Queen Hillary, Empress of Mesopotamia  —  My friend, David Brooks, does his best to reinforce the Hillary-Is-Inevitable consensus in Washington right now.  He may regret this, though: … Then we hear this from a right-wing reporter with access to Bush:

The Ugly Side of the G.O.P.  —  I applaud the thousands of people, many of them poor, who traveled from around the country to protest in Jena, La., last week.  But what I'd really like to see is a million angry protesters marching on the headquarters of the National Republican Party in Washington.

Iraqi Prime Minister Says That Civil War Has Been Prevented  —  Maliki Also Plays Down Iran's Influence  —  Civil war has been averted in Iraq and Iranian intervention there has "ceased to exist," Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday.  —  "I can't say there is a picture …

GOP Senator Says Bush Should Put Health Bill Before Policy Goal  —  A senior Senate Republican accused President Bush yesterday of holding a bipartisan expansion of the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program hostage to his broader policy goals of using tax deductions to help people afford private health insurance coverage.

Democratic Party Maintains Solid Image Advantage Over GOP  —  Public Prefers Democratic Party to Republican for handling terrorism, military security  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Public attitudes toward the two major political parties have not changed much in recent months.

Front-Runner No-Shows at GOP Minority Debates Assailed  —  Former Republican Congressman J.C. Watts Calls Decision Not to Attend 'Stupid'  —  A former member of the House Republican congressional leadership — and the last African-American to serve as a member of the GOP in Congress …

Two girls, the Saudi Religious Police, a mobile phone and a can of pepper spray  —  Jules Crittenden and Blue Star Chronicles have it:  —  Saudi Religious Police Attacked by Girls (emphasis added) … Notice how the crowd didn't take the Religious Police's side, either. … It gets better:

And another thing...  The morning after the Columbia spectacle two things bother me.  The first is that the majority of protesters outside the Columbia campus and inside were Jewish students.  In fact, those marching in the street were more likely than not to be wearing the kippas (boys) …

Blogger files complaint over Giuliani ad  —  A liberal blogger has jumped into the New York Times-MoveOn.org-Rudy Giuliani fracas, filing a complaint against the former New York City mayor's presidential campaign.  —  Lane Hudson, who in recent weeks has sought to carve out a niche as something …

Southern Baptist Leader Defends Fred Thompson  —  Richard Land, the President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (which is part of the influential Southern Baptist Convention), tells The Brody File that the criticism leveled at Fred Thompson by James Dobson and others is a tad bit over the top.

Actor Kevin Spacey meets with Chavez  —  CARACAS, Venezuela - Actor Kevin Spacey met privately Monday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Washington's most outspoken critics in Latin America.  —  Neither Spacey — who has won Academy Awards for roles in "The Usual Suspects" and …

What Defines a Killing as Sectarian?  —  U.S. Military Teams Analyze and Tally Each Civilian Death  —  On Sept. 1, the bullet-riddled bodies of four Iraqi men were found on a Baghdad street.  Two days later, a single dead man, with one bullet in his head, was found on a different street.

THE POLLSTER.COM DISCLOSURE PROJECT  —  Over the last few months I have written a series of posts that examined the remarkably limited methodological information released about pre-election polls in the early presidential primary states (here, here and here, plus related items here).

SO HARD?  —  Now, was that so hard?  —  As you know, Iranian President Ahmadinejad spoke yesterday before a raucous crowd at Columbia University.  The president of the university excoriated him.  He backtracked a bit from his statements about Israel, perhaps as some commentators have noted …

Anti-Hillary Facebook site tops Obama  —  As the new school year gets fully under way and presidential hopefuls work the young voter circuit via social networking websites, one online group — Facebook's "Stop Hillary Clinton (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary)" — is seriously outpacing …

24 die in Iraq peace meeting blast  —  From CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A suicide bombing in Iraq's volatile Diyala province ripped through a "reconciliation meeting" on Monday night attended by Sunni and Shiite militia leaders — a brazen attack that killed …

Webb: Lieberman And Kyl's Hawkish Iran Amendment Is 'Cheney's Fondest Pipe Dream'  —  On the Senate floor today, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) made an impassioned appeal to his fellow senators, declaring that the Lieberman-Kyl amendment on Iran should be "withdrawn" because the "proposal is Dick Cheney's fondest pipe dream."

Columbia's Conceit  —  Exactly what would it have accomplished to "engage in a debate" with Hitler?  —  On Saturday John Coatsworth, acting dean of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, made the remark that "if Hitler were in the United States and …