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 …

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.

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.”

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 backtracks on late-term abortions.  —  Does he think we won't notice?  First, he limited the health exception to “serious physical” things: … Then, he switched!  He now wants a mental health exception! … So as long as a woman can get her “blues” classified by a medical health professional as …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Moon mistaken for UFO  —  Police in Wales were called to investigate a mysterious flying saucer, only to discover it was the moon.  —  The moon was mistaken for a “bright, stationary” UFO which had been loitering for at least half an hour, by a confused local in South Wales who made a 999 call to the police.

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 …

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 …

Employers Fight Tough Measures on Immigration  —  Under pressure from the toughest crackdown on illegal immigration in two decades, employers across the country are fighting back in state legislatures, the federal courts and city halls.  —  Business groups have resisted measures that would revoke …

‘Germ warfare’ fear over African monkeys taken to Iran  —  Hundreds of endangered monkeys are being taken from the African bush and sent to a “secretive” laboratory in Iran for scientific experiments.  —  An undercover inquiry by The Sunday Times has revealed that wild monkeys …

Obama: Media response to Iraq remarks overblown  —  ST. LOUIS - Barack Obama celebrated “active faith” as an obligation of religious Americans and a chief agent of societal change while speaking Saturday to a nearly all-black roomful of churchgoers, but hoping to reach far beyond them.