Number of Republicans declines to 32-month low  —  The number of Americans calling themselves Republican has fallen to its lowest level in more than two-and-a-half years.  Just 31.9% of American adults now say they're affiliated with the GOP.  That's down from 37.2% in October 2004 and 34.5% at the beginning of 2006.

Pentagon Releases Grim Report on Iraq  —  Iraqi casualties soared by more than 50 percent during the roughly three-month period ending in early August, the product of spiraling sectarian clashes and a Sunni-based insurgency that remains "potent and viable," the Pentagon noted today in an comprehensive assessment of security in Iraq.

The Path to 9/11  —  Starring Harvey Keitel, Donnie Wahlberg, Michael Benyaer, Shirley Douglas, Patricia Heaton  —  The miniseries will take viewers behind closed doors at the CIA, the FBI and the White House and into the world of Richard Clarke, Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice …

Perfect Storm for the Poor  —  In Income Data, Something More Damaging Than Katrina  —  After a week of remembering the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, the most depressing realization is how easily our leaders forgot their fervent promises to lift up our nation's poorest citizens.

Beslan: Truther edition  —  Two years ago today.  I was still doing the old Allah blog at the time and remember watching the photos come over the wires that night, thinking it was the worst thing I'd ever see save, of course, for 9/11.  That's still true two years later, thank god.

Interceptor downs missile in test over Pacific  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military shot down a target ballistic missile over the Pacific on Friday in the widest test of its emerging antimissile shield in 18 months, the Defense Department announced.  —  The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency …

Rudy Hits the Campaign Trail  —  IS GIULIANI VICIOUS ENOUGH TO WIN THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION?  —  With the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaching, I thought it would be a good idea to check up on Rudy Giuliani.  He is the last remaining political action figure from that tragedy …

GEORGE BUSH: THE LAST BARRIER AGAINST FASCISM!  —  We haven't commented on the new movie, Death of a President, which pretends to be a retrospective look at the assassination of President George Bush and its consequences over the ensuing years.  Tonight, though, I caught up with this account …

Saudi gets long sentence  —  Man was convicted of sexual assaults on housekeeper  —  CENTENNIAL - Sniffles and sobs resonated in a packed courtroom Thursday as a Saudi man convicted of sexually assaulting his Indonesian housekeeper was sentenced Thursday to 20 years to life in prison.

New Questions About Inquiry in C.I.A. Leak  —  An enduring mystery of the C.I.A. leak case has been solved in recent days, but with a new twist: Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the prosecutor, knew the identity of the leaker from his very first day in the special counsel's chair …

Israel Finds and Collapses Tunnel Beneath Gaza  —  KARNI TERMINAL, ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER — The Israeli Defense Forces found and collapsed a 200 meter-long and 12 meter-deep tunnel one kilometer inside the Gaza Strip that terrorists intended to reach all the way into Israel.

Mexican Lawmakers Block Fox's Speech  —  MEXICO CITY (AP) — Vicente Fox was forced to forego the last state-of-the-nation address of his presidency Friday after leftist lawmakers stormed the stage of Congress to protest disputed July 2 elections.  —  It was the first time in modern Mexican history …

Nightmare Mortgages  —  They promise the American Dream: A home of your own — with ultra-low rates and payments anyone can afford.  Now, the trap has sprung  —  For cash-strapped homeowners, it was a pitch they couldn't refuse: Refinance your mortgage at a bargain rate and cut your payments in half.

Lyndon Johnson, Yes.  William Jennings Bryan, No.  —  Paul Krugman: … I'm enough of a believer in CPI bias to want to say "real compensation for male nonsupervisory workers has stagnated since 1973"—I think it has grown, but only very slowly, and much less rapidly than productivity.

Jobless Rate Dips in August  —  Hiring perked up in August as employers added 128,000 jobs, pulling down the unemployment rate to 4.7 percent, sending a Labor Day message that the economic expansion still has staying power.  —  The latest snapshot, released by the Labor Department Friday …

Joe Wilson responds to WaPo hatchet job  —  Joe Wilson responds to WaPo hatchet job  —  Via email:  —  You may have seen this morning's editorial in the Post.  It manages to recycle pretty much every lie and smear over the past three years in a last ditch effort to divert attention from the facts …