'I Don't Think This Place Is Worth Another Soldier's Life'  —  BAGHDAD, Oct. 26 Their line of tan Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles creeps through another Baghdad afternoon.  At this pace, an excruciating slowness, they strain to see everything, hoping the next manhole cover, the next rusted barrel, does not hide another bomb.

Obama Promises a Forceful Stand Against Clinton  —  Senator Barack Obama said he would start confronting Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton more forcefully, declaring Friday that she had not been candid in describing her views on critical issues, as he tries to address mounting alarm among supporters …

Hire Carla Babb!  (Fire John Edwards)  —  Does the John Edwards campaign have a death wish?  To the litany which includes the 28,000 square foot home, his job with a hedge fund (to learn about poverty!) and the $400 haircuts we can now add a story about the decision by the Edwards campaign …

Malkin & Co. target Soros, hit Bush pioneers  —  The St. Petersburg Times reported this week that WellCare Health Plans, a Florida-based company that provides managed-care plans for millions of Medicare and Medicaid participants, has come under federal investigation.

Yet Another Photo of Site in Syria, Yet More Questions  —  The mystery surrounding the construction of what might have been a nuclear reactor in Syria deepened yesterday, when a company released a satellite photo showing that the main building was well under way in September 2003 — four years before Israeli jets bombed it.

Are We All Nazis Now?  —  One of the greatest injustices to the victims of racism, and in particular the holocaust, is the trivialization of it.  One does not have to agree with the Dutch "Islamophobic" anti-immigration politicians Geert Wilders or Rita Verdonk, but what kind of person writes something like …

Words spoken in funeral flag-folding draw flap  —  RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Flag-folding recitations by Memorial Honor Detail volunteers are now banned at the nation's 125 veterans graveyards because of a complaint about the ceremony at Riverside National Cemetery.

FEMA Official Apologizes for Staged Briefing With Fake Reporters  —  The Federal Emergency Management Agency's No. 2 official apologized yesterday for leading a staged news conference Tuesday in which FEMA employees posed as reporters while real reporters listened on a telephone conference line and were barred from asking questions.

McConnell marks funds for contractor  —  FIRM UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR BRIBERY  —  JCHEVES@HERALD-LEADER.COM  —  Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is pushing $25 million in earmarked federal funds for a British defense contractor that is under criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department …

What goes around - Comes around  —  Unfortunately, most Americans do not consider Iraqis as people.  We see them as terrorists or victims, not as everyday people with the same values as our friends, neighbors and relatives.  Yet, most Iraqis are decent human beings with the same concerns, dreams, and compassion as most Americans.

To Know Contractors, Know Government  —  ALLEGATIONS of misbehavior by employees of Blackwater USA in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqis have brought the military's use of private contractors into question.  But whatever the possible sins of the Blackwater firm, the overall problem …

Gail Collins: There To Make MoDo and Bobo Look Smart  —  I forgot to blog about this on Thursday, but this has to rank as one of the most remarkable recent paragraphs written on the increasingly embarrassing NYT op-ed page: … Tristero and Somerby point out the rather massive gap in the story here …

Rudy a Lefty?  Yeah, Right.  —  You wouldn't know it from reading the papers, but the favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination is a confirmed right-winger.  On issues such as free speech and religion, secrecy and due process, civil rights and civil liberties, pornography and democracy …

Rice confers with Carter and Clinton  —  US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has sought the advice of former US presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton ahead of a planned Middle East peace parley scheduled to take place in Annapolis, Maryland, in November or December.

From CIA Jails, Inmates Fade Into Obscurity  —  Dozens of 'Ghost Prisoners' Not Publicly Accounted For  —  ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — On Sept. 6, 2006, President Bush announced that the CIA's overseas secret prisons had been temporarily emptied and 14 al-Qaeda leaders taken to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.