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) …

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 …

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, 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 …

Getting Our Stereotypes Straight  —  Ali Frick notes Michael Goldfarb expressing some displeasure that the NYT editorial page's blog didn't like his candidate's dumb ads.  Here's Goldfarb: … Now here's the thing.  Say what you will about RPG-loving nerds, but surely we recognize …

Independent: Negative ads risky for McCain  —  (CNN) — John Avlon is a self-proclaimed independent political analyst and the author of the book “Independent Nation.”  —  Avlon says the increasingly negative back-and-forth between Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee …

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 …

Blooper: Hannity punks himself on anti-McCain Campain ad.  —  Friday bloopers!  —  Sean Hannity was in fine form last night as he had his fresh new Obama-GOP-attack-talking points ready to go.  (I don't think Scott McClellan passed them off this time.)  He wanted his audience …

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 …

Report: Al Qaeda #2 Ayman al-Zawahiri Dead!?!  —  Stratfor reports that the United States is attempting to verify rumors coming out of Pakistan that al Qaeda's #2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed in a July 28 Predator airstrike.  —  Intelligence sources told The Jawa Report last week that ‘the hunt was on’ in Pakistan for a ‘big fish’.

McCain tries to scrub his website: They called him A Political Celebrity  —  Well, as Digby says—look what's been scrubbed from McCain's campaign website: … Hey, Rick Davis, I guess Obama isn't the only celebrity running for president.  —  R.Payne says: