A Judicial Misfire  —  THE NATION would benefit from a serious, scholarly and hard-hitting judicial examination of the National Security Agency's program of warrantless surveillance.  The program exists on ever-more uncertain legal ground; it is at least in considerable tension with federal law and the Bill of Rights.

Officials: U.S. blocked missiles to Hezbollah  —  WASHINGTON — The United States blocked an Iranian cargo plane's flight to Syria last month after intelligence analysts concluded it was carrying sophisticated missiles and launchers to resupply Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, two U.S. intelligence officials say.

Would Party Forgive Joe?  —  Lieberman Says Democrats Can Count On Him If He Wins; Vice Versa Is Iffy  —  WASHINGTON — Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman says he'll stick with the Democrats if he wins his third-party re-election bid - but will the Democrats stick with him?

Wal-Mart Image-Builder Resigns  —  The civil rights leader Andrew Young, who was hired by Wal-Mart to improve its public image, resigned from that post last night after telling an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had "ripped off" urban communities for years …

Video provokes questions of Lebanese army  —  Lebanese forces move southward; Beirut airport reopens  —  BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) — A video showing Lebanese soldiers cordially offering Israeli troops glasses of tea during the military offensive earlier this month has hit Israeli and Hezbollah airwaves.

Republicans Losing The 'Security Moms'  —  Married women with children, the "security moms" whose concerns about terrorism made them an essential part of Republican victories in 2002 and 2004, are taking flight from GOP politicians this year in ways that appear likely to provide a major boost …

7 Killed as Full-Scale Sectarian Fighting Rages in Baghdad  —  A car bombing in the Sadr City district of Baghdad killed at least seven people and wounded more than 20 on Thursday morning, the authorities said.  —  The blast was the latest of several recent attacks in the district …

It sounded so good to start with.  But where did it all go wrong, George?  —  "HOW'M I DOIN'?" was the question the quixotic Ed Koch used to ask New York's voters during Hizzoner's eleven turbulent years as the city's mayor.  For a man who governed the globe's most neurotic metropolis …

Israel alarm at UN force members  —  Israel says it would be "difficult if not inconceivable" to accept nations which do not recognise its right to exist as part of a UN force in Lebanon.  —  Israeli UN envoy Dan Gillerman was speaking after Indonesia and Malaysia, which do not recognise Israel, pledged troops for the UN deployment.

My Summer Reading Journal  —  George W. Bush reads Camus (as told to Julian Sanchez).  —  August 4: For my summer vacation, I decided to read The Stranger by Albert Camus (in American).  I decided this for a couple reasons.  For one, there was this other book Terror and Liberalism …

American Attitudes Hold Steady in Face of Foreign Crises  —  Strong Support for Israel - No Surge in Terror Concerns or Boost for Bush  —  Summary of Findings  —  The public is paying a great deal of attention to major overseas events - the reported terrorist plot against U.S. trans-Atlantic jet liners …

Breaking the law has consequences  —  My overall analysis of today's extraordinary federal court decision on the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program is in the post below, here.  I also have an article up at Salon summarizing the importance of this ruling, here.

Fill the cup  —  One more hour of Headline News and I'll be done  —  Apparently Ace is whining that there are Americans who don't act like seven year-old girls at their first Kiwanis Halloween Haunted House who screech and go,"Omigawdomigawdomigawd" and do the pee-pee dance every time that CNN …

Inquiry Suggests Marines Excised Files on Killings  —  A high-level military investigation into the killings of 24 Iraqis in Haditha last November has uncovered instances in which American marines involved in the episode appear to have destroyed or withheld evidence, according to two Defense Department officials briefed on the case.

The FBI's Upgrade That Wasn't  —  $170 Million Bought an Unusable Computer System  —  As far as Zalmai Azmi was concerned, the FBI's technological revolution was only weeks away.  —  It was late 2003, and a contractor, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) …

Texas GOP back Houston councilwoman  —  PEARLAND, Texas - Republican agreed Thursday to support a Houston city councilwoman as the write-in candidate on the November ballot in place of former House Majority leader Tom DeLay, who resigned from Congress in June amid allegations of money laundering.

Kurds flee homes as Iran shells Iraq's northern frontier  —  Michael Howard in Qandil Mountain  —  Turkey and Iran have dispatched tanks, artillery and thousands of troops to their frontiers with Iraq during the past few weeks in what appears to be a coordinated effort to disrupt the activities of Kurdish rebel bases.

AlterNet Original: Hakuna 'Macaca' (video/audio)  —  During a speech to supporters this week, Senator George Allen called an Indian-American man "macaca"... twice.  Macaca is a derogatory term for dark-skinned people in the part of the world that Allen's mother happens to have emigrated from.