NBC label of civil war at odds with White House  —  Pronouncement to increase public dismay over troop presence, analysts say … Today show  —  WASHINGTON - NBC News Monday branded the Iraq conflict a civil war - a decision that put it at odds with the White House and that analysts …

Bush Blames Al Qaeda for Wave of Iraq Violence  —  President Bush today said Al Qaeda was to blame for the rising wave of sectarian violence in Iraq, which he refused to label a civil war.  Mr. Bush said he would press Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, during meetings in Jordan later …

Pelosi rejects Hastings bid to head committee  —Text+WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida, impeached as a federal judge in 1989 on corruption charges, dropped his bid under pressure on Tuesday to chair a congressional panel designed to help protect America's security, a party aide said.

Iran: US exit key to Iraq peace  —  US troops must leave Iraq if security is to be restored, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said during talks with the Iraqi president.  —  He said the US was powerless to stop the unrest in Iraq, which was also bad for other countries in the region.

Congressman calls Miami a `Third World country'  —  WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom Tancredo, the leader of the anti-illegal immigration faction in the U.S. House, spent a recent weekend at The Breakers in Palm Beach.  —  Ninety miles to the south, he found a symbol to bolster his belief …

Centrism  —  Just adding on to Ezra, I have hostility to the concept of "centrism" for a variety of reasons.  First, except on a few mostly social issues there really isn't all that much which can be neatly fit into a left-center-right-axis.  Mostly centrism is used be elite opinionmakers …

America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on  —  Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but on the bible of Islam, the Koran.

EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon Considers Moving Troops From al-Anbar Province to Baghdad  —  Major Strategic Shift Considered to Secure Iraqi Capital  —  ABC News has learned that Pentagon officials are considering a major strategic shift in Iraq, to move U.S. forces out of the dangerous Sunni-dominated …

Women talk three times as much as men, says study  —  It is something one half of the population has long suspected - and the other half always vocally denied.  Women really do talk more than men.  —  In fact, women talk almost three times as much as men, with the average woman chalking …

Court Clears Way for Prosecutor to Review Records in Times Case  —  The United States Supreme Court refused yesterday to stop a federal prosecutor from reviewing the telephone records of two reporters for The New York Times.  The records, the newspaper said, include information about many of the reporters' confidential sources.

French police the target in urban guerrilla war  —  PARIS (Reuters) - Stoned, beaten and insulted, their vehicles torched by crowds of hostile youths, French police say they face an urban guerrilla war when they enter the run-down neighborhoods that ring the major cities.

Cheerleading for the Terrorists  —  The media, in all of its glory, wholeheartedly participating in the celebration of a new weapon designed to kill Jews:  —  More details will follow shortly, as soon as I have the time.  I hope to track down the news articles attached to this event …