Iraq PM: Country can manage without U.S.  —  BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shrugged off U.S. doubts of his government's military and political progress on Saturday, saying Iraqi forces are capable and American troops can leave "any time they want."

Democrats block amendment to prevent Fairness Doctrine  —  Senate Democrats on Friday blocked an amendment that would have prevented the return of the Fairness Doctrine, a federal rule requiring broadcasters to air opposing views on issues.  —  Although no legislation has been offered …

Bin Laden in video calls for martyrdom  —  (CNN) — Osama bin Laden stresses the importance of martyrdom for Muslim causes in a videotape that purportedly contains a 50-second message from the al Qaeda leader.  —  The 40-minute videotape, whose audio was being translated from Arabic by CNN …

White House Denies Request for Documents in Ex-NFL Player's Death  —  The White House has refused to give Congress documents about the death of former NFL player Pat Tillman, with White House counsel Fred F. Fielding saying that certain papers relating to discussion of the friendly-fire shooting …

Fear of a global 'coldening'  —  Decrease Increase -  —  Submit comment:  —  LAST month Australians endured our coldest June since 1950.  Imagine that; all those trillions of tonnes of evil carbon we've horked up into the atmosphere over six decades of rampant industrialisation …

Muslim heads stuck firmly in the sand  —  Hassan Butt, a former jihadist, demands some fresh thinking  —  In the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings I remember having a passionate discussion with some friends about who was responsible for the attacks.  "It's the work of the security services; I can put my life on it!" one said.

Blue America Welcomes Darcy Burner (What Took Us So Long?)  —  The most astounding thing about Blue America endorsing Darcy Burner is that we're just getting around to it now.  Darcy is the quintessential Blue America candidate and we missed her last year.  Let's make up for it this year …

AP Poll: Public gives Congress low marks  —  WASHINGTON — In the eyes of the public, Congress is doing even worse than the president.  —  Public satisfaction with the job lawmakers are doing has fallen 11 points since May, to 24 percent, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.

Rove Strategy Paper Found in Nixon Archive  —  The year was 1973, and Karl Rove was looking for help — from the Nixon White House.  —  Tucked away inside 78,000 pages of documents from the Nixon administration, released by the National Archives earlier this week, is a little gem …

The Ever Changing Definition of 'Mission' In Iraq  —  In June 2005, ThinkProgress noted the Bush was constantly revising the definition of our "mission" in Iraq.  —  Reporting on his escalation strategy this week, President Bush claimed "satisfactory" progress in many areas of the "new mission" in Iraq.

Clinton on Obama on Iraq: "But That Was Five Years Ago"  —  Well she didn't quite say that, but it's her basic retort to Obama's critique.  I just did a Google search for 'Obama antiwar', and an Obama ad tailored to an antiwar Democrat popped up.  There is no Clinton ad, no Edwards ad, and no Richardson ad.

The Plame Game  —  It has been four years since you were catapulted into the headlines for outing the C.I.A. officer Valerie Plame in your syndicated column, yet the story lives on, most recently in the uproar over the commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence.  Would you like to see him pardoned?

Tom Tancredo - Only Republican at NAACP Forum  —  Tom Tancredo may be low in the polls but stood alone as the only Republican candidate at last night's NAACP forum.  —  The political issue that Tom Tancredo is known for is immigration and it is only fitting that his poll numbers are consistently the highest in California.