Getting Lost in the Fog of War  —  ANYONE who has spent the past two days reading through the 92,000 military field reports and other documents made public by the whistle-blower site WikiLeaks may be forgiven for wondering what all the fuss is about.  I'm a researcher who studies Afghanistan …

The Partisan Tools At Journo-List And Trig  —  Remember all those liberals and lefties huffily denouncing this blog's attempts to make sense of Sarah Palin's bizarre stories about the pregnancy and birth of her alleged fifth child?  I was nuts, crazy, vile, disgusting, etc etc to indulge in what Dave Weigel …

BP names Robert Dudley, an American, as chief executive  —  BP announced Tuesday that it lost $17 billion in the second quarter of the year because of the mounting cost of halting and repairing damage from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  —  The company also said the executive …

Minnick thinks Rangel should resign from Congress, Simpson won't say  —  Democratic Rep. Walt Minnick thinks embattled New York Congressman Charlie Rangel should resign from the U.S. House, but Idaho's other member of Congress won't say.  Rep. Mike Simpson, who represents the eastern portion of the state …

Kerry may need to pay $500k tax on yacht  —  (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - There are new details in the controversy over Sen. John Kerry's brand new boat.  —  Kerry may still be on the hook for a half million dollars in excise taxes because he docked his yacht in Massachusetts less than six months after buying it.

Lawmakers Question Salaries at Nonprofits  —  State and federal officials are starting to take their knives to the pay of leaders of nonprofit groups they do business with to help share the pain of tighter budgets.  —  A provision in New Jersey's recently passed budget, for example …

Paul Ryan Schools Chris Matthews on Tax Hikes, Budgets and Economics 101  —  Chris Matthews on Monday got a much-needed lesson from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) on how tax hikes impact the budget as well as the economy.  —  “Congressman Ryan, is there any tax role for reducing our $1.4 trillion …

Obama slams GOP on Disclose Act  —  President Obama called out Senate Republicans on Monday for holding up a vote on a contentious piece of campaign finance legislation.  —  Senate Democrats plan to vote on cloture for the Disclose Act on Tuesday, though it remains unclear whether they have the 60 votes necessary to end debate.

Among House Democrats in Rust Belt, a sense of abandonment over energy bill  —  When Democratic Rep. John Boccieri went home to Ohio early this year to talk with voters in his Canton-based district, he figured he would have to do battle with at least some constituents over his support for health-care reform.

Obama Won't Speak In-Person at Boy Scouts' 100th Anniversary Celebration But Will Appear on ABC TV's ‘The View’  —  (CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama, the honorary chairman of the Boy Scouts of America, will not speak in-person before the group on Wednesday at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia …

Illinois Republican Clings To Breitbart, Invokes Apartheid Martyr  —  In a post today on Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com, Republican congressional candidate Joel Pollak responded to opponent Rep. Jan Schakowksy's (D-IL) call for him to stop writing for Breitbart's site by likening himself …

Democrats Maintain Advantage on Generic Ballot, 48% to 44%  —  Republicans continue to be more enthusiastic about voting  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Democrats have a 48% to 44% advantage for the week of July 19-25 in Gallup tracking of registered voters' preferences for the 2010 congressional elections.

Turkey must join EU, says Cameron  —  David Cameron: UK will do everything it can to help Turkey “pave the road from Ankara to Brussels”  —  David Cameron has promised to “fight” for Turkey's membership of the European Union, saying he is “angry” at the slow pace of negotiations.

Senator Barbara Boxer: serving in the military is like being a member of Congress  —  At a campaign event over the weekend in Inglewood, California, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer seemingly equated being a politician to serving in the military — and an Iraq War veteran supporting Boxer's November opponent is calling on her to apologize.

Two Cheers for the Administration on Megrahi  —  We noted yesterday the controversy over the Obama administration's reaction to Scotland's proposed release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohment al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds, i.e., the claim that he was about to die.

BP Day 98: Where Did All the Oil Go?  —  As Size of Slick Shrinks, Experts Say Oil is Breaking Up, Staying Below Surface  —  For 86 days, oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's damaged well, dumping some 200 million gallons of crude into sensitive ecosystems.

President Obama to defend education plan  —  President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan will deliver major speeches this week on their $4.35 billion Race to the Top school reform program, pushing back against complaints that it promotes unproven methods and ignores long-standing inequities in public education.

Tea Party Caucus members endorse Israeli attack on Iran  —  Now that the congressional supporters of the Tea Party movement have formed their own caucus, their policy positions are becoming easier to track.  Expanding their foray into foreign policy, 21 members of the new caucus have now come …

New Health Official Faces Hostility in Senate  —  WASHINGTON — Unlike many other health policy experts, Dr. Donald M. Berwick, the new chief of Medicare and Medicaid, has extensive real world experience.  —  As co-founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass. …

Tennessee Lt. Gov: Religious Freedom May Not Count For Muslims (VIDEO)  —  Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, currently running third in the state's Republican gubernatorial primary race, says he's not sure if Constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion apply to the followers of the world's second-largest faith, Islam.