Bush Wants Fast Vetting on Judges. President Bush proposed a plan to speed Senate confirmation of his judicial nominees. By Elisabeth Bumiller. [New York Times: Politics]
Democrats said they had confirmed 80 of the president’s nominees. As of this week, there are 79 vacancies out of 849 federal judgeships, or 9 percent. While Mr. Bush blamed the Senate, Democrats said today that the White House and Republicans were also to blame. Ralph Neas, the president of People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group that has opposed Mr. Bush’s conservative nominees, said 26 of the vacancies were the result of the White House not yet naming a nominee. An additional 17 or 18 vacancies, Mr. Neas said, were the result of nominees who had cleared the Judiciary Committee but had run into objections from Republican senators.

MS Tablet suits Corridor Warriors, Canteen Commandos.  “Just because Bill says something should be done one way, that doesn’t mean it’s set down on stone, uh… tablets.” [The Register]

Beautiful Case Modding. Miles S.F. writes “Thought you guys might appreciate this little project I’ve been working on. This is what happens when the left and right brain get bored and … [Slashdot]

Workstation makers switch off Intel tool. Intel’s hyperthreading, a performance-enhancing technology that lets one chip act something like two, has been available on workstations since April. So far it’s mostly been taking a nap. [CNET News.com]

Russia: Dial ‘H’ for Hostage. A Russian dancer held captive in the recent standoff with Chechen rebels uses his cell phone to post a message to the world. Neither his captors nor government censors can stop him. Sergey Kuznetsov reports from Moscow. [Wired News]

Sergeant Major Brian Pratt: “If anyone’s found my tank, please give us a bell” [BBC News]

Canada Cautions Some on U.S. Travel [Washington Post]

PalmOS 6 details emerge. Be-atified, biometric, .NET friendly [The Register]

How the left became irrelevant. Christopher Hitchens talks about his beef with the Nation, the “filthy menace” of Saddam Hussein, and how the left ceded its moral credibility by opposing the war against Islamic fascism. [Salon.com]

Microsoft’s media monopoly. Bill Gates wants to control the delivery of digital entertainment into your home. And according to a lawsuit brought by a pioneering software company, he’s prepared to crush anything that gets in his way. First of two parts. [Salon.com]