Two of Seven Soldiers Who Wrote 'NYT' Op-Ed Die in Iraq  —  NEW YORK The Op-Ed by seven active duty U.S. soldiers in Iraq questioning the war drew international attention just three weeks ago.  Now two of the seven are dead.  —  Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance Gray died Monday in a vehicle accident …

Clinton Sees Fear Realized in Trouble With Donor  —  Of all the possible vulnerabilities facing Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign, Mrs. Clinton has long believed that the one of the biggest was money, friends and advisers say.  Some sort of fund-raising scandal that would echo …

Report: Israel spots nuclear installations in Syria  —  Washington official says Israeli surveillance shows possible Syrian nuclear installation stocked by North Korea, Israeli Arab newspaper claims target of alleged raid last week was Syrian missile base financed by Iran

High School Bans American Flag  —  SAMPSON COUNTY, N.C. - On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, students at one high school were not allowed to wear clothes with an American Flag.  —  Under a new school rule, students at Hobbton High School are not allowed to wear items with flags …

The Assault on Petraeus  —  There is a long American tradition of savaging failed generals, from George McClellan to William Westmoreland.  It is a more novel tactic to attack a successful one.  Sen. Dick Durbin accuses Gen. David Petraeus of "carefully manipulating the statistics."

Freedom Fetishists  —  The cultural contradictions of libertarianism.  —  More than perhaps any other American political group, libertarians have suffered the blows of caricature.  For many people, the term evokes an image of a scraggly misfit living in the woods with his gun collection …

Led Zeppelin confirm reunion gig  —  Rock group Led Zeppelin are to reform for a tribute concert to the Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun.  —  Singer Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones will perform together for the first time in 19 years.

New UC Irvine Law School Hires Chemerinsky as Dean, Then Fires Him for Political Reasons  —  I have all of the following from a reliable source.  —  About a week ago, Erwin Chemerinsky, the well-known constitutional law scholar at Duke, signed a contract to be the inaugural Dean …

TERROR FIGHTIN' HILLARY....I've been actively avoiding most poll blogging until now, but with the Iowa caucuses a mere four months away it's probably time to start paying attention.  Today's LA Times poll confirmed a couple of obvious things (Hillary's ahead everywhere and Dodd, Gravel …

Oil hits record $80 on tight supply  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Crude oil prices vaulted to a record high $80 a barrel on Wednesday as dealers focused on tight inventories in top consumer the United States ahead of peak winter demand.  —  A rash of fires at BP's oil fields in Alaska's North Slope added …

Plagiarism at the HuffPo  —  Most of us are used to a certain level of crackpottery over at the Huffington Post, where many of the bloggers are, to put it lightly, possessed of some silly political ideas: Cindy Sheehan ranting about the Bush junta, b-list celebrities lecturing on conservationist toilet paper use, etc.

Petraeus' Subordinate: Yes, We Are Arming Sunnis  —  On at least three occasions that I counted during the Petraeus/Crocker hearings, Gen. Petraeus flatly stated that the U.S. is not providing weapons to the Sunni tribal fighters who, over the past year, have turned against al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Petraeus: Iran Trying to Bolster Influence in Iraq  —  Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, accused Iran today of seeking to "create a Hezbollah-like force" in Iraq to exert Tehran's influence there, but denied that he was preparing the ground for a U.S. attack on Iran.