Staffer Cites Earlier Role by Hastert's Office  —  House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert's chief of staff confronted then-Rep. Mark Foley about his inappropriate social contact with male pages well before the speaker said aides in his office took any action, a current congressional staff member …

New LA TIMES publisher is a Right Wing Hatchet man with ties to Judge Roberts and Ken Starr  —  Last night David Hiller, from the Chicago Tribune came into town to replace Jeffrey Johnson because he "publicly opposed a corporate demand for a stringent cost-cutting plan last month," In other words he was fired.

A True Blowout is Now Possible  —  After looking at the news for the past 10 days or so, I have to wonder how Democrats can possibly fail in their efforts to take both the House and the Senate.  —  The national atmospherics don't merely favor Democrats; they set the stage for a blowout of cosmic proportions next month.

Google in Talks To Buy YouTube For $1.6 Billion  —  Deal Could Put Search Giant  —  In Top Spot for Online Video;  —  A Front Door for Web Visits  —  The latest prize in the great Internet land grab, online-video company YouTube Inc., could soon be snapped up by Google Inc.

2 ROCKETS DEFUSED AT PAKISTAN PARLIAMENT  —  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Two rockets rigged with mobile phones and primed to fire toward Pakistan's parliament were discovered by a construction worker Thursday and safely defused by bomb disposal experts, a security official said.

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.

Without Restraint  —  Tides of confusion have washed up Mark Foley.  —  Is this Mark Foley thing really happening?  —  I woke up early the other morning after a bad dream about Muslims routinely blowing up and torturing other innocent Muslims.  You know the world has turned upside …

Lamont's Lull  —  In a record week, futures in Ned Lamont continued to plummet in the political market.  Big board polls put the Connecticut Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate falling sharply behind incumbent independent Joseph Lieberman.  Most legit polls that insiders and serious observers look …

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 …

September Employment Report  —  The BLS reports: U.S. nonfarm payrolls climbed by 51,000 in September, after a revised 188,000 gain in August, and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.6% in September from 4.7% in August.  —  Click on graph for larger image.  —  Here is the cumulative nonfarm job growth for Bush's 2nd term.

Can Democrats and Libertarians Find Common Ground?  —  I pretty much hate rules and restrictions on what I can do.  Because of that, there is no sense in which I would describe myself as someone who likes government intervention.  But unlike many libertarians, taxation and the size of government are not my main concern.

Outting myself...and whoever else wants outing!  —  WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS THE WORDS CUNNILINGUS AND FELLATIO.  IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY THE WORDS CUNNILINGUS OR FELLATIO YOU SHOULD NOT READ THIS POST.  ALSO IF YOU GET A CASE OF THE VAPORS BY THE SHOCKING IDEA OF MARRIED SEX, DO NOT READ THIS POST.

Start the Revolution Without Him … "I AM WISE TO YOUR SNARKY WAYS."  Superstar blogger Markos Moulitsas won't let me near his house.  Instead, he meets me at a Berkeley coffee shop.  "When the Newsweek guy was there, he saw some workmen putting in my new plasma television and said something about it in the article."

Nelson doesn't act like Christian, Harris says  —  The senator's GOP opponent says his votes go against the faith's principles.  —  Six weeks after urging voters to elect only "tried and true" Christians, Senate candidate Katherine Harris is questioning her opponent's faith by saying he …