Democrats Struggle To Seize Opportunity  —  News about GOP political corruption, inept hurricane response and chaos in Iraq has lifted Democrats' hopes of winning control of Congress this fall.  But seizing the opportunity has not been easy, as they found when they tried to unveil an agenda of their own.

Iraqi Tribes Strike Back at Insurgents  —  In Turbulent Areas, Zarqawi's Fighters Are Target of Leaders and a New Militia  —  BAGHDAD, March 6 — First they killed the chief of the Naim tribe and his son.  Then they killed a top tribal sheik who headed the Fallujah city council.

Wal-Mart Enlists Bloggers in Its P.R. Campaign  —  Brian Pickrell, a blogger, recently posted a note on his Web site attacking state legislation that would force Wal-Mart Stores to spend more on employee health insurance.  "All across the country, newspaper editorial boards …

House Conservatives Prepare Austere Alternative Budget  —  WASHINGTON, March 6 — With Congress heading into a politically perilous budget season, influential House conservatives plan this week to propose an austere alternative spending plan that would pare more than $650 billion over five years …

Now Repeal the Ban  —  THE SUPREME Court's unanimous decision yesterday upholding the Solomon Amendment is no surprise.  It offers the correct answer to the legal question the case posed: Can the government deny federal money to universities that, in protest of the military's discrimination …

Judicious Double Standards  —  Back behind my high school one day, we all assembled to watch a fistfight.  To my immense pleasure, a bully was being bested by his victim.  Then the bully's friend stepped in and ended matters with a swift kick to the other guy's midsection.

South Dakota Bans Abortion, Setting Up a Battle  —  Gov. Michael Rounds of South Dakota signed into law the nation's most sweeping state abortion ban on Monday, an intentional provocation meant to set up a direct legal challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 United States Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal.

Still Evolving, Human Genes Tell New Story  —  Providing the strongest evidence yet that humans are still evolving, researchers have detected some 700 regions of the human genome where genes appear to have been reshaped by natural selection, a principal force of evolution, within the last 5,000 to 15,000 years.

Unchristened Embryos, Destination: Hell  —  I brought up one of my favorite forced birth conundrums the other day, guaranteed to make wingnut "life begins at conception" heads explode.  If a fire breaks out in a fertility clinic and you can only save a petri dish with five blastulae or a two-year old child, which do you save?

Dodge City showdown at funeral  —  DODGE CITY, Kansas (CNN) — This past Saturday morning I found myself in a five-car caravan cutting across the Kansas plains with about 30 religious protesters.  In the back of a truck, there were signs that read "Thank God for IED's" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers."

Bombings in India Raise Fear of Sectarian Violence  —  NEW DELHI, March 7 — A series of apparently coordinated bombs went off in the ancient Hindu holy city of Benares in eastern India this evening, raising the specter of sectarian violence.  —  The first bomb exploded at the Sankat Mochan temple shortly …

Ramstein: The Cindy Counter-Demonstration is ON!  —  Cindy Sheehan will be in Germany this upcoming weekend to spread her message of retreat and defeat as she marches from a church in Landstuhl (a town where wounded American soldiers are treated) to a location outside Ramstein Airbase where she plans to set up another "Camp Casey."