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

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, INTERRUPTED  —  From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli and NBC's Lauren Appelbaum  —  ST. PETERSBURG, FL — About seven minutes into his remarks here, Obama was interrupted by a handful of African-American demonstrators, who stood up in the last row of a section of bleachers behind him and held …

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 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 …

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.

Slate Revisited  —  Enough people in the business have gotten in touch with me in a hurry to dispute the idea that Slate is a center-right publication that I'm starting to have some doubts.  And I'll admit that while I look at Slate all the time, I'm not a particularly thorough reader …

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 …

“THE ONE”  —  Today the McCain campaign continued to skewer Barack Obama for his pomposity and self-regard with a video called “The One.”  Here it is:  —  It's amusing, and some people will think it's highly effective.  I'm not so sure this line of attack is a good idea, however.

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.

Scott McClellan Dismantles Cheney's Plame Firewall  —  When evidence from the Scooter Libby trial showed that Dick Cheney had probably ordered Scooter Libby to leak Valerie Plame's identity, Cheney built a firewall that legally excused the leak—but still insulated George Bush from involvement in knowingly outing a CIA spy.