Multiple Oil Company Executives Gave Huge Contributions To Electing McCain Just Days After Offshore Drilling Reversal  —  Ten senior Hess Corporation executives and/or members of the Hess family each gave $28,500 to the joint RNC-McCain fundraising committee, just days after McCain reversed himself …

ATV/Zogby Poll Toss-Up!  McCain 42%, Obama 41% as Undecided Voters Increase...  Obama loses support among his strongest demographic groups  —  UTICA, New York - A national Associated TV/Zogby International telephone poll of 1,011 likely voters conducted July 31-Aug. 1 finds Republican …

Bob Herbert: Why is everyone missing the phallic symbols in McCain's Britney ad?  —  Between this and last week's Godwin-ing of the crowd scenes, I'm honestly curious to see where the left takes the critique next.  One would think they'd either run out of cards to play or would quietly pocket …

Bayh Partisans cancel softball game  —  Sen. Evan Bayh's staff softball team, The Bayh Partisans, has cancelled the game it had scheduled for tomorrow evening with the drug policy team The One Hitters.  Bayh staffer Jonathan Stahler sent One Hitter team captain Kris Krane an e-mail Monday morning citing …

Sun-Times political columnist Robert Novak retires  —  FROM SUN-TIMES STAFF REPORTS  —  Robert Novak has announced his immediate retirement following the diagnosis of a brain tumor, a prognosis the Sun-Times' political columnist describes as “dire.”  —  “The details are being worked …

White House says no to special session of Congress  —  The White House has rejected calls from House Republicans that it convene a special session of Congress on energy, saying it wouldn't make a difference.  —  “We don't have plans to call Congress into session — it won't make a difference …

Barack Obama shifts on tapping national oil reserves  —  In a campaign speech in Michigan, the candidate suggested releasing oil from the emergency stockpile, a relief plan reminiscent of President Clinton's in 2000.  —  LANSING, MICH. — Democrat Barack Obama called today for tapping …

THE LATEST MEME  —  Truly a Kuhnian moment.  John McCain is so honorable and straight-shooting that the only explanation for his campaign's headlong dive into sleaze, xenophobia and gonzo bamboozlement is that McCain is so out of it and controlled by his advisors that he doesn't actually know what they're doing in his name.

Pressure Grows for F.B.I. to Show Anthrax Evidence  —  WASHINGTON — After four years of painstaking scientific research, the F.B.I. by 2005 had traced the anthrax in the poisoned letters of 2001 to a single flask of the bacteria at the Army biodefense laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md. …

POCKET....Here's the latest Obama ad pushing back on John McCain's oil policy.  Basic message: McCain takes lots of money from oil interests, while Obama wants to tax their windfall profits in order to fund a $1,000 rebate to hardworking taxpayers.  —  So is the ad any good?  It depends.

Barack in Lansing, MI: “We must end the age of oil in our time.”  —  Senator Obama just concluded a major speech in Lansing, Michigan where he addressed our current energy crisis and described our addiction to foreign oil as “central” to all of the major challenges facing us today.

Boston's birthday gift to Obama  —  Happy Birthday indeed.  —  Boston's biggest names in Democratic politics, once divided into two camps during the presidential primary, united this evening to throw Barack Obama a 47th birthday fund-raiser bash.  —  The event at the swank State Room near Faneuil Hall …