The Nightowl Newswrap - a roundup of news you might have missed

Ron Paul supporters could spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E for McCain Especially in the west, where his supporters are pledging a fight at the convention. Although their numbers are small by eastern-states standards, in the sparsely populated western states, they could tilt the electoral map. "In Nevada, there's absolutely enough to have an effect on the election," said Chuck Muth, a leading conservative activist in a state in which early polls show McCain and Democratic candidate Barack Obama in a statistical tie. "I think that you will see not just Libertarians who always vote for the Libertarian candidate but conservative Republicans saying we've had it, we've had enough and they're going to go ahead and vote Libertarian."


The 'elitist' shoe is on the other foot, now and it is an exquisite Ferragamo loafer - that sells for $520 a pair - and it is on McCain's foot at every campaign stop he makes.


Blackwater is now in the private intelligence gathering business, marketing their services to foreign governments as well as Fortune 500 companies. "Blackwater started a private intelligence company, a private CIA essentially, called Total Intelligence Solutions. And the man running Total Intelligence Solutions is J. Cofer Black. He's a thirty-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency. He also was the guy who ran the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, the government-sanctioned kidnap-and-torture program. His thirty-year CIA career, his network of contacts, his knowledge that was gained through his work in the most sensitive areas of the United States government is now on the open market for hire," explained Jeremy Scahill, author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.


Larry Craig will get his day in court on September 10. That is the date set to hear arguments in his request to withdraw his guilty plea for soliciting sex in a mens room at the Minneapolis airport. Craig pleaded guilty, but later said that was a mistake. A Hennepin County judge refused to allow Craig to withdraw his plea last year, and now a three-judge panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals will consider the Republican's case.



Ross Douthat is officially batshit-crazy I mean really...Barack Hitler Obama???


Of course they had a "Plan B" As you well know, the McSame campaign launched a scurrilous attack on Barack Obama, accusing him of snubbing wounded troops, even thought that was not case. Now it is coming out that the campaign had an ad ready to go if he had made the visit - that was set to accuse him of using wounded troops as political props.


A return to 12 month tours Now that the game of Three Card Monte known as the Surge™ is over, the U.S. Army is returning to 12 month deployments.


5 That is the number of Americans who lost their lives in Iraq this month. It is the lowest number of casualties that the US has recorded since the war started in March 2003.


Washington Governor turned away from bar for not having photo ID Governor Christine Gregoire, her staff, and her state patrol escorts attempted to go to a bar after spending the day at a community event - but the 61-year-old governor was turned away. She wasn't carrying her wallet, and therefore had no ID, and the 23-year-old bouncer wouldn't budge. No ID, you aren't getting past him.


Savage continues to feel the heat Maybe Savage did whack the wrong hornets nest when he said autism was a fraud. Now he has been dropped from the air in LA, the second largest radio market in the country.


With a stroke of his pen... Arnold Schwartzenegger eliminated the jobs of about 22,000 temporary workers and reduced the salaries of about 200,000 state employees to the federal minimum of $6.55 per hour. The Republican Governor says he intends to reverse those moves once lawmakers reach a budget compromise, meaning the state would rehire temporary workers and give employees their entire back pay. The governor's order also imposes a strict hiring freeze and eliminates overtime but exempts workers in health and safety fields. Schwarzenegger said he understands that the action will affect families that are already struggling financially. "I want to apologize to all the state employees for having to do this," he said. The state budget is now 31 days late as legislators remain divided over how to bridge a $15.2 billion shortfall in a $101 billion general fund budget.


It's Tippy Turtle's MO to get some hammerhead in trouble, you know An Eastern Box Turtle that roams over about 50 acres of the Rock Creek Park that bisects DC was sunning herself in a pot patch when Ken Ferebee, a National Park Service researcher, has been monitoring Turtle No. 72 for seven years dropped in on her. "I was walking in the woods, following the signal with my receiver, trying to find the turtle, and I walked into an area where some large trees had fallen down," he recalled yesterday. "So there's a big hole in the tree canopy, so there's a lot of light getting down to the ground, and there's a lot of vegetation growing there. But as I'm walking, I could see a patch of bare soil that didn't look quite right. And when I got closer, I could tell it had been cleared and some plants had been planted. They looked like they'd been grown somewhere else and then actually replanted in the park. I could tell they were marijuana plants," said Ferebee, 46. "I've seen pictures of the leaves before. I've actually seen marijuana plants before, too. . . . And I was a little surprised to see them right there. They've been found in the park before, but it's been a long time. I called the police to come see, because I knew they'd be interested in that." The park police staked out the pot patch and waited. When the undercover gardener, a college student from Chevy Chase, MD returned to tend his crop, he was arrested for possession with intent to distrubute.