Al-Qaida calls for holy war against Israel  —  CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader issued a worldwide call Thursday for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from "Spain to Iraq."  —  In the message broadcast …

Best of the Web  —  War on Words  —  Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki spoke this morning to a joint meeting of Congress, and some Democrats seized an opportunity to burnish their credentials as supporters of Israel, CNN reports: … Well, what exactly did al-Maliki say?  Here are some quotes:

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.

Even neoconservatives now accepting defeat in Iraq  —  David Frum was one of the leading neoconservative advocates of the invasion of Iraq.  The former Bush speechwriter is a true believer, having co-authored a radical neoconservative book with Richard Perle entitled An End to Evil …

Chicago Council Passes 'Living Wage' Act  —  CHICAGO — The City Council brushed aside warnings from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to approve an ordinance that makes Chicago the biggest city in the nation to require big-box retailers to pay a "living wage."  —  The ordinance, which passed 35-14 Wednesday …

Tour de France winner failed drug test in race  —  Team to dismiss Landis if excessive level of testosterone confirmed  —  Tour de France champion Floyd Landis tested positive for high levels of testosterone during the race, his Phonak team said Thursday on its Web site.

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"?

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.

'Waiting to Get Blown Up'  —  Some Troops in Baghdad Express Frustration With the War and Their Mission  —  BAGHDAD, July 26 Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos considered the simple question about morale for more than an hour.  But not until his convoy of armored Humvees had finally rumbled …

Iran: The Next War  —  Even before the bombs fell on Baghdad, a group of senior Pentagon officials were plotting to invade another country.  Their covert campaign once again relied on false intelligence and shady allies.  But this time, the target was Iran.  BY JAMES BAMFORD

A Winning Strategy for the Democrats: Barter for Free Trade  —  To understand why Democrats can't win elections, all you had to do was attend yesterday's symposium at the Brookings Institution put on by the Hamilton Project, an effort by the (Bill) Clinton economic braintrust to generate new ideas and a Democratic election agenda.

Lebanon's Premature Liberalism  —  "This is not Norway here, and it is not Denmark."  — Lebanese Christian militia leader Bashir Gemayel.  —  Last month I made a terrible mistake.  —  A reader from Lake Oswego — a suburb of my city of Portland — emailed and asked if he thought …

Hamdan Hoax, Part 3  —  THE MISTAKEN DEFENSE OF SENS. KYL AND GRAHAM.  —  Yesterday, the National Review Online's Ramesh Ponnuru accused Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens of making "simple factual mistakes" in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the ruling that scuttled the Bush administration's unworthy efforts …

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.

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 …

John Bolton, Multilateralist?  —  LAST YEAR we expressed reservations about President Bush's nomination of John R. Bolton to the post of ambassador to the United Nations.  Mr. Bolton's intellect and competence were not in doubt, and attempts to paint him as an office bully were underwhelming.

CNN or CBN?  Phillips asks apocalypse authors: "[A]re we living in the last days?" … For the second time in three days, CNN featured a segment on the potential coming of the Apocalypse, as indicated by current conflicts in the Middle East.  The July 26 edition of CNN's Live From …