Voters unhappy with Bush and Congress  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Deepening unhappiness with President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress soured the mood of Americans and sent Bush's approval rating to another record low this month, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

Hmmm ...  It hasn't gotten much attention outside of the Boston suburbs and truly hardcore political junkies.  But there was a congressional election today.  The topline is that the Democrat, Nikki Tsongas, wife of the late Massachusetts senator and presidential candidate Paul Tsongas, won.

Birth-Control Foe To Run Office on Family Planning  —  The Bush administration again has appointed a chief of family planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who has been critical of contraception.  —  Susan Orr, most recently an associate commissioner in the Administration …

Turkey Authorizes Military Operation in Iraq  —  Parliament Votes to Allow Strike Against Kurdish Separatist Rebels  —  The Turkish parliament Wednesday authorized cross-border military operations into northern Iraq to combat Kurdish separatist rebels as world leaders implored Turkey to delay any action.

McKinney registers in Calif., where some want to nominate her  —  Former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has registered to vote in California, where some want her to run for president as a Green Party candidate.  —  McKinney posted a letter on her Web site last month saying she has no interest in the Green Party nomination.

Syrian officials admit site attacked by Israel nuclear  —  Israeli reps at UN Disarmament Commission meeting overhear Syrian official say facility targeted by Air Force last month nuclear  —  Syrian officials have admitted that the site attacked by the Israeli air force last month was a nuclear facility …

Sen. Larry Craig's interview with Matt Lauer  —  Idaho senator regrets guilty plea, blasts Romney in exclusive NBC interview  —  TRANSCRIPT  —  Larry Craig: I liken it to we're in the middle of hurricane season.  And we were.  And there were no hurricanes.  I became the political hurricane that everybody wanted to talk about.

Many GOP Donors Yet to Open Wallets  —  More than a third of the top fundraisers who helped elect George W. Bush president remain on the sidelines in 2008, contributing to a gaping financial disparity between the GOP candidates and their Democratic counterparts.

techPresident Launches 10Questions.com  —  Dear techPresident readers and friends:  —  We're excited to announce the launch of 10Questions.com, a new kind of online presidential forum, one that aims to make the most of what the internet has to offer to politics.

Timing of gifts stirs 'earmark' debate  —  WASHINGTON — Days after a Senate committee approved $1 million for a Woodstock concert museum, the project's Republican billionaire backer and his family contributed $29,200 to help the Democrats who requested the money, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer.

Rudy Roughs Up Arabs  —  Now comes "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week."  —  David Horowitz's conservative Freedom Center has designated next week the time to "break through the barrier of politically correct doublespeak that prevails on American campuses, if you want to help our brave troops, who are fighting the Islamo-Fascists abroad."

Democratic Iowa Caucus  —  Iowa Caucus: Clinton 33% Edwards 22% Obama 21%  —  The first Rasmussen Reports poll of the Iowa Democratic Caucus for 2008 finds Senator Hillary Clinton on top with support from 33% of Likely Caucus Participants.  Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards …

TERROR LAWYER SAYS SHE'D 'DO IT AGAIN'  —  Disbarred terror lawyer Lynne Stewart held court at Hofstra yesterday - unrepentant about the help she gave to a World Trade Center bombing conspirator.  —  Stewart was convicted in 2005 of smuggling secret messages out of prison for Islamic terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman.

Africans are less intelligent than Westerners, says DNA pioneer  —  Fury at James Watson's theory: "All our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really"  —  One of the world's most eminent scientists was embroiled …

Watching Larry Craig  —  I forced myself.  It was excruciating.  Beyond embarrassing.  Extraordinarily painful - especially for his wife.  Why on earth they decided to subject themselves to prolonging this agony is a question worth asking.  And the answer, I think, is: they have to.

Specter: No Retroactive Immunity for Telecoms  —  As the ACLU worries that Senate Democrats in the intelligence committee will give retroactive immunity to telephone companies for collaborating with the administration's warrantless surveillance program, the two senior members of the judiciary committee …