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.

Hastert Pledges to Fire Anyone Involved in Foley Coverup  —  House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) pledged today to fire anyone on his staff who covered up information on former congressman Mark Foley's improper contacts with teenaged male pages, but he said he did not think anyone in his office did anything wrong.

'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.

Hastert does press conference about Foley scandal in front of a graveyard  —  (The video is at the bottom of this post.)  —  First, Hastert outright lied during his press conference.  It is simply amazing that GOP leaders are still trying to downplay the severity of this scandal.  More on that below.

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!

Another 60 Bodies Found in Baghdad  —  BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — Iraq's government forged ahead with a plan aimed at ending sectarian attacks, even as a bombing in the capital killed 10 people Tuesday and officials discovered scores of new death-squad victims.  —  The bomb, planted under a car …

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.

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.

Gibson: Run golden-oldie ads, get golden-oldie viewers  —  Want younger viewers for the evening news?  Ditch the geezer ads, says ABC World News anchor Charlie Gibson.  —  If networks are serious about luring pre-Social Security eyeballs, they should replace commercials for adult diapers …

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) …

The Bush administration's torture of U.S. citizen Jose Padilla  —  (updated below)  —  The Bush administration's May, 2002 lawless detention of U.S. citizen Jose Padilla — on U.S. soil — was, as I recounted in my book, the first incident which really prompted me to begin concluding …