Maryland Senate: Close Race  —  Cardin (D) 47%; Steele (R) 42%  —  In the latest Rasmussen Reports poll of the competitive U.S. Senate contest in Maryland, Republican Lt. Governor Michael Steele slightly trails each Democratic contender.  Congressman Ben Cardin (D) leads Steele 47% to 42%.

Defense Min. Peretz: Raid unlikely to end cease-fire  —  Following an Israel Defense Forces commando raid near Baalbek in eastern Lebanon on Saturday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Israel has violated the UN-backed truce and made him "deeply concerned."

Officer Called Haditha Routine  —  Marine Said Deaths Didn't Merit Inquiry  —  The Marine officer who commanded the battalion involved in the Haditha killings last November did not consider the deaths of 24 Iraqis, many of them women and children, unusual and did not initiate an inquiry …

Mutiny on Flight 613  —  Passengers refuse to allow holiday jet to take off until two Asian men are thrown off plane  —  British holidaymakers staged an unprecedented mutiny - refusing to allow their flight to take off until two men they feared were terrorists were forcibly removed.

Oy  —  I don't know how we go from: … To: … The point is that the amount of money that has come from "progressives" to Lamont is a drop of the bucket in the grand scheme of things and most of it is "found money" and not diverted money.  While the Lump of Campaign Cash fallacy is popular it's one of the more annoying ones.

AP Probe Looks at Recruiting Misconduct  —  More than 100 young women who expressed interest in joining the military in the past year were preyed upon sexually by their recruiters.  Women were raped on recruiting office couches, assaulted in government cars and groped en route to entrance exams.

Verdict Against Iraq Contractor Overturned  —  Occupation Authority's Murky Status Cited  —  A federal judge threw out a $10 million jury verdict against an American company accused of overcharging on an Iraq reconstruction contract after concluding that the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority was not a U.S. government entity.

OLD HANDS AT FAKERY  —  Some time ago, Richard Landes, a Professor of History at Boston University, and Pedro Zúquete made a film about the Palestinians' use of staged and faked video "bites," and the credulous international news agencies that fall for them.  Or, perhaps, collaborate in them.

TD Blog Interview with George Lakoff  —  George Lakoff is Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, a senior fellow at the progressive think-tank Rockridge Institute, and is the author of "Whose Freedom: The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea" …

Democrats Set Primary Calendar and Penalties  —  The Democratic National Committee voted Saturday to penalize 2008 presidential candidates who defied a new nominating calendar devised to lessen the longtime influence of New Hampshire and Iowa, the two states that have traditionally kicked off the nominating process.

GOP's Financial Edge Shrinks  —  The traditional fundraising advantage held by incumbent lawmakers — which Republicans have regarded as a safety wall in their effort to keep control of Congress — has eroded in many closely contested House races, as many Democratic challengers prove competitive in the race for cash.

The Bloggerati response to Judge Taylor's ruling in the NSA Case  —  Laurence Tribe  —  [This posting was based on an e-mail addressed to Adam Liptak at the New York Times]  —  Good story on this morning's front page about Judge Taylor's unusually casual and surprisingly breezy …

Iraqi group uses Michael Moore film to mock Bush  —  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi militant group has produced an elaborate video of what it said were attacks on U.S. troops, in the latest example of the increasingly sophisticated propaganda war being waged by Iraqi insurgents.

Hollywood "Zionists" Under Attack After Anti-Terror Ad Release!  —  Hmm... I didn't know Bernie Mac, Don Johnson, Serena Williams and Vivica Fox were Zionists?  —  Remember the story about this anti-Hamas, anti-Hezbollah, anti-terror ad that was published in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday …

Fight fear-mongering with fear-mongering?  —  Slate's John Dickerson offers Dems some advice in responding to Republicans' election-year fear-mongering: fight fire with fire.  With the GOP telling voters, "Vote for Democrats and more Americans will die," it's the only reasonable approach.