House Dems turn out the lights but GOP keeps talking  —  Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the Democrats adjourned the House and turned off the lights and killed the microphones, but Republicans are still on the floor talking gas prices.  —  Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) …

Vital unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News  —  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.

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.

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.

Obama responds to race card charge  —  In an interview with the St. Pete Times and Bay News 9 for Political Connections, Barack Obama brushed off the charge from the John McCain campaign that he was injecting race into the campaign:  —  “I was in union, Missouri which is 98 percent white …

Obama Heckled in FL  —  ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Provocative hecklers associated with an international African socialist collective interrupted Obama's opening remarks here... Obama calmed then down by promising he'd take their questions during a Q and A, and an Obama supporter grabbed the banner away.

Obama Aide Concedes ‘Dollar Bill’ Remark Referred to His Race  —  Obama Strategist Calls McCain's Attack Ad Insulting; McCain Camp Defends It  —  Sen. Barack Obama's chief strategist conceded that the Democratic presidential candidate was referring to his race when he said Republicans …

Gallup Daily: Race Tied at 44%  —  Registered voters evenly split in their support for Obama versus McCain  —  PRINCETON, NJ — According to Gallup Poll Daily tracking from July 29-31, John McCain and Barack Obama are now tied at 44% in the preferences of national registered voters.

Hil, no!  Don't nominate me  —  Hillary Clinton has decided against being nominated for President at the Democrats' Denver convention, but many of her more die-hard partisans may vote for her anyway.  —  A source close to the New York senator confirmed she won't file a formal request …

A Conservative ‘Slate’?  —  Have you ever been reading Slate and found yourself thinking, “This is great, but if only if were more conservative...”?  Then LibertyWire is for you!  The new online publication, being launched in mid-August, is billing itself as “a conservative version of Slate.”

McCain's blogger rips bloggers 'sitting in mother's basement, ranting into the ether.'  —  Yesterday, the New York Times' editorial board blog, The Board, wrote a post criticizing a McCain campaign ad.  McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb — who writes and edits the campaign's blog …

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.

Employment Situation Summary  —  Technical information:  —  Household data: (202) 691-6378 USDL 08-1049  —  Establishment data: (202) 691-6555 Transmission of material in this release  —  http://www.bls.gov/ces/ is embargoed until 8:30 A.M. (EDT), Media contact: (202) 691-5902 Friday, August 1, 2008.

Freedom  —  Ezra's damn right about this.  Go to pretty much any populated part of the United States, buy some land, and try to build something on it and you'll find that there are a lot of land-use restrictions in place.  Some of these rules are good, some of them are bad …

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 …

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.

Judge on Rove's citizen arrest: 'It's about time.'  —  Last Friday, police in Des Moines, Iowa arrested four people who attempted to make a citizens' arrest of former top White House aide Karl Rove, who was in town to speak at a GOP fundraiser.  A retired minister and three members …