George Allen's America  —  "MY FRIENDS, we're going to run this campaign on positive, constructive ideas," Sen. George F. Allen told a rally of Republican supporters in Southwest Virginia last week.  "And it's important that we motivate and inspire people for something."

`Vets For Freedom' Creates Stir  —  Group With GOP Ties Backs Lieberman; White House Declines To Endorse Schlesinger  —  Connecticut's U.S. Senate race continued Monday along its unpredictable way: The White House declined to endorse the nominee of state Republicans - and a new "Vets for Freedom" …

Fragile Cease-Fire Allows Thousands to Return Home  —  Tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of Lebanese clogged roads to the south on Monday night as a tense, fragile cease-fire began between Israeli troops and Hezbollah guerrillas.  —  While the cease-fire largely seemed to be holding …

Iraqi Death Toll Rose Above 3,400 in July  —  July appears to have been the deadliest month of the war for Iraqi civilians, according to figures from the Health Ministry and the Baghdad morgue, reinforcing criticism that the Baghdad security plan started in June by the new Iraqi government has failed.

Happy Birthday Fidel  —  San Franciscans honor the life of the world's longest reigning revolutionary leader  —  Members of Dance Brigade perform a dance ode to honor the life of Cuban President  —  Fidel Castro at Dance Mission Theater on Saturday.  —  The event was co-sponsored by Casa Cuba Resource Center.

The Era of Networked Journalism Begins  —  Today marks a key moment in the evolution of the Web as a reporting medium.  The first left-right-center coalition of bloggers, activists, non-profits, citizens and journalists to investigate a story of national import: Congressional earmarks and those who sponsor and benefit from them.

Have you heard the one about the Jews?  —  As a writer on The Ali G Show I can do insulting jokes.  But the anti-Jewish sentiment at Edinburgh is shocking  —  THERE'S NOTHING I like more than a Jewish joke.  It's the anti-Jewish ones I'm not so keen on.  —  Wandering through the streets …

Iran: Victory celebrations, threats to Israel  —  Thousands of citizens take to streets chanting, 'Lebanon won, Israel destroyed'; dozens of ambulances hold procession in show of empathy with casualties of war.  Senior religious figure in Iran warns: 'If Israel and US attack us, we will shoot missiles at Tel Aviv'

Liberal agonies  —  Leader  —  "Why are the liberals always on the other side?" asks the fictional French military commander Colonel Mathieu when he is challenged, in The Battle for Algiers, for using torture to fight terror.  The film suggests that torture works as a tool of immediate necessity …

War Warps the Mind a Little  —  The events in this essay took place on August 11 and 12.  —  NORTHERN ISRAEL - War does strange things to the mind.  The first time you hear the loud BOOM, BANG, and CRASH of incoming and outgoing artillery, you will jump.  You will twitch.  You will want to take cover.

Worn Out Flypaper  —  Like many of you, no doubt, I've been following the wide-ranging debate about the domestic political implications of the British terrorist bust of last week.  It has come as no surprise, of course, that Republicans and their conservative allies have seized on the foiled plot to claim …

Lebanese rescuer 'Green Helmet' injured  —  TYRE, Lebanon - A civil defense worker who has drawn controversy for holding up the bodies of children killed in Lebanon said Tuesday he was lightly injured fighting a weekend fire sparked by an Israeli bomb.  —  Salam Daher, dubbed the Green Helmet …

MyDD / Courage Campaign Poll: Republicans Divided On Iraq, Accountability  —  Please continue to donate to the MyDD / Courage Campaign Polling Project.  This important work cannot continue without your support.  Also, check out the official, public, PDF version of the report.

Little Green Footballs, Staged War Photos, and the Story the Press Won't Tell  —  As Little Green Footballs, the right-wing warblog, continues to be toasted in the press for helping ferret out a Reuters news photo that was marginally altered to show a smoldering, bombed-out Beirut in the wake …

Orla Guerin - Busted!  —  Two reports from Bint Jbeil from yesterday's news, one from Orla Guerin on the BBC (watch the full report here**) and the other from Alex Thomson on Channel 4 News (click here to view.  Window Media Player only. 2 mins in.)  (Added emphasis mine in all spoken extracts)

How to Make Sure Children Are Scientifically Illiterate  —  Voters in Kansas ensured this month that noncreationist moderates will once again have a majority (6 to 4) on the state school board, keeping new standards inspired by intelligent design from taking effect.

Anti-partisan Lieberman may be on to something  —  WASHINGTON - When I left New York last week for a family vacation in Southern California, Sen. Joe Lieberman had just lost the Democratic primary in Connecticut and was preparing for his first day as an independent candidate for higher office.

Kossacks : 'Mike Wallace was totally rude and a jingoistic idiot'  —  While many commentators have roundly criticized Mike Wallace for letting the Iranian President walk all over him in the recent 60 Minutes interview, the reality-based community at Daily Kos is upset that Wallace was so terribly rude to Amadinnerjihad:

Cardin promises cancer cure … With a month to go before primary voters head to the polls to choose Senate nominees, Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin kicked off yesterday a weeklong effort to highlight his congressional record and vision on health care by making the mother of all campaign promises - to cure cancer.