GOP Candidates Spar Over Conservatisim  —  Florida Debate Centers on Direction of GOP and Hillary Clinton  —  After two weeks of sparring at a distance out on the campaign trail, the Republican presidential hopefuls gathered in Florida for their most heated and intense debate of the year.

Resistance is Futile  —  October 22, 2007  —  Resistance is futile: You will be (mis)informed.  —  A gulf.  —  A gap.  —  A chasm.  —  A parallel universe.  —  All describe the bizarro-world contrast between what most Americans seem to think is happening in Iraq versus what is really happening in Iraq.

Finally Telling My Story  —  I'm Valerie Plame Wilson and I'm excited to be here and blog about my book Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House, which goes on sale Monday, Oct 22.  When my publisher sent me the finished copy earlier this week, it was thrilling.

What NASA Won't Tell You  —  NASA commissioned a study of aviation safety through thousands of interviews with the people with a bird's-eye view of the industry — the pilots.  After conducting telephone interviews with 24,000 commercial and general aviation pilots from 2001 to 2005 …

Iraq and Turkey See Tensions Rise After Ambush  —  A brazen ambush by Kurdish militants that left at least 12 Turkish soldiers dead touched off a major escalation in Turkey-Iraq tensions on Sunday, bringing fears that Turkey would retaliate immediately by sending troops across the border into Iraq.

Bloggers Without Borders...  Syria is a beautiful country- at least I think it is.  I say "I think" because while I perceive it to be beautiful, I sometimes wonder if I mistake safety, security and normalcy for 'beauty'.  In so many ways, Damascus is like Baghdad before the war- bustling streets …

Key Clinton Backer Rips Giuliani's Personal Life  —  Rep. Charles Rangel Apparently Refers to Giuliani as a 'Cheating Goddamn Husband'  —  Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., the dean of the New York congressional delegation, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, longtime political booster …

Low Road to Splitsville  —  Right-Wing Publisher's Breakup Is Super-Rich In Tawdry Details  —  Looking for a perfect little weekend vacation this fall?  Here's a travel tip you don't hear very often: Head to Pittsburgh.  Right away.  —  Seriously, get in the car and read this story later …

Ain't That America  —  Think of America's greatest historical shames.  Most have involved the singling out of groups of people for abuse.  Name a distinguishing feature — skin color, religion, nationality, language — and it's likely that people here have suffered unjustly for it …

Mortgage Security Bondholders Facing a Cutoff of Interest Payments  —  For all the pain in the mortgage market, investors who hold bonds backed by risky home loans have continued to receive their monthly interest payments — until now.  —  Collateralized debt obligations …

At the Poles, Melting Occurring at Alarming Rate  —  For scientists, global warming is a disaster movie, its opening scenes set at the poles of Earth.  The epic already has started.  And it's not fiction.  —  The scenes are playing, at the start, in slow motion: The relentless grip …

Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web  —  Several major research libraries have rebuffed offers from Google and Microsoft to scan their books into computer databases, saying they are put off by restrictions these companies want to place on the new digital collections.

IT'S THE COVERUP THAT KILLS YOU, PART 3  —  It's been another week without word from the New Republic on the status of its "investigation" into the columns of TNR Baghdad Diarist Scott Thomas Beauchamp.  "The editors" have not spoken on the matter since their August 10 update.