Iran ready for 'serious' nuclear talks  —  TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Tuesday that Tehran was ready to enter "serious negotiations" over its disputed nuclear program but did not say whether it was willing to suspend uranium enrichment — the West's key demand.

Connecticut Groups Push to Remove Lieberman From Ballot  —  Critics of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman's independent run to keep his job attacked on two fronts Monday, with one group asking an elections official to throw him out of the Democratic Party and a former rival calling on state officials to keep his name off the November ballot.

Missing Fox News crew: Blogburst  —  ***scroll for updates...a TV critic attacks Fox News...***  —  Fox News Channel reporter Steve Centanni and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig are still missing.  It has now been more than a week since their kidnapping at gunpoint in Gaza by unknown terrorists.

Hezbollah Sinks Australian Ship (Fauxtography)  —  Hezbollah's official website is running this pic which it claims is the Israeli ship which it damaged off the coast of Beirut.  —  The only problem, as discovered by Andrew Bolt of The Herald Sun, is that the ship in the pic is actually …

Poll: GOP up after terror arrests  —  WASHINGTON — The arrest of terror suspects in London has helped buoy President Bush to his highest approval rating in six months and dampen Democratic congressional prospects to their lowest in a year.  —  In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday …

Washington Whispers  —  Don't laugh, but a loaner training kayak in the pool of the House of Representatives gym made the difference in President Bush's House victory for a pork-busting line-item veto.  "That's spot on," says Colorado Rep. Mark Udall, who helped talk 34 other Democrats into backing the measure 247 to 172.

The Fertility Gap  —  Liberal politics will prove fruitless as long as liberals refuse to multiply.  —  The midterm election looms, and once again efforts begin afresh to increase voter participation.  It has become standard wisdom in American politics that voter turnout is synonymous …

A Case for Accountability  —  (White House photo by David Bohrer, under the header "President Bush, Secretary Rumsfeld Discuss Progress in Iraq," from August 2003.)  —  That was then: … This is now: … What we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is a President who has had to face …

In Election Push, Bush Faults Talk of Iraq Pullout  —  President Bush seized on Monday on Democratic calls for withdrawal from Iraq to make an election-year case that his political rivals did not properly understand the threats to the nation and would create a more dangerous world.

Obsessed Bin Laden wanted to kill Whitney Houston's husband  —  Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden is so obsessed with singer Whitney Houston he thought about killing her husband, Bobby Brown, it was claimed last night.  —  The suggestion is made by Sudanese poet and novelist Kola Boof …

President on Another Planet  —  For a moment there, I was almost encouraged.  George W. Bush, the most resolutely incurious and inflexible of presidents, was reported last week to have been surprised at seeing Iraqi citizens — who ought to be grateful beneficiaries of the American occupation …

Photographic evidence of Hezbollah counterfeiting?  —  Sticky Notes had a brilliant idea, although I don't think he quite managed to pull off.  Nevertheless, I shall invoke the Sullivan rule and "air" his findings without endorsement in hopes that the collective wisdom of the blogosphere will settle the issue.

Who's the senator who wants spending kept secret?  —  The Washington DC Examiner Newspaper, The Examiner  —  WASHINGTON - A Senate staffer — who shall remain nameless here — must have awakened on the wrong side of the bed Monday morning.  Said staffer exploded in response …

How We Ended Welfare, Together  —  TEN years ago today I signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.  By then I had long been committed to welfare reform.  As a governor, I oversaw a workfare experiment in Arkansas in 1980 and represented the National Governors Association …