Romney pigs out at Iowa State Fair  —  DES MOINES — Today we are at the Iowa State Fair, where politicians meet swine but are rarely mistaken for them.  —  Mitt Romney is at the Pork Tent being a "guest cook," which means he is flipping pork chops on a giant grill with about a dozen camera crews recording the moment for history.

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

Sources: U.S. assessing Pakistan nukes if Musharraf falls  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — U.S. military intelligence officials are urgently assessing how secure Pakistan's nuclear weapons would be in the event President Gen. Pervez Musharraf were replaced as the nation's leader, CNN has learned.

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.

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 …

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.

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.

Church Cancels Memorial for Gay Navy Vet  —  ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay.  —  Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay …

When It Comes to Memory, Use It or Lose It  —  If I didn't rely on my trusty, dusty Rolodex, I would lose such a jumble of memories.  —  Just this week, I was looking for the home number of a friend when my hand paused over the yellowed card for my parents.

Blue America Welcomes Rick Noriega (D-TX)  —  [Please be polite and respectful of our guest, and stay on topic in the comments — any off-topic discussions should go to the prior thread.  With that, please help me welcome Rick Noriega (second from left in the photograph) to FDL!  — CHS]