6:00 pm ET: A large crowd of staffers and others is assembled at the Capitol awaiting the casket of Senator Edward Kennedy which is en route from Andrews Air Force Base. The procession will drive around the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol and then proceed to Arlington, where Senator Kennedy will be laid to rest.

ABC News reports there are 900 staff on the steps and 4,000 in the plaza and lining Constitution Ave. You can follow on Twitter here.

The official Edward M. Kennedy page with updates is here.

6:10 pm: Motorcade is 2 miles away. Further updates below:

Mesmerizing, Moving, Sad and Joyful. What a wonderful tribute to Sen. Ted Kennedy, by his son, Teddy, Jr. (Transcript here.) Part I:

Part II below:

My mind and emotions are still wrapped up in this morning's elegant, moving, sad and hopeful funeral for Sen. Ted Kennedy. I think it will be hours before I move on.

For those of you with other things on your mind, here's an open thread. All topics welcome. Please remember, however, this site does not allow comments that speak ill of the recently departed.

[Note: I had just posted the Teddy Kennedy, Jr. tribute to his father in a new thread before seeing that BTD added them here. I think we only need them up once. Direct links are here and here. I hope you will all view them. ]

Senator Edward Moore Kennedy, the Lion of the Senate, will be laid to rest today in Arlington National Cemetery, near the resting places of his brothers, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Robert Francis Kennedy.

The funeral mass, in Boston (Roxbury actually), at the Basilica of Our Lady Of Perpetual Help, and the burial, some hours after the funeral mass, will be broadcast. All the living ex-Presidents will be attending (correction, due to health issues, President George Herbert Walker Bush was unable to attend.)

President Barack Obama will be delivering the eulogy. susang has the prepared text.

If you are not near a television, you can watch on cnn.com or I am sure other internet outlets.

This is an Open Thread to discuss these events.

Caroline Kennedy's tribute to Teddy Kennedy at tonight's memorial service in Boston was my personal favorite.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

This evening, a memorial service will be held (my understanding is it will be broadcast) for the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

It is being billed as a celebration of his life. There is much to celebrate.

Consider this an Open Thread for commenting about the service.

In his last published piece on the subject of health care reform, Senator Ted Kennedy wrote on July 18, 2009:

I long ago learned that you have to be a realist as you pursue your ideals. But whatever the compromises, there are several elements that are essential to any health-reform plan worthy of the name.

. . . To accomplish all of this, we have to cut the costs of health care. . . . [O]ne of the most controversial features of reform is one of the most vital. It's been called the "public plan." . . . This will foster competition in pricing and services. It will be a safety net, giving Americans a place to go when they can't find or afford private insurance, and it's critical to holding costs down for everyone.

(Emphasis supplied.) Don't let the Third Wayers like Ezra Klein and Steve Pearlstein tell falsehoods about what Ted Kennedy thought about the public option. His words speak for themselves.

Speaking for me only

The Los Angeles County coroner's office has issued a press release saying Michael Jackson's death was a homicide.

The "manner of death has been ruled homicide. Cause of death was established as acute propofol intoxication. Other conditions contributing to death: benzodiazepine. The drugs propofol and Lorazepam were found to be the primary drugs responsible for Mr. Jackson’s death. Other drugs detected were midazolam, diazepam, lidocaine, and ephedrine. The final coroner’s report includes a complete toxicology report will that remain on security hold at the request of the Los Angeles police department and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office"

The attorney for Conrad Murray, Jackson's physician who was with him when he died, is calling on the LAPD to release the full autopsy report, not just a summary. [More...]

While Third Wayers like Ezra Klein and Steve Pearlstein claim to know what capitulations Ted Kennedy would have favored, we actually do know the compromise he did vote for, the the Senate HELP Committee bill (PDF):

"I could not be prouder of our Committee. We have done the hard work that the American people sent us here to do. We have considered hundreds of proposals. Where we have been able to reach principled compromise, we have done so. Where we have not been able to resolve our differences, we have treated those with whom we disagree with respect and patience," Chairman Kennedy said. "As we move from our committee room to the Senate floor, we must continue the search for solutions that unite us, so that the great promise of quality affordable health care for all can be fulfilled."

As Media Matters notes, the HELP bill featured a public option:

Contra Third Wayers Ezra Klein and Steve Pearlstein, Robert Reich says the public option is alive and well:

Washington, D.C. is an echo chamber in which anyone who sounds authoritative repeats the conventional authoritative wisdom about the "consensus" of inside opinion, which they've heard from someone else who sounds equally authoritative, who of course has heard it from another authoritative source. [. . .] In the last few days authoritative sources have repeatedly told me that the public option is dead, that the President won't be able to get a comprehensive health care bill, and that the White House and congressional leadership already know the best they'll be able to do now is move incrementally [. . . ]with the hope of more reforms in the years ahead. Don't believe it.

[More...]

I'll be out for the afternoon.

Here's an open thread for you, all topics welcome.

The Denver Post reports today on the sad cases of some disabled medical marijuana users, including one with MS, who are being evicted from federally subsidized housing due to regulations that prohibit illegal use of controlled substances. Under federal law, all marijuana use is illegal, even in states that allow it.

Even with the state's OK to use medical marijuana, people such as Hewitt can't live in federal housing or receive federal subsidies for rent under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Housing Choice Voucher Program.

[More...]