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 …

Why People Don't Think Democrats Believe What They Say  —  The habit of the Democratic Party to kill itself via self-referential meta-talk was on full display at the DLC meeting yesterday.  Tell me if you can find what is wrong with the message coming out of the conference.  From the Mercury News:

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?

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 …

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 …

From Planning to Warfare to Occupation, How Iraq Went Wrong  —  The title of this devastating new book about the American war in Iraq says it all: "Fiasco."  That is the judgment that Thomas E. Ricks, senior Pentagon correspondent for The Washington Post, passes on the Bush administration's decision …

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 …

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.

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.

Stand up to US, voters tell Blair  —  63% say PM has tied Britain too close to White House  —  Britain should take a much more robust and independent approach to the United States, according to a Guardian/ICM poll published today, which finds strong public opposition to Tony Blair's close working relationship with President Bush.

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.)

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 …

Iran threatens response if Syria attacked  —  Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad-Reza Sheybani says 'Israel can't deal with our capabilities' Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad-Reza Sheybani says 'Israel can't deal with our capabilities; Lebanon war beginning of end of Israel'

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.