Week in the News

Home front and war front fireworks this week. In Iraq, black smoke over the fortified Green Zone as rockets rained in. And from Basra to Sadr City, Shiite vs. Shiite violence as the Baghdad government demanded militia disarmament and militia men pushed back, hard. President Bush called it progress. The facts were not so clear.

At home, all three presidential candidates made big speeches on the economic mess, and where they would point relief. It's a battle.

This hour, On Point: our Friday news roundtable takes on the headlines.Guests:

Trudy Rubin, foreign affairs columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer. She's author of "Willful Blindness: The Bush Administration and Iraq."

Michael Mandel, chief economist at BusinessWeek and author of the forthcoming book, "Essentials of Economics."

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly magazine.