Iraq war czar: Consider a draft  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday.  —  "I think it makes sense …

DEBKAfile Exclusive: New Al Qaeda threat of radioactive truck attacks naming New York, Los Angeles, Miami  —  The threat was picked up by DEBKAfile's monitors from a rush of electronic chatter on al Qaeda sites Thursday, Aug. 8.  —  The al Qaeda communications accuse the Americans …

Farmers Call Crackdown on Illegal Workers Unfair  —  Facing the prospect of major layoffs of farmworkers during harvest season, growers and lawmakers from agricultural states spoke in dire terms yesterday about new measures by the Bush administration to crack down on employers of illegal immigrants.

Right-Wing Media Give Favorable Platform To 'Another 9/11′ Columnist  —  In his Thursday column, Philadelphia Daily News scribe Stu Bykofsky seemingly wished for the tragic death of 3000+ Americans when he wrote that "another 9/11 would help America."  —  A host of right-wing media …

Campaign Is a Family Project for the Romneys  —  They have driven here from California, Ohio, Canada and Texas; flown from Michigan, Utah and Florida.  There are aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, in-laws, nieces, nephews and grandchildren.  —  At last count, 96 members of the Romney clan …

Inside Iraq  —  I spent a week in Iraq recently, and here's what impressed me most: the Americans.  In particular, the quality and character of the American soldiers and Marines who are fighting there and trying to help rebuild the nation.  I don't mean to slight, in some ethnocentric way …

Reported Decline in Surveillance Spurred Quick Law  —  At a closed-door briefing in mid-July, senior intelligence officials startled lawmakers with some troubling news.  American eavesdroppers were collecting just 25 percent of the foreign-based communications they had been receiving a few months earlier.

A harsh fate awaits all collaborators  —  Will the British Army's Iraqi interpreters be left to swing when we withdraw from Basra?  —  Those deemed to have collaborated with an occupying power are invariably at the mercy of summary justice when the occupiers leave.

Cancer touches all of us  —  Brenda, an aunt, is the latest to be diagnosed, and the news is not great.  A lumpectomy won't be sufficient.  A double mastectomy is recommended.  —  "We need to get that booger out," a nurse told her, speaking inelegant words elegantly and with calming comfort.

"Media Matters"; by Jamison Foser  —  You write the words and make believe there is truth in the space between  —  In a Swampland blog post titled "Anecdotal hit job," Time Washington bureau chief Jay Carney criticized a column in which Brad Warthen, the editorial page editor …

Clinton emulates Bush campaign tactics  —  Barack Obama obviously meant it as an insult when he accused New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of sounding a lot like the president during their recent dust-up over foreign policy.  —  The clash with the Illinois senator did indeed reveal …

Rep. Schakowsky: Petraeus hints at decade-long Iraq presence  —  Gen. David Petraeus told a congressional delegation visiting the Middle East that success in Iraq will require a U.S. military presence there for about a decade, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said Friday.

The lowdown  —  My bosses at the DN asked me to do a prototype for a weekly rundown on the presidential candidates (and man, there are A LOT of them.)  Since I'm not sure this "prototype" will make the paper or not, I asked to post it on Attytood.  Sorry for the lack of hyperlinks...you'll have to trust me :-) :

"I've mostly stopped reading Ann Althouse, really."  —  TRex cannot stay out of the vortex... especially when it's baited with food.  —  And apparently, I give him "all-over creepy shivers, like someone just dumped a bag of live spiders over my naked thighs."  I'm picturing chubby, pasty white thighs.

Suspect Pleads Not Guilty in New Jersey Students' Execution-Style Deaths  —  NEWARK, N.J. — A Peruvian national in the U.S. illegally and who was previously charged with raping a 5-year-old girl pleaded not guilty Friday in the execution-style slayings of three young college students, a day after he surrendered to the Newark mayor.