A Proportionate Response is Madness  —  If by chance you have the search engine LexisNexis and you punch in the words "Israel'' and "disproportionate,'' you run the risk of blowing up your computer or darkening your entire neighborhood.  Just limiting the search to newspapers and magazines …

Clinton Releases Proposals to Help the Middle Class  —  DENVER, July 24 — With divisions in the Democratic Party on full display nationwide, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to stake out the center here on Monday, issuing a broad policy platform geared toward helping middle-class voters …

Access Denied  —  What do you do when the people you represent want to be represented by someone else?  What do you do when the your highest approval ratings come from members of the party you claim to differentiate yourself from?  What do you do when you're down and desperate?

TOO NICE TO WIN?  ISRAEL'S DILEMMA  —  July 25, 2006 — WHAT if liberal democracies have now evolved to a point where they can no longer wage war effectively because they have achieved a level of humanitarian concern for others that dwarfs any really cold-eyed pursuit of their own national interests?

Border Clashes Intensify as Israel Hunts Militants  —  AVIVIM, Israel, July 24 — In some of the most intense ground clashes so far, Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants fought fiercely Monday in and around two hilltop towns in southern Lebanon where the Israeli military is seeking to drive the militants away from the border.

50 percent of U.S. says Iraq had WMDs  —  Half of Americans now say Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded the country in 2003 — up from 36 percent last year, a Harris poll finds.  Pollsters deemed the increase both "substantial" and "surprising" …

Top Iraqi's White House Visit Shows Gaps With U.S.  —  Iraqis buried their dead Monday from another suicide bombing.  Prime Minister Maliki has tried without success to end such violence.  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 24 — When Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki visits the White House on Tuesday …

For One Senate Candidate, the 'R' Is a 'Scarlet Letter'  —  The candidate, immersed in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, sat down to lunch yesterday with reporters at a Capitol Hill steakhouse and shared his views about this year's political currents.

Raise Wages, Not Walls  —  THERE are two approaches to illegal immigration currently being debated in Congress.  One, supported by the House, emphasizes border control and law enforcement, including a wall along the Mexican border and increased border patrols.

Two Views of the Same News Find Opposite Biases  —  You could be forgiven for thinking the television images in the experiment were from 2006.  They were really from 1982: Israeli forces were clashing with Arab militants in Lebanon.  The world was watching, charges were flying, and the air was thick with grievance, hurt and outrage.

Specter Prepping Bill to Sue Bush  —  WASHINGTON (AP) - A powerful Republican committee chairman who has led the fight against President Bush's signing statements said Monday he would have a bill ready by the end of the week allowing Congress to sue him in federal court.

Greenwald's sock puppets: The worst blog scandal ever?  —  I have friends involved in this so let me choose my words carefully.  I'm not saying it wasn't worth doing.  I'm not saying it's a bad thing; as with pizza, there's no such thing as a "bad" blog scandal.  Alls I'm saying is, how does it compare?

60 years later, NPR's Schorr is still a 'precious resource'  —  The media mix By Peter Johnson  —  Daniel Schorr is used to producers popping into his Washington, D.C., office at National Public Radio to ask, on deadline: Which war came first, Korea or Vietnam?  (Answer: Korea.)

50 Most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill  —  #1 Michelle Persaud, 27  —  Staff counsel  —  Michelle Persaud's delicate features burst into a smile as she describes the mistake many men make with her.  —  Seeing her dark eyes and mocha skin, her flowing black tresses and expansive lashes …

WAKING NIGHTMARES:  —  A week ago, I entertained a nightmare scenario whereby Moqtada Sadr sends his Mahdi Army militia to fight alongside Hezbollah.  The nightmare would be Israel attacking Sadr in retaliation for his attacks on the IDF or Israeli civilians, thereby prompting the inevitable …

Nice Rats, Nasty Rats: Maybe It's All in the Genes  —  On an animal-breeding farm in Siberia are cages housing two colonies of rats.  In one colony, the rats have been bred for tameness in the hope of mimicking the mysterious process by which Neolithic farmers first domesticated an animal still kept today.

How the UN legitimizes terrorists  —  If anyone wonders why the UN has rendered itself worse than irrelevant in the Arab-Israeli conflict, all he or she need do is read UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's July 20 statement.  Annan goes to great pains to suggest equal fault and moral equivalence between …

Hezbollah Says Israeli Response a Surprise  —  A senior Hezbollah official said Tuesday the guerrilla group did not expect Israel to react so strongly to its capture of two Israeli soldiers.  —  Mahmoud Komati, deputy chief of Hezbollah's political arm, also told The Associated Press …