THE FULCRUM

Drafts of a report from the top U.S. inspector in Iraq conclude there were no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, but say there were signs that fallen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had dormant programs he hoped to revive at a later time, according to people familiar with the findings.

Here's how bad off the Democrats are: They're cowering behind closed doors, whispering that if it should ever turn out that Republicans are behind this, it would be so exquisitely Machiavellian, so beyond what Democrats are capable of, they should just fold and concede the election now - before the Republicans have to go to the trouble of stealing it again.

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In this vast left-wing conspiracy theory, Mr. Rove takes real evidence on W.'s shirking and transfers it to documents doomed to be exposed as phony (thereby undermining the real goods), then funnels it through third parties to Dan Rather, Bush 41's nemesis on Iran-contra. A perfect bank shot.

The administration has been so dazzling in misleading the public with audacious, mendacious malarkey that the Democrats fear the Bushies are capable of any level of deceit.

A rocket slammed into the ground near where Afghan President Hamid Karzai's helicopter was approaching to land in an eastern city Thursday, forcing him to return to Kabul, officials said.

Karzai was headed to the city of Gardez, 60 miles south of Kabul, for a school-opening ceremony, aboard a U.S. military helicopter. Presidential spokesman Jawed Ludin said the rocket came down in a village about a mile from Gardez, while U.S. military spokesman Maj. Mark McCann said it hit 300 yards from the landing zone.

FUBAR: adj. acronym: F***ed Up Beyond All Repair. Military slang; likely originated during the Korean or Viet Nam conflicts.

Gunmen kidnapped two Americans and one Briton in the Iraqi capital, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said Thursday.

The three were seized from their house in Baghdad's al-Mansour neighborhood at dawn Thursday, said ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdel-Rahman. He didn't give their identities or say who they worked for. Col. Abdel-Rahman had earlier said the three were all British nationals.

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Separately, a car bomb exploded Wednesday in a town south of Baghdad, killing two people and injuring 10, said Col. Abdel-Rahman. The car was targeting a National Guard checkpoint in Suwayrah, about 40 miles (60 kilometers) south of Baghdad, Col. Abdel-Rahman said. One national guardsman was among the dead, he said. No further details were available.

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Also Wednesday, three beheaded bodies were found on a road north of Baghdad, authorities said.

Senators See Budget Shift on Iraq as Sign of Trouble

Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said today that the Bush administration's request to divert more than $3 billion from reconstruction work in Iraq to security measures was a sign that the American campaign in Iraq is in serious trouble.

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Mr. Hagel went on to say that the request for reprogramming the money "does not add up, in my opinion, to a pretty picture, to a picture that shows that we're winning. But it does add up to this, an acknowledgment that we are in deep trouble."

Forty-three months into his presidency, George Bush's main explanation for this dismal economic record is an assortment of blame and excuses. Yet what President Bush cannot explain is how the last 11 presidents before him -- Democrats and Republicans -- faced wars, recessions and international crises, and yet only he has presided over lost jobs, declining real exports, and the swing from a $5.6 trillion surplus to trillions of dollars of deficits.

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With the right choices on the economy, America can do better. American businesses and workers are the most resilient, productive and innovative in the world. And they deserve policies that are better for our economy. My economic plan will do the following: (1) Create good jobs, (2) cut middle-class taxes and health-care costs, (3) restore America's competitive edge, and (4) cut the deficit and restore economic confidence.

The founder of the group Texans for Truth said Tuesday that he is offering $50,000 to anyone who can prove President Bush fulfilled his service requirements, including required duties and drills, in the Alabama Air National Guard in 1972.

If he is a flip-flopper, Kerry has company.

In 2000, Bush argued against new military entanglements and nation building. He's done both in Iraq.

He opposed a Homeland Security Department, then embraced it.

He opposed creation of an independent Sept. 11 commission, then supported it. He first refused to speak to its members, then agreed only if Vice President Dick Cheney came with him.

Bush argued for free trade, then imposed three-year tariffs on steel imports in 2002, only to withdraw them after 21 months.

Last month, he said he doubted the war on terror could be won, then reversed himself to say it could and would.

A week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Bush said he wanted Osama bin Laden "dead or alive." But he told reporters six months later, "I truly am not that concerned about him." He did not mention bin Laden in his hour-long convention acceptance speech.

"I'm a war president," Bush told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Feb. 8. But in a July 20 speech in Iowa, he said: "Nobody wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president."

Bush keeps revising his Iraq war rationale: The need to seize Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction until none were found; liberating the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator; fighting terrorists in Iraq not at home; spreading democracy throughout the Middle East. Now it's a safer America and a safer world.

"No matter how many times Senator Kerry flip-flops, we were right to make America safer by removing Saddam Hussein from power," he said last week in Missouri.

Bush has changed his positions on new Clean Air Act restrictions, protecting the Social Security surplus, tobacco subsidies, the level of assistance to help combat AIDs in Africa, campaign finance overhaul and whether to negotiate with North Korean officials....

A car bomb exploded near a police station in the Iraqi capital early Tuesday, as dozens were applying to join the force, killing at least 47 people and wounding nearly 114, officials said.

Separately in Baqouba, gunmen in two cars opened fire on a van carrying policemen home from work, killing 11 officers and a civilian, police and hospital officials said.

Also Tuesday, saboteurs blew up a junction where multiple oil pipelines cross the Tigris River in northern Iraq, setting off a chain reaction in electricity generating systems that left the entire country without power, officials said.