G.O.P. Sets Aside Work on Immigration  —  As they prepare for a critical pre-election legislative stretch, Congressional Republican leaders have all but abandoned a broad overhaul of immigration laws and instead will concentrate on national security issues they believe play to their political strength.

Voters are anti-incumbent and angry, new poll finds  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — Most Americans are angry about "something" when it comes to how the country is run, and they are more likely than in previous years to vote for a challenger this November, a new poll suggests.

Condi takes historical analogies to an absurd level  —  Last week, top administration officials, including Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, equated the war in Iraq with fighting Nazis in World War II.  As part of this analogy, the Bush gang made its critics out to be Neville Chamberlain …

U.S. Planes Mistakenly Hit Canadians In Afghanistan  —  One Soldier Is Killed In Incident in South  —  U.S. jets mistakenly strafed Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan on Monday, killing one and bringing to five the number of Canadian troops killed during a major push against the Taliban this weekend.

United House and Senate Democratic Leaders Urge President to Change Course in Iraq; Call for Changes to Iraq Policy  —  Contact: Jim Manley or Rebecca Kirszner (Harry Reid), 202-255-3736 or 202-281-5425; Brendan Daly (Nancy Pelosi), 202-225-3225  —  WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 /U.S. Newswire …

'Mortgage Moms' May Star in Midterm Vote  —  With Wages Stagnant and Debt Growing, Democrats See an Opportunity  —  BURLINGTON, Ky. — Life is cramped at the Condit household.  Dale and Sharon Condit and their two young sons need more room but can't seem to sell their current home — on the market now for three months.

Abbas confirms deal on Shalit's release  —  Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas confirmed Tuesday that a deal had been reached to secure the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit.  —  Abbas told Bahrain-based newspaper El-Halij that Shalit would be transferred to Egypt …

Deadly blast in southern Lebanon  —  A bomb blast near the southern Lebanese city of Sidon has seriously wounded a senior intelligence officer and killed four of his aides and bodyguards.  —  Officials said Samir Shehadeh's car was hit by a remote-controlled bomb as he drove past the village of Rmeileh.

New Republic Suspends an Editor for Attacks on Blog  —  A senior editor at The New Republic was suspended and his blog was shut down on Friday after revelations that he was involved in anonymously attacking readers who criticized his posts.  —  Lee Siegel, creator of the Lee Siegel …

Hands Off Constitutions  —  This Isn't the Way to Ban Same-Sex Marriage  —  The chief casualty in the struggle over same-sex marriage has been the American constitutional tradition.  Liberals and conservatives — judges and legislators — bear responsibility for this sad state of affairs.

Sudan's Offensive Comes at Key Time  —  The Sudanese government has dramatically intensified the war in Darfur in a bid to finish off a tenacious, three-year-old rebellion before a U.N. peacekeeping force can deploy there, say analysts, rebels and officials from the African Union monitoring mission.

This Can't Be Love  —  Across the eastern United States, a gruesome ritual is in full swing.  The praying mantis and its relative, the Chinese mantis, are in their courtship season.  A male mantis approaches a female, flapping his wings and swaying his abdomen.  Leaping on her back, he begins to mate.

Many Entry-Level Workers Find a Rough Market  —  This Labor Day, the 45 million young people in the nation's work force face a choppy job market in which entry-level wages have often trailed inflation, making it hard for many to cope with high housing costs and rising college debt loads.

Afghan Symbol for Change Becomes a Symbol of Failure  —  LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — It began last summer.  —  On a July morning, Taliban gunmen shot dead the province's most powerful cleric as he walked to the main city mosque to lead morning prayers.  Five months later …