RICK MORAN: Remembering The Bomb, Forgetting Why.

NIGHTLY HEADLINE SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED for the Democratic Convention.

WASHINGTON POST: Obama Tax Plan Would Balloon Deficit, Analysis Finds.

POLITICO: McCain prescient on Russia?

MCCAIN AND OBAMA on Russia and Georgia. Plus, a Tom Clancy angle. He just keeps getting it right, which kind of worries me . . .

ANN ALTHOUSE: “What moves people to be this sour about something so basically nice? “

CHILD TERRORIZED BY The Nonsmoking King.

MORE EDWARDS INQUIRY from Mickey Kaus.

STEALTH ROCKETEERS: Alan Boyle reports on the progress at XCOR Aerospace.

MORE ON HOW THE PRESS EMBARRASSED ITSELF OVER JOHN EDWARDS:

We also have the obligatory column from Clark Hoyt admitting that the New York Times was wrong, but denying that their reticence to cover the Edward story was the result of liberal bias. Yes, who could imagine such a thing of the paper which ran a front-page, uncorroborated story of the Republican nominee’s alleged relationship with a lobbyist some nine years ago?

The Edwards mess is the most recent and visible, but hardly unique, example of the mainstream media’s hear no evil/see no evil approach to newsgathering. How many other stories has the MSM missed, denied or avoided? From Rathergate to Reverend Wright to the success of the surge, the pattern is the same: MSM stalls, shuffles its collective feet, and doggedly ignores information for as long as possible until they can no longer do so with a straight face. The fact that these stories without exception work to the detriment of Democrats is apparently a grand coincidence.

And the notion that they are upholding some “journalistic standard” is rendered absurd. Edwards’ story wasn’t important on Thursday, but it was on Friday because he confessed?

They keep trying to deliver their fifteen percent. Some earlier thoughts on this subject here.

R.I.P., Isaac Hayes.

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI compares Putin’s invasion of Georgia to Stalin’s invasion of Finland.

WINNING A gold medal for self-restraint in Beijing.

PULLING THE PLUG: Ann Althouse says goodbye to podcasting.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Collateral Damage and the War on Drugs: Reflections on the Calvo Case.

Mayor Calco and his wife are white, middle class progressives, who live in a two-story, red-brick house in a Washington suburb. In addition to being a part-time mayor, Calvo works at a nonprofit foundation that runs boarding schools. His wife is a state finance officer. All of which suggests they’re in precisely the same demographic as most MSM reporters. The Washington Post or NY Times reporters look at this case and immediately think: “It could happen to me!” So the story gets saturation coverage–even in Great Britain!

Meanwhile, the MSM ignores the plight of African-American and Latino minority communities caught in the War on Drugs’ crossfire between paramilitary SWAT stormtroopers and gang thugs. How many brown and black families per year are terrorized by cops erroneously executing no knock warrants on the wrong premises? We don’t know because the media only pays attention to collateral damage from the War on Drugs when it happens to people like Mayor Calvo.

Indeed. Look how little traction the Cory Maye case has gotten, outside of blogs and Reason magazine.

WITH SCHOOL STARTING, I should note that the Insta-Daughter read The Smart Girl’s Guide to Starting Middle School before she started and thought it was helpful.

BOB KRUMM: “Last night in the mess hall two Georgian officers sat down at the table opposite me. The one facing me was a bit disheveled; his uniform top was misbuttoned. It was the kind of mistake you could make if you were in a hurry. Both ate quickly and silently. I wanted to say something, but what do you say at a time like this?”

“BLAZING” ECONOMIC GROWTH!

TALKLEFT: “With each new detail, the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter saga continues to raise more questions than it answers.”

DO WE LIVE IN A “POST-HEROIC” SOCIETY? Patrick Porter is skeptical.