`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" …

Hizbullah likely to retain weapons  —  Hizbullah will not hand over its weapons to the Lebanese government but rather refrain from exhibiting them publicly, according to a new compromise that is reportedly brewing between Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Seniora and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

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.

Poll Shows Pa. Senate Race Narrowing  —  MANNS CHOICE, Pa. - Democrat Bob Casey is holding onto his lead over Republican Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record) in one of the nation's hottest Senate races, despite the recent appearance of a Green Party candidate who is considered a spoiler for Casey, a poll released Tuesday shows.

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."

We Need Our Own MI5  —  What lessons can we draw from the recent foiled plot to bring down U.S.-bound airliners with liquid bombs?  —  The first concerns the shrewdness of al-Qaeda and its affiliates in continuing to focus their destructive efforts on civil aviation.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

What If 9/11 Never Happened?  —  A counterhistory.  —  T  —  here are days in New York—surprisingly many of them, all things considered—when it's almost possible to forget that we are living in an age of terror.  And then there are days, like last Thursday with its headlines out of London …

The Triumph of Unrealism  —  Five weeks have passed since the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers provoked Israel to launch its most unsatisfactory military operation in 58 years.  What problem has been solved, or even ameliorated?  —  Hezbollah, often using World War II-vintage rockets …

Has Bush v. Gore Become the Case That Must Not Be Named?  —  At a law school Supreme Court conference that I attended last fall, there was a panel on "The Rehnquist Court."  No one mentioned Bush v. Gore, the most historic case of William Rehnquist's time as chief justice, and during the Q. and A. no one asked about it.

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.

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.

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 …

Andrew Sullivan blogs from a parallel world  —  After a somber beginning, the president finally found his voice last night.  It's been hard for him to connect viscerally to the public, and the formality of a congressional address doesn't exactly help.  He remains awkward, stiff, emotionally detached.

Clinton Sounds Off on Terror, Republicans  —  Taking a break from his work at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto on Monday, former President Clinton warned Republicans not to politicize the London terror arrests, slammed Sen. Joe Lieberman, whom he campaigned for just a couple weeks ago …