A Pitched Debate: Clinton Hears It From Her Rivals  —  Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York came under withering attack from the rest of the Democratic presidential field last night in a pitched two-hour debate that her opponents used to challenge her candor and electability and to portray …

Cross-dressing state lawmaker blackmailed following late night tryst  —  SPOKANE — State Representative Richard Curtis says he's not gay, but police reports and court records indicate the Republican lawmaker from southwestern Washington dressed up in women's lingerie and met a Medical Lake man …

Mukasey Losing Democrats' Backing  —  Nominee Unsure If Waterboarding Breaks Torture Law  —  Attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey told Senate Democrats yesterday that a kind of simulated drowning known as waterboarding is "repugnant to me," but he said he does not know whether …

Surveillance Sanity  —  Companies that help protect the U.S. against attack deserve immunity from frivolous lawsuits.  —  Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to target al Qaeda communications into and out of the country.

UFOs and Alien Life  —  In the weird last minutes of the debate (the period, by the way, when The Fix made it onto the basketball court in high school) Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) gave us a highlight.  —  Asked about the statement by actress Shirley MacLaine that Kucinich had seen a UFO at her house, Kucinich said that he had.

Tax law: Are you eating those pumpkins?  —  DES MOINES, Iowa - The Iowa Department of Revenue is taxing jack-o'-lanterns this Halloween.  The new department policy was implemented after officials decided that pumpkins are used primarily for Halloween decorations, not food, and should be taxed …

Supreme Court Stays Execution in a Sign of a Broader Halt  —  Moments before a Mississippi prisoner was scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening, the Supreme Court granted him a stay of execution and thus gave a nearly indisputable indication that a majority intends to block …

Post-Islamism  —  The future of Islamic reform lies with post-Islamism - a recognition that politics rather than religion provides for welfare in this life.  —  There is universal consensus that Muslim dictatorships, supported by the west, are the root of evil.

Live Debate Blogging  —  Diplomacy, diplomacy and also diplomacy.  Did I mention diplomacy?  —  9:25 PM ... Hillary "I will do everything I can" to prevent from Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.  Good answer.  —  9:26 PM ... Obama: We cannot act as if we are the weakest nation in the world when we are the strongest.

Yemen's Truce with al Qaeda  —  Who will be the next victims?  —  THE AMERICAN ATTEMPTS to rehabilitate the Yemeni regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh have not succeeded.  Yemeni authorities recently pardoned Jamal Al-Badawi, convicted mastermind of the 2000 USS Cole bombing.

Judge Who Lost Pant Suit Loses Job  —  Roy L. Pearson Jr., the administrative law judge who lost his $54 million lawsuit against a Northeast Washington dry cleaner, lost his job yesterday and was ordered to vacate his office, sources said.  —  Pearson, 57, who had served as a judge for two years …