New Report Recommends Iraq Handover in 5 Years  —  Panel Also Calls for 50 Percent Troop Reduction Within 3 Years  —  In a report to be released Sunday, a panel of experts assembled by the U.S. Institute of Peace calls for a 50 percent reduction in U.S. forces in Iraq within three years …

Thompson explains the Anbar Awakening  —  Earlier this week, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said it's not too late for Fred Thompson to compete for the GOP nomination, but to make up for lost time, the former senator must demonstrate "a command over policy issues."

Brooks: In His New Tape, Bin Laden Sounds Like He's Been 'Reading Lefty Blogs'  —  Last night on PBS' The NewsHour, New York Times columnist David Brooks compared 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden's latest video message to "lefty blogs," saying the al Qaeda head is like "one of these childish …

Troop Buildup, Yielding Slight Gains, Fails to Meet U.S. Goals  —  Seven months after the American-led troop "surge" began, Baghdad has experienced modest security gains that have neither reversed the city's underlying sectarian dynamic nor created a unified and trusted national government.

Fugitive fundraiser Hsu 'freaked out' on train, witness says  —  (09-08) 04:00 PDT Chicago - —  Fugitive political fundraiser Norman Hsu was behaving erratically as he fled the Bay Area on Amtrak's California Zephyr, at one point stripping off his shirt and shoes, before paramedics …

Among Top Officials, 'Surge' Has Sparked Dissent, Infighting  —  For two hours, President Bush listened to contrasting visions of the U.S. future in Iraq.  Gen. David H. Petraeus dominated the conversation by video link from Baghdad, making the case to keep as many troops as long as possible to cement any security progress.

Gore Endorsement — Potent but Not Foolproof  —  Former vice president Al Gore's pronouncement that he is likely to endorse one of the Democratic candidates for president before the primary season is over has set off a slew of speculation about who his choice might be.

Alex Jones Arrested  —  The leather-lunged, bull-horn wielding nutbar Twoofer king himself was arrested outside Fox News today for disrupting a Geraldo broadcast.  No - he didn't spit on them: … Fascism!  —  UPDATE: Here's some video from the event (wild and wooly!):  —  UPDATE II: The NWO released Jones!

Looting Then And Now  —  I was interested to see Charles Krauthammer concede today that important "strategic errors" were made in Iraq, "most important, eschewing a heavy footprint, not forcibly suppressing the early looting and letting Moqtada al-Sadr escape with his life in August 2004."

F.B.I. Data Mining Reached Beyond Initial Targets  —  The F.B.I. cast a much wider net in its terrorism investigations than it has previously acknowledged by relying on telecommunications companies to analyze phone-call and e-mail patterns of the associates of Americans who had come under suspicion …

Giuliani: "For Me Every Day Is An Anniversary Of Sept. 11"  —  Basking in the lasting glow of his Sept. 11 leadership while campaigning in Pinellas County and Orlando on Friday, Giuliani stressed national security and electability, rather than the sort of hot-button social issues that are thought …

THE FIRST SHOE DROPS AT DARTMOUTH  —  We've been warning for some time that, in response to the election to the Board of Trustees of independent alumni rather than those who toe the administration line, Dartmouth would, in effect, pull the plug on the democratic system of governance that's been in place since 1891.