President Bush conceded Friday that "right now it's tough" for American forces in Iraq, but the White House said he would not change U.S. strategy in the face of pre-election polls that show voters are upset.

"We are constantly adjusting our tactics so that we achieve the objective, and right now it's tough, it's tough," Bush said in an Associated Press interview.

[snip]

Bush met with Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, at the White House for a half-hour Friday afternoon. The White House said Abizaid already was in town and Bush asked him over. The president also will consult by video conference on Saturday with Abizaid at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., and with Gen. George Casey, who leads the U.S.-led Multinational Forces in Iraq, to determine if a change in tactics is necessary to combat the increasing violence.

Despite calls for change, Bush said, "Our goal has not changed. Our goal is a country that can defend, sustain and govern itself, a country that which will serve as an ally in this war. Our tactics are adjusting."

[snip]

Presidential spokesman Tony Snow said that while Bush might change tactics, he would not change his overall strategy.

"He's not somebody who gets jumpy at polls," Snow said of Bush.

"It seems to me the situation is simply drifting sideways It was a markedly different trip from ones before. We just did not have the freedom and ability to travel where I have been before."

"My view is that it may be that the only way we are able to encourage some political will on the part of Iraqis is to have a timeline for troop withdrawal,"

"We should start figuring out how we get out of there...I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur."

The second-ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, who is a strong supporter of the U.S. military mission in Iraq, has drafted a resolution that would give military commanders — instead of President Bush or Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld — decision-making authority over when American troops should return home.

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), the vice chairman of the Armed Services panel and chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee, told Speaker Dennis Hastert (Ill.) Monday of his plans to introduce the resolution shortly.

America's strength is found in the spirit and character of our people. During National Character Counts Week, we renew our commitment to instilling values in our young people and to encouraging all Americans to remember the importance of good character.

“I’m pleased to be here with Don Sherwood: he is the right man to represent the people of the 10th Congressional District from the state of Pennsylvania.”

"He has got a record of accomplishment."

“The president understands it’s important to set high standards.”

even pitching just 5-1/3 last night, Maine gave the Mets as big a start last night as Seaver or Koosman or Gooden or anybody ever gave them in any postseason. Maine pitched like those guys last night. It wasn't a complete game, it doesn't go into the books as a "quality start" because he didn't go six, it wasn't Bobby Jones throwing that one-hitter against the Giants the last time the Mets went to the World Series. It will do. Two hits while he was out there. No runs against him on a night when there were no expectations for the kid at all.

Oh yeah. What he did to the Cardinals in Game 6 will do.

Baseball is such a wonderfully unpredictable game. I tell you the Mets’ chances of staying alive in their league playoff series against St. Louis depend on their rookie pitcher, John Maine, and you say no way, no chance. Remember, buddy, he’s pitching against Chris Carpenter, a once and maybe future Cy Young award winner.

The likelihood of Maine’s beating Carpenter, you tell me, is about 1 chance in 100. I tell you, as Joaquín Andújar used to say, you never know.

We know now. The game is over. The rookie beat Cy Young. The Mets live to play another day. Well, night. Tonight. The National League pennant will be decided at Shea Stadium tonight.

[snip]

Maine, it should be remembered, was Anna Benson’s goodbye gift to the Mets. He joined the Mets last winter in the trade that sent Anna’s husband, Kris, to the Baltimore Orioles. The Mets traded Benson because Anna had become too much of a loose verbal cannon. The Mets, however, are unlikely to send Anna a World Series share.

A 25-year-old right-hander, Maine pitched five and a third innings, allowing only two first-inning hits. He walked four batters and hit a batter, but only one of those five advanced beyond first base.

After Maine walked Jim Edmonds, the leadoff batter in the sixth, and retired Juan Encarnación on a fly to left field, Manager Willie Randolph walked briskly to the mound and summoned Chad Bradford from the bullpen.

Even before Randolph reached the mound, Maine’s infield mates gathered there and patted him, expressing their appreciation for the job he had just done. After handing the ball to Randolph, he walked to the dugout to the roar of the crowd. When he reached the dugout, his teammates there slapped hands with him and gave him many more pats of appreciation.

On this night, the rookie became a man.

You don't see masterpieces like this in October very often, not when the season is on the line and greater New York is living and dying with your every pitch. John Maine could've collapsed under the burden, and no one would've blamed the rookie. No one would've said the Mets went out of the NL Championship Series as chokers.

