One Nation, Under a New Obama Salute  —  George Bush had his three-fingered W salute that supporters flashed when greeting him at presidential campaign events in 2000.  And now, if a Los Angeles creative agency gets its way, Sen. Barack Obama will see fans meet him with his own salute like the one above.

Georgia ‘under attack’ as Russian tanks roll in  —  TBLISI, Georgia (CNN) — Georgia's president said Friday that his country is under attack by Russian tanks and warplanes, and he accused Russia of targeting civilians as tensions over the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia appeared to boil over into full-blown conflict.

Democratic Aides Working on Plan To Keep the Peace At the Convention  —  With the clock running out on preparations for the Democratic convention, advisers to Sen. Barack Obama are scrambling to reach a compromise with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to appease her supporters and find roles for her and her husband.

Know-Nothing Politics  —  So the G.O.P. has found its issue for the 2008 election.  For the next three months the party plans to keep chanting: “Drill here!  Drill now!  Drill here!  Drill now!  Four legs good, two legs bad!”  O.K., I added that last part.

Group Plans Campaign Against G.O.P. Donors  —  Nearly 10,000 of the biggest donors to Republican candidates and causes across the country will probably receive a foreboding “warning” letter in the mail next week.  —  The letter is an opening shot across the bow from an unusual …

Accountability Now/Strange Bedfellows money bomb  —  Richard Nixon, August 8, 1974, 9:01 p.m. from the Oval Office: … Thirty-four years ago today, Richard Nixon was forced from office as a result of mounting public anger, which in turn fueled the bipartisan intent of Congress to impeach him …

RNC Tweaks Obama's Hawaii Vacation  —  Kailua Beach Park (450 Kawailoa Road, East O'ahu, Hawaii): This park includes the beach where locals claim Obama was photographed emerging from the sea during his last vacation in Hawaii.  —  Chevron (Kuhio Highway, Princeville, Kaua'I, Hawaii) …

Cohen on track for decisive victory  —  The bet Steve Cohen campaign made with himself and with the city of Memphis might have seemed naïve.  —  Some critics called it pandering.  —  But Cohen's gut told him to run on his record.  He said his heart told him to embrace the presidential rival …

OLYMPIC BACKFIRE  —  CHINA DROPS ITS DRAWERS  —  I RARELY watch sports on TV.  I'm a doer, not a viewer.  But I usually make an exception for the Olympics.  —  Not this year.  I'm staging my own private boycott.  Anyway, I'm more interested in what's going to happen outside of the sports facilities.

Prince George's raid prompts call for probe  —  Berwyn Heights mayor denounces police tactics  —  When the shooting stopped, two dogs lay dead.  A mayor sat in his boxers, hands bound behind his back.  His handcuffed mother-in-law was sprawled on the kitchen floor, lying beside the body …

Political Cycles  —  You're in a plane and you're flying over the campaign at a level of about 10,000 feet, and you look down and see: Not much has changed.  Battle lines fixed, topography the same, troops pretty much where they were.  —  But land the plane, walk around and talk to people, and you realize: This thing is moving.

An Antichrist Obama in McCain Ad?  —  It's not easy to make the infamous Willie Horton ad from the 1988 presidential campaign seem benign.  But suggesting that Barack Obama is the Antichrist might just do it.  —  That's just what some outraged Christian supporters of the Democratic nominee …

Lord of the Memes  —  All my life I've been a successful pseudo-intellectual, sprinkling quotations from Kafka, Epictetus and Derrida into my conversations, impressing dates and making my friends feel mentally inferior.  But over the last few years, it's stopped working.  People just look at me blankly.