1. From the Halls of Malibu to the Shores of Kennedy
By Ann Coulter
Democrats claim Gen. David Petraeus' report to Congress on the surge was a put-up job with a pre-ordained conclusion. As if their response wasn't.

2. Retreat of the Antiwar Democrats
By Patrick J. Buchanan
In November 2006, Republicans were voted out of power in the Congress and Democrats installed to bring an end to U.S. involvement in the war in Iraq.

3. A Few Questions for Fred Thompson
By Michael Reagan
Fred Thompson’s opening shot in launching his campaign on the Jay Leno show was impressive, but now he has to forget the sound bites and the folksy advice and get down to brass tacks

4. Cooking Up Global Warming
By Christopher C. Horner
A very embarrassing chapter in the history of our nation's scientific establishment has been unfolding thanks to a creative new website www.SurfaceStations.org set up and run by Anthony Watts. This site is providing unwelcome scrutiny to the United States’ surface temperature measurement network, supposedly the most reliable in the world. The reputation has been built over the years in part because of our government’s purported insistence on uniformity of technology as well as siting (putting the gauges where they will gather the most accurate data) and maintenance standards.

5. Angry At Arlen
By Robert Novak
While Senate Republicans reflected outrage that Sen. Larry Craig was retreating from his earlier statement that he would resign from the Senate, their privately expressed anger was directed toward Sen. Arlen Specter for encouraging Craig to reconsider.

6. Evans-Novak Political Report
By Robert Novak and Tim Carney
Contrary to the happy talk coming out of the Bush Administration, well-informed business sources have heightened the perceived risk of recession. If the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) at its meeting next Tuesday does anything less than cut the federal funds rate by 50 basis points, it will be a major disappointment and damaging to markets and the broader economy. Indeed, a cut that deep already has been discounted in markets.

7. House Republicans Want Professional Investigators to Look into Stolen Vote
By John Boehner
Dear Speaker Pelosi:
I am writing concerning the Select Committee to Investigate the Voting Irregularities of August 2, 2007, established by the House on August 3, 2007 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the overturned 215-213 vote on a Republican measure that sought to add language to the Agriculture Appropriations bill prohibiting illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer-funded benefits.

8. Deception on Capitol Hill
By Robert Novak
The final version of the widely celebrated ethics bill, passed by overwhelming margins in both House and Senate a month ago, finally and quietly made its way last week from Capitol Hill to the White House. It surely will soon be signed into law by President Bush. What only a handful of leaders and insiders realize is that this measure, avowedly dedicated to transparency, actually makes it easier for the Senate to pass pet projects without the public -- or many senators -- being aware of it.

9. Hsu's Your Daddy
By Sean P. Trende
A few weeks ago, former White House advisor Karl Rove made waves by questioning Senator Hillary Clinton’s electability. In an interview with Rush Limbaugh, Rove stated that Senator Clinton was a “fatally flawed” candidate. Rove explained that Senator Clinton’s approvals were, “in the high 40s on the negative side and just below that on the positive side” and that “there’s nobody who has ever won the presidency who started out in that kind of position.”

10. Vandals at the Wall
By Michelle Oddis
Last Friday a “light, oily substance” was sprayed on 50 to 60 feet of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall panels and paving stones in an act of apparent vandalism. All this week, Washington was consumed with the Iraq reports by Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker. This weekend, ANSWER and a number of other anti-war groups are planning big demonstrations in Washington. Some veterans groups are planning to parallel the demostrations with lines of volunteers blocking access to the Vietnam Wall and other memorials they believe may be targeted for defacment. The assumption that Friday’s discovery was an act of vandalism connected with the demonstrations seems a logical conclusion.

An excellent piece by my colleague, Brian Fitzpatrick, senior editor for the Culture and Media Institute, a division of the MRC.

Have you heard that a gaggle of black-clad radicals, many wearing masks, defaced the United States Capitol—the very symbol of our republic—during their antiwar march on Saturday?

If you depend on the major networks or newspapers for news, you probably didn’t. The story would have gone unreported entirely if it had not been for The Hill, a Capitol Hill paper serving the political community, which ran a piece picked up by the Drudge Report.

Here’s what ABC, NBC, CBS, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, USA Today and other major outlets did not find newsworthy:

Waving red and black flags, and carrying riot shields emblazoned with “America out of everywhere,” 300 protesters spray-painted “anarchist symbols,” political taunts and curses on the west front steps of the Capitol building. The western side is the portion of the Capitol facing the Mall, which was in full view of every reporter and cameraman covering the march.

Furious Capitol Hill police were ordered to stand aside and allow the anarchists to wield their spray cans unmolested, though the police were permitted to block their attempt to rush the Capitol’s doors.

The anarchists, many of whom were members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), provided plenty of compelling footage for the TV cameras. No doubt they had plenty of compelling quotes ready to go for the press, as sophisticated political activists always do, but they had no takers.

An Associated Press story reprinted by The Washington Post briefly mentioned the rush on the Capitol. A writer for CounterPunch, a leftwing newsletter, bemoaned the failure of more protestors to join the charge up the Capitol steps, so “it would have been hard for the men in blue to do much.” Apart from The Hill’s story, that’s all the coverage of the assault on and defacement of the Capitol that I could find.

Apparently the media don’t want Americans to know that some of the people protesting the Iraq war are filled with hate not only for the war, or even President Bush, but for America itself.

The Family Resarch Council produced this short video showing remnants of the graffiti anti-war protesters were permitted to spray paint on Capitol grounds last weekend.

The Hill published a widely-circulated report over the weekend that detailed damage self-described anarchist protesters did, without arrest or reprimand, in the name of "free speech."

Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s legislative branch subcommittee, told U.S. Capitol Police Chief Philip Morse he was "disgusted" that police watched protesters do this in letter sent today.

"I am absolutely dismayed by the vandalism and the blatant disregard for respect of property that occurred at our Nation’s Capitol this weekend," he wrote.

There will be more converage to follow as this story develops, but Tony Perkins, president of FRC had some pretty harsh words that followed this video in an email blast today.

Here's what he said:

This past weekend anti-Bush protestors marched on Washington. While the few thousand who showed up paled in comparison to the hundreds of thousands who marched for life earlier in the week, the anti-Bush protestors were given unprecedented access to the U.S. Capitol grounds, and some of them used that access to publicly deface taxpayer's property. According to the local newspaper, The Hill, the protesters were allowed to take the Capitol steps and they began to spray-paint "anarchist symbols" and phrases such as "Our capitol building" and "You can't stop us" around the area.

For any other group, such acts would mean immediate arrest. This time, the Capitol police's hands were tied because they were ordered to stand down by their Chief of Police, who answers to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). To add insult to injury, public employees had to come in on their day off, at taxpayer's expense, to clean up the mess the protestors left behind. (View this video to see evidence of the vandalism.) The vandals clearly broke federal law. According to the U.S. Code, "[I]f the damage exceeds $100, the defendant is subject to a fine of up to $250,000, ten years imprisonment, or both . . When property damage does not exceed $100, the offense is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $100,000, one year imprisonment, or both."

According to the news reports the rank and file police officers were "livid" that they were ordered not to arrest anyone. Since the Capitol police answer to Speaker Pelosi, the question arises, did the Chief of Police give the "no arrest" order or did it come from someone else? Whoever is responsible for the order needs to explain why the physical destruction of taxpayer property is acceptable.

Please e-mail Speaker Pelosi's office and ask her to find out why no attempt was made to halt or arrest these vandals. If the U.S. Capitol has a new policy on such acts, does it apply to everyone - or just to those whose views the majority in Congress favors?