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 …

Partners In the War On Terror  —  Telecommunications Firms And the Senate's FISA Bill  —  In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, the Bush administration had a choice: Aggressively pursue potential terrorists using existing laws or devise new, secret intelligence programs in uncharted legal waters.

Mukasey Calls Harsh Interrogation 'Repugnant'  —  In an effort to quell growing doubts in the Senate about his nomination as attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey declared Tuesday that waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques "seem over the line or, on a personal basis …

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.