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.

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 …

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.

France slams call to destroy Israel  —  TEHERAN  —  Days after calling Iran a "stabilizing" force in the Middle East, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy issued a statement harshly criticizing Iran's call on Thursday to destroy Israel.  —  "I totally condemn these words," …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

Lieberman Falls Short on Recruits  —  Sen. Joseph Lieberman's (D-CT) Tour for Tomorrow continues to be punctuate with today's struggles to save his troubled campaign.  In the aftermath of a Quinnipiac poll this morning showing the three term Democrat far behind behind challenger Ned Lamont …

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.

Uproar at BBC satire featuring Westminster 9/11 attack  —  The BBC has been urged to pull a 'sick' new comedy show which features spoof news reports of Tony Blair being assassinated and a 9/11-style video of terrorists crashing an airliner into the Houses of Parliament.

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.

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 …

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 …