Countless White House E-Mails Deleted  —  Countless e-mails to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted — lost to history and placed out of reach of congressional subpoenas — due to a brazen violation of internal White House policy that was allowed to continue for more than six years …

Bombing Inside Green Zone Kills Iraqi Lawmakers  —  A bomb struck the Iraqi parliament building inside the well-protected Green Zone today, killing at least two Iraqi lawmakers and demonstrating the vulnerability of even heavily guarded targets despite increased American attempts to secure the capital.

Kurt Vonnegut, Novelist Who Caught the Imagination of His Age, Is Dead at 84  —  Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle" and "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan.

An Imus Guest Says No More  —  Every time I've been on Don Imus' show, he has reminded listeners that he "discovered" me.  It's not exactly hyperbole.  He first invited me on when I was just a foulmouthed blogger who ran the gossipy political site Wonkette.

In 5-Year Effort, Scant Evidence of Voter Fraud  —  Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews.

Blair blames spate of murders on black culture  —  Patrick Wintour and Vikram Dodd  —  Tony Blair yesterday claimed the spate of knife and gun murders in London was not being caused by poverty, but a distinctive black culture.  His remarks angered community leaders, who accused him of ignorance …

Suing a Blogger  —  Big, powerful law firms like Nashville's King & Ballow really ought to hire someone with journalistic and new media experience to advise them on how to handle clients who complain about things published by bloggers.  Then they wouldn't do stupid things like issue threats …

British Forces at War: As Witnessed by an American  —  Basra, Iraq  —  The explosions from enemy rockets and mortar fire have been constant companions for the small contingent of Coalition forces based at the former Basra Palace, on the banks of Shatt al Arab River.

Civilian Claims on U.S. Suggest the Toll of War  —  In February 2006, nervous American soldiers in Tikrit killed an Iraqi fisherman on the Tigris River after he leaned over to switch off his engine.  A year earlier, a civilian filling his car and an Iraqi Army officer directing traffic …

A convenient untruth  —  A suicide bomber had rammed a truck into the guard post outside his offices before it exploded, in the first attack in the centre of the country's capital for many years.  Al-Qaida, he told his region-wide Arab audience, was responsible for "this cowardly attack, this rejection of reconciliation".

In the Real World of Work and Wages, Trickle-Down Theories Don't Hold Up  —  When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton famously replied, "Because that's where the money is."  The same logic explains the call by John Edwards, the Democratic presidential candidate, for higher taxes …