GOP's Hold on Evangelicals Weakening  —  Party's Showing in Midterm Elections May Be Hurt as Polls Indicate Support Dropping in Base  —  ANOKA, Minn. — Lynn Sunde, an evangelical Christian, is considering what for her is a radical step.  Come November, she may vote for a Democrat for Congress.

Kean calls for Hastert's resignation  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — New Jersey Republican Senate candidate Tom Kean Jr. on Friday called for House Speaker Dennis Hastert to resign over the congressional page cybersex scandal, making him the first major candidate in his party to do so.

Pelosi says she would drain GOP 'swamp'  —  WASHINGTON - Franklin Roosevelt had his first hundred days.  —  House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is thinking 100 hours, time enough, she says, to begin to "drain the swamp" after more than a decade of Republican rule.

Bush cites authority to bypass FEMA law  —  Signing statement is employed again  —  WASHINGTON — President Bush this week asserted that he has the executive authority to disobey a new law in which Congress has set minimum qualifications for future heads of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In Border Fence's Path, Congressional Roadblocks  —  No sooner did Congress authorize construction of a 700-mile fence on the U.S.-Mexico border last week than lawmakers rushed to approve separate legislation that ensures it will never be built, at least not as advertised, according to Republican lawmakers and immigration experts.

Rice, in Baghdad, Insists That Iraqis Are 'Making Progress'  —  Wearing a helmet and a flak jacket and flanked by machine-gun-toting bodyguards to defend against insurgents, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came here Thursday, insisting that there were new signs of progress in Iraq …

From a List to a GOP Civil War?  —  Copies of The List (see below) have been sent by gay politicos to a variety of social conservative groups that look to the Republican Party to make their religious right dreams come true.  The recipients include the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family …

Monologues dialogues.  —  David Brooks's column yesterday began this way (TimesSelect link): … Today, we get the letters to the editor.  Gotta defend the iconic monologues, you know.  The first letter says Brooks "misses a key point, and that is power":

'Boy snatched off street, set alight and murdered for being white'  — Evidence given in Kriss Donald murder trial  — One of accused apparently sought revenge for previous assault  — Kriss Donald may have been targetted simply due to being white  —  Story in full

White House aide to Rove resigns  —  WASHINGTON - A key aide to presidential political strategist Karl Rove resigned Friday after a congressional report listed hundreds of contacts between disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House.  —  Susan Ralston, special assistant to President Bush …

Race for Senate control tightens  —  WASHINGTON — Democrats are within striking distance of winning control of the Senate in the Nov. 7 elections, USA TODAY/Gallup Polls in six key states show as the campaigns head into their final month.  —  The number of Republican-held seats …

The Losing Momentum Fallacy  —  I've been writing about how the US and Al Queda are fighting on a meta-battlefield of serialization and parallelization since at least 2003.  The US is fundamentally trying to slow things down, occasionally biting where it chooses, chewing …

Warner Downbeat After Iraq Trip  —  U.S. at Risk of Losing Bid to Control Baghdad, Senator Says  —  The Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday offered a stark assessment of the situation in Iraq after a trip there this week, saying that parts of the country have taken …

Job Growth Slows, Unemployment Rate Dips  —  Bush to Speak About Jobs and the Economy  —  The U.S. economy created far fewer jobs in September than anticipated, but revised job figures for previous months showed a surprisingly substantial uptick over what was previously reported.

Kim's message: War is coming to US soil  —  Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say.  Please click here if you are interested in contributing.  —  The Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea announced on October 3 …