The situation in Afghanistan is all about Pakistan.

--A federal judge in Phoenix issues a preliminary injunction against sections of the state's new immigration law, set to go into effect at midnight. Said Judge Susan Bolton: "There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens...By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a ‘distinct, unusual and extraordinary' burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose.”

--The DNC presents the "Republican Tea Party Contract On America." Sen. John Cornyn blasts Democrats for practicing "the politics of fear."

--Christopher Beam examines the semiotics of taxes.

--So far, there's no deal in place that would enable the Democrats to avoid an embarrassing public hearing into ethics violations allegedly committed by Rep. Charlie Rangel.

--Be sure to check out our interactive timeline of the BP spill.

--A reporter covering the Blagojevich trial, which heard closing arguments this week, says he'd vote to acquit.

--And Michael Kinsley is holding a "Boring Article Contest." Any suggestions? (I suspect it will take fewer than five comments before a witty member of the commentariat nominates this one.)

It's been a rough couple of weeks for Republican candidates in Colorado. As ballots are cast in advance of the August 10 GOP Senate primary, candidates Jane Norton and Ken Buck are squabbling over gender and footwear, and Buck, whose surge in the race was fueled partly by Tea Party support, has been dogged by a verbal swipe at movement members caught on video by a Democratic staffer. The duo vying for the party's gubernatorial nod aren't faring much better. The front-runner, Scott McInnis, is fighting to stay in the race after the Denver Post revealed several instances of plagiarism, and his opponent, Dan Maes, agreed to pay a fine earlier this month to end an investigation into alleged campaign-finance infractions.

Into this storm leaps Tom Tancredo, the Republican congressman and presidential candidate. A nativist who has called for Barack Obama's impeachment, suggested illegal immigrants are "coming here to kill you" and dubbed Miami a "Third World Country," Tancredo announced on Monday that he would mount a gubernatorial bid under the banner of the American Constitution Party. Colorado conservatives met the decision with unbridled scorn. A Tea Party leader said Tancredo was making "a mockery out of himself and the entire election process," while the state's GOP chairman, Dick Wadhams, blasted Tancredo's "unquenchable thirst for national media attention" and cautioned that his candidacy would torpedo Republican chances to recapture the statehouse. Others have suggested his tendency to wander beyond the right-wing's fringe could hamper Republicans in down-ticket races.

Tancredo's candidacy is not unexpected. He had previously warned of his intention to enter the race if polls showed McInnis and Maes trailing the Democratic front-runner, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. This time around, the five-term rep's penchant for incendiary rhetoric seems to be wearing thin; last week FOX News' Megyn Kelly took a break from pumping the New Black Panthers saga to tell Tancredo it was "hard to take him seriously." On Monday, Tancredo and Wadhams sparred during a joint appearance on a local radio program. When the controversial politician said he was only doing "what's necessary for the conservatives in this state," Wadhams shot back: "What's your agenda? What are you going to talk about? Impeach Obama and bomb Mecca?" It's not the sort of message that will help Republicans in a pivotal battleground state.

It's hard to imagine two prominent Republican pollsters slagging a sitting Republican President. And yet here we have Pat Caddell, who gave Jimmy Carter to the world, and Doug Schoen, who helped salvage a second term for Bill Clinton, disgorging an incendiary and outrageous argument against Barack Obama on the Wall Street Journal's op-ed page. (Actually, both Caddell and Schoen are more emeritus than active when it comes to polling, but no matter.)

The argument is that Barack Obama is divisive. One reason he is divisive, they say, is that he supports immigration reform. George W. Bush supported immigration reform. The Wall Street Journal editorial page has supported immigration reform. Plenty of enlightened Republicans do--for moral reasons and, in the case of the Journal, for valid economic reasons. But Obama supports it--they aver, with zero evidence--solely for political reasons. He wants to gin up the Latino vote. One wonders--and I know I'm going out on a real limb here--if it is possible that the President supports immigration reform because it is the right thing to do. Caddell and Schoen don't even mention the possibility.

Another reason Obama is divisive is because his Justice Department hasn't paid sufficient attention to the New Black Panther Party case. You remember the New Black Panther Party, right? No? I can't imagine why. They were the jerks who dressed up in camouflage fatigues and looked threatening at a Philadelphia polling station on election day in 2008. One of them brandished a billy club, but didn't use it. Somehow the Republicans have decided this act of street theater is a major threat to democracy as we know it--well, actually no: the Republicans are hoping that they'll be able to tar the President as a crypto-black-racist. This has been a regular entry in the Republican playbook since Richard Nixon's southern strategy. Abigail Thernstrom, a George W. Bush nominee to the Civil Rights Commission, has pretty much said the case was hogwash. The idea that two putative Democrats would give it any credibility at all discredits them entirely.

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Newt Gingrich is clearly running for President. How do I know? He gets dumb and angry when running for office. When not running for office, he'll take the occasional independent stand--in opposition to the teaching of creationism in science class (it's ok to teach it as a "philosophy" in a non-science setting, he has said) and he's had some very creative ideas about urban poverty. But he really can be a complete jerk when electorate politics is dominating his frontal cortex. Latest example: his crusade against the Islamic Community Center near ground zero:

"You know, there are over a hundred mosques in New York City. I favor religious freedom," said Gingrich. "I'm quite happy if they'd come in and said, 'We want to build a community center near Central Park, we'd like to build a community center near Columbia University.' But they didn't. They said right at the edge of a place where, let's be clear, thousands of Americans were killed in an attack by radical Islamists."

In fact, there is an Islamic community center on 96th street, a few blocks from Central Park and I'm sure there's an Islamic student group, and perhaps a facility, at Columbia--but no matter.

If Newt actually believe what he claims to--that the American way is superior--he'd be in favor of placing the mosque near Ground Zero, as a demonstration of American freedom and tolerance. But he's running for President and so he has to pander to the yahoos. I'm afraid we'll be seeing this sort of un-American intolerance from more than a few of the Republicans candidates as the presidential campaign fires up; I'll be on the lookout for those who have the courage to stand up for true American principles on issues like this one.

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