Lieberman Falls Short on Recruits  — Guest contributor Kevin Rennie is a columnist for the Hartford Courant.  —  Lieberman Falls Short on Recruits  —  Sen. Joseph Lieberman's (D-CT) Tour for Tomorrow continues to be punctuated with today's struggles to save his troubled campaign.

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 …

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 …

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 …

Seven people killed in rocket strikes in northern Israel  —  A barrage of Hezbollah rockets slammed into northern Israel on Thursday, killing at least seven Israelis.  Three people were killed when a rocket crashed directly into a house near the northern town of Ma'alot …

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.

Iran frees bin Laden son -German newspaper  —Text+BERLIN (Reuters) - Iran has freed a son of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from house arrest, a German newspaper reported on Wednesday.  —  Die Welt said the Iranian Revolutionary Guard released Saad bin Laden on July 28 with the aim of sending him to the Syria-Lebanon border.

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.

A Message to the MSM  —  I'd like to take this opportunity to send a message to certain members of the MSM like The New York Times, The Washington Post, LA Times, etal. and especially to their editorial boards who continue in their attempts at shaping public opinion vis-a-vis the Cuba issue …

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" …

The neocons' next war  —  Richard Perle (Zuma Press photo) and Elliott Abrams (Reuters photo)  —  The National Security Agency is providing signal intelligence to Israel to monitor whether Syria and Iran are supplying new armaments to Hezbollah as it fires hundreds of missiles into northern Israel …

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

Pennsylvania Governor: Rendell (D) Sustains Double-Digit Lead  —  For the third survey in a row, Democratic Governor Ed Rendell is enjoying a double-digit lead over Republican challenger Lynn Swann in Pennsylvania's gubernatorial race.  The Rasmussen Reports election poll now shows Rendell ahead 50% to 40% (see crosstabs).