Cooper Contradicts Rove: He's 'Dissembling' With 'Nonsense' About The Plame Leak  —  During his tour of the Sunday shows this morning, Karl Rove attempted to downplay and dismiss his role in the CIA leak scandal, telling Fox News' Chris Wallace that he acted benignly in his conversations with reporters about Valerie Plame's identity:

Manly men  —  People who talk about masculinity — especially conservatives, who seem to obsess about it, but in a peculiarly juvenile way — have always seemed a little weird to me.  It's like the cliche retort the wealthy like to use: "If you have to ask how much it is, you can't afford it."

Immigration activist Arellano arrested  —  LOS ANGELES - An illegal Mexican immigrant who sought refuge inside a Chicago church for a year was arrested in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon after taking her campaign on the road.  —  Elvira Arellano was arrested about 4:15 p.m. Chicago …

TRANSCRIPT: The Democratic Debate  —  George Stephanopoulos Moderates Democratic Debate on a Special Edition of "This Week"  —  STEPHANOPOULOS: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this special edition of "This Week."  We're back here at Drake University in Iowa for the first Democratic presidential debate in Iowa.

ANNALS OF REPORTING  —  For a variety of reasons I try to stay out of the debates over blogs as such, what they're good or bad at and the rest.  But this morning I was alerted to an opinion column in the Los Angeles Times by Michael Skube, a journalism professor at Elon University.

The Lost War  —  We've Spent 36 Years and Billions of Dollars Fighting It, but the Drug Trade Keeps Growing  —  Poppies were the first thing that British army Capt. Leo Docherty noticed when he arrived in Afghanistan's turbulent Helmand province in April 2006.

Blogs: All the noise that fits  —  The hard-line opinions on weblogs are no substitute for the patient fact-finding of reporters.  —  The late Christopher Lasch once wrote that public affairs generally and journalism in particular suffered not from too little information but from entirely too much.

Military commanders tell Brown to withdraw from Iraq without delay  —  Senior military commanders have told the Government that Britain can achieve "nothing more" in south-east Iraq, and that the 5,500 British troops still deployed there should move towards withdrawal without further delay.

Iraq Report: Qods in Iraq  —  As US and Iraqi security forces have stepped up operations against Sunni and Shia extremist groups in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch stated there are about 50 members of Iran's elite Qods Force operating inside Iraq to arm and train groups such as the "rogue" Mahdi Army and the Special Groups terror cells.

The Founders Had an Idea for Handling Alberto Gonzales  —  William Belknap, Ulysses S. Grant's disgraced secretary of war, is experiencing a revival.  Impeached in 1876 for taking bribes, he has become the inspiration for a movement to remove Attorney General Alberto Gonzales from office.

As Democracy Push Falters, Bush Feels Like a 'Dissident'  —  By the time he arrived in Prague in June for a democracy conference, President Bush was frustrated.  He had committed his presidency to working toward the goal of "ending tyranny in our world," yet the march of freedom seemed stalled.

Giuliani's Fox-y pal cash flap  —  It's no secret that Sean Hannity, the conservative Fox News commentator, has helped to raise Rudy Giuliani's profile - but now he's helped the former mayor raise money, too.  —  In a little noticed event this month, Hannity - co-host of Fox News' …

Rudy plays the security card: ID for all tourists  —  EVERY foreigner in America, including British visitors, would be required to carry an ID card bearing photograph and fingerprints under plans drawn up by Rudolph Giuliani, the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.

TV Ads: Bush-Petraeus 10-Year Plan Means a Draft  —  Americans have seen some news reports over the last few days suggesting that the White House "might-maybe-could-possibly" bring some troops home from Iraq next year.  If this happens, that's great.  But don't break out the confetti just yet.