Bremer's comments were striking because they echoed contentions of many administration critics, including Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, who argue that the U.S. government failed to plan adequately to maintain security in Iraq after the invasion. Bremer has generally defended the U.S. approach in Iraq but in recent weeks has begun to criticize the administration for tactical and policy shortfalls.

Bremer Criticizes Troop Levels (washingtonpost.com)

] The Accenture episode is emblematic of the way business
] is conducted in the 108th Congress, where a Republican
] leadership has sidelined legislation unwanted by the Bush
] administration, even when a majority of the House seemed
] ready to approve it, according to lawmakers, lobbyists,
] and an analysis of House activities. With one party
] controlling the White House and both chambers of
] Congress, and having little fear of retaliation by the
] opposing party, the House leadership is changing the way
] laws are made in America, favoring secrecy and speed over
] open debate and negotiation. Longstanding rules and
] practices are ignored. Committees more often meet in
] secret. Members are less able to make changes to
] legislation on the House floor. Bills come up for votes
] so quickly that elected officials frequently don't know
] what's in them. And there is less time to discuss
] proposed laws before they come up for a vote.

Boston.com / News / Nation / Back-room dealing a Capitol trend

] For all their efforts to prepare the candidates for the
] debates, the campaigns have been just as determined to
] mount energetic efforts on another front: to influence
] the press, and public, perceptions of the encounter
] before they take hold across cable and network news,
] newspapers, the Internet and late-night comedy shows. It
] is an especially daunting task, considering that
] journalists try to be beyond such persuasion, partisan
] bloggers approach their writing with a hardened point of
] view, and comedians seek to pounce on whatever will get
] the most laughs.

The New York Times -- Shaping Reactions: The Post-Debate Contest: Swaying Perceptions

] A study showing the link between country music and
] suicide has taken one of the top prizes in this year's
] Ig-Nobel awards - the humorous alternative to the Nobel
] prizes.
]
] Other winners include the inventor of the karaoke
] machine, the man who patented the "comb-over" for
] covering the head of bald men and a student who
] investigated the danger of eating food that has fallen on
] the floor. The 10 winners of the 2004 Ig-Nobel prizes -
] which celebrate the bizarre, weird, funny and improbable
] elements of genuine scientific inquiry - received their
] awards last night at a ceremony at Harvard University in
] Boston.

Strange but true: country music saps will to live

] According to the Sun, Tony Wright who has had several
] strokes, woke up with memory loss one day and hardly
] recognised his wife who had gained weight from a size 12
] to a size 20 in the past couple of years.
]
] "I can't remember her gaining weight. I think of her as
] slim like when we met. I wondered what the heck was going
] on. I thought, 'My God, she has got fatter all of a
] sudden'.

Amnesic man forgets wife is fat : HTTabloid.com

"One night out...to have some fun. Out on the town...on October Thirty-One. The time is right...Halloween night. Ghouls and ghosts...A GRIM RAPPER'S DELIGHT!"

The Grim Rapper

"Lennon was planning a national concert tour through the United States to urge young people to vote," Wiener said. "Nixon got wind of this and ordered Lennon deported so he couldn't do this concert tour."

Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.com

] The New Zealand deer pizzle trade is facing its stiffest
] test - the growing use of a Viagra substitute by Chinese
] men.
]
] About 200,000 of the deer penises, complete with
] testicles, are sent to China from New Zealand each year.
]
] "For a long time men believed that the larger the pizzle,
] the stronger their own would be," says Murray Hamer,
] Oriental trade manager for the Alpine Deer Group, based
] in Wanaka.
]
] But the market, mainly in the north of China, is
] gradually reducing. "The belief in the sexual vigour of
] pizzles is slowly dying out. Modern Chinese men believe
] they don't work. They have turned to the Chinese version
] of Viagra and are getting results."

Pizzle fizzles as China opts for sex drugs

] From executive-distracting ROI calculators to a naked
] Windows, here's our dream to-do list for Microsoft's
] developers.

Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine Online | Column: Products We Wish Microsoft Would Deliver

The uncertainty as the term begins derives not from a particular case but from the calendar. It has been more than 10 years since a justice retired, making this the longest-serving Supreme Court since the 1820's. And with institutional longevity, of course, comes age: Justice David H. Souter's 65th birthday last month left Justice Clarence Thomas, 56, the only member of the court who is under 65.

The New York Times -- Supreme Court Roundup: Sentencing Tops Justices' Agenda as Term Begins