Arabs press Syria to help end violence  —  SIDON, Lebanon - Mideast diplomats were pressing Syria to stop backing Hezbollah as the guerrillas fired more deadly rockets onto Israel's third-largest city Sunday.  Israel faced tougher-than-expected ground battles and bombarded targets in southern Lebanon, hitting a convoy of refugees.

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Says Invasion and Aftermath Are the 'Work of Butchers'  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 22 — The speaker of the Iraqi Parliament criticized the American government's involvement in Iraq on Saturday, likening the invasion and its consequences to "the work of butchers" …

ACLU Sues for Anti-Gay Group That Pickets at Troops' Burials  —  KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas church group that protests at military funerals nationwide filed suit in federal court, saying a Missouri law banning such picketing infringes on religious freedom and free speech.

Why Iran Isn't Cheering  —  Hizballah may be Tehran's client, but the conflict hasn't been welcomed by many Iranians  —  Parvin Heydari, an Iranian mother of two, was flipping back and forth between the nightly news and Oprah when a bulletin on an Iranian state channel caught her attention.

Study: Ex-Rep. Made Use of 'Black' Budgets  —  WASHINGTON - An independent investigation has found that imprisoned former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham took advantage of secrecy and badgered congressional aides to help slip items into classified bills that would benefit him and his associates.

Conspiracy Theories 101  —  Andes, N.Y.  —  KEVIN BARRETT, a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has now taken his place alongside Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado as a college teacher whose views on 9/11 have led politicians and ordinary citizens to demand that he be fired.

I.R.S. to Cut Tax Auditors  —  The federal government is moving to eliminate the jobs of nearly half of the lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service who audit tax returns of some of the wealthiest Americans, specifically those who are subject to gift and estate taxes when they transfer parts …

Mayhem at the Defend Hizballah Rally!  —  This past Friday, the Muslim American Society held their "Justice for Palestine and Lebanon Protest" at Boston's City Hall Plaza referred to at the end of this post.  The Boston Globe has its report here: Muslims, Christians protest bombardment of Lebanon

FDL Book Salon — The Age of Fallibility, Part II  —  (Please welcome George Soros, who is joining us in the comments to discuss his book The Age of Fallibility: Consequence of the War on Terror.  Week one of the discussion can be found here.)  —  Since FDL has been open for business …

Still More Greenwald Sock Puppetry Exposed  —  Sock puppetry on the Internet is one thing - it's bad enough.  Now it seems a hidden studio camera has caught blogger and best selling author Glenn Greenwald using a sock puppet in a recent appearance with Al Franken on Air America.  This is going too far!

Department of the Bleedin' Obvious  —  Stop the presses.  Tom Ricks, intrepid war correspondent for the Washington Post, has an urgent news flash.  He reports that in the months following the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the U.S. Army forgot the lessons of Vietnam!

Failure to solve Palestinian question empowers Iran  —  Afew years back, when folks talked airily about "the Middle East peace process" and "a two-state solution," I used to say that the trouble was the Palestinians saw a two-state solution as an interim stage en route to a one-state solution.