Top Items:

Apparent suicide in anthrax case — Bruce E. Ivins, a scientist who helped the FBI investigate the 2001 mail attacks, was about to face charges. — A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide …
Discussion:
Think Progress, Yahoo! News, CBS News, Gothamist, JONATHAN TURLEY, Emptywheel, Hot Air, Shakesville and Reason Magazine
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Vital unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News — (updated below) — The FBI's lead suspect in the September, 2001 anthrax attacks — Bruce E. Ivins — died Tuesday night, apparently by suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to charge him with responsibility for the attacks.

Anthrax suspect dies in apparent suicide — The Justice Department was preparing to file criminal charges against Bruce E. Ivins in the anthrax mailing assaults of 2001 that killed five. — One of the nation's top biodefense researchers has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide …

McCain's Internet edge: Ad price — It has become conventional wisdom of this campaign season: Barack Obama is crushing John McCain on the Internet. After all, Obama boasts higher online donations, more aggressive social networking and a viral video from rapper will.i.am that was viewed more than 8 million times on YouTube.
Discussion:
Don Surber
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Say What? John McCain, Barack Obama, and the “Race Card”
Discussion:
Jonathan Martin's Blogs, Casting Stones, American Spectator, Betsy's Page, Electoral-vote.com, Sister Toldjah, Angry Bear, The Democratic Daily, Connecting.the.Dots, www.redstate.com, AMERICAblog News, The Reaction, Real Clear Politics, Talking Points Memo, Media Blog, Hot Air, Political Punch, NewsBusters.org and www.redstate.com

The New York Times Demonstrates Why It Is Bleeding Money
Discussion:
protein wisdom

Race issue moves to center of campaign
Discussion:
Washington Post, Political Punch, Taylor Marsh, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, American Power and CNN

Times ed board: McCain move ‘racially tinged’
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications, The Crypt's Blogs, www.redstate.com and Jonathan Martin's Blogs


Wal-Mart Warns of Democratic Win — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies — including Wal-Mart.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The G Spot, Wake up America, The Carpetbagger Report, DownWithTyranny!, TIME.com, MSNBC and On Deadline

Jobless Rate Climbs to 5.7% as 51,000 Jobs Lost in July — The nation's employers eliminated 51,000 jobs in July, the seventh consecutive contraction in the labor market, as the unemployment rate reached a four-year high, signs that the pressure on business owners and consumers is likely to continue.
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Joblessness rises: 463,000 jobs lost in '08
Discussion:
Jonathan Martin's Blogs


Pakistanis Aided Attack in Kabul, U.S. Officials Say — WASHINGTON — American intelligence agencies have concluded that members of Pakistan's powerful spy service helped plan the deadly July 7 bombing of India's embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, according to United States government officials.
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U.S. Officials: Pakistani Agents Helped Plan Kabul Bombing
Discussion:
Firedoglake

Can This Planet Be Saved? — Recently the Web site The Politico asked Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, why she was blocking attempts to tack offshore drilling amendments onto appropriations bills. “I'm trying to save the planet; I'm trying to save the planet,” she replied. — I'm glad to hear it.
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Pelosi: Save the Planet, Let Someone Else Drill
Discussion:
Betsy's Page


The Curious Mind of John McCain — Ambition and Emotion Color the Complex Intellect of the Candidate — In his 2002 book, “Worth the Fighting For,” John McCain offered this confession — an acknowledgment of a restless mind: “Although I seem to tolerate introspection better the older I am …


Too Fit to Be President? — Facing an Overweight Electorate, Barack Obama Might Find Low Body Fat a Drawback — Speaking to donors at a San Diego fund-raiser last month, Barack Obama reassured the crowd that he wouldn't give in to Republican tactics to throw his candidacy off track.


Good Advice — As sometimes happens when I read Marc Ambinder's blog, today I'm puzzled by the mentality of the campaign reporter: … Here's my understanding of the sequence of events. Gas prices are on the rise. Consumers are feeling pain, harm is being done to the economy.
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Run against the GOP, Cole tells hopefuls — Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told GOP congressional hopefuls on Thursday that they should not be afraid to criticize both political parties - including Republican members of the House. — During a conference call, the National Republican Congressional …

Obama's ‘emergency’ economic plan — Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on Friday announced an “Emergency Economic Plan” that would give families a stimulus check of $1,000 each, funded in part by what his presidential campaign calls “windfall profits from Big Oil.” — Details are in this six-page policy paper.
Discussion:
TIME.com


Malwebolence — One afternoon in the spring of 2006, for reasons unknown to those who knew him, Mitchell Henderson, a seventh grader from Rochester, Minn., took a .22-caliber rifle down from a shelf in his parents' bedroom closet and shot himself in the head.

Obama Clark — I was disheartened when the village succeeded in chasing Wes Clark out of the campaign. He's a good guy who brings a necessary combination of military credibility and progressive values into the political arena at a time when we have a chance to change the prevailing paradigm …
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G.M. Loses $15.5 Billion in Quarter — DETROIT — The General Motors Corporation reported a stunning second-quarter loss of $15.5 billion on Friday because of a dramatic decline in United States sales and charges for job cuts, plant closings and the falling value of trucks and sport utility vehicles.

Election 2008: Kentucky Presidential Election — Kentucky: McCain Leads 49% to 39%, But Gap Is Narrowing — John McCain still holds a double-digit - but narrowing - lead over Barack Obama in Kentucky, a state that went overwhelmingly for President Bush in 2004, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state.
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The Great White Hope — The media's moment of disillusionment with John McCain appears to be at hand. Even Joe Klein has finally noticed that McCain's profile is beginning to resemble the endomorphic shadow of his backstage advisor, Karl Rove, not one of the faces on Mt. Rushmore.
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Hope Dashed (Again)
Discussion:
TPM Election Central, RADAMISTO, Time, Real Clear Politics, Brilliant at Breakfast, Liberal Values and The Moderate Voice