Inside the vast liberal conspiracy  —  Picture this: millionaires and billionaires gathering under tight security in fancy hotels with powerful politicians and operatives to plot how their network of secret-money groups can engineer a permanent realignment of American politics.  —  Only, it's not the Koch brothers.

In Mississippi, Jenny Beth Martin and Tea Party Patriots try to prove their worth  —  Never mind that it's 92 degrees and nearing the end of the day: Jenny Beth Martin has started jogging between houses.  —  “I've gotta get my steps,” she calls back to the rented Suburban with the Florida license plates …

Iraqi military facing ‘psychological collapse’ after losses, desertions  —  Iraqis prepare to fight militants  —  After militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria took Mosul and other Iraqi cities, the government issued a call for volunteers to join the army.  Many Iraqis answered.

God Save the United States From This Anti-Democratic Court  —  Operating on elitism and mystique, America's highest court is increasingly a threat to our ideal of self-government—leading to an important debate about how to fix it.  —  Should a self-respecting democracy have a Supreme Court like ours …

Send back troops to Iraq, Cheney says  —  Former Vice President Dick Cheney said he wants U.S. troops back in Iraq to halt Sunni militants now conquering large parts of the country and support resistance fighters in Syria.  —  “When we're arguing over 300 advisors, when the request …

Conservatives and Climate Change  —  On Sunday Henry Paulson, the former Treasury secretary and a lifelong Republican, had an Op-Ed article about climate policy in The New York Times.  In the article, he declared that man-made climate change is “the challenge of our time,” …

Obama Flips on Immunity for U.S. Troops in Iraq  —  American forces could be prosecuted by Iraq's famously compromised courts as they defend Baghdad.  No wonder the Pentagon is so reluctant to send 'em.  —  President Obama pulled U.S. forces out of Iraq in 2011 because he couldn't get Iraq's parliament …

US student is rescued from giant vagina sculpture in Germany  —  More than 20 firefighters free exchange student from the artwork Chacán-Pi (Making Love) by Fernando de la Jara in Tübingen  —  In the space of 24 hours last week, two spectacular rescue operations were carried out in southern Germany.

Poll: Many Americans wary of U.S. role in Iraq  —  Shares -  —  NEW YORK — Fifty percent of Americans think the U.S. doesn't have a responsibility to do something about the recent violence in Iraq, while fewer - 42 percent — think the U.S. does, a CBS News/New York Times poll reveals.

Sudanese mom sentenced to die for Christian faith is freed  —  Meriam Ibrahim and Daniel Wani married in a formal church ceremony in 2011.  —  Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese woman who gave birth in a Khartoum prison after being sentenced to death in May for allegedly converting from Islam to Christianity …

The Consequences of Syria  —  The Syrian civil war is no longer the Syrian civil war.  It's a regional war that started in Syria, has expanded into Lebanon and Iraq, and has drawn in the Iranians and to a lesser extent the Kurds and the Israelis.  —  Wars in North Africa tend to stay local …

THE ABSOLUTIST … - ARCHIVE - WORLD CUP - DAILY COMMENT - AMY DAVIDSON - ANDY BOROWITZ - JOHN CASSIDY - MARIA KONNIKOVA - RICHARD BRODY - SHOP

Family-Friendly Workplace Policies Are Not Frills — They're Basic Needs  —  As President, my top priority is rebuilding an economy where everybody who works hard has the chance to get ahead.  —  That's the subject of the first White House Summit on Working Families, which is taking place today.

Your bedroom instead of a dorm room  —  President Obama gets points for properly assessing the problem with student loan debt.  He acknowledges that too many students earning a bachelor's degree (71 percent) graduate with debt that is so burdensome (averaging $29,400) that many delay important milestones …

Egyptian Court Convicts 3 Al Jazeera Journalists  —  CAIRO — A judge on Monday convicted three journalists of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood to broadcast false reports of civil strife in Egypt.  —  Two of the journalists were sentenced to seven years in prison, and the third was given 10 years …

Newly Released MEMO: Final Track of the US Senate MS GOP Primary Runoff … Re: US Senate MS GOP Primary Runoff  —  Last night we conducted the final track of our MS Senate GOP runoff surveys.  We surveyed 697 voters statewide.  The MOE (margin of error) was +/- 3.8%.