Candidates Have Their Say on Obama's Decision Not to Wear Flag Pin  —  Barack Obama may choose not to wear an American flag pin on his lapel, but many of the presidential contender's political rivals say they wouldn't leave home without one.  —  VIDEO: Barack Obama Decides Not to Continue Wearing a Flag Pin on His Lapel

Fort Hunt's Quiet Men Break Silence on WWII  —  For six decades, they held their silence.  —  The group of World War II veterans kept a military code and the decorum of their generation, telling virtually no one of their top-secret work interrogating Nazi prisoners of war at Fort Hunt.

AN IMMODERATE MODERATOR  —  So, should viewers of Tuesday's Re publican presidential debate expect an exchange of views between the candidates - or between the candidates and one of the event's moderators?  —  It's a fair question, given the jaw-dropping comments Thursday evening from MSNBC blowhard …

150 million pages of fighting the good fight  —  To my deep regret, the Western Standard has decided to stop publishing our print edition.  —  It's a purely financial decision.  Even though our advertising revenues were stronger than ever, with marquee brands like GM, Mazda …

Bush Defends Interrogations, Saying Methods Aren't Torture  —  President Bush, reacting to a Congressional uproar over the disclosure of secret Justice Department legal opinions permitting the harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects, defended the methods on Friday, declaring, "This government does not torture people."

GIULIANI CAMPAIGN OUTRAISES REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES IN THIRD QUARTER  —  The Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee announced today that for the second quarter in a row the campaign leads the Republican field in dollars raised.  The campaign showed another strong quarter, totaling over $11 million raised …

State Dept. Plans Tighter Control of Security Firm  —  The State Department, seeking to retain its relationship with Blackwater USA while trying to bring the company's armed guards under tighter control, said Friday that it would now send its own personnel as monitors on all Blackwater security convoys in and around Baghdad.

Prosecutor Accused In Sex Sting Kills Himself  —  MILAN, Mich. — A federal prosecutor who was arrested in an Internet sex sting after he allegedly traveled to Michigan from Florida to have sex with a 5-year-old girl hanged himself in a Michigan federal prison Friday morning, Detroit television station WDIV-TV reported.

War-Crimes Prosecutor Quits in Pentagon Clash  —  In the latest disruption of the Bush administration's plan to try detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for war crimes, the chief military prosecutor on the project stepped down yesterday after a dispute with a Pentagon official.

I am my own lodestar  —  This is why I love Mark Kleiman: … I've had my fair share of battles with both the "neck-down Darwinists" and the black-people-are-just-naturally- stupid crowd, and I've never felt noticeably improved by either side.  It takes some chutzpah to argue that intelligence …

GOP Tax Dilemma  —  After years of waste in Congress, voters aren't buying the party's fiscal message.  —  A few weeks ago Republican leaders gathered on Capitol Hill to hear from their top pollsters and pundits about how they can win back the votes of independent voters.

The fallout from an attack on Iran would be devastating  —  The drumbeat of war in Washington is growing - and so must public pressure against British involvement in such folly  —  Seumas Milne  —  It seems almost incredible after the catastrophe of the Iraq war, but the signs are growing …