Moderate GOP Senator Beats Conservative Challenger in R.I.  —  Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee, a moderate who has frequently clashed with the Bush administration, beat back a strong conservative challenger Tuesday night in the GOP primary in Rhode Island.  —  The victory came amid heavy turnout …

We just had lunch in NYC with a real president  —  We just finished a two hour blogger lunch with President Clinton at his NY office in Harlem.  He had reached out to a group of us a few weeks ago, before the Disney/ABC blow up, simply because he wanted to meet some bloggers.

Federalism Plan Dead, Says Iraqi Speaker  —  The speaker of the Iraqi parliament said Tuesday that a controversial plan to partition the country into three autonomous regions is politically dead.  —  Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said in an interview that legislation to implement a concept known as federalism …

California: Schwarzenegger by 8  —  Feinstein (D) 58% Mountjoy (R) 35%  —  In California's competitive gubernatorial race, Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger now leads Democratic challenger Phil Angelides 47% to 39% (see crosstabs).  He has thus added a couple points to what had been a six-point lead in August.

Reborn  —  We have always been told there is no recovery from persistent vegetative state - doctors can only make a sufferer's last days as painless as possible.  But is that really the truth?  Across three continents, severely brain-damaged patients are awake and talking after taking ... a sleeping pill.

In Fifth District DFL race, Ellison outran opponents  —  The party's endorsed candidate captured 41 percent of the votes in the DFL primany.  Sabo's choice, Mike Erlandson, finished second.  —  State Rep. Keith Ellison overcame setbacks and questions about his past to win the DFL nomination …

Democrats Call NSA's Input To Senate Panel Inappropriate  —  Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee are complaining that the National Security Agency has played politics in support of the secret program to intercept phone calls between alleged terrorists in the United States and abroad.

Will Wikipedia Mean the End Of Traditional Encyclopedias?  —  Wikipedia, the community-edited online encyclopedia, has blossomed.  It has thousands of volunteers that have created more than five million entries in dozens of languages on everything from the Elfin-woods warbler to Paris Hilton.

The Cold Shoulder  —  IT'S FRIDAY NIGHT, and I'm trolling for interviews at the Code Pink protest outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.  But this time, Bruce "The Bouncer" Wolf makes it clear that I am persona non grata.  —  (Click here for audio)

You must do a lot more to pull your weight, Nato chief chides refuseniks  —  THE political head of Nato appealed yesterday for alliance members to provide hundreds more troops for the mission in southern Afghanistan.  —  With most of the fighting burden falling on the shoulders of the British …

Noe gets 27 months in federal prison for illegal Bush contributions  —  Tom Noe, the GOP fund-raiser at the heart of Ohio's biggest political scandal in a generation, was sentenced today to 27 months in a federal prison for illegally funneling money into President Bush's re-election campaign.

Yes, senator, McCain-Feingold does censor political speech  —  WASHINGTON - Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., takes issue with The Examiner's editorial criticism of the McCain-Feingold bill and its "ban" on certain broadcast ads.  The indignant senator responds that the law "doesn't ban or censor any speech."

BBC did not know of 9/11 film's link to religious right  —  The BBC broadcast a controversial docu-drama, The Path to 9/11, this week without realising that it had been made by a member of the US religious right.  —  The three-hour programme, shown over two nights on BBC2 to commemorate …

Guardian of the Truth Lie  —  The Guardian has responded to Zombie's excellent expose of the Red Cross Ambulance incident in predictable fashion: by categorically dismissing the points raised.  Their conclusion? … Based on what?  I hear you ask.  —  Based on "expert" opinion.....the …

Mehlman to spend $60M, five times Dean's $12M  —  The Republican National Committee (RNC) will spend its entire bank account, $60 million or more, helping Republicans try to retain control of Congress in the midterm elections.  —  The looming spending spree appears to have spurred Democratic House leaders …

Fear Factor  —  HOW DID WE SURVIVE ARI FLEISCHER'S REIGN OF TERROR?  —  And there it was again, in Frank Rich's column (TimesSelect subscription required) in the New York Times of Sunday, Sept. 10, recalling the alleged pall of fear that fell over Americans five years ago this month: