New Steps by U.S. Against Iranians  —  The Bush administration will announce a long-debated policy of new sanctions against Iran on Thursday, accusing the elite Quds division of the Revolutionary Guard Corps of supporting terrorism, administration officials said Wednesday night.

Baghdad Diarist Was On Guard When Questioned by Editors  —  The soldier whose New Republic article about military cruelty in Iraq was labeled false by Army investigators refused to defend his accusations when questioned by the magazine, even after being told that the editors could no longer support him unless he cooperated.

Bobby Caina Calvan Blog : the entire post with comments preserved  —  UPDATE: Good gracious, blogging since '97 and my first Instalanche.  Thank you Mr. Reynolds!  Thank you AOSHQ and the lovely and talented Michelle Malkin as well.  —  The entire site is 404′d, and the comments were the sweetest plum!

Rudy?  —  Giuliani and religious right meet on the road to political adulthood.  —  One school of thought on the religious right holds that if Rudy Giuliani would commit to an unequivocal anti-abortion position, they could vote for him.  A second school of thought, articulated by Richard Land …

GOP cries foul on timing of kids' health vote  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — House Republicans are fuming over Democrats' decision to hold the next vote on the State Children's Health Insurance Program on Thursday — when many Republicans will be in California as President Bush tours areas hit by wildfires.

New Home Sales Rebound in September  —  Sales of New Homes Rebound in September After Hitting Slowest Pace in More Than a Decade  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new homes posted an unexpected gain in September although the improvement came after sales had fallen to the slowest pace in more than a decade.

Musn't say the V-word  —  I read this sort of thing and I just do a slow burn. … The more interesting question is why should all of the parents who don't have the choice to send their kids to a private school, or move to the suburbs?  How do you write an article this long without noting …

Time for the Bundesmacht  —  Remember the Wehrmacht?  It was a formidable fighting force.  The modern German army, the Bundeswehr, is also very effective.  Thing is, it is reluctant to fight or even place itself in danger.  —  Given history, that may seem just fine.

Another $200 Billion  —  President Bush waited until he had vetoed a relatively inexpensive children's health insurance bill before asking for tens of billions of dollars more for his misadventure in Iraq.  The cynicism of that maneuver is only slightly less shameful than the president's distorted priorities.

Rice Continues Proud Tradition of State Dep't Stonewalling  —  So much for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ending State's recent stonewalling of the House oversight committee.  Rice is testifying this morning about corruption in Iraq, a subject that the committee has been digging into for months.