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.)

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

The World IS Mel Gibson  —  I suspect I'll have plenty more to say about Mel Gibson when Real Time returns to HBO on August 25 (PLUG!!!), but in the meantime a couple of thoughts:  —  As I watch so much of the world ask Israel for restraint in a way no other country would …

Iran working with N.Korea on missiles: Institute  —Text+SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has been working closely with Iran to develop its long-range ballistic missiles, possibly using Chinese technology, and is building large bases to prepare for their deployment, a South Korean state-run think tank said.

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.

An Estate Tax Twist Reverses Party Roles On Minimum Wage  —  For years, organized labor has worked hard to raise the minimum wage, while business groups have campaigned to block such a change.  This week in the Senate, however, the AFL-CIO is pushing to kill the wage increase while practically …

Doubling Two Bad Bets?  —  If you think there is an echo in the air when officials discuss the twin crises in Iraq and Lebanon, you're not hearing things.  In both cases the argument for carrying on the destructive current policy comes down to a claim that "we can't afford to let the other guy win."

In Iraq, It's Hard to Trust Anyone in Uniform  —  A Baghdad tailor worked on military and police uniforms.  The government plans to introduce new uniforms that will be difficult to copy.  —  The camouflaged Iraqi commandos who kidnapped 20 people from a pair of central Baghdad offices …

Lebanese hospital: Number of casualties from Qana air strike is 28, not 52  —  A Tyre hospital on Thursday revised the number of casualties resulting from Israel's air strike on the south Lebanese village of Qana from 52 down to 28.  —  On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch questioned the death toll in the Qana attack.