Rep. Foley Quits In Page Scandal  —  Six-term Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) resigned yesterday amid reports that he had sent sexually explicit e-mails to at least one underage male former page.  —  Foley, who was considered likely to win reelection this fall, said in a three-sentence letter of resignation …

Fierce clashes in Baghdad; government imposes curfew.  —  About an hour ago local TV stations reported that the office of PM Maliki announced that a total curfew will be imposed in Baghdad from now until Sunday morning.  —  The curfew apparently came in response to an acute deterioration …

Poll shows Virginia Senate race is dead heat  —  Incumbent Sen. Allen and challenger James Webb tied with 43 percent  —  NEW YORK - Incumbent Republican Senator George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb are tied in the latest MSNBC/McClatchy poll conducted by Mason-Dixon.

Chance at Osama pre 9/11, sez book  —  The CIA'S top counterterrorism officials felt they could have killed Osama Bin Laden in the months before 9/11, but got the "brushoff" when they went to the Bush White House seeking the money and authorization.  —  CIA Director George Tenet …

Hillary urges Dean to raise campaign funds  —  WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton took a backhanded swipe at Democratic National Committee boss Howard Dean Thursday, saying Dean's long-term party-building efforts should take a back seat to fundraising for the midterm elections.

Zawahri calls Bush a failure over war on terrorism  —  DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called President Bush a lying failure for talking of progress in the war on terrorism, according to a video posted on the Internet on Friday.

Poll numbers on Iraq  —  Is the Iraq war as disastrously unpopular as mainstream media assume?  Not necessarily.  Consider these results from the University of Cincinnati's most recent poll in Ohio.  Ohio is a pretty good bellwether: It voted 51 to 49 percent Bush in 2004, while the country as a whole voted 51 to 48 percent.

The Case for Waterboarding  —  Discussing his recent compromise with the White House on detention and interrogation of captured terrorists, John McCain said on the Today show that 'there will be no such thing as waterboarding...You will never see that again.  We stood up and said that cannot be done.'

Bush's Conception Conflict  —  It was, I believe, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) who first made the excellent, bitter and terribly unfair joke about conservatives who believe in a right to life that begins at conception and ends at birth.  —  This joke has been adapted for use against various Republican politicians ever since.