captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions lehrer: good evening. i m jim lehrer. on the newshour this wednesday: the lead story: off-year politics as republicans win the governors races in new jersey and virginia. gwen ifill has the results, and judy woodruff does the analysis. then, after the other news of the day: two takes on afghanistan; a report on the shootings of five british soldiers; and a margaret warner interview with president karzai s rival, abdullah abdullah who talks about karzai and fraud. then, jeffrey brown explores provocative talk on t.v. and radio, and its impact on today s politics. yelling, screaming insulting, not always checking his facts, and i say what else is new. the rhetoric becomes more shrill, more strident. it bye-byes hysterical and hyperbolic. lehrer: and ray suarez looks at the guilty verdicts in italy for 23 americans in the c.i.a. renditions case. major funding for the newshour with jim lehrer is provided by: what the