Why We Fight

International:
N. Korea agrees to rejoin talks
The U.S. and Chinese governments announced today that North Korea has agreed to rejoin six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, a surprise diplomatic breakthrough that comes just three weeks after the communist regime conducted its first-known atomic test. The agreement was struck in a day of unpublicized discussions between the senior envoys from the United States, China and North Korea at a government guesthouse in Beijing. The U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said the six-nation negotiations could resume as early as November or December. "We took a step today toward getting this process back on track. This process has suffered a lot in recent weeks by the actions the DPRK has made," Mr. Hill told reporters afterward. DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name. More here

U.S. Troops Obey Order to Abandon Checkpoints
U.S. military caught off guard by Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki's orders to abandon checkpoints in Baghdad, including those in Shiite stronghold of Sadr City; homicide bomber kills 11 in attack on Shiite wedding party in capital.

Al-Maliki's demand threatened to further upset relations between the U.S. and the Iraqi government, which hit a rough patch last week after Al-Maliki issued a string of bitter complaints, at one point saying he was not "America's man in Iraq."

Al-Maliki was apparently angered by a statement from U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad that the prime minister had agreed to set a timeline for progress on reaching security and political goals — something al-Maliki denied. Read the full article here

National:
The New War Room
The Pentagon is "buttressing its public relations staff and starting an operation akin to a political campaign war room as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld faces intensifying criticism over the Iraq war," the AP reports. A Defense Department memo explained that "new teams of people will 'develop messages' for the 24-hour news cycle and 'correct the record,'" while another branch will coordinate "surrogates" to do media appearances on behalf of the Pentagon. Rumsfeld has "complained bitterly that the press focuses too much attention on bad news coming out of Iraq," and "said he was deeply troubled by the success of terrorist groups in 'manipulating the media' to influence Westerners." The Pentagon did not provide the exact number of people to be hired

Hear Dick Speak?
In an interview with Fox News yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney said, "It's my belief that [Iraqi insurgents are] very sensitive of the fact that we've got an election scheduled." Cheney said the insurgents believe "they can break the will of the American people," and "that's what they're trying to do." Cheney's claim has no supporting evidence. President Bush has admitted this that there isn't "any intelligence" that suggests terrorists are trying to influence U.S. elections. Also, Maj. Douglas Powell, a military spokesman in Baghdad, told United Press International that there was no intelligence for the claim. While there is no reported intelligence for Iraqi insurgents trying to sway the current election, the CIA did conclude that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda tried to manipulate the 2004 elections with the release of a videotaped message. But the intelligence indicated that terrorists were trying to help Bush win re-election -- not aid his opponents. Media Matters, citing Ron Suskind's One Percent Doctrine, notes that CIA analysts concluded that bin Laden's message in the days before the Nov. 2004 contest "was clearly designed to assist the President's reelection."

See Dick Run?
RANGEL & VEEP IN ALL-OUT WAR: REP. RIPS 'S.O.B.' AFTER TAX ASSAULT
Cheney fired the first shot when he predicted that Rangel - who is poised to chair the powerful House Ways and Means Committee if the Democrats seize the House next week - wouldn't continue "a single one" of President Bush's tax cuts.

"I think that would be bad for the economy," Cheney said on CNBC News. "I don't know if the stock market would like it."

He then got in a major hit, saying on the Fox News Channel, "Charlie doesn't understand how the economy works."

Many of Bush's 2001 tax cuts are set to expire in 2011 - meaning rates would jump back up again, boosting taxes by well over $1 trillion, unless Congress acts to continue the cuts.

"So if a man like Charlie Rangel were to be chairman of the committee, and sitting there with the gavel, all he has to do is not act, just don't call up the legislation, and there'll be a big tax increase," Cheney said.

The vice president's stinging comments were the latest in a series of White House statements intended to raise fears about Rangel, as well as other prominent Democrats, as a way to convince voters to stop them from taking over the House. Contacted by The Post for a response, Rangel unloaded.

"He's such a real son of a bitch, he just enjoys a confrontation," Rangel fumed, describing himself as "warm and personable." Rangel said Cheney may need to go to "rehab" for "whatever personality deficit he may have suffered."

"When you have those sorts of problems, you're supposed to seek help," Rangel advised. "He ac- knowledged that he has problems with communication." Full article here.

In Other News…
"Growing numbers of American military officers have begun to privately question" the administration's resistance to redeploying U.S. troops out of Iraq. "There is a new belief that the biggest problem that we face is that our forces are the sand in the gears creating problems," said one former Pentagon official. "We are making things worse by giving the Iraqis a false sense of security at the governing level."

Not surprisingly, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), "which holds around two thirds of the world's oil reserves," claimed the UK government's recent report on the catastrophic economic effects of climate change has “no basis in science or economics."

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) said she was briefly denied access to a United Airlines flight last week because her name appeared on a "no fly list" set up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Previously, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) found that they had been ensnared by the trouble-ridden program.

A "spasm of violence" seized Baghdad on Monday. "Forty six Iraqis were killed in six bombings across the city," and the American toll for October "rose to 102, the highest since January 2005."

From The Right:
Michael Johnson: This Halloween, It?s The Left That?s Scared To Death
On this day devoted to the doings of the Dark Side, it seems apropos, somehow, to pause and reflect on those who have done so much to darken the spiritual landscape of these United States ?

From The Left:
Ann Jones: What Are They Smoking?: The Bush War on Afghan DrugsOn the fifth anniversary of the start of the Bush administration's Afghan War, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld wrote an upbeat op-ed in the Washington Post on that hapless country's "hopeful and promising" trajectory. He cited only two items as less than "encouraging": "the legitimate worry that increased poppy production could be a destabilizing factor" and the "rising violence in southern Afghanistan."

Thought To Ponder:
The US Still Doesn’t List theTaliban as Terrorist Group

(Sources: Washington Post, TownHall, TruthOut, FOXNews, center For American Progress, The Chronicle, The Courier-Journal, UPI, CNN, MSNBC, NYPost, NYTimes, Drudge, UK Guardian, AP, Washington Times, Cooperative Research)