Warrantless Surrender  —  THE DEMOCRATIC-led Congress, more concerned with protecting its political backside than with safeguarding the privacy of American citizens, left town early yesterday after caving in to administration demands that it allow warrantless surveillance of the phone calls …

Weapons Given to Iraq Are Missing  —  GAO Estimates 30% of Arms Are Unaccounted For  —  The Pentagon has lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005, according to a new government report, raising fears that some of those weapons …

Al Qaeda Cell May Be Loose in U.S., British Plot Hints  —  WASHINGTON — As an American-born spokesman for Al Qaeda threatens to blow up American embassies abroad, intelligence gleaned from last month's British "doctors plot" of car bombers suggests that a Qaeda cell is on the loose in the American homeland.

American disconnection  —  AS A CHILD of 10 or 12, I could tell when the height of summer had arrived by the certain feeling that came over me.  Even though I was part of a large, happy family, my main source of connectedness from an early age was school, and in summer I hardly ever saw the kids who …

The Next Intervention  —  Is the United States out of the intervention business for a while?  With two difficult wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a divided public, the conventional answer is that it will be a long time before any American president, Democrat or Republican, again dispatches troops into conflict overseas.

Iowa Republicans See Romney As Straw Poll Winner  —  With a week to go before the Iowa Republican Party's critical straw poll, an informal survey of Iowa Republican Party leaders, conducted by Real Clear Politics, shows high expectations for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Mad House  —  Congress needs an intervention.  —  The House of Representatives almost turned into the Fight Club Thursday night, when Democrats ruled that a GOP motion had failed even though, when the gavel fell, the electronic score board showed it winning 215-213 along with the word FINAL.

'Fake Steve' Blogger Comes Clean  —  For the last 14 months, high-tech insiders have been eating up the work of an anonymous blogger who assumed the persona of Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive and one of the world's most famous businessmen.  —  The mysterious writer has used his blog …

Democrats Targeted In GOP Debate  —  The Republican candidates for president used a nationally televised morning debate to mock Democrats on foreign policy, taxes and health care while sparring with each other over abortion and the administration's anti-terrorism efforts.

Mortgage Maze May Increase Foreclosures  —  In 2003, Dianne Brimmage refinanced the mortgage on her home in Alton, Ill., to consolidate her car and medical bills.  Now, struggling with a much higher interest rate and in foreclosure, she wants to modify the terms of the loan.

Solidarity in cyberspace?  Bloggers eye labour union  —  In such a diverse world, there's no consensus on type of organization and who should be included  —  CHICAGO-Do bloggers need their own Norma Rae?  —  In a move that might make some people scratch their heads …

[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: The Substance Thing  —  What are the presidential candidates saying about policy, and what does it tell us about them?

Further Confirmation: No Burned Woman Here  —  Adding to the debunking of The New Republic's new claim that "burned contractor" story took place in Kuwait before PV-2 Scott Thomas Beauchamp deployed into a combat zone, U.S. Army Public Affairs Chief PAO for US ARCENT Kuwait LTC Andy Sams replies to an emailed inquiry about the claim:

Perceptions of Iraq War Are Starting to Shift  —  It's not often that an opinion article shakes up Washington and changes the way a major issue is viewed.  But that happened last week, when The New York Times printed an opinion article by Brookings Institution analysts Michael O'Hanlon …

A Diversity of Opinion, if Not Opinionators  —  At the Yearly Kos Bloggers' Convention, a Sea of Middle-Aged White Males  —  It's Sunday, day 4 of Yearly Kos, the major conference for progressive bloggers, and Gina Cooper, the confab's organizer-in-chief, surveys the ballroom of the massive McCormick Place Convention Center.