But all Maine did was keep the Mets alive in October, pitching them to a 4-2 win over the Cardinals in Game 6. The Series, the season, the world comes down to nine innings tonight; every pitch will be treated as if the Mets' legacy depends on it. And it does.

Maine gave the Mets a running start to the sort of comeback that'll be remembered by generations of Shea loyalists. It might not have been Johnny Podres shutting out the Yankees in Game 7 of the 1955 World Series, the one that liberated Brooklyn forever, but it was close enough to be called a miniature classic.

[snip]

Was Maine nervous? Do we even have to ask? He said "I'm nervous before every start," but an early lead, and successfully working out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning help quiet the fires of his anxiety.

It's the beauty of this kid that he's so quiet, so self-contained. Maine is the anti-Pedro Martinez, flat-lining his emotions, letting his fastball act as his voice.

"That's been his MO all year," Randolph said. "Cool and composed. That's him."

It also helped the Mets to be playing in an open-air asylum. Shea was that loud, that aggressive. The sold-out crowd did more than just root for the Mets, they exuded a hostile edge that made the Cardinals shrink, one inning at a time.

My friend was present as a group of Moderate GOP members with Ohio ties lamented how far the party had strayed. There was consensus at the table there was no way they should retain control. The table conversation began with the assumption they party would lose control in this election. The moderates started planning how to take back control of the GOP from the extremists.

Then, one insider, probably an extremist, but certainly very close to Mr. Ken Mehlman abruptly stopped the conversation. He told table that it was impossible they would lose either house. He also predicts an Ohio GOP sweep.

He informed the group that over the last year, in four critical states the GOP needs to hold huge purges of the voter rolls have just been finished.

The insider did not say which four states, but did say Ohio was among them.

His claim was a new Diebold voter registry system had been installed over the last year. The last week of July and the first week of August a "test run" was made of the systems ability to purge ineligable voters. The purge generated names and test letters sent out to 1.2 million Ohio addresses with a focus on University's, Apartment addresses with high turnover. He claims they made the letters seem just functionary, but they have an action component to avoid being purged from the rolls.

The Insider warmed and said that Blackwell was brilliant in how he did this. The letter went on for a long time about changes in Ohio voting and security and suggested people who might have any concerns about their voting status could come by county offices and confirm their continued voting eligability before election day.

He further added, that since it was conducted as a "test" they only sent letters to a limited number of suspect addresses and "I suspect Blackwell chose criteria very very favorable for us."

Further the insider stated that Blackwell had only purged the lists after a full 60 days was given for people to respond. Which means even if a voter was on the "termination" list, they would still have been eligable to vote in the primary.

He told they table they believe the purge has probably caught up "hundreds of thousands of students, activists and wanderers with no real job" would show up at the polls and have to vote provisionally.

He predicted to the table that tens of thousands of voters will show up on election day, and once the provisionals are used up will simply not be able to at all.

He also said that this "operation" (The Insiders word, my friend was specific about this" had turned up a lot of additional fascinating information including a number of Democrats in elected office who are registered to vote in several places, and they may explore how to use this information against them.

I am going to assume, Mr. Blackwell's "test" purge went to no-one registered GOP. His criteria is something I am trying to get a copy of now.

Friday I called friends in Lorain County and Wayne County Ohio. I told them this DC tale. Neither of them had voted yet and I asked them if they could go on Monday to either early vote, or apply for an absentee ballot. And if possible sit for in the Elections Office for an hour and determine if anyone was expressiing surprise they were no longer registered.

If the sample of 11AM-1PM in Lorain County Ohio and 10AM-11AM in Wayne County Ohio are true. Then Ohio Democratic Voters had better go and Vote Early if they plan to vote at all.

At Lorain County, my friend arrived to find a line of over 15 people, many of whom had come back for a second time, all of them Democrats who had arrived to vote and been told that Drivers Liscence Information, or in one case Home Ownership Information had not matched the address provided for Voter Registration.

In one case a college student had been purged because he had changed dorms on campus.

In another case a local blue-collar worker had been purged because his voter registration had only his building address, but his drivers liscense included an apartment number. This tiny difference in information had led to his purging.

While everyone present seemed to have enough information to allow the records to be updated, my friend told me it was being done by one and only one clerk and was taking a very long time, about 5 minutes per person to resolve. Everyone in line confirmed that several voters had given up in frustration and left.

In Wayne County the sample is smaller, but during the one hour he stated 18 people arrived for absentee ballots or to vote early. Wayne County had 3 Diebold TSX Touch Screens set up for early voters. Of those who arrived two of them had been provisionally purged. The first was again a student from a local college, she was sent away and told she had to bring some ID beyond her student ID to prove she was resident at the College. She was wearing a Sherrod Brown button. The second was a local guy who owns two houses on the same block. His drivers liscence is to the one house where he keeps his cars, but his voter roll is in his house where he actually sleeps four houses away. This got resolved with a series of steps that included filling out two forms, and a clerk having to enter the corrected information into two seperate computers.

As an added bonus, My friend listened in and witnessed 8 retired ladies getting instructions on how to be poll workers on the new TSX machines. The instructor was a local elections board member. She was asked many questions by one of the retirees and her answer to almost all of them was "I don't know how it works, I just know how we are supposed to use it"

Get ready Ohio.

This story also may explain Mr. Blackwell's sudden discovery of the "two homes and is he really a qualifed Voter" now facing Strickland.

This Blackwell discovery of Mr. Strickland is actually "by-catch" of the much larger net thrown to eliminate hundred of thousands of democrats from the voting rolls.

Air America Co-Founders Start New Liberal Talk Network
Mike Malloy, Joe Trippi and John Zogby join Nova M Radio

Nova M Radio, Inc. based in Phoenix, Arizona officially announced the formation of its new progressive talk radio network. Debuting on the network will be the long awaited return to the airwaves of America’s original “truth-seeker” Mike Malloy. The Mike Malloy Show will initially broadcast live, from 9PM -12 Midnight (EST) beginning October 30,2006 on Nova M Radio affiliate 1480-AM KPHX Phoenix. The Mike Malloy Show will be made available to affiliates across the nation and will also stream live on www.novamradio.com. Malloy on his return to the radio quipped “Yikes! That was close. To not be on the air during perhaps the most critical election in modern U-S history would have been a real bummer. But, we're back and here it is: The Nova M Radio network. Another crack in the wall of right-wing drivel that saturates the airwaves. Join me nightly, truth-seekers and goodbye Air America - hello Nova M!”

Anita Drobny and Sheldon Drobny, co-founders of the Air America Radio Network along with partner Dr. Mike Newcomb, CEO & Chairman of Nova M Radio, are the principals of the new network. On March 1, 2006 Air America Radio’s Phoenix affiliate went dark after the station was purchased by a religious broadcasting company who promptly terminated the progressive programming. Within 18 days Nova M Radio, Inc. had negotiated a deal with a new station and triumphantly returned progressive talk to the airwaves in America’s 5th largest city on April 3, 2006. Nova M Radio now looks to bring its unique brand to the rest of America.

Joining Nova M Radio as Media and Communication consultant will be Joe Trippi and Associates. Joe revolutionized electoral politics in America with his instrumental role in Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, raising over $40 million in small donor contributions over the internet. By leveraging the scope and breadth of innovative internet-based technologies and digital tools, Joe and his team will help Nova M Radio reach out to millions of people who share common values and common goals.

Also joining our team will be internationally renowned pollster John Zogby, President and CEO of Zogby International. John will be co-hosting a weekly one hour show, “The Pulse of the Nation” where John polls particular hot button issues from politics and pop culture to the War in Iraq and stem cell research. Each program will include expert guests and audience participation. At the end of each show John will reveal the secret results of the poll and each listener will then know whether or not they have their finger on “The Pulse of the Nation”! Zogby proclaimed "This is very exciting. I will have the chance to share some of the latest polling on what Americans are really thinking about their lives, their needs, the views of government and politics, and how they think things need to be fixed. I know listeners are going to be fascinated by hearing what their peers are thinking".

Also debuting on Nova M Radio’s new network will be Mike “Doc” Newcomb and Peter B. Collins.

Mike Newcomb, MD is a former gubernatorial candidate and physician who cares for the elderly and the poor. His brand of “freedom fighting, liberty loving and truth telling” radio has taken Phoenix, AZ by storm. After only his first year on the air Mike was selected as the “Best Radio Talk-Show Host 2004” by the Phoenix New Times. Doctor Mike’s show will air Monday-Friday 9AM-Noon (EST).

