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Bush vetoes kids' health insurance expansion — WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush on Wednesday vetoed legislation expanding a children's health insurance program by $35 billion over five years. — Bush exercised the veto at 10 a.m. ET before leaving the White House for a trip to Lancaster …
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Bush vetoes child health insurance plan — WASHINGTON - President Bush, in a sharp confrontation with Congress, on Wednesday vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children's health insurance. — It was only the fourth veto of Bush's presidency …

SCHIP slips as Dems trip over message — Democratic leaders on Tuesday moved quickly to shift public attention to President Bush's expected veto of a children's health insurance program from a surtax to pay for the war in Iraq. — Democrats had been reveling in their good fortune …

Exclusive: Paul Tops $5 Mil For Quarter — Texas Congressman Ron Paul, an anti-war libertarian making his second run at the White House, will report having raised $5.08 million in the third quarter. The number, which rivals those of John McCain and Bill Richardson, was boosted thanks …
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Ron Paul: Five Million Dollar Man — Ron Paul's campaign confirms that it collected $5,080,000 in the third quarter of fundraising. That's more than double the campaign's second quarter haul of $2.4 million; it's also as much as "comeback" candidate John McCain has reportedly raised.

Ron Paul Raises Five Times As Much As Huckabee — Oh me of little faith. Ron Paul cannot be dismissed as a gadfly; the chance for him to outperform expectations rises exponentially with additional million dollars he raises. 5.08m is real money. There must be, within the Republican Party, a vein of anti-war libertarian sentiment.

Huckabee's Money — UPDATE, 2:15 pm: Huckabee's numbers seem …
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The Caucus

Clinton Widens Lead in Poll — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has consolidated her place as the front-runner in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination, outpacing her main rivals in fundraising in the most recent quarter and widening her lead in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
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Kos Traffic Numbers Inflated by 60% — Yesterday, I had the good "fortune" of being frontpaged on Daily Kos. The post sat atop the site for two hours. According to Google Analytics, the link produced 1,164 visitors yesterday. — For the traffic behemoth Kos is portrayed as, that seems low …

MERCS....Max Boot makes some sensible comments about Blackwater and other private contractors in Iraq: … At this point, we really have only two options. First, we could try to dramatically reduce our reliance on military contractors. This would require massive restructuring of our command …
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Fred Thompson on Harry Reid's attacks on Rush Limbaugh — Congressional Democrats are trying to divert attention from insulting our military leader in Iraq and pandering to the loony left by attacking Rush Limbaugh. He is one of the strongest supporters of our troops, yet Democrats claim he is not being strong enough.
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Limbaugh Makes His Case
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Senate Approves Intelligence Bill — WASHINGTON — The Senate has scrapped its bid to obtain the archive of daily intelligence briefings given to the president on Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion. — That request was among several controversial provisions dropped from an intelligence bill …


From Errand to Fatal Shot to Hail of Fire to 17 Deaths — It started out as a family errand: Ahmed Haithem Ahmed was driving his mother, Mohassin, to pick up his father from the hospital where he worked as a pathologist. As they approached Nisour Square at midday on Sept. 16 …
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Sen. Pete Domenici Expected to Retire — Veteran Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) is expected to announce tomorrow that he will retire from the Senate in 2008, according to several informed sources, a decision that further complicates an already difficult playing field for Republicans next November.

Iranian University Invites Bush to Speak — An Iranian university has invited U.S. President George W. Bush to speak about such issues as the Holocaust, terrorism and human rights. — Iran's Fars news agency reports Ferdowsi University in the northeastern city of Mashhad asked Mr. Bush …
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Weak Has a Face, and It's Pelosi's — If there was any doubt before, which there wasn't, it's gone now. Watching Nancy Pelosi on The View yesterday morning provided the final proof that the backbone of the House is only as strong as its speaker. Her body language said it all.

Proxies' War — The Washington Post's website has put together what's got to be the most comprehensive list of campaign foreign policy advisers anywhere. Hillary Clinton has what's clearly the most impressive list in terms of scope and quality of resumés.


White House Retaliates Against UK For Withdrawal: 'British Forces Have Performed Poorly' In Iraq — This week, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that he would reduce British presence in Iraq from 5,500 troops to 4,500 by Christmas. The Guardian reports today that Brown will cut …