Two faces of evil (USATODAY.com)
USATODAY.com - At the height of his power in the 1990s, the Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was disdainful, bombastic and vain. That he was credentialed as a psychiatrist and poet mattered little. No one who met him then would be surprised to find that he orchestrated mass murder.

Our view on the economy: Helping Fannie, Freddie also aids 'the little guy' (USATODAY.com)
USATODAY.com - A question comes up these days as a common refrain: Why is the government so eager to bail out big institutions but not the proverbial little guy?

Opposing view: No blank check (USATODAY.com)
USATODAY.com - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's latest bailout proposal for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is not only misguided, it is downright threatening to the American taxpayer and the free market.

Serbia's catalyst for stability (The Christian Science Monitor)
The Christian Science Monitor - With the arrest at long last of Radovan Karadzic on charges of genocide, Serbia has finally chosen 21st-century Europe over 19th-century chauvinism. We can all cheer, Serbs most of all, and thank the magnetic attraction of the European Union for this long overdue shift.

The (democratic) ties that bind (The Christian Science Monitor)
The Christian Science Monitor - Two countries. Two starkly different events. But one thread ties together this week's arrest in Serbia of war-crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic and, in desperate Zimbabwe, a welcome agreement to start political power-sharing talks. That connection is the fiber of democratic freedoms.

ABC News' Dan Childs on Michael Savage and Autism (HuffingtonPost.com)
HuffingtonPost.com - Dan Childs of ABC News has run a piece about Michael Savage and his diatribe against people with autism.

Vanity Fair Misses the Point (The Nation)
The Nation - The Nation -- Vanity Fair has released a cartoon cover online in response to the New Yorker's swipe at the media coverage of the Obamas. The fake Vanity Fair cover shows John McCain, in a walker with a bandaged head and Cindy with a bundle of pills giving her hubby a fist-jab. A portrait of George W. Bush hangs over the mantle-piece; the Constitution is burning in the grate.

Obama Sets the Right Middle East Peace Timeline (The Nation)
The Nation - The Nation -- When I interviewed former President Carter about how to pursue and achieve peace in the Middle East, he made two essential points.

Obama Under the Microscope in Israel (RealClearPolitics.com)
RealClearPolitics.com - Tomorrow, Barack Obama will step off his plane into Israel and under a microscope. While he is there, American voters - Jews, Evangelical Christians and others - who factor a presidential candidate's policies toward Israel into their electoral choice, will watch Obama's every step and listen to his every word very, very closely.

Hard to Be Humble (RealClearPolitics.com)
RealClearPolitics.com - For a while now, one of the strongest narratives working against Barack Obama has been the notion that he is an elitist and too full of himself.

The Future of Iraq (The Weekly Standard)
The Weekly Standard - BaghdadI?have made four trips to Iraq since May 2007.

Editorial Roundup (AP)
AP - Excerpts from recent editorials in newspapers in the United States and abroad:

OBAMA FAKING IT (Maggie Gallagher)
Maggie Gallagher - Obama has a problem: What do you do when you're a lightly accomplished one-term senator, a former state legislator from Illinois, a Harvard law graduate who has no substantive record of accomplishments, and you are running against a war hero whom polls show that Americans overwhelmingly view as far more fit to be commander in chief?

HOSANNA FOR POLAND'S UNSUNG HERO (Georgie Anne Geyer)
Georgie Anne Geyer - WASHINGTON -- When Bronislaw Geremek was tragically killed in a car crash in Poland in mid-July, most Americans did not recognize his name. Geremek, who? Bronislaw, what? Oh yes, we do know where Poland is -- more or less.

Where the Ducks Are (Pat Buchanan)
Pat Buchanan - "You go hunting where the ducks are," said Barry Goldwater.

'Stunningly Shameful' (The Weekly Standard)
The Weekly Standard - On January 23, 2008, during her keynote speech at the glitzy World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Condoleezza Rice made a surprisingly friendly gesture to the Iranian regime. She said, in this final year of the Bush administration, Iran and the United States could move towards a "new, more normal relationship."

Over to You, Speaker Pelosi (The Weekly Standard)
The Weekly Standard - Gas is still at $4 a gallon, but the good news is there's an emerging consensus on a measure that would help:

REDUNDANCY GOOD, REDUNDANCY BAD (James Kilpatrick)
James Kilpatrick - Every critic of the writing art, most memorably Professor William Strunk of Cornell, has inveighed against redundancy. E.B. White quoted him in "The Elements of Style." Let us listen up.

HUMPHREY GAVE GREATEST CONVENTION SPEECH YOU'VE NEVER HEARD (David Shribman)
David Shribman - MINNEAPOLIS -- If you have an eye for these things, you might have noticed that Sen. Barack Obama is going to deliver his acceptance speech in a football stadium on Aug. 28. The last man to deliver an acceptance speech in a stadium was John F. Kennedy. The last important speech to be delivered on an Aug. 28 was given by the Rev. Martin Luther King 45 years ago.

JIMMY CARTER'S ENERGY IDEAS DESERVE A SECOND CHANCE (Cynthia Tucker)
Cynthia Tucker - Even in his home state of Georgia, former President Jimmy Carter does not receive universal acclaim. He is regarded by many as a weak-kneed appeaser or a naive do-gooder with a puritanical bent.