A Tipping Point In Iraq?  —  The Mosul campaign is a final and critical one, and Marie Colvin, an excellent and seasoned reporter, has very encouraging news: … The use of female suicide bombers - often the bereaved family members of, er, former suicide bombers - is another sign of the Jihadists' desperation.

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.

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 …

$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,” …

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.”

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …