Blackface diaries: Lamont and the nutroots  —  US Senate candidate Ned Lamont of Connecticut, darling of the left-wing blogosphere, is now running as fast as he can from the nutball bloggers who have zealously promoted his campaign against Sen. Joe Lieberman from its inception.  (Today's Vent gives the overview.)

Mel Gibson: Has He Gone Too Far?  —  The actor speaks about the Holocaust and defends his father.  —  When we interviewed Mel Gibson over two years ago for his controversial movie, The Passion of the Christ, we expected to make news.  But we didn't know then that what Gibson had to say to us would be just as relevant today.

Senate votes to fund the fence  —  The Senate did an abrupt about-face yesterday, voting overwhelmingly to begin paying for 370 miles of fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, just three weeks after voting against the same spending.

Rumsfeld: 'I Have Never Painted A Rosy Picture' About Iraq  —  Testifying before the Senate today, Donald Rumsfeld told Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) that he has "never painted a rosy picture" about Iraq.  Rumsfeld insisted that he has been "very measured" and told Clinton …

Court rules DeLay's name stays on ballot  —  NEW ORLEANS - A federal appeals court panel on Thursday refused to let Texas Republicans replace Tom DeLay's name on the November congressional ballot.  —  A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling …

Iraq civil war warning for Blair  —  Civil war is a more likely outcome in Iraq than democracy, Britain's outgoing ambassador in Baghdad has warned Tony Blair in a confidential memo.  —  William Patey, who left the Iraqi capital last week, also predicted the break-up of Iraq along ethnic lines.

Was 9/11 an 'inside job'?  —  More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.

Ahmadinejad: Destroy Israel, end crisis  —  PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis is to destroy Israel.  In a speech during an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders, Ahmadinejad also called for an immediate halt to fighting …

Harry Reid May Ask Senator Clinton to Preempt Presidential Ambitions to Succeed Him as Senate Majority/Minority Leader  —  Some high level Democratic Party political insiders have shared with TWN details of a potential shift in vectors for several of the major political stars in that party.

Israel resumes strikes in Beirut suburbs  —  BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon - Israeli war planes renewed strikes against Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday for the first time in nearly a week and an Israeli missile killed three in a border village, a day after Hezbollah launched its biggest rocket attacks yet against Israel.

Ohio Man Claims Right To Have Sex With Boys  —  Admitted Pedophile Says Children Can Consent  —  CLEVELAND — It was probably not a defense the court had heard before.  —  A suburban Cleveland man accused of sexually assaulting nine disabled boys told a judge Wednesday that his apartment …

Rumsfeld, in Reversal, Agrees to Testify at Senate Hearing  —  Under criticism, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reversed course late Wednesday and agreed to testify Thursday at a public hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.  —  Signs of simmering tensions between Mr. Rumsfeld …

What's the real federal deficit?  —  How many billions (or trillions) of dollars depends on how you do the accounting  —  The federal government keeps two sets of books.  —  The set the government promotes to the public has a healthier bottom line: a $318 billion deficit in 2005.

Rare snowfall across South Africa  —  JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Snow fell on South Africa's biggest city Johannesburg for the first time in 25 years as icy temperatures gripped vast swathes of the country, the weather office said.  —  "It (the snow) is by no means freakish but I would certainly classify …

OSAMA'S EVIL SPAWN IN LEB  —  IRAN UNLEASHES QAEDA HEIR TO AID HEZ  —  A son of Osama bin Laden has gone from Iran to Lebanon with the mission to organize terror attacks against Israel, it was reported yesterday.  —  Saad bin Laden, 27, one of the terror mastermind's eldest sons …

Rangel Plans Exit if Party Fails  —  Representative Charles B. Rangel, the dean of New York's Congressional delegation, said on Wednesday that he would leave Congress if Democrats failed to win control of the House of Representatives in the fall elections.  —  In an interview, Mr. Rangel …

No Más  —  Castro may be dead.  It's time to kill Castroism.  —  It has long been my bitter hunch that the man I can't help think of as the last monster of the 20th century, Fidel Castro, creator and warden of the floating prison to our south, would die of old age in a big brass bed …