Karl Rove to Resign At the End of August  —  Karl Rove, President Bush's longtime political adviser, is resigning as White House deputy chief of staff effective Aug. 31, and returning to Texas, he said in an interview with Paul Gigot, editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page.

Tommy Thompson Is First Victim of Iowa Straw Poll  —  Former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson dropped out of the race for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination tonight, a day after he finished a disappointing sixth in the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa.  —  "I have no regrets about running," Thompson said in a statement released by his campaign.

The GOP YouTube Debate Is Back On  —  This just in: The Republican CNN/YouTube debate, in limbo for the past few weeks, is on again.  —  But Mitt Romney, who won Saturday's Iowa straw poll and has criticized the debate format, has yet to commit to the Nov. 28 event.

Yes, the Fund-Raising Records Fell, Just Not as Far  —  For Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, it was a monumental achievement: Her campaign announced in April that she had raised $26 million in the first quarter of the year, more than any other presidential candidate.

Hardline group rallies for world Islamic rule  —  More than 70,000 members of a hardline Muslim group held a rally in Indonesia that heard calls for a caliphate — or Islamic rule — to govern the world.  —  The supporters of the Hizbut Tahrir group filled up most of an 80,000-seat sports stadium …

In Fundraising's Murky Corners  —  Candidates See Little of Millions Collected by Linda Chavez's Family  —  Linda Chavez rose to prominence in the 1980s as a tart-tongued Reagan administration official and candidate for the Senate, eventually becoming a well-known Latina voice on social issues …

For a Joke-Telling Candidate, a Second-Place Finish  —  "I can't buy you — I don't have the money," Mike Huckabee, the Arkansas Republican seeking the presidency, told Republicans at the Iowa Straw Poll this weekend.  He offered a mock frown.  —  "I can't even rent you," he said.

Deceased Malayan hit with $218 trillion mobile bill  —  Roaming in the valley of the shadow of death  —  What otherworldly ectoplasms lurk in the oblivion of such an unholy place as accounts receivable?  —  A Malaysian man who paid off a $23 wireless bill and disconnected his late father's cell phone …

Video Surfaces of Cheney, in 1994, Warning That An Invasion of Iraq Would Lead to 'Quagmire'  —  NEW YORK It's not the first time that citizen "investigative journalists" have uncovered some embarrassing, or telling, nugget from the past that apparently remained buried for years.

Wrong Way Out of Iraq  —  As Americans argue about how to bring the troops home from Iraq, British forces are already partway out the door.  Four years ago, there were some 30,000 British ground troops in southern Iraq.  By the end of this summer, there will be 5,000.  None will be based in urban areas.

Hungry for end to war, activists set up camp  —  Marghi Dutton is 90 and losing her eyesight, but nothing was going to stop her from trekking to midspan of the Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday with the anti-war group Code Pink: Women for Peace.  —  She joined a crowd of about 100 demonstrators dressed …

On the Road to Jalalabad  —  Don't believe the naysayers.  Afghanistan is doing as well as anyone has a right to expect.  —  AFGHANISTAN—Sen. Hillary Clinton has cynically charged that we are "losing the fight to al Qaeda and bin Laden" in Afghanistan.  But on my eighth trip to Afghanistan …

OBJECTIVITY....Mark Kleiman comments on the convention of objectivity in the reporting of straight news: … In theory, everyone agrees with this.  The problem is, I haven't yet come across a single person who's proposed a workable solution.  Who gets to decide whether an issue is still debatable?

The LAT had an interesting item today, speculating about whether presidential candidate Fred Thompson will follow Senate candidate Thompson's style, and campaign in his favorite prop. … As the piece explained, Thompson hopped in an old red pickup and won voters over with his folksy charm, accentuated by the prop.