FEDS ARREST MAN THEY SAY PLANNED TO DETONATE GRENADES IN ILLINOIS SHOPPING MALL  —  Dec. 8: Courtroom artist's drawing is a man identified by authorities as Derrick Shareef, 22, of Rockford, Ill., as he appeared before a judge.  —  CHICAGO — A man has been arrested by federal agents …

AP to bloggers: Stop maligning our stringers, chickenhawks  —  Another volley from Kathleen Carroll, the executive editor.  Last Friday, according to Times writer Tom Zeller, she told reporters it would be the height of foolishness to continue to engage the "mad blog rabble" (Zeller's words).

Foley panel: GOP didn't protect pages  —  WASHINGTON - The House ethics committee reported Friday that Republican lawmakers and aides failed to protect young male pages from former Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record)'s improper advances, concluding an investigation into a scandal …

A True American Hero  —  Jeane Kirkpatrick, 1926-2006.  —  When I first met Jeane Kirkpatrick in 1972, she was an academic political scientist mainly interested in domestic politics.  She was also a Democrat and a close associate of Hubert Humphrey who, both as a senator …

President slips to all-time low in the Zogby Poll as key demographic groups jump ship  —  The national job approval rating of President Bush has plummeted to 30%, an all-time low in the latest Zogby International telephone poll, sinking below the 31% approval rating he dropped to in early June.

GOP Senator: Iraq War "May Be Criminal"  —  It's the kind of thing you'd expect to hear on Pacifica Radio, not in a speech by a Republican senator.  —  "I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way …

Bush Reaction to Report Worries Father's Aides  —  Former White House advisers to George H.W. Bush are keenly disappointed and concerned about the current President Bush's initial reaction to the report by the Iraq Study Group.  —  They consider him rather dismissive of the group's conclusions …

Hey, Rosie O'Donnell: Did you teach your kids to speak "ching chong," too?  —  Typical Hollywood liberal: She's the first and loudest to accuse others of bigotry—pausing only to take a breath before practicing it herself.  Click to watch the video of Rosie O'Donnell on The View …

Condoms 'too big' for Indian men  —  A survey of more than 1,000 men in India has concluded that condoms made according to international sizes are too large for a majority of Indian men.  —  The study found that more than half of the men measured had penises that were shorter than international standards for condoms.

It's a Cheney!  —  My only regret about Mary Cheney's pregnancy is that it didn't happen earlier — say, during the 2004 presidential race, when Cheney was working for her father's campaign and his running mate was busy trying to write discrimination against people like her into the Constitution.

Defense secretary laments Abu Ghraib in farewell  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaving office, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld bade a sometimes emotional farewell Friday, saying the single worst day of his nearly six years there was when he learned of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse in Iraq.

Sherrod Brown: First We Go After Big Pharma  —  WASHINGTON DISPATCH: The senator-elect from Ohio weighs in on drug-pricing reform, Iraq, the '08 campaign, and (oh yeah, that!) trade.  —  Fresh from victory in Ohio's knock-down drag-out Senate race, Sherrod Brown is happily preparing to exit …