Democrats' Iraq Push on Hold  —  Reid Plans Spring Effort to Set June 2008 Pullout Deadline  —  Unable to garner enough Republican support, Senate Democratic leaders said yesterday that they are abandoning a bipartisan effort to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq by next spring.

Introducing This Blog  —  "I was born in 1953.  Like the rest of my generation, I took the America I grew up in for granted - in fact, like many in my generation I railed against the very real injustices of our society, marched against the bombing of Cambodia, went door to door for liberal candidates.

'Dozens died in Syrian-Iranian chemical weapons experiment'  —  Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane's Defence Weekly report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria.

Crunch Time  —  Video of Sen. Jim Webb explaining the importance of the Webb Amendment.  —  The cloture vote on the Habeas Restoration amendment is scheduled for 10:30 am ET this morning.  Please take some time and call your Senators and encourage them to vote for cloture on S.Amend.2202. 60 votes …

Debate No-Shows Worry GOP Leaders  —  Candidates Are Urged to Attend Forums Sponsored by Minorities  —  Key Republican leaders are encouraging the party's presidential candidates to rethink their decision to skip presidential debates focusing on issues important to minorities …

The Real Bush Record  —  In his new book, "The Age of Turbulence," my longtime friend Alan Greenspan argues that President Bush's economic and budget policies have been fiscally irresponsible.  I've known and admired Alan for years, and I believe he was a great chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

Iraqi Report Says Blackwater Guards Fired First  —  A preliminary Iraqi report on a shooting involving an American diplomatic motorcade said Tuesday that Blackwater security guards were not ambushed, as the company reported, but instead fired at a car when it did not heed a policeman's call to stop, killing a couple and their infant.

the claim  —  "You know, you look back over our history, and it doesn't take you long to realize that our people have shed more blood for other people's liberty than any other combination of nations in the history of the world.''  — Fred D. Thompson, stump speech in Des Moines, Sept. 7

Bush, Congress at record low ratings: Reuters poll  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress registered record-low approval ratings in a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday, and a new monthly index measuring the mood of Americans dipped slightly on deepening worries about the economy.

Why Bush won't attack Iran  —  Despite saber-rattling, and the Washington buzz that a strike is coming, the president doesn't intend to bomb Iran.  Cheney may have other ideas.  —  During a recent high-powered Washington dinner party attended by 18 people, Zbigniew Brzezinski …

Public Policy With a Personal Message  —  The rollout of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plan this week was intended to show that more than her policy ideas have changed in the past 14 years.  The deeper message was that she has changed, too.  —  In a flurry of recent interviews …

DFT Announces Senate Endorsement Poll  —  John Cornyn has been on the wrong side of countless issues that are critical to Texans in general and DFT supporters in particular.  Beyond that, well, he's just an embarrassment.  But we're not telling you something you didn't already know, right?

Migration Reshapes Iraq's Sectarian Landscape  —  A vast internal migration is radically reshaping Iraq's ethnic and sectarian landscape, according to new data collected by thousands of relief workers, but displacement in the most populous and mixed areas is surprisingly complex …

Nationalized Health Care is Broken  —  Last week I pointed out that Michael Moore, maker of the documentary "Sicko," portrayed the Cuban health-care system as though it were utopia — until I hit him with some inconvenient facts.  So he backed off and said, "Let's stick to Canada and Britain …

Mortgages and Monetary Policy  —  In the past 50 years, there have been two macroeconomic policy changes in the United States that have really mattered.  One of these was the supply-side reduction in marginal tax rates, initiated after Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980 and continued …

Md. Ban On Gay Marriage Is Upheld  —  Law Does Not Deny Basic Rights, Is Not Biased, Court Rules  —  Maryland's highest court yesterday upheld a 34-year-old state law banning same-sex marriage, rejecting an attempt by 19 gay men and lesbians to win the right to marry.