My Plan for Iraq  —  THE call by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for a timetable for the removal of American troops from Iraq presents an enormous opportunity.  We should seize this moment to begin the phased redeployment of combat troops that I have long advocated …

David Remnick On That New Yorker Cover: It's Satire, Meant To Target “Distortions And Misconceptions And Prejudices” About Obama  —  Earlier today, the New Yorker released its cover for the July 21, 2008 issue — and the reaction was swift and furious.  —  The cover by Barry Blitt, called …

Krugman on the GSEs  —  Paul Krugman has a new column on Fannie and Freddie which I think is important.  I'm going to take issue with a fair amount of it, but not with the basic argument that the uproar over the GSEs is “overblown.”  That, I think is a point worth making.

Terrorist Watch List Hits One Million Names  —  ACLU launches online watch list complaint form  —  Contact: (202) 675-2312 or media@dcaclu.org  —  WASHINGTON, DC - The nation's terrorist watch list has hit one million names, according to a tally maintained by the American Civil Liberties Union based upon …

What The New York Times Won't Tell You About Joe Lieberman  —  There are two facts about Joe Lieberman that the big news orgs simply can't bring themselves to tell their readers and viewers.  —  The first is that during the 2006 campaign against Ned Lamont, Lieberman and his aides vowed multiple times …

AP Stringer Stands by as Taliban Murder 2 Women, Gets Snuff Footage [UPDATE: Worse than Bilal Hussein!]  [UPDATE: Confirmed: Took Video of Murder]  —  AP photographer Rahmatullah Naikzad was a witness to a Taliban murder.  The two women were alleged to have been prostitutes who served Western clientèle.

Is Fournier saving or destroying the AP?  —  Ron Fournier says he regards Sandy Johnson, his predecessor as head of The Associated Press's Washington bureau, as “a mentor.”  —  Johnson, though, regards Fournier, who replaced her in a hard-feelings shake-up in May, as a threat …

DO YOUR JOB: STOP IGNORING SCHEUNEMANN'S PAST  —  As you can see, the McCain campaign is moving ahead with a new stab-in-the-back style attack on Obama over Iraq.  But as Team McCain is raising the volume on these slash-and-burn style attacks, it's time for some coverage of the guy who's McCain's brain on Iraq.

Bush to Lift Executive Ban on Offshore Drilling  —  President Bush to lift executive ban on offshore drilling, urge Congress to act as well  —  The White House says President Bush is planning to lift an executive ban on offshore oil drilling.  —  In a Rose Garden statement on Monday, the president plans to lift the ban.

McCain Needs Crash Course in Basic Economics: Albert R. Hunt  —  The American presidential campaign this week was fought on economic terrain, and John McCain was the New York Yankees battling in Boston's Fenway Park or Liverpool playing at Manchester United's Old Trafford: the visiting team with a decided disadvantage.

Election 2008: Michigan Presidential Election  —  Michigan: Obama's Lead Grows to 8%  —  Barack Obama has more than doubled his lead over John McCain to eight percentage points in the economic battleground state of Michigan, with much of his new support coming from voters who have moved away from the Republican hopeful.

Obama: Immigration enforcement = terror  —  Barack Obama spoke to the National Council of La Raza and in one sentence managed to do what most Hot Air readers would consider the impossible — he put distance between himself and John McCain on immigration.  Calling the ICE terrorists …

McCain's Hillary Problem  —  He's running her same campaign.  And she lost.  —  Feel free to tell me I'm nuts for asking the question, but doesn't it seem that, more and more, the McCain campaign is turning into the Clinton campaign?  —  The comparison smacked me upside the head last week …

McCain meets the press  —  From the pool report on Senator McCain's stop and remarks in Phoenix today, by Adam Aigner-Treworgy of NBC News & National Journal Group:  —  “John McCain arrived at the Eggery in Central Phoenix with his wife Cindy at around 9 a.m. Decked out in French Country decor …

Grow a pair, Obama  —  So, you found this satirical New Yorker cover art “tasteless and offensive.”  —  Welcome to public life.  —  Guess what?  In Washington, political cartoonists and caricaturists spare no one.  —  Here's a reminder of the crap Condi Rice has had to deal with over the years:

In the Obama press shop  —  The Obama campaign just put out a release giving new titles to most of its communications staffers, and formalizing some internal shifts that have been in place for a while.  —  In the clearest change, Robert Gibbs — who had started the cycle as communications director …