Arkansas hold ‘em - Political debates and card games - How does the player-candidate handle the stress of a bad hand? What kind of poker face does he have? Can you see him sweat? Is he an easy out? Does he play bad cards? Can he bluff? How often does he raise and re-raise ? Does he know when to hold ’em and when to fold ‘em ? And does he count his money when he’s sittin’ at the table? Is he a bad loser? Or, worse, a bad winner?

Foreign Affairs : The central truth - To listen to the latest Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld speeches, you’d think that our biggest problem in Iraq is a violent minority of “extremists,” defying the democratic will of the Iraqi people. And you’d think that our biggest problem at home is a misguided group of Democratic appeasers who want to cut and run in the great totalitarian struggle of the 21 st century.

Double standard exists over paying journalists to promote Bush policy - The paper obtained records of these payments through a Freedom of Information Act request. The paper obtained records of these payments through a Freedom of Information Act request.  Just why taxpayer dollars continued to be used to pay journalists more than 18 months after the president announced that his administration would no longer do so is unclear.

But I suspect it’s the result of a double standard that surfaced earlier this year.Back in April, the Pentagon produced a report on the questionable activities of a public relations firm it hired to help put a good face on U.S. efforts to train Iraqi troops and rebuild Iraqi infrastructure.The firm, The Lincoln Group, had staff members and subcontractors pose as freelance journalists to plant favorable stories in the Iraqi media.