] The Foreign Office was thrown into turmoil yesterday
] after the British ambassador to Rome, Sir Ivor Roberts,
] described President George Bush as "the best recruiting
] sergeant ever for al-Qaida".

Guardian Unlimited | US elections 2004 | Al-Qaida would back Bush, says UK envoy

] During the program, a rambling sermon by Swaggart who is
] trying to rehabilitate himself after an arrest for
] soliciting a prostitute, the televangelist turned to the
] subject of gay marriage.
]
] According to a transcript of the program, Swaggart said:
] "I'm trying to find the correct name for it ... this
] utter absolute, asinine, idiotic stupidity of men
] marrying men. ... I've never seen a man in my life I
] wanted to marry. And I'm gonna be blunt and plain; if one
] ever looks at me like that, I'm gonna kill him and tell
] God he died."

Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart Threatens To Kill Gays

] PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee
] said Monday he plans to support his
] party in November but may write in a candidate instead of
] voting for President Bush.

Yahoo! News - GOP Sen. Won't Commit to Voting for Bush

] NEW YORK - Staking out new ground on Iraq,
] Sen. John Kerry suggested
] Monday that he would not have overthrown Saddam Hussein
] (news - web sites) had he known what he knows now, and
] accused President Bush (news - web sites) of "stubborn
] incompetence," dishonesty and colossal failures of
] judgment. Bush said Kerry was flip-flopping.

Yahoo! News - Kerry Says He Wouldn't Have Ousted Saddam

] Figuring out what the future holds for workers in his
] predicament -- and those who are about to be -- is key to
] understanding a historic shift in the U.S. workforce, a
] shift that has been changing the rules for a crucial part
] of the middle class.
]
] This transformation is no longer just about factory
] workers, whose ranks have declined by 5 million in the
] past 25 years as manufacturing moved to countries with
] cheaper labor. All kinds of jobs that pay in the middle
] range -- Clark's $17 an hour, or about $35,000 a year,
] was smack in the center -- are vanishing, including
] computer-code crunchers, produce managers, call-center
] operators, travel agents and office clerks.

As Income Gap Widens, Uncertainty Spreads (washingtonpost.com)

] It is a vacuum that the Justice Department, under John
] Ashcroft, has moved quickly to fill. As 2007 approaches
] and liberal activists cautiously explore their options,
] conservatives -- including those in the Justice
] Department -- are using the traditional language of
] voting rights to recast the issues, invariably in ways
] that help Republican candidates. The results of this
] quiet rightward revolution within the Justice Department
] may be apparent as soon as the November election.

The New Yorker: Fact

] QUITO : Ecuador will not submit to mediation in New York
] as proposed by US oil giant Texaco, from which indigenous
] people here are seeking billions of dollars in damages
] for alleged environmental harm to their land, the South
] American country's top law enforcement officer said.

My brother (with his Ecuadoran wife) lives in Ecuador.

Channelnewsasia.com

] When questions arose about Mr. Bush's Guard service, the
] White House asked a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel,
] Albert C. Lloyd Jr., to review his record. In a
] memorandum released by the White House in February, Mr.
] Lloyd wrote that from May 1973 through May 1974, Mr. Bush
] accumulated 35 training points and 15 points for being a
] Guard member "for a total of 56 points.'' It is not clear
] how Mr. Lloyd came up with 56, instead of 50. Another
] military document released by the White House indicates
] that Mr. Bush had earned only 38 points from May 1973
] until his discharge that October.
]
] A retired Army colonel, Gerald A. Lechliter, who has
] prepared an extensive analysis of Mr. Bush's National
] Guard record, described Mr. Lloyd's memorandum as
] "seemingly an attempt to whitewash Bush's record." Mr.
] Lloyd declined comment last week.
]
] Mr. Lechliter, who describes himself as a political
] independent, also said that Mr. Bush was not entitled to
] 20 credits he received from Nov. 13, 1972, until July 19,
] 1973, because the service was being made up improperly.

Military Service: Portrait of George Bush in '72: Unanchored in Turbulent Time

] WASHINGTON - A judge has struck down more than a dozen of
] the government's current rules on political fund raising
] with just weeks before Election Day, concluding federal
] regulators improperly weakened the nation's campaign
] finance law.
]
] U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ordered the
] Federal Election Commission (news - web sites) to write
] new rules to govern key aspects of fund raising,
] including when candidates and outside parties can
] coordinate activities.

Love her or hate her, the Microsoft Settlement judge strikes again.

Yahoo! News - Judge Strikes Down Campaign Finance Rules

Sort of a leftwing equivalent to the rightwing drudge report.

The Raw Story | Liberal news with an edge