Heralded Iraq Police Academy a 'Disaster'  —  A $75 million project to build the largest police academy in Iraq has been so grossly mismanaged that the campus now poses health risks to recruits and might need to be partially demolished, U.S. investigators have found.

Senate Rejects Measure on Detainees  —  The Senate today rejected an amendment to a bill creating a new system for interrogating and trying terror suspects that would have guaranteed such suspects access to the courts to challenge their imprisonment.  —  The vote was 51 to 48 against the amendment …

Bush Rules  —  Today's Senate vote on President Bush's detainee legislation, after House approval yesterday, marks a defining moment for this nation.  —  How far from our historic and Constitutional values are we willing to stray?  How mercilessly are we willing to treat those we suspect to be our enemies?

Webb Denies Ever Using Word as Epithet  —  Racial Slur Overshadowing All Else in Contest  —  Democratic Senate candidate James Webb on Wednesday sought to explain remarks he had made a day earlier, in which he refused to say whether he had used the "N-word," but he insisted he has never used it as a racial epithet aimed at anyone.

Cleric Said to Lose Reins of Parts of Iraqi Militia  —  The radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr has lost control of portions of his Mahdi Army militia that are splintering off into freelance death squads and criminal gangs, a senior coalition intelligence official said Wednesday.

Worst of the Web Today: Taranto cited 1998 bin Laden PDB as evidence of Pres.  Clinton's "inaction" … In his September 27 "Best of the Web Today" column, Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal.com editor James Taranto responded to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) September 26 claim that …

Bob Woodward: Bush Misleads On Iraq  —  Tells 60 Minutes' Wallace That Kissinger Is Regular Visitor To White House  —  (CBS) Veteran Washington reporter Bob Woodward tells Mike Wallace that the Bush administration has not told the truth regarding the level of violence, especially against U.S. troops, in Iraq.

Poll: Lieberman Leads Lamont in Conn.  —  HAMDEN, Conn. (AP) - Sen. Joe Lieberman has a 10-point advantage over Democrat Ned Lamont among likely Connecticut voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.  —  Lieberman, a three-term Democrat running as an independent …

Menendez Dumps Key Adviser Caught On Tape Seeking 'Favors'  —  U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's closest political adviser was secretly recorded seven years ago boasting of political power and urging a Hudson county contractor to hire somone as a favor to Menendez, according to a transcript obtained by The Star-Ledger.

The White House Warden  —  Congress may give the president the power to lock up almost anyone he thinks is a terror threat.  —  BURIED IN THE complex Senate compromise on detainee treatment is a real shocker, reaching far beyond the legal struggles about foreign terrorist suspects in the Guantanamo Bay fortress.

Bush Job Approval Climbs to 42%  —  New Reuters/Zogby poll shows Republicans, weekly WalMart shoppers, Catholics, and men help buoy the President, but Democrats retain edge in battle for Congress  —  With control of Congress at stake in the crucial midterm elections six weeks away …

Arnold's Turnaround  —  A GOP Governor Finds the Key: Independence  —  SACRAMENTO — The Terminator has rescued himself from political ruin by reinventing his approach to government, thus demonstrating in the most dramatic way possible the value of political independence.

Checkout for an Undemocratic Checkoff  —  Unalloyed good news is rare, so rejoice: The foremost achievement of the political speech regulators — a.k.a. campaign finance "reformers" — is collapsing.  Taxpayer financing of presidential campaigns, which was in parlous condition in 2004, will die in 2008.