International:
Russia steps up military expansion Vladimir Putin announced ambitious plans to revive Russia's military power and restore its role as the world's leading producer of military aircraft yesterday.

Speaking at the opening of the largest airshow in Russia's post-Soviet history, the president said he was determined to make aircraft manufacture a national priority after decades of lagging behind the west.

The remarks follow his decision last week to resume long-range missions by strategic bomber aircraft capable of hitting the US with nuclear weapons. Patrols over the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic began last week for the first time since 1992. More details here

Iraqi and Syrian leaders meet

Iraq's embattled prime minister received a pledge from Syria's President Bashar Assad on Tuesday that Damascus is ready to help with efforts to stabilize Iraq. But the Iraqi leader conceded the two neighbors still face "real challenges."

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki described the talks Tuesday as positive and stressed the importance of having good relations with Syria. Both leaders emphasized that security was of utmost concern.

"We are not complimentary in our speech, (but) we want this visit to be a success and we are interested in stabilizing Iraq and improving its situation," Assad told al-Maliki at the start of the talks. Details

National: CIA missed chances to tackle al-Qaida The CIA's top leaders failed to use their available powers, never developed a comprehensive plan to stop al-Qaida and missed crucial opportunities to thwart two hijackers in the run-up to Sept. 11, the agency's own watchdog concluded in a bruising report released Tuesday.

Completed in June 2005 and kept classified until now, the 19-page executive summary finds extensive fault with the actions of senior CIA leaders and others beneath them. "The agency and its officers did not discharge their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner," the CIA inspector general found. "They did not always work effectively and cooperatively," the report stated. More here

Bush: Iraq Democracy is Working
It is up to the Iraqi parliament and public to determine the fate of the government led by Nouri al-Maliki, President Bush says, responding to calls by war critics who now acknowledge military surge in Iraq is working but say the prime minister must go.

Congress Approval Rating Matches Historical Low A new Gallup Poll finds Congress' approval rating the lowest it has been since Gallup first tracked public opinion of Congress with this measure in 1974. Just 18% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, while 76% disapprove, according to the August 13-16, 2007, See this at Gallup Poll.

In Other News... “U.S. military officials are narrowing the range of Iraq strategy options and appear to be focusing on reducing the U.S. combat role in 2008 while increasing training of Iraqi forces.”

Members of the National Guard are just as likely as active duty soldiers to develop post-traumatic stress after leaving Iraq. Guard members who have had “deployment-linked money trouble,” which affects approximately 26 percent of the soldiers, are six times more likely to have mental-health problems.

Vice President Cheney’s office responded separately from the White House to a Senate subpoena for documents on warrantless wiretapping. “[T]he response from the vice president was more surprising, because the White House was believed to have abandoned the argument that Cheney is a hybrid entity with both executive and legislative powers.”

From The Right: David Limbaugh: The Left's Rovian Hate-Obsession Those decriers of "hate" on the left just can't imbibe enough hatred for Karl Rove to quench their "tolerant" and "compassionate" appetites.

From The Left: AP: Cheney Has Wiretap Documents, but Won't Share "Vice President Dick Cheney's office acknowledged it has documents that 'may be responsive' to an investigation into a secret eavesdropping program, although it indicated it would not turn over the papers without a fight."

Quote Of The Day: "The American people believe English should be the official language of the government. ... We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto." Newt Gingrich speaking to the National Federation of Republican Women (Watch Gingrich apologize in Spanish)

(Sources: AP, Reuters, DrudgeReport, CNN, FOXNews, ThinkProgress, NYT, TownHall, USAToday, Guardian, TheHill, PoliticalCartoons.com, PoliticalWire)