Toll Mounts in Pakistan On Second Day of Clashes  —  Clashes between government supporters and opposition activists flared for a second day Sunday in the country's largest city, bringing the weekend death toll to about 40.  —  The clashes in the southern city of Karachi were prompted …

Al Qaeda Claim: We Have Captured US Troops  —  UPDATE: And We Will Coordinate With The Democratic Party For Maximum Political Impact  —  Above the Fold Update: Al Qaeda knows who its allies are. … Notice Al Qaeda is not pressuring us to stay, which is odd, because I keep being told …

Teachers fake gunman attack on sixth graders … MURFREESBORO, Tennessee (AP) — Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.

Haven't We had Enough Good ol' Boys For a While?  —  Dean Barnett conjures up a terrifying picture (albeit not one that scares him): … That's not pop culture.  That's rural Southern culture.  Nascar.  The opiate of the good ol' boy masses.  Gary Cooper.  A great movie, but hardly au courant.

'More troops' call as Iraq murders soar  —  234 bodies dumped in Baghdad in only 11 days  —  The US military surge in Iraq, designed to turn around the course of the war, appears to be failing as senior US officers admit they need yet more troops and new figures show a sharp increase in the victims of death squads in Baghdad.

Transcript: Rudy Giuliani on 'FNS'  —  WASHINGTON — The following is a partial transcript of the May 13, 2007, edition of "FOX News Sunday With Chris Wallace":  —  "FOX NEWS SUNDAY" HOST CHRIS WALLACE: Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has been in the center …

Hagel-Bloomberg In '08?  You Never Know  —  Senator Says Today's GOP Is Not The Party He Joined; Considers An Independent Ticket In '08  —  (CBS) The Republican Party has been "hijacked" and led away from its core values, Chuck Hagel, the Republican Senator from Nebraska, said Sunday on Face The Nation.

U.S., Iran Plan Talks on Pacifying Iraq  —  White House Says Meeting Will Focus on 'Productive Role' for Neighbor  —  The White House confirmed yesterday that the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad is likely to meet in the next several weeks with Iranian officials about stabilizing Iraq …

Conserva-bible  —  I can't resist following Conservapedia, the Tlön version of Wikipedia, in which the liberal, anti-American bias of the Earth version is replaced with virtue and apple pie.  But where did this bias come from, and how is it so deeply rooted in our culture?

Shaping the future  —  (One of the things that goes with being an SF writer is that people expect you to talk about, well, the future.  Last week, engineering consultancy TNG Technology Consulting invited me to Munich to address one of their technology open days.

Obama Seeks War-Funding Compromise  —  The Democratic Candidate Could Support Bill with Benchmarks but No Timetable for Withdrawal  —  Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., could support a war-funding bill that includes benchmarks but lacks a timetable for withdrawal, the 2008 Democratic presidential …

Tucker: Active-Duty Generals Will 'Revolt' Against Bush If He Maintains Escalation Into 2008  —  Appearing on NBC's Chris Matthews Show this morning, Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Cynthia Tucker revealed that sources within the military are warning of "a revolt from active-duty generals …

Voter-Fraud Complaints by GOP Drove Dismissals  —  Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions …

Judge in Padilla case comes under pressure  —  When Jose Padilla first entered her courtroom in 2006, Miami federal judge Marcia Cooke ordered security guards to uncuff the al-Qaida suspect.  —  "No handcuffs in court, please," she said.  —  It was a small gesture, but one that signaled …