Al-Qaeda is driven from Mosul bastion after bloody last stand  —  The murder toll is dropping, the insurgents are on the run.  Our correspondent is on the front line as the Iraqi army takes control  —  The hunt began just after dawn.  Iraqi armoured personnel carriers surrounded …

Fred Barnes's Advice To McCain: Revive Your Struggling Campaign By Using Gay-Bashing As A Wedge  —  Discussing Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) struggling campaign on Fox News Sunday today, Weekly Standard Executive Editor Fred Barnes argued that McCain “needs to pay attention to the right.”

Bill Clinton On Unstable ex-POWs  —  Bill Clinton is speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival, and he said just now, apropos of almost nothing (actually, during a long peroration on Nelson Mandela): “Every living soul on this planet has some highly-justified anger.  Everyone.

Yglesias Picks Up Shovel, Digs  —  In a more thoughtful followup (not hard!) to his earlier paean to Mother England, Yglesias goes on to say one sensible thing about patriotism: … He then drives directly off the rails. … No Matthew, you marvelous Harvard-trained Atlantic columnist you …

Lefty blogs got no lovin' for AP's Loven  —  Jennifer Loven of the Associated Press did a piece on Barack Obama's attempted dash for the center that made poor Josh Marshall's eyes bleed.  And a bunch of Marshall's fellow travelers bleed with him.  —  What really sets Marshall off is that Loven …

Obama's own voice may haunt him  —  Barack Obama has proved to be a difficult target to hit — just ask Hillary Rodham Clinton.  Opposition researchers, though, hope that they've found a weapon to wound Obama in his own voice as recorded for the Grammy Award-winning audio version of his 1995 memoir, “Dreams from My Father.”

Wall-E for President  —  SO much for a July Fourth week spent in idyllic celebration of our country's birthday.  This year's festivities were marked instead by a debate — childish, not constitutional — over who is and isn't patriotic.  The fireworks were sparked by a verbally maladroit retired general …

Leading Men  —  Barack Obama and John McCain Want the Biggest Role in Politics, Yet Each Candidate Has Very Different Star Qualities to Offer  —  W onderful moment in John Ford's “The Searchers,” from way back in 1956: John Wayne, as the surly, violent Ethan Edwards, signals to his young compadre …

Back Channels: He's brave and he's honest  —  A senior noncommissioned officer at Fort Lewis, Wash., in the late '70s had the unenviable task of guiding soldiers through the discharge process.  —  He would face a roomful of GIs eager to begin civilian life and methodically review a mountain …

Supreme Slip-Up  —  A recent high court ruling is factually flawed.  The justices should correct it.  —  WHEN A NEWSPAPER gets its facts wrong, it's supposed to publish a correction, and, if someone's reputation has been harmed, a retraction and apology.  It can be embarrassing …

The Fear Democrats Can Jettison  —  In “The Best and the Brightest,” David Halberstam chronicles Lyndon Johnson's absolute terror of appearing soft on communism.  Having seen fellow Democrats destroyed in the early 1950s because they tolerated a Communist victory in China …

$3 million ad targets Obama on energy  —  An independent-expenditure arm of the Republican National Committee has begun a 10-day, $3 million ad campaign in swing states attacking Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as “just the party line.”  —  The 30-second ad, called “Balance,” …

American Energy Policy, Asleep at the Spigot  —  Correction Appended  —  JUST three years ago, with oil trading at a seemingly frothy $66 a barrel, David J. O'Reilly made what many experts considered a risky bet.  Outmaneuvering Chinese bidders and ignoring critics who said he overpaid …