Why Bush Gave Scooter Libby a Pass  —  As is often the case in the Bush White House, it was a decision made swiftly, and with stealth.  For weeks, allies of I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby had aggressively lobbied the president to pardon Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.

Fifty bucks for a beer?  It was Livid Earth in Sydney  —  Cool start ... scientists from the British research station in Antarctica were the first to kick off the Live Earth concerts with their indie band, Nunatak.  —  Out front, Crowded House were getting reacquainted …

Muqtada al Sadr back in Iran  —  Muqtada al-Sadr.  —  Mahdi Army leader leaves Iraq and goes to Iran for second time this year  —  Muqtada al Sadr, the leader of the Shia Mahdi Army and the Sadrist bloc in parliament, has left Iraq and is in Iran, military sources told Reuters.

Files show talks on 'vote caging'  —  Discussions with elections chief were prior to '04 election  —  TALLAHASSEE - Internal city memos show the issue of Republican "vote caging" efforts in Jacksonville's African-American neighborhoods was discussed in the weeks before the 2004 election …

Seeing Al Qaeda Around Every Corner  —  AS domestic support for the war in Iraq continues to melt away, President Bush and the United States military in Baghdad are increasingly pointing to a single villain on the battlefield: Al Qaeda.  —  Bush mentioned the terrorist group 27 times …

Three men in jail over bomb at church  —  Three Burleson men who belong to a "radical Christian activist group" were in the Johnson County Jail on Friday night after a church deacon caught two of them attempting to ignite an explosive device on Independence Day at a church under construction in north Burleson, authorities said Friday.

Face the Snark?  Face the Fred.  —  The past few few days have been chock full of fascinating info about Fred Thompson.  Thompson is of course the ungainly actor and undeclared GOP presidential aspirant who smells really nice, at least according to Chris Matthews.

Powell tried to talk Bush out of war  —  THE former American secretary of state Colin Powell has revealed that he spent 2½ hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today's conflict cannot be resolved by US forces.

Sen. Schumer says they are thinking of calling Patrick Fitzgerald in for questioning  —  While talking about the Scooter Libby commutation on Face the Nation, Sen. Schumer said he talked to Pat Leahy about calling Patrick Fitzgerald in for questioning about Bush and Cheney because they didn't talk …

She's Baaaa-aaack!  —  Mother Sheehan is back!  —  That pain-filled exodus away from the cameras lasted... a little more than a month.  —  She made a moving announcement to the media last week that she was back in the game- insisting that she was not a media whore.

Back-to-back Colo. fundraisers for Sen. Clinton  —  Aspen - Sen. Hillary Clinton drew powerful, deep-pocketed crowds at a pair of fundraisers here Saturday, speaking at length on issues from health care to the environment to removing American troops from Iraq.

All Grown Up — and Going to War  —  July is a month I sincerely hoped would never come.  —  At the end of this month, my young son, my only child, deploys with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit.  His departure had been six months away, three months; now it is a matter of weeks.

Why She Still Rocks  —  Madonna turns La Isla Bonita into a Roman Gypsy festival at Live Earth.  She's almost 50, for Pete's sake, and still experimenting.  As for Live Earth, I'm allergic to self-righteous pop-stars.  But it's still surely a great thing that two years …

Edwards to announce poverty tour  —  Can JRE pull off a JFK, or an RFK (asks Politico chief political writer Mike Allen, who is sharing guestblogging duties while Ben is on vacation)?  John Edwards plans to announce Monday that he'll take a break from fund-raising and campaigning …

KIKI MUNSHI MEET MICHAEL YON  —  UPDATE: Ms. Munshi surfaces in the comments and Mr. Yon emailed.  The new post with their and my COIN thoughts is here.  —  In yesterday's WashPo Kiki Munshi lets us know about conditions on the ground in Baqubah, Iraq while sunning in California.