N.Y. Times admits Petraeus ad sold to Moveon.org at 1/2 off  —  The old gray lady has some explaining to do.  —  Officials at the New York Times have admitted a liberal activist group was permitted to pay half the rate it should have for a provocative ad condemning U.S. Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus.

Romney is the Survivor on the Island  —  Mackinac Island, MI-  —  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—September 23, 2007  —  CONTACT: Amy Walter (202) 280-0675  —  Gov Mitt Romney won the Michigan Republican Leadership Conference straw poll, receiving 39 % of the 979 votes cast.

In Swing Districts, Democratic Enthusiasm Is Harder to Come By  —  Conventional wisdom dictates that Democratic voters are thrilled with their choices for president, bursting at the seams to rally behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) or whoever gets the party's nod next year.

Marcel Marceau, Famed French Mime, Dies  —  PARIS (AP) — Marcel Marceau, whose lithe gestures and pliant facial expressions revived the art of mime and brought poetry to silence, died Saturday.  He was 84.  —  Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower …

Iraq: Blackwater staff will face criminal charges  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The Iraqi government will file criminal charges against employees of U.S. security firm Blackwater who are blamed for a gun battle in Baghdad in which civilians were killed, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said Sunday.

Syria's move  —  Assad is under competing pressures to either attack Israel or make peace  —  An explosion ripped through a military base near Aleppo in northern Syria July 23, killing 15 Syrian soldiers and dozens of Iranian engineers.  Summer temperatures of up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit caused …

LOOSE NUKES  —  Looking back, it's still hard to fathom.  In late August, an Air Force bomber accidentally flew six cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads from North Dakota to Louisiana — with the power of 60 Hiroshimas — and no one realized the nuclear-armed missiles were missing for more than a day.

Secret US air force team to perfect plan for Iran strike  —  Also from Sarah Baxter: Israelis seized nuclear material in Syrian raid |  Snatched: Israeli commandos 'nuclear' raid |  Israelis 'blew apart Syrian nuclear cache' |  Alan Greenspan: "Blair was clearly an aide to Brown"

Terror: Al Qaeda's Feuds and Fears  —  Lonely, marginalized and suddenly suspicious that he was losing his grip over the organization he helped create, Osama bin Laden finally decided that enough was enough.  At least that's the explanation sources close to him are giving for why …

ImmigrationProf Exclusive: Interview With Senator Barack Obama  —  We are pleased to announce that at 8 A.M. PST on Tuesday morning, the ImmigrationProf blog will post an exclusive interview with Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill), one of the candidates vying for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

REWRITING 'GOD BLESS AMERICA'  —  It didn't generate much in the way of media attention this week, but a bunch of religious right groups co-sponsored the first-ever "Values Voter" debate a few days ago for the GOP presidential field.  The top four (Giuliani, Romney, McCain, and Thompson) …

Clinton Calls Health Care Plan a `Moral Imperative'  —  Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called overhauling the U.S. health-insurance system a ``moral imperative'' and said that raising taxes on the wealthy along with cost savings would be enough to pay for the proposal she unveiled last week.

Protests Grow in Myanmar Against Junta  —  The largest street protests in two decades against Myanmar's military rulers gained momentum on Sunday as thousands of onlookers cheered huge columns of barefoot Buddhist monks and shouted support for the detained pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

HOW TO SABOTAGE AHMADINEJAD: Have some scantily-clad coed run up and give him a kiss.  Make sure photos are distributed in Iran.

Bend over for Nurse Hillary  —  Our theme for today comes from George W Bush: "Freedom is the desire of every human heart."  —  When the president uses the phrase, he's invariably applying it to various benighted parts of the Muslim world.  There would seem to be quite a bit of evidence …

Open Letter to Progressive Opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad  —  by The Columbia Coalition Against the War  —  As Columbia only very recently announced, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be speaking in Roone Arledge auditorium this Monday.  A number of students and student organizations …

Sunday Talking Head Thread  —  Here's the Sunday Talking Head line-up for this morning.  (partially via the Contra Costa Times.)  — C-Span Washington Journal:7:45am - Thomas Schaller, Baltimore Sun, National Political Columnist |  Article; 8:30am - Newspaper Articles & Viewer Calls …