Ron Paul's wife hospitalized in Iowa  —  DES MOINES, Iowa — Rep. Ron Paul's wife was hospitalized Saturday morning, the Texas Republican's presidential campaign announced shortly before voting was to begin in the Ames GOP straw poll.  —  The campaign did not say why Carol Paul was taken to the hospital …

How We Won the Mainstream  —  Three years ago things looked bleak for the Democratic Party.  George Bush had just won a second term while his party consolidated its grip on Congress.  House Majority Leader Tom DeLay crowed about a "permanent Republican majority," and Beltway Democrats acquiesced …

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 …

NYPD ON THE ALERT FOR QAEDA 'BOMB'  —  TEAMS HIT STREETS AFTER 'NET 'CHATTER'  —  In a show of force, the NYPD mobilized hundreds of anti-terrorism cops last night after an Internet report of a "dirty bomb" threat targeting the city surfaced, authorities said.

THE BUNKER....When Rudy Giuliani finally agreed to build an emergency-command center in New York City back in 1996, the city's emergency management director recommended a site in Brooklyn: it was a safe location, had a low profile, and could be built quickly.  Giuliani refused.

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 …

Pakistan: Concern over nukes as al Qaeda camps empty  —  Red agencies/ districts controlled by the Taliban; purple is defacto control; yellow is under threat.  —  US intelligence investigates Pakistan's nuclear security and the military's loyalty to Musharraf as the Northwest Frontier Province spins further out of control

How a 'Good War' in Afghanistan Went Bad  —  A year after the Taliban fell to an American-led coalition, a group of NATO ambassadors landed in Kabul, Afghanistan, to survey what appeared to be a triumph — a fresh start for a country ripped apart by years of war with the Soviets and brutal repression by religious extremists.

Democrats Say Leaving Iraq May Take Years  —  Even as they call for an end to the war and pledge to bring the troops home, the Democratic presidential candidates are setting out positions that could leave the United States engaged in Iraq for years.  —  John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator …

Sign splits Lebanese, riles Jews  —  Members of the Jewish and Lebanese Christian communities in Windsor are outraged by the appearance of a billboard that appears to promote Hezbollah — an organization the Canadian government considers terrorist.  —  "That organization is banned in Canada …

SHIP OF FOOLS  —  Yesterday "the editors" of the New Republic published another statement on Baghdad fabulist Scott Thomas Beauchamp.  "The editors" stand by Beauchamp's TNR articles as of this moment in the name of the editors' journalistic integrity.  They imply that Beauchamp is being held incommunicado by the Army.

Reported Drop in Surveillance Spurred a 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.

Bush's Muse Stands Accused  —  He has been hailed as the best White House speechwriter since Kennedy's Theodore Sorensen, the muse behind President Bush's most famous phrases, the moral conscience of the West Wing.  But now Michael J. Gerson is accused by a former colleague of taking credit for words he did not write.