Pulp Fiction  —  I am going to write a completely speculative piece on the fighting in Lebanon.  It's born of a need to make sense of events which on the face of it are incomprehensible, though by so doing the post detaches itself from verifiable fact.  The reader is warned.

For Some Jews, Israel and Iraq Cloud View on Lieberman  —  HARTFORD, July 26 — Lesley Korzennik walked into a diner in Norwalk recently hoping to vent her frustrations with Senator Joseph I. Lieberman — over his continued support for the war, among a litany of other things.  "I'm furious at him," she said.

Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah  —  DAMASCUS, Syria, July 27 — At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight.

Hezbollah was using UN post as 'shield'  —  Canadian wrote of militia's presence, 'necessity' of bombing  —  Joel Kom, with files from Steven Edwards, CanWest News Service, The Ottawa Citizen  —  The words of a Canadian United Nations observer written just days before he was killed …

Wal-Mart focus on close-in suburbs  —  Passage of city bill requiring big-box stores to pay `living wage' likely to cause retail giant to turn to strategy of ringing city with Supercenters  —  The world's largest retailer suffered a blow on Wednesday when Chicago aldermen passed a bill …

Israel OKs call-up of 30,000 reservists  —  JERUSALEM - Israel's government decided Thursday not to expand its battle with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon for now, but authorized the army to call up 30,000 reserve soldiers in case the fighting intensifies.  Lebanese officials estimated a civilian death toll as high as 600.

Conrad Burns chastises Hotshots over Billings fire  —  HELENA - Republican Sen. Conrad Burns chastised a group of firefighters over the weekend for doing a "poor job" of squelching a 92,000-acre blaze near Billings, a state report shows.  —  Burns and the firefighters …

Democrats launch 'Six for '06' agenda  —  Party unveils campaign themes, says elections will be about Bush  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Senate's top Democrat says 1994's "Contract with America," the Republican campaign agenda the year the GOP regained control of Congress — was an "urban myth."

Reynolds airs his ads early  —  Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.), who is in charge of keeping Congress in GOP hands this fall, surprised the political establishment yesterday by airing an early television advertisement that made no mention of his party affiliation.

A Few Questions  —  Why does the president call the secretary of state "Condi"?  And what exactly is his philosophy?  —  Why does President Bush refer in public to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as "Condi"?  Did Dwight Eisenhower call his Secretary of State "Johnny"?

House Panel Faults Pace of U.S. Intelligence Overhaul  —  A House subcommittee has concluded that the Bush administration has been slow to implement major changes in information sharing and other key provisions of the 2004 law that overhauled the U.S. intelligence community.

Rice has Mideast on her mind at Asian summit  —  KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took a day off from her bid to untangle the Middle East crisis, but fallout from the fighting trailed her to an East Asia security summit.  —  Rice flew all night from Europe to Malaysia …

Al-Qaeda 'to avenge Israel deeds'  —  Al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has said in a video the militant network will respond to attacks on Muslims in Lebanon and Gaza.  —  The video was broadcast by Arabic television station al-Jazeera.  —  Al-Qaeda could not remain silent in the face of a …