Poll Index  —  Voting for The 2007 Weblog Awards is now open.  This is the master list of voting links that you can use this to navigate to the voting booths for each of the 49 categories.  You can vote once a day in each category.  Polls close November 8, 2007.  —  General Categories  —  Best Blog

Undecided Schumer May Be Key to Mukasey's Chances  —  Judiciary Chairman Endorsed Justice Nominee but Says He, Like Other Democrats, Is Concerned About Torture Question  —  As Democratic opposition builds over attorney general nominee Michael B. Mukasey, no Democratic lawmaker has found himself …

Democrats & Torture  —  As I discussed in this article a few days ago, Judge Mukasey seems to be the only person required by Democrats to call for a categorical ban on all coercive interrogation tactics.  —  This morning, both Rich and the Wall Street Journal recount these comments by Sen. Chuck Schumer in 2004:

The most influential US conservatives: 1-20  —  As the US prepares for what is arguably the most open presidential election since 1928, the last time there was no incumbent president or vice-president on the ballot, the Daily Telegraph's Washington correspondents compile a list of the 100 …

Prostates and Prejudices  —  "My chance of surviving prostate cancer — and thank God I was cured of it — in the United States?  Eighty-two percent," says Rudy Giuliani in a new radio ad attacking Democratic plans for universal health care.  "My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England?

Vetoing The Flood Of Pork  —  President Bush just added another resident to Vetoland, this resident being the water projects bill that got saturated with pork-barrel projects in conference.  Despite having enough votes to override his veto, Bush sent the bill back as a protest against its escalating earmarks:

'This Will Make Voter Fraud Easier'  —  Why does Mrs. Clinton want driver's licenses for illegal aliens?  —  Sen. Hillary Clinton was asked during a debate this week if she supported New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.

Poll: Thompson edging Romney for GOP lead in S.C.  —  Former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson holds a thin lead for the 2008 S.C. Republican presidential primary, a new poll shows, potentially setting up the Palmetto State as the not-Mitt-Romney firewall.  —  The Winthrop/ETV poll released Thursday …

Hillary Reveals Her Inner Self  —  It's startling.  It's still 1993 in there, the year before her fall.  —  The story isn't that the Democrats finally took on Hillary Clinton.  Nor is it that they were gentlemanly to the point of gingerly and tentative.  There was an air of "Please …

The war in Iraq has been won  —  THERE is a reason Iraq has almost disappeared as an election issue.  —  Here it is: The battle is actually over.  Iraq has been won.  —  I know this will seem to many of you an insane claim.  Ridiculous!  —  After all, haven't you read countless stories that Iraq is a …

Al Jazeera: U.S., not Israel, destroyed Syrian reactor — with tactical nuclear weapons; Update: Source was Islamic message board?  —  Too good bad freaky deaky to check. … I can't even find the story on AJ's website; we'll have to take JPost's word that it was there.

Even Harvard Finds The Media Biased  —  Journalism: The debate is over.  A consensus has been reached.  On global warming?  No, on how Democrats are favored on television, radio and in the newspapers.  —  Just like so many reports before it, a joint survey by the Project for Excellence …

Bush, Defending Justice Nominee, Sees Unfairness  —  Caught off guard by the fight over Michael B. Mukasey, the White House has begun a campaign to salvage his candidacy.

GOP turns ethics tables  —  Senate Republicans said Thursday they would invoke new ethics rules to block Democratic efforts to send to President Bush the first appropriations package of the 110th Congress.  —  Despite Republican grumbling, House and Senate negotiators on Thursday agreed …

Damsel in the Debate  —  My favorite photo of the week — maybe my favorite photo of the presidential campaign so far — showed Hillary Clinton, dukes up, in a pair of bright red boxing gloves.  It is iconic Hillary, unafraid to take on a fight.  Which is also why the almost anti-feminist subtext …

In Iraq, a Lull or Hopeful Trend?  —  Signs of Declining Violence Leave Residents, U.S. Commanders Cautious  —  From store clerks selling cigarettes by generator power, to military commanders poring over aerial maps, Iraqis and Americans are striving to understand the sharp decrease in violence …

The Real Hill-Bill Problem  —  WASHINGTON — Americans don't normally take much notice of Argentine elections.  But they did notice when Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, wife of President Nestor Kirchner, was elected to succeed him last Sunday, ensuring not just a co-presidency …

NSA Sought Data Before 9/11  —  Beginning in February 2001, almost seven months before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the government's top electronic eavesdropping organization, the National Security Agency, asked a major U.S. telecommunications carrier for information about its customers …