Democrats See Security as Key Issue for Fall  —  After being outmaneuvered in the politics of national security in the last two elections, Democrats say they are determined not to cede the issue this year and are working to cast President Bush as having diminished the nation's safety.

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.

Our World: The Olmert government must go  —  From all sides of the political spectrum calls are being raised for the establishment of an official commission of inquiry to investigate the Olmert government's incompetent management of the war in Lebanon.  These calls are misguided.

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."

The New Pork Database  —  A while back, several groups including the Club for Growth, were able to get their hands on the 2007 Labor-HHS appropriations bill that was introduced in the House (but has not yet passed), along with the committee report.  What we found were 1,867 pork projects hidden in the bill.

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 …

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 …

Expect no miracles from Katie … Katie Couric won't be altering her look.  She won't be going off to war merely to read the news while "standing somewhere in a flak jacket."  And most of all, she isn't expecting any big "surge" in ratings for CBS Evening News With Katie Couric this fall.

Stranger and Stranger  —  WHY IS GEORGE BUSH READING CAMUS?  —  On his summer vacation in Crawford, Texas, George Bush read Albert Camus' novel The Stranger.  I'm not sure what to make of this.  It's usually college freshmen who suddenly take up the French existentialist's slim volume …

Latest Bush Approval Rating at 37%  —  Little fundamental change in rating since June  —  PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Poll finds George W. Bush's presidential job approval rating at 37%, consistent with recent polling.  His approval rating has bounced between 36% and 40% since early June …

`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" …

From TPM Reader DN ...  I have mixed feelings about what DN has to say.  But I do recognize a lot in it I identify with.  TPM has always been pretty aggressive and pugilistic in its politics.  The site, after all, started during the 2000 recount, the founding political bad act from which, you might say, everything else followed.

IDF General Staff sources: Halutz cannot escape resignation  —  Senior sources in the Israel Defense Forces General Staff and field officers who took part in the war in Lebanon said on Tuesday that Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, who went to his bank branch and sold an NIS 120,000 investment portfolio …

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.

Israel humbled by arms from Iran  —  Abandoned Hizbollah positions in Lebanon yesterday revealed conclusive evidence that Syria - and almost certainly Iran - provided the anti-tank missiles that have blunted the power of Israel's once invincible armour.  —  After one of the fiercest confrontations …

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.

Bush Signs Law to Save War Memorial Cross  —  President Bush on Monday signed a law transferring a 29-foot-tall Latin cross high on a hill in San Diego to the federal government, stepping into a long-running dispute over the separation of church and state.  —  Mr. Bush, in the latest unusual …

Don't Trust If They Won't Verify  —  Once again, fake news is in the news, as it turns out that many moving stories of carnage in Lebanon were not only moving, but, well, fake.  This raises major questions about the future of the news business, and offers a significant threat to free expression.

In Wake of Plot, Justice Dept. Will Study Britain's Terror Laws  —  Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales on Monday ordered a side-by-side review of American and British counterterrorism laws as a first step toward determining whether further changes in American law are warranted.

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.