Tough Choices...

Election Day is just two weeks away! What are YOU doing to get out the vote?!

International:
Iraq urges coalition not to panic, run
Coalition troops must stay in Iraq and not give way to defeatism or panic in the face of hostile public opinion, Iraq's deputy prime minister said after meeting British leaders yesterday. Iraqi forces will increasingly take over responsibility for the country's stability from coalition troops, said Barham Saleh, an influential Kurd with long ties to the United States and Britain.

He urged officials to ignore an increasingly pessimistic tone in the debate over Iraq's future. "I do believe there is no option for the international community to cut and run," Mr. Saleh said after talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair. "We need to understand that there is a need of utmost urgency to deal with many of the problems of Iraq, but we must not give in to panic."

US, Iraq Work on Timeline, But Some Say It Won't Help
The U.S. ambassador in Baghdad said Tuesday Iraqi officials are committed to a timeline for making key decisions that will determine the country's future. His statement comes amid increasing pressure for progress in Iraq with rising violence in the final weeks of the U.S. congressional election campaign. But U.S. officials acknowledge the situation is difficult, and some analysts say it may not be possible to create the stable democracy the Bush administration wants to see in Iraq. Read the story here

Kidnapped AP Photographer Released in Gaza
An Associated Press photographer was released unharmed late Tuesday after a harrowing day in the hands of Palestinian gunmen who abducted him in Gaza and dressed him in women's clothes before transporting him from one secret location to another. Full story here.

National:
Snow Falsely Claims Bush Said ‘Stay The Course’ Only 8 Times (Actually, It’s At Least 30)
On Sunday, President Bush told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that his Iraq policy has “never been stay the course.” (Today, Rumsfeld disagreed, calling suggestions they were backing away from the phrase “nonsense.” –see below)

Tuesday on Fox News, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said “we went back and looked today and could only find eight times where he [Bush] ever used the phrase stay the course. And as the Whitehouse backs away from the terminology…

Rumsfeld Agrees Bush Is ‘Not Backing Away From Staying The Course’
Faced with widespread disappoval of its Iraq policy, the Bush administration launched a coordinated effort this week to convince Americans it has never had a stay-the-course strategy in Iraq. On Sunday, President Bush said, “We’ve never been stay the course.” White House Counselor Dan Bartlett disavowed the label again yesterday.

But in a radio interview today with Sean Hannity, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirmed that the Bush administration isn’t planning to shift its strategy. Rumsfeld called media reports about Bush’s reversal “nonsense,” and said “of course” Bush is “not backing away from staying the course.” CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Bush Advisers Fuel Talk Radio Blitz
President Bush's political top gun Karl Rove gushes with optimism about Election Day. National security adviser Stephen Hadley says the Iraqis need to do more to secure their nation - and do it faster. Presidential confidant Dan Bartlett takes a few verbal punches at Democrats.

It was "Radio Day" at the White House where more than 30 talk show hosts were invited to set up shop in a heated white tent on the North Lawn to quiz senior administration officials. Beginning at 5:30 a.m., the broadcasters chatted live about everything from Iraq to homeland security to the Nov. 7 elections.

Rove predicted the Republicans would retain control of Congress, discounting polls that show the Democrats threatening to take over. "You heard it here first," Rove declared in his interview with Fox News Radio.

In Other News:
The House ethics committee "spent more than six hours Monday grilling" Scott Palmer, "Hastert's chief of staff for more than 20 years." Kirk Fordham, Foley's former chief of staff, said he alerted Palmer several years ago to his concerns about Foley's friendships with pages." The FBI and Justice Department appear to be expanding their probe into the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal in hopes of nabbing another member of Congress and aides, U.S. News reports.

House International Relations Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL) has written a letter to Donald Rumsfeld
"that the U.S.-supported poppy eradication program in Afghanistan is a failure," and that "record opium poppy harvests show efforts to target farmers are not working."

Wyoming Libertarian congressional candidate Thomas Rankin said Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-WY) threatened to slap him after a televised debate. "Barbara walked over to me and said, 'If you weren't sitting in that chair, I'd slap you across the face.' That's quote-unquote," Rankin said.
Rankin has multiple sclerosis and uses an electric wheelchair.

And Finally, a new liberal radio network is formed. The co-founders of Air America Radio have formed a new liberal talk radio network that promises to promote freedom and social justice. That's according to the new company's CEO, Mike Newcomb, who says Nova M Radio, a Phoenix-based network formed by Air America co-founders Anita and Sheldon Drobny, will make its first broadcast on Oct. 30th. More here

From The Right:
Thomas Sowell: A blank check from America?
Media pundits have just about given this year's election to the Democrats -- at least in the House of Representatives and perhaps in the Senate as well. They might even be right, for a change.

From The Left:
Keith Olbermann: Advertising Terrorism
"Mr. President, you, and that advertisement of terror, are full of sound and fury - signifying (and competent at) nothing," writes Keith Olbermann. "Eleven Presidents ago, a chief executive reassured us that 'we have nothing to fear but fear itself.' His distant successor has wasted his administration insisting that there is nothing we can have but fear itself."

Thought To Ponder:
Although independent investigations began within weeks of both Pearl Harbor and the Kennedy assassination, the same was not true of the attacks of September 11th. Most are unaware that formation of the 9/11 Commission was strongly opposed by many in Washington, including the Bush administration. It was only due to pressure from the 9/11 families, led by a particular twelve calling themselves the Family Steering Committee, that, fourteen months after the attacks, the first hearing finally began. These twelve remained active in monitoring the Commission’s investigation, providing a list of hundreds of specific, well-researched questions to the Commissioners. In the end, the Final Report failed to answer seventy percent of them.

(Sources: TownHall, TruthOut, 911PressForTruth, FOXNews, Center For American Progress, PoliticalCartoons.com, Boston Globe, USAToday, USNews, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, ABCNews, AP, VoiceOfAmerica, WashingtonTimes)