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.

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.

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 …

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.

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.

Clinton was brain behind the war room  —  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was the original impetus behind the Senate Democratic “war room,” a legacy the candidate does not mention on the campaign trail but one that has significantly changed the upper chamber.

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 …

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 …

At least 14 hurt as Grad rocket hits Ashkelon shopping mall  —  At least 14 people were wounded Wednesday evening, including a baby girl and her mother, when a Grad rocket fired from Gaza hit the Hutzot Shopping Center in Ashkelon.  —  MDA said that the baby was listed in moderate condition …

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 …