This Is an Ex-Candidate  —  C ustomer: “Look, matey, I know a dead parrot when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.”  —  Pet-shop owner: “No, no he's not dead, he's — he's resting!  Remarkable bird, the Norwegian blue, isn't it, aye?  Beautiful plumage!”

Analysis: House GOP hits new low, faces bleak Nov.  —  The sky is falling on House Republicans and there is no sign of it letting up.  —  The GOP loss in Mississippi's special election Tuesday is the strongest sign yet that the Republican Party is in shambles.

Obama Gaffes on Iraq and Afghanistan  —  ABC News' David Wright and Sunlen Miller Report: Sporting a shiny new American flag pin at an appearance in Rush Limbaugh's hometown, Sen. Barack Obama came up with some novel reasons why the U.S. may be struggling in the war in Afghanistan.

Rumsfeld On 2006 Election: “The Correction For That...Is An Attack”  —  An ongoing exploration of the documents related to the Pentagon's “message force multipliers” program has unearthed a clip of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggesting that America, having voted the Democrats …

Go away you horrible human being  —  IT'S NOT CLOSE.  YOU FREAKING LOST THE NOMINATION, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?  —  Good God.  What is wrong with her?  The Clintons and their campaign staff don't give a damn that they are now hurting our electoral chances in the fall against McCain and against the Republicans in Congress.

Behind the Flag  —  The flag pin issue is important to, among others, veterans who fought under the flag and, to this day, treat it with respect.  It is more than an empty symbol to them (and me).  I have talked to many of them.  I have lived with some of them.

Lebanon to West: Wake Up Fast!  —  While America's secretary of state devotes her time to doomed Israel-Palestinian talks and America goes ga-ga over a candidate whose main foreign policy strategy is to talk to dictators, still another crisis strengthens radical Islamists and endangers Western friends and interests.

Obama, Clinton Both Top McCain In November Face-Off, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Most Democrats Back Obama-Clinton ‘dream Ticket’  —  Either one of the two Democratic contenders, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama or New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, leads the likely Republican presidential nominee …

HUSSAYN'S STORY  —  The visual-only sim can be a stomach-churner, but a couple of the IqAF Fling-Wing pilots who have come up here from Taji are pretty tough - the only thing that gets to them is my coffee.  —  Hussayn was recovering from a cup of my extra-strength double espresso with a bottle …

Gerson's Misplaced PEPFAR Anger  —  In Michael Gerson's contemptuous, and factually loose, op-ed about what he calls the “Coburn Seven” and our effort to preserve the life-saving success of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), he asks readers to weigh the moral scale between …

Some Detainees Are Drugged For Deportation  —  Immigrants Sedated Without Medical Reason  —  The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country …