They like Mike  —  DES MOINES - Going into Sunday's Republican presidential debate, most of the Iowans noshing on English muffins in the sun room of the neon-bedecked Drake Diner had never heard of Mike Huckabee, or knew very little about the ex-preacher and former governor of Arkansas.

Truth about global-warming deniers  —  Sen. Barbara Boxer had been chair of the Senate's Environment Committee for less than a month when the verdict landed last February.  "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal," concluded a report by 600 scientists from governments, academia, green groups and businesses in 40 countries.

Is California GOP Trying to Steal the 2008 Election?  —  Our way of electing presidents has always been fer-tile ground for mischief.  But there's sensible mischief—toying with existing laws and the Constitution to reflect popular will—and then there's the other kind …

Government hunts for warrantless wiretap leaker  —  Priorities: The Attorney General apologized for 'creating confusion'  —  The controversy over President Bush's warrantless surveillance program took another surprise turn last week when a team of FBI agents, armed with a classified search warrant …

'Establish Islamic state'  —  Radical UK Islamist group holds London conference.  'Why is Palestine still occupied?' asks speaker  —  Yaakov Lappin  —  The British branch of a world-wide radical Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir, held a conference London on Saturday, in which speakers called …

Lead Pipes vs. Leaky Pipes  —  The netroots is reveling in Chicago, and the natural reaction is to ask, "Where's our YearlyKos?"  —  It's a good question, but ultimately a short-sighted one from an historical perspective.  Go back and re-read the TNR piece on the netroots from May.  Especially this part:

Murdoch Says He Just Wants More 'Urgency' in 'WSJ'  —  NEW YORK His Saturday business column for The New York Times (available online only via TimesSelect) mainly explores how the Bancroft family blew the deal with the News Corp. But Joseph Nocera closes it with a brief sit-down interview …

THE BLACK SITES  —  A rare look inside the C.I.A.'s secret interrogation program.  —  In March, Mariane Pearl, the widow of the murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, received a phone call from Alberto Gonzales, the Attorney General.  At the time, Gonzales's role …

"THIS IS PART OF THE BATTLEFIELD"  —  Sergeant David D. Aguina returned to the YearlyKos gathering on Saturday, a day after he had been unceremoniously thrown out of a panel on the military and progressives.  This time he may have been out of uniform, but he told PJM's Rick Moran, that he would never give up his fight.

Republicans hardening stance on immigration  —  (08-04) 04:00 PDT Washington — An anti-immigration backlash has taken hold among Republicans in the Capitol, led in some cases by the staunchest supporters - Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina …

New al Qaeda Video Shows Zawahiri, Adam Gadahn, Threatening U.S. Homeland  —  A yet to be released video by al Qaeda's as Sahab media group shows Orange County, California native Adam Gadahn ranting against the West.  Gadahn, who is known by Azzaz al Amriki, has appeared in several al Qaeda produced videos …

I have seen the horror  —  Al Qaeda is guilty of monstrosities in Iraq - no matter what anyone says  —  Amid all this talk of timetables for the War in Iraq, blurred as they are by a strange lemming-like compulsion to declare the "surge" strategy a failure almost before it actually began …