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.

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."

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.

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.

Bush: Iraq War keystone in terror fight  —  WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday that his administration's determination to remain in Iraq and its efforts to end violence in Lebanon are key to protecting the U.S. from future terrorist attacks.  Democrats countered that Americans …

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.

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.

What Next?  —  The debate is over: By any definition, Iraq is in a state of civil war.  Indeed, the only thing standing between Iraq and a descent into total Bosnia-like devastation is 135,000 U.S. troops — and even they are merely slowing the fall.  The internecine conflict could easily spiral …

The Osama Card  —  Expect the Republicans to use the specter of the terror leader to frighten voters ahead of the elections.  —  It will soon be five years since the 9/11 attacks thrust America into a state of perpetual anxiety, and the man who inspired and masterminded the carnage that awful day remains at large.

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.

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 …

Ned Lamont: Henry Wallace with a Website  —  First of all, greetings to the new poster boy of the 2006 mid-term US. elections, Ned Lamont, the Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. senate in Connecticut.  —  Who is Ned Lamont?  —  He is Henry A. Wallace with a website.

Exclusive: A Marine Denies Involvement in a Haditha Cover-up  —  The sergeant involved in the alleged massacre denies tampering with the logbook to hide alleged crimes  —  As the military continues its investigation of the alleged massacre of civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha on Nov. 19 …

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" …

The Perfect Girl For Allah (And Everyone Else, But Only If You're A Quality Man)  —  BamaPachyderm alerted me to this.  —  The term "douche" is rather sexist, in the sense that it is almost always applied to men.  —  "Jacqueline Mackie Paisley Passey" means to correct that sexism.  Fast.

Betrayed  —  If you are out and about this weekend, find a bookstore or newsstand and buy a copy of the September issue of Harper's.  The cover art is a modernist (modernist may be the wrong word; I'm not keeping up with trends in contemporary art) painting of a teacher and students posed for a class picture.

Arab Media Take Aim At Assad  —  After Bashar Assad called Arab leaders "half men" for failing to rally to Hezbollah's support, state-sponsored media in Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia have castigated Assad in terms usually reserved for infidels.  His critics have called him a coward and a dead rosebud, among other epithets:

A Tale of Two Pols  —  Back in 1993 when Sen. George Allen (R) was running for Virginia governor, he took a break from a swank fundraising luncheon to kibitz with reporters.  "The soup has fritters in it!" he complained in the same tone he once used to scold someone who handed him what he called …

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 …