Will Democrats squander best chance for a decade?  —  The war in Iraq remains their greatest dilemma and President Bush is regaining lost ground  —  AFTER months of near-euphoria among Democrats and a growing certainty among pollsters that the party will win control of the House of Representatives …

Probe Finds Jackson Urged Favoritism in HUD Contracts  —  An inspector general's report charges that top U.S. housing official Alphonso Jackson urged staff members to favor friends of President Bush when awarding Department of Housing and Urban Development contracts.

Coming Together on Torture  —  Bush and the renegade GOP senators finally agree on a bill to define how terror suspects should be treated.  And everyone is claiming victory  —  The just-announced deal between the White House and three Republican senators over rules to govern military tribunals …

Nasrallah says no army can disarm Hizbollah  —  BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday rejected international calls to disarm his Lebanese guerrillas and told a huge "victory" rally they still had more than 20,000 rockets after a month of war with Israel.

Idiot press  —  I just got a call from an MSNBC booker.  She wanted to know if I wanted to go on the air to talk about Hugo Chavez.  Apparently, he went off on some rant at the UN.  —  I said, "Why would I?  Who cares about Hugo Chavez?"  —  The booker said, "well, it's all over talk radio and the blogs."

Top Republican Aids Lieberman Fundraiser  —  WASHINGTON — A prominent Republican who chairs I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's legal defense fund co-hosted a fundraiser Wednesday for Sen. Joe Lieberman, who is running for re-election as an independent after losing the Democratic primary.

Will The Next Election Be Hacked?  —  Fresh disasters at the polls — and new evidence from an industry insider — prove that electronic voting machines can't be trusted  —  >>Post your thoughts about the threats to fair voting, in the National Affairs blog.  Plus, read Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?"

U.N. Charades  —  After the Shiite bomb, a nuke for Sunni Egypt?  —  Hugo Chávez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad put on quite a show at the United Nations this week, and it's tempting to dismiss it all as mere bombast.  Except that their assertiveness can't be separated from the more important U.N. story …

Hijackers Were Not Identified Before 9/11, Investigation Says  —  The Defense Department's inspector general has concluded that a top secret intelligence-gathering program did not identify Mohamed Atta or any other hijacker before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, determining that there is no evidence …

AZ Republic, FactCheck.org lobbed misleading claims in attempt to debunk Vote Vets ad criticizing Allen … In recent days, both The Arizona Republic editorial page and the website FactCheck.org have attacked as "deceitful" and "just plain wrong" a television advertisement …

Bill O'Reilly's enemies list, available in hardback for $26  —  "My goal," Bill O'Reilly writes in the introduction to his latest book, Culture Warrior, which is published by Random House's Broadway Books imprint and will go on sale September 25, "is to expose and defeat people who have the power to do you great harm.

USA Today hypes gas price-approval link  —  A USA Today article yesterday made some exaggerated claims about the effect of gasoline prices on President Bush's approval ratings: … The problem, however, is that Henwood's analysis is not correct, nor is he a statistician as Page's lede implies …

War Signals  —  As reports circulate of a sharp debate within the White House over possible US military action against Iran and its nuclear enrichment facilities, The Nation has learned that the Bush Administration and the Pentagon have issued orders for a major "strike group" of ships …

Bush 'Taken Aback' by Musharraf Comment  —  President Bush said today he was surprised by reports that a former top State Department official threatened heavy U.S. bombing of Pakistan if it did not cooperate with the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks …

Israel: Foreign reporters' vehicles may be used terrorists  —  Government Press Office director warns Shin Bet that armored vehicles used by foreign news agencies may serve hostile groups to carry out attacks against Israel  —  Armored vehicles that were given to foreign news agencies operating …

Streisand shows what not to wear  —  You would think that by the age of 64, most women would be self-conscious enough to ensure their choice of evening wear does not expose parts of the body which have...well dropped below standards.  —  But no one seems to have shared this with legendary …

Confronted by the Islamist threat on all sides, Europe pathetically caves in  —  LATE LAST YEAR, at the invitation of Nato, and in the company of a small band of globetrotting pundits, I travelled to Afghanistan to witness first-hand the allied operation to reconstruct the benighted country.

Navy retires F-14, the coolest of cold warriors  —  VIRGINIA BEACH — Today the Navy holsters the F-14 Tomcat, the top gun in its Cold War arsenal and one of the most recognizable warplanes in history.  —  Maintenance costs for the F-14 have soared, and its replacement, the F/A-18 Super Hornet …

Schweitzer, Tester say Burns fails to deliver for Montana  —  Gov. Brian Schweitzer and state Sen. Jon Tester teamed up to challenge Sen. Conrad Burns and his record of "delivering for Montana" at a press conference Thursday on the Rimrocks.  —  The Democratic pair offered a new slogan for Republican Burns …

Indonesian Christians executed; girls to be stoned in Iran  —  Still traveling and catching up on news/mail.  The three Christians in Indonesia I blogged about last week were executed yesterday by firing squad.  Indonesian blogger Stan liveblogged the day's events.  BBC coverage here.