Cables Shine Light Into Secret Diplomatic Channels  —  WASHINGTON — A cache of a quarter-million confidential American diplomatic cables, most of them from the past three years, provides an unprecedented look at backroom bargaining by embassies around the world, brutally candid views …

McCain wants ‘regime change’ in North Korea  —  Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is calling for “regime change” in North Korea - and blames the recent crisis on the failings of Pyongyang's lone international supporter, China.  —  “It's time we talked about regime change in North Korea …

A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web  —  SHOPPING online in late July, Clarabelle Rodriguez typed the name of her favorite eyeglass brand into Google's search bar.  —  In moments, she found the perfect frames — made by a French company called Lafont — on a Web site that looked snazzy and stood at the top of the search results.

Still the Best Congress Money Can Buy  —  SO America's latest crisis — until it wasn't — was airport screeners touching our junk.  As this long year lurches toward its end, we all agree that something has gone wrong in America, and we're desperately casting about for a coherent explanation for our discontent, if not a scapegoat.

BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL  —  Politically correct Portland rejected feds who saved city from terrorist attack  —  In 2005, leaders in Portland, Oregon, angry at the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror, voted not to allow city law enforcement officers to participate in a key anti-terror initiative …

Democratic South finally falls  —  For Democrats in the South, the most ominous part of a disastrous year may not be what happened on Election Day but what has happened in the weeks since.  —  After suffering a historic rout — in which nearly every white Deep South Democrat in the U.S. House …

Why the TSA pat-downs and body scans are unconstitutional  —  The protest on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving was called National Opt-Out Day, and its organizers urged air travelers to refuse the Transportation Security Administration's full-body scanning machines.  —  But many appeared to have opted out of opting out.

Despite Alaska Senate race results, Joe Miller presses on in principle  —  Much of America may have moved on, but Joe Miller has not.  More than a week after the last vote was counted in Alaska's closely watched U.S. Senate race, the Republican nominee continues to press his case in court …

Our puritanical progressives  —  An eminent Harvard law professor, James Thayer (1831-1902), argued that although the judicial function is “merely that of fixing the outside border of reasonable legislative action,” this still gives courts “a great and stately jurisdiction.”

BRODER BEING BRODER.... A week ago, David Broder mentioned in his Washington Post column that, in the post-midterm environment, there hasn't been any hint of Republicans' “willingness to compromise.”  I was glad to see him notice.  —  But those insights didn't last.

Ex-Justice Criticizes Death Penalty  —  WASHINGTON — In 1976, just six months after he joined the Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens voted to reinstate capital punishment after a four-year moratorium.  With the right procedures, he wrote, it is possible to ensure “evenhanded …

A G.O.P. Chairman Seeks New Power for U.S. Watchdogs  —  WASHINGTON — The Republican who will lead the chief investigative committee in the House is planning to vastly expand scrutiny of the Obama administration by seeking new subpoena powers for dozens of federal agency watchdogs in hopes …

A Glossy Approach to Inciting Terrorism  —  Al Qaeda's edgy new online magazine is raising alarms by trying to recruit alienated American Muslims  —  The November special issue of Inspire, a slick new English-language Web magazine produced by Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, aims to do more than report the news.

Ictu questions bailout terms  —  The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) has said that the country cannot afford to pay the terms of the proposed €85 billion EU/IMF bailout package.  —  Addressing the large-scale rally against the Government's planed austerity measures in Dublin today …

An Almanac of Extreme Weather  —  THE news from this Midwestern farm is not good.  The past four years of heavy rains and flash flooding here in southern Minnesota have left me worried about the future of agriculture in America's grain belt.  For some time computer models of climate change …

START puts Lugar on the spot  —  One was the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; the other, new to Washington, was a Democrat who had spent his political career in the Illinois state Senate and had no experience in arms control or foreign policy.