's not easy these days for black ‘Blue Dogs’  —  WASHINGTON — For Reps. Sanford Bishop and David Scott, it hasn't been easy lately being Congress' only black “Blue Dogs.”  —  With the emotional debate raging over revamping the nation's health care system, Scott and Bishop …