Guest Post: Senator John McCain On North Korea  —  Please welcome Senator John McCain as a guest poster at Captain's Quarters.  He delivers a tough, no-nonsense reponse to the latest provocation from North Korea.  —  Time for Decisive Action on North Korea  —  Korea doubts the world's resolve.

Foley's Reputed Visit to the Page Dormitory  —  New Testimony May Pose Problems for GOP Leadership  —  House speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., tries to change the subject.  But the accusations about Hastert subordinates who were apparently told about Congressman Mark Foley's questionable activities keep coming.

'SCARY MOVIE' PRODUCER MAKES CAMPAIGN AD; MOCKS DEMOCRATS  —  The DRUDGE REPORT has obtained an exclusive copy of a "scary" campaign advertisement created by Hollywood producer and director David Zucker that was intended to be used by GOP organizations in the closing weeks of the 2006 campaign.

Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000  —  A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.

Republicans Want to Turn Over a New Page  —  The Foley scandal is no "October surprise"  —  Leading Republicans, with the support of conservative media outlets, are charging that the Mark Foley scandal was a plot orchestrated by Democrats to damage the G.O.P.'s electoral prospects this November.

Massive explosions rock Baghdad!  —  Over the past 90 minutes or so, massive explosions could be heard in Baghdad and actually I'm hearing more of them while I'm typing.  —  When the first few bangs happened I thought they were just the usual dose of mortars for the night but more and more explosion kept happening!

Help You, Help Me: The First Blegburst  —  I guess I wasn't paying very close attention, but at some point yesterday I cracked a million visits on ye olde Sitemeter, a good chunk of which came from this post that took me longer to upload than create.  —  I think this a milestone of some sort …

Protesters hurl petrol bombs at Danish mission in Iran  —Text+TEHRAN (Reuters) - Dozens of protesters pelted the Danish embassy in Tehran with stones and petrol bombs on Tuesday after Danish television broadcast footage deemed insulting to the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, witnesses said.

NO MORE TROOPS  —  WITH 26 American troops dead in Iraq in the first nine days of October, the combination of bad news and pre-election politics has those on one bench arguing for bailing out immediately and those on the other bench frantic to pile on.  —  Neither position is realistic.

Lawmaker fires back at governor's comments on age of Earth  —  BOZEMAN — A Republican state lawmaker is criticizing Gov. Brian Schweitzer for comments he made to a newspaper here about the lawmaker's belief that the planet is not millions of years old.  —  Rep. Roger Koopman, R-Bozeman …

Senate reality check  —  I'm getting a little nervous with people thinking we have any race this fall in the bag.  While things look great for us right now, the election isn't right now.  And if Republicans can do anything, it's close the deal.  And quite frankly, we're not a sure thing anywhere.

New Poll: Ford Leads Corker 51-44  —  New DSCC Poll Has Ford Besting Corker, 51-44, Bush Has a 35% Approval in Tennessee  —  If you're wondering why the Republicans have been relentlessly attacking Harold Ford Jr., wonder no more: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) …