Musharraf Leaves White House in Lurch  —  For more than five months the United States has been trying to orchestrate a political transition in Pakistan that would manage to somehow keep Gen. Pervez Musharraf in power without making a mockery of President Bush's promotion of democracy in the Muslim world.

Poll Finds Americans Pessimistic, Want Change  —  One year out from the 2008 election, Americans are deeply pessimistic and eager for a change in direction from the agenda and priorities of President Bush, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Idiot Princess™  —  Seems like we just did this, doesn't it?  —  But then, MoDo must be telling herself the same thing.  —  Yes, the Idiot Princess™ is at it again, sharpening her tools for her paymasters who clearly fear Hillary with a pathology that must be based on some deep Freudian s**t …

Feingold to Oppose Mukasey  —  Statement just released ...

New Rules  —  eriposte at The Left Coaster discusses the journalistic malpractice exposed in this exchange from the last debate: … eriposte points out that even though president Clinton subsequently explained that his request (from five years ago) was to speed up the release of documents …

The Turning of an Atheist  —  Unless you are a professional philosopher or a committed atheist, you probably have not heard of Antony Flew.  Eighty-four years old and long retired, Flew lives with his wife in Reading, a medium-size town on the Thames an hour west of London.

Obama Walking a Fine Line Engaging Clinton  —  With Obama Tapping Differences with Clinton: It's a Slow Drip with Flashes of Hot Water  —  One week ago, over coffee and a Sunday paper, people read that Barack Obama intended to start confronting Hillary Clinton more forcefully, upping the intensity to delineate their differences.

Saudi Arabia is hub of world terror  —  The desert kingdom supplies the cash and the killers  —  Nick Fielding and Sarah Baxter, Washington  —  It was an occasion for tears and celebration as the Knights of Martyrdom proclaimed on video: "Our brother Turki fell during the rays of dawn …

Thompson on Meet the Press  —  From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum and NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy  —  On Meet the Press this morning, Thompson offered a conciliatory view toward Pervez Musharraf, aligned himself with Giuliani on a contentious social issue, and fought back against criticism …

FOXNews Sunday: Poppy Bush Gets Emotional Remembering How We USED To Treat Prisoners  —  On this morning's Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace interviewed former President George H.W. Bush at his Presidential Library in Texas.  Bush defends his son's disastrous presidency, but later in the interview …

Abortion isn't a religious issue  —  Evangelicals are adamant, but religion really has nothing to say about the issue.  —  What makes opposition to abortion the issue it is for each of the GOP presidential candidates is the fact that it is the ultimate "wedge issue" — it is nonnegotiable.

Almost a Gentleman  —  Midway through Donald McCaig's unexpectedly diverting novel, "Rhett Butler's People," a black man about to be lynched in the post-bellum South asks Rhett to please shoot him dead before the mob breaks into the jail and does worse.  Rhett obliges.  Thus does McCaig correct the record.

Passengers revolt after being told to fly on jet with its wing tip missing  —  An airline crew faced a rebellion when they told passengers they were going to fly on a jet that had lost its wing tip in a runway crash.  —  The SriLankan Airlines customers had been on the Airbus A340 a day earlier …

FORECLOSURE FALLOUT: Home Sour Home  —  Housing crisis leads some former owners, tenants to take anger out on property  —  The orange "no trespassing" sticker is faded, the seal it once formed over the doorway broken for at least six months.  Joseph Kraemer twists the lockbox key and issues a warning to be prepared.

Giuliani: I Used 'Very Aggressive,' 'Intensive' Interrogation Techniques  —  Asked about his views of waterboarding this weekend, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said that as President he would support the use of "enhanced" interrogation techniques.  In an interview with Bloomberg's Al Hunt …

Beyond Those Health Care Numbers  —  WITH the health care system at the center of the political debate, a lot of scary claims are being thrown around.  The dangerous ones are not those that are false; watchdogs in the news media are quick to debunk them.  Rather, the dangerous ones …