Thompson Adviser Has Criminal Past  —  Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson has been crisscrossing the country since early this summer on a private jet lent to him by a businessman and close adviser who has a criminal record for drug dealing.  —  Thompson selected the businessman …

Pakistani Declares State of Emergency  —  The Pakistani leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, declared a state of emergency on Saturday night, suspending the country's Constitution, firing the chief justice of the Supreme Court and filling the streets of this capital city with police officers.

New Detainee Rights Weighed in Plans to Close Guantánamo  —  Administration officials are considering granting Guantánamo detainees substantially greater rights as part of an effort to close the detention center and possibly move much of its population to the United States …

Beyond Those Health Care Numbers  —  WITH the health care system at the center of the political debate, a lot of scary claims are being thrown around.  The dangerous ones are not those that are false; watchdogs in the news media are quick to debunk them.  Rather, the dangerous ones …

ALL-TIME WINGNUTTIEST BLOG POST CONTEST....While the rest of the blogosphere concerns itself with the worthy task of choosing the all-time best blog posts, I'm keeping my focus where it belongs: on the all-time worst blog posts.  And thanks to help from my commenters, plus commenters over at FDL …

FRED THOMPSON VS. THE UN'S ANTI-SELF-DEFENSE CAMPAIGN Earlier this week, Sen. Fred Thompson wrote to Field & Stream magazine, criticizing the UN's campaign against the human right of self-defense.  The Thompson campaign touted the letter on its website, and the letter got a favorable reception among many pro-Second Amendment bloggers.

In Bloggo Gravitas: BriWi On SNL, In His Own Words  —  Good Lord, Brian Williams is everywhere these days, pre-SNL — talking to the NYDN about how he won't be singing "Dick In A Box"; admitting butterflies to the AP; declaring to the Hollywood Reporter that the show must go on …

Noun + Verb + 9/11 + Iran = Democrats' Defeat?  —  WHEN President Bush started making noises about World War III, he only confirmed what has been a Democratic article of faith all year: Between now and Election Day he and Dick Cheney, cheered on by the mob of neocon dead-enders, are going to bomb Iran.

Devices Enforce Cellular Silence, Sweet but Illegal  —  One afternoon in early September, an architect boarded his commuter train and became a cellphone vigilante.  He sat down next to a 20-something woman who he said was "blabbing away" into her phone.  —  "She was using the word 'like' all the time.

Even Cut 50 Percent, Earmarks Clog a Military Bill  —  Even though members of Congress cut back their pork barrel spending this year, House lawmakers still tacked on to the military appropriations bill $1.8 billion to pay 580 private companies for projects the Pentagon did not request.

Reconcilable Differences  —  The Iraqi parliament behaves like a bunch of politicians.  —  How much does it matter that the Iraqi parliament has not yet passed an oil law?  According to war critics, it is the only thing that matters: Iraqis' failure to complete "reconciliation" by passing …

Excellent Story Shows Benefits of Tax Havens  —  Reporting from London, The Business notes that so-called tax havens are among the world's richest jurisdictions.  But rather than emulating success, high-tax nations attack these free-market outposts — with the Paris-based Organization …