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.

Clinton backers see Warner — not Obama — as best V.P. choice  —  Anticipating that Sen. Hillary Clinton will clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, some supporters are beginning to argue against her choosing her principal rival — Sen. Barack Obama — for vice president.

Chances for Everybody, in Time, in Latest Debate  —  In this presidential election season, there have been debates piled upon debates, a string of opportunities for candidates to be sized up alongside one another.  Seldom has an audience been as important, though, as when the Democrats strode onto stage here on Sunday.

Immigration Activist Arrested Outside L.A. Church  —  Elvira Arellano Taken Into Custody Sunday Afternoon  —  CBS News Interactive: Immigration and Naturalization  —  (AP) LOS ANGELES An illegal immigrant who stayed in a Chicago church for a year to avoid separation from her 8-year-old son …

Roadside bomb kills Iraq governor  —  The Shia governor of Iraq's southern Muthana province has been killed by a roadside bomb, officials have said.  —  The governor, Mohammed Ali al-Hasani, was killed when the bomb exploded next to his convoy as it drove through the provincial capital, Samawa, police say.

A Rush To Frame Views on Congress  —  Ads Start Before Presidential Race Consumes Voters  —  Democrats and Republicans are mounting a fierce battle to shape voter impressions of Congress during August's political lull, convinced that they must define the story line of the 2008 congressional election …

Vladimir Putin rewrites Russia's history books to promote patriotism  —  Critics are accusing President Vladimir Putin's government of a Soviet-style rewriting of Russian history with a series of new "patriotic" textbooks to be unveiled in the new school year.

Al Qaeda's Travel Agent  —  Damascus International Airport is a hub for terrorists.  —  The United States is at last making significant progress against al Qaeda in Iraq—but the road to victory now requires cutting off al Qaeda's road to Iraq through Damascus.

Short Fuse  —  Mitt Romney has been trying to persuade conservative voters that, even though he was governor of Massachusetts, he has not been contaminated by the Commonwealth's peculiar passions.  And in fact, his recent financial disclosure form offers documented proof of how he differs from the masses of Massachusetts.

HOW THE NEW REPUBLIC GOT SUCKERED  —  When Pajamas Media heard the authenticity questions surrounding the "Baghdad Diarist" articles by Scott Thomas Beauchamp in The New Republic, we asked our Washington Editor Richard Miniter to look into how the respected opinion magazine could once again be the locus of such a scandal.

An Interview With Robert Novak  —  On Friday of last week, I did a telephone interview with Robert Novak about his book, The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington.  What follows is the transcript of our interview (Note: This interview has been edited slightly to correct grammar and for brevity's sake.)

Manly Man/Stay-At-Home Dad  —  ... doth protest a little much about his manliness.  Should have stopped at the "low mordant chuckle."  —  Hey, Niewert, you want to be a real man ... try having more kids.  One's like a hobby.  That's like boutique parenthood.  I'm kicking myself because we stopped at three.

Seven-year-old Muslim boy stopped in US on suspicion of being a terrorist  —  For seven-year-old Javaid Iqbal, the holiday to Florida was a dream trip to reward him for doing well at school.  —  But he was left in tears after he was stopped repeatedly at airports on suspicion of being a terrorist.

U.S. says Iranians train Iraqi insurgents  —  BAGHDAD - For the first time, the U.S. military said on Sunday that Iranian soldiers are in Iraq training insurgents to attack American forces.  —  Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a top U.S. commander who is in charge of a large swath of Iraq south of Baghdad …

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.