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!

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.

Soros-backed Medicare insurer raided by FBI  —  The St. Petersburg Times reports on an FBI raid of WellCare, a shady Medicare insurer...initially funded by far Left billionaire George Soros and run by one of his acolytes: … Wellcare serves Medicare and Medicaid customers-more than 350,000 seniors in Florida alone.

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

STRESS MESS IN U.S.  —  48% CAN'T SLEEP  —  We're stressed out, we can't sleep, we're drinking too much - and it's getting worse.  —  Forty-eight percent of Americans say they're more stressed now than they were five years ago, and the same percent report regularly lying awake at night because of stress …