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.

Feingold to Oppose Mukasey  —  Statement just released ...

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …