Hail Mary Attempt #1: Lieberman's New Thug Strategy  —  So I just tracked this down with several sources, and something really strange is going on.  Lieberman's campaign seems to arming his supporters with aggressive talking points in order to pick fights at Lamont events.

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 …

It's Not Just About Land  —  Despite the claims of terrorist organizations, Israel's current two-front war is not just about land.  After all, Hezbollah and Hamas fired rockets from Lebanon and Gaza well after Israel had withdrawn from both places.  —  Indeed, if sacred Arab ground …

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 …

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.

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 …

Generals raise fears of Iraq civil war  —  WASHINGTON - Two of the Pentagon's most senior generals conceded to Congress on Thursday that the surge in sectarian violence in Baghdad in recent weeks means Iraq may descend into civil war.  —  "Iraq could move toward civil war" …

Bombs pound Beirut for second night  —  Hezbollah threatens to attack Tel Aviv as payback for airstrikes  —  BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) — Israel launched a second straight night of airstrikes on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital on Friday, targeting an area known as a stronghold of Hezbollah militants.

New Lieberman Art at Daily Kos  —  Posted in the comments to one of several threads bashing Joe Lieberman today at Daily Kos, we find the following Photoshop illustrations from the "progressive" minds of the Kos Kidz.  —  This time with the always-popular homosexual slur theme.  (Hat tip: DM.

U.N. Talks Focus on Terms of Cease-Fire  —  Lebanon Sees No Solution to the Conflict Without a Role for Syria and Iran  —  Lebanon's acting foreign minister, Tarek Mitri, said Wednesday he doubts that his government would agree to invite a European-led intervention force into southern Lebanon …

Reading between Granma's lines: a Yasser moment  —  In today's Granma, the official organ of the Cuban dictatorship, another statement from the Commander in Chief (n Spanish), dated August 1 but posted on August 2, … Interesting statement, indeed: … As Mario Loyola puts it,

THE LOW POST: The Mansion Family  —  In the first installment of his weekly Web-only column, Matt Taibbi writes that yuppie paranoia (and David Brooks) guarantees the Democrats are still — and forever — doomed.  —  "The conservative mansion has many rooms.

A Reform That Worked  —  President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, better known as "welfare reform," on Aug. 22 of that year.  A decade later it stands as a rarity: a Washington success story.

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.

No End of Ideology  —  Netroots members insist that they're non-ideological pragmatists.  They're wrong.  —  Tuesday's Connecticut primary race between Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont is not about the netroots.  The outcome will be a referendum on Lieberman's Iraq stance, his coziness with President Bush …

O'Reilly blasts "smear merchants" and "vampires" criticizing Mel Gibson; Rivera smears Olbermann, Stewart, and Colbert … During a discussion on the August 2 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor with Geraldo at Large host and former Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera …