The Comedy Stylings of Shecky McCain  —  I made the mistake of watching Verdict yesterday where they had a John McCain sycophant go on and on about how McCain stuck by his principles when he bucked his party on immigration.  He and the host failed to note that he was lining up with the president …

NYT poll: Majority now believes Obama says what he thinks people want to hear  —  From tonight's monster 33-page omnibus poll, the “new politics” halo is officially off.  Note the trend:  —  McCain does almost as badly at 46/49 but then McCain's not supposed to be a “Lightworker.”

Christopher Hitchens on the Barack Obama cartoon controversy  —  Satire, according to Jonathan Swift, is “a mirror wherein every man will commonly discern every face but his own”.  The New Yorker's cartoon of Barack Obama and his lady wife, according to its editor David Remnick …

Brit Hume to Step Down as Fox News Anchor  —  Brit Hume, a top anchor and executive with Fox News since the channel was launched 12 years ago, plans to step down at year's end.  But he won't disappear entirely.  —  Sources familiar with the situation say that Hume, 65 …

HALPERIN'S WORLD  —  Here I think is an example of news judgment within the DC bell jar.  —  As I noted below, the ‘news’ today, as in things that have happened today and are newsworthy, is the fact that John McCain has dropped his position on Afghanistan and embraced the one Obama has been pushing for the last year.

Most Offensive Quote of the Day  —  If we had a “Most Offensive Quote of the Day” every day, Joe Biden would probably come to own the prize.  But even by the senator's lofty standards of chronic obtuseness, he outdid himself this afternoon: … I know Democrats get a certain tingling …

Court Backs Bush on Military Detentions  —  President Bush has the legal power to order the indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in the United States, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled on Tuesday in a fractured 5-to-4 decision.

Breaking: Eight Supers Switching to Hillary  —  Big news folks - it looks like our efforts in contacting those Superdelegates are starting to pay off, so keep on writing to them (ok, maybe Donna B's a waste of time).  There are unconfirmed reports, based on phone banking efforts to reach out to Super Ds …

U.S. Envoy to Join Meeting With Iranian  —  WASHINGTON — President Bush has authorized the most significant American diplomatic contact with Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, sending the State Department's third-ranking official to Geneva for a meeting this weekend on Iran's nuclear program …

Congressional Approval Hits Record-Low 14%  —  Democrats less positive than Republicans about Congress  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Congress' job approval rating has dropped five percentage points over the past month, from 19% in June to 14% in July, making the current reading the lowest congressional …

Obama Leads Bush by Twenty, But Clinton Does Better Against McCain  —  Barack Obama says a vote for John McCain is a vote for George W. Bush's third term, but a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that the Democratic hopeful would have a much easier time of it if he were actually running …

Will Romney's Combative Style Net VP Nod?  —  In Interview With CBSNews.com, Ex-McCain Rival Flashes VP-Type Style  —  (CBS) This story was written by CBSNews.com political reporter Scott Conroy.  —  Mitt Romney spent over $35 million of his own money and more than a year of his life …

HHS Moves to Define Contraception as Abortion … In a spectacular act of complicity with the religious right, the Department of Health and Human Services Monday released a proposal that allows any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman's access to contraception.

'You don't care about me,' Khadr sobs in interview tapes  —  Tapes reveal interrogation by Canadian officials  —  A teenage Omar Khadr sobs uncontrollably as Canadian spy agents question him at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in a brief video excerpt released via the internet early Tuesday morning.

McCain again cites current events in ‘Czechoslovakia’  —  (CNN) - For the second time in two days, John McCain has referred to current events in “Czechoslovakia” - a country that officially ceased to exist in January of 1993.  —  “And I regret some of the recent behavior Russia that has exhibited …