A 'Two-State Solution,' Palestinian-Style  —  Does Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas know something that we don't?  For five days his presidential security forces in Gaza came under organized attack by Hamas gunmen.  His compound in Gaza City was under siege.

What I Saw in Iraq  —  Iran remains a problem, but Anbar has joined the fight against terror.  —  I recently returned from Iraq and four other countries in the Middle East, my first trip to the region since December.  In the intervening five months, almost everything about the American war effort …

U.S. Says Iraq Troop Surge Complete  —  The full contingent of new U.S. forces being sent to Iraq — what military leaders call a "surge" of troops to improve security and stability in the capital — was completed by Friday, with 28,500 additional troops now posted in the country, a U.S. military spokesman said.

EXCLUSIVE: Fred Thompson Pro-Life Video Address  —  Watch Low Band EXCLUSIVE VIDEO:  —  CBNNews.com - It's Christmas in June here at The Brody File.  Look what we found under the tree.  It's a present from "supporters of Fred Thompson" given exclusively to The Brody File.

The Quiet Gay Revolution  —  When William F. Buckley Jr. revived American conservatism by founding National Review in 1955, he said the magazine's job was to stand "athwart history, yelling stop."  At that time, history did seem to be moving in the wrong direction if you were a conservative, and Buckley was gutsy to admit as much.

Bush administration attacks 'shield' for bloggers  —  WASHINGTON—The Bush administration on Thursday blasted a congressional proposal that would shield a broad swath of news gatherers, including some bloggers, from revealing their confidential sources.  —  The latest draft of the Free Flow …

Clinton Spokesman: Drudge Version Misses a Detail About Pay Day  —  Drudge is taking Bill Clinton to task for giving a $100,000 speech via satellite to a group of investors in Hong Kong on the 5th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.  —  But Clinton's press office now says that although …

Vote for me, dimwit  —  How the electorate is irrational  —  ANYONE who follows an election campaign too closely will sometimes get the feeling that politicians think voters are idiots.  A new book says they are.  Or rather, Bryan Caplan, an economics professor at George Mason University …

The Laptop Is Mightier Than the Sword  —  WHILE waiting to see if the Iraq surge strategy pays off, President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have shown Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the door and brought in Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute as the new White House "war czar."

Rise of the Seculars  —  Paul Waldman has a very interesting article over at the Prospect pondering whether liberal secular Americans will become as "tribal" as evangelicals.  He writes: … Let's put that aside for a moment.  Ross Douthat, meanwhile, notes that Waldman's essay jibes …

www.trentlott.com  —  ***update: Rush on Lott—"You've got Republicans talking about talk radio like liberals talk about talk radio.  That tells you something."  Yes, it does.  It tells you that the Republican Party is in deep, deep doo-doo.  Speaking of doo-doo, the literal kind apparently turned up in the Capitol today.

Complaint: Schlozman Aimed to Replace Lawyers with "Good Americans"  —  During a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Bradley Schlozman, the controversial former senior political appointee in the Civil Rights Division, was battered with questions about his efforts to politicize the division.

Watergate's 35th Anniversary: Would That Story Have Been Broken Today?  —  Who knows, someone with a cell phone camera working in the parking garage might have snapped a photo of Woodward chatting with this unknown source.  Or a blogger would have blown the whistle.  —  Sunday will be a memorable day for me, for two reasons.

Cunningham financier admits role in scandal  —  Help with home buying revealed in guilty plea  —  A New York financier has admitted playing a key role in the scandal that brought down former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, according to a guilty plea unsealed this week.

The Best Days Of My Life  —  After spending all week trying to think of a poignant way of making this announcement, and drawing nothing but blanks, I have decided to just say it as plainly as I can.  Today, after more than three years, I am stepping down as the lead writer and managing editor of MyDD.