OY  —  From the Journal ...  It's genuinely hard to know where to start with this sort of nonsense.  To say that Randy has a conflict of interest misses the point.  And I'd hope that's not the argument the Obama campaign is trying to make.  The point is that Randy was running point …

Mukasey: No prosecutions in Justice hiring scandal  —  NEW YORK - No criminal prosecutions are planned for former Justice Department officials accused of allowing politics to influence the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday.

‘Snake Oil’  —  Debunking three ‘truths’ about offshore drilling  —  THE NATURAL Resources Defense Council Action Fund has taken out full-page ads in this newspaper and others to decry offshore drilling for oil as “George W. Bush's Gasoline Price Elixir” that is “100% Snake Oil.”

David Brooks from Chengdu: my lord  —  Some of his pensees: … This is the kind of thing you can say only if you have not the slightest inkling of how completely different a billion-plus people can be from one another.  Beijingers from Shanghainese, Guangdong entrepreneurs from farmers in Sichuan …

Negative ads: They really do work  —  Clever negative advertising works.  That is reality.  —  The tactic meets with media and pundit disapproval and spawns accusations of negativity, but the reality is that a clever negative ad can be devastatingly effective.

McCain: Putin wants ‘to restore the old Russian empire’  —  HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (CNN) - John McCain is turning up the heat on Moscow, and accusing Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of wanting to “restore the old Russian empire.”  —  McCain's comments came in an interview …

GOP Rep. To Environmentalists: Jesus Already Saved The Planet  —  We like to keep track of the, er, intriguing sayings of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, the Christian Right champion from Minnesota.  But this latest is really out there — Bachmann says we don't need pesky environmentalists …

This is only one of John McCain's 8 or 9 (or 10) houses  —  Hey, nothing wrong with being filthy rich.  Just stop playing the regular guy, going after your opponent's supposedly elite life, when you and your wife combined are worth $100 million and you can't even remember how many homes you own.

Today's Campaign Contest: Count the Young White Women in McCain's Anti-Obama Video  —  How many young white women professing adoration for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, can you count in this anti-Obama web video that the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, was sending out yesterday?

Two Cheers for Russia's Invasion of Georgia  —  The thoughts of a former expert on the former Soviet Union—that would be me, to crib a line from geopolitical guru Thomas Barnett—about the Russian invasion of Georgia:  —  1) It would be great if clarity came cheap.  Sometimes it does, but often it doesn't.

Sullivan's Travels  —  In a post early this morning, Andrew Sullivan concludes with this: … This highlighted statement is an astonishing one.  The clear implication is that what America did in going to war with Iraq is the moral equivalent of what Russia has done to Georgia.

Target Obama: Why The Press Must Fact-Check Campaign Claims  —  What is the responsibility of reporters, editors and publishers when a candidate is the target of a campaign of attack and personal destruction employing the systematic use of lies, smears, innuendo and character assassination?

Use of Iraq Contractors Costs Billions, Report Says  —  WASHINGTON — The United States this year will have spent $100 billion on contractors in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, a milestone that reflects the Bush administration's unprecedented level of dependence on private firms for help in the war …

Enthusiasm gap plagues GOP convention  —  While excitement is building for a Democratic Party convention capped by Barack Obama's historic acceptance speech before a sold-out, 75,000-seat football stadium, the GOP convention the following week is shaping up to be a considerably more staid affair …

Jim Leach endorses Obama  —  “It's been a very difficult thing for me because I've never endorsed a Democrat before...but sometimes in life you come to a juncture where it's very clear the national interest trumps party discipline,” former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach said in a noontime interview with Radio Iowa.