Peter B. Collins, the San Francisco-based syndicated talk show host, is a veteran radio personality. In the Bay Area, Peter has entertained talk radio listeners on KGO, KNBR and KSFO. He was the top-rated morning personality on CBS-owned KRQ. His current daily program, The Peter B. Collins Show, originates 6-9pm (EST) weekdays.

CEO & Chairman Mike Newcomb stated, “We will continue to build upon the foundation laid by our predecessors and will work tirelessly to fulfill our fiduciary responsibilities to our investors. Equally important, we will with the millions of faithful progressive listeners uphold our vision to promote freedom, social justice, economic justice and peace worldwide.”

New and exciting updates will be available on the web at www.novamradio.com. For more information or interviews please contact Mike Newcomb at:

602-257-1351 (office)
mnewcomb@aaphx.com
824 East Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85034

Judge Simeon T. Lake III ruled that the conviction must be voided because Mr. Lay cannot pursue an appeal his guilty verdict.

The decision, which had been expected, prevents the government from trying to seize more than $43.5 million from Mr. Lay’s estate that prosecutors claimed he stole from Enron before it collapsed in 2001.

[snip]

In his 13-page decision, Judge Lake cited established case law that required revocation of convictions if defendants die without opportunity to appeal. The Justice Department had asked the judge to delay ruling until Congress had time to pass legislation that would have retroactively allowed Mr. Lay’s conviction to stand. But lawmakers recessed before considering the matter.

Tuesday’s decision will make it harder for former Enron employees and shareholders to lay claim to the millions in Mr. Lay’s estate because they cannot point to his criminal conviction as proof of wrongdoing.

India still produces plenty of engineers, nearly 400,000 a year at last count. But their competence has become the issue.

A study commissioned by a trade group, the National Association of Software and Service Companies, or Nasscom, found only one in four engineering graduates to be employable. The rest were deficient in the required technical skills, fluency in English or ability to work in a team or deliver basic oral presentations.

The skills gap reflects the narrow availability of high-quality college education in India and the galloping pace of the country’s service-driven economy, which is growing faster than nearly all but China’s. The software and service companies provide technology services to foreign companies, many of them based in the United States. Software exports alone expanded by 33 percent in the last year.

The university systems of few countries would be able to keep up with such demand, and India is certainly having trouble. The best and most selective universities generate too few graduates, and new private colleges are producing graduates of uneven quality.

Many fear that the labor pinch may signal bottlenecks in other parts of the economy. It is already being felt in the information technology sector.

With the number of technology jobs expected to nearly double to 1.7 million in the next four years, companies are scrambling to find fresh engineering talent and to upgrade the schools that produce it.

Some companies are training faculty members themselves, offering courses tailored to industry needs and improving college labs and libraries. They are rushing to get first choice of would-be engineers long before they have completed their course work. And they are fanning out to small, remote colleges that almost no one had heard of before. The country’s most successful technology concerns can no longer afford to hire only from the most prestigious Indian universities. Nor can they expect recent graduates to be ready to hit the shop floor. Most companies require in-house training of anywhere from two to six months.

Demand is beginning to be felt on the bottom line. Entry-level salaries in the software industry have risen by an average of 10 to 15 percent in recent years. And Nasscom, which helps companies wanting to outsource find workers, forecasts a shortage of 500,000 professional employees in the technology sector by 2010.

Wal-Mart Stores, the largest retailer in the United States, is laying the groundwork to become the biggest foreign chain in China with the $1 billion purchase of a major retailer here, according to people briefed on the deal.

The move represents a large step for Wal-Mart’s strategy in China, allowing the American retailer to more than double its presence in a country that, despite its size and growing middle class, remains largely untapped by foreign retailers.

Though the size of the acquisition — of a Taiwanese-owned supermarket chain called Trust-Mart — may be modest for Wal-Mart, it is a critical one because the Chinese market is becoming much more pivotal in the retailer’s overall international strategy. For Wal-Mart, China represents an opportunity to tap a vast and fast-growing market abroad at a time when the company’s sales are lagging elsewhere and it has run into obstacles to expansion at home.

“China is the only country in the world that offers Wal-Mart the chance to replicate what they have accomplished in the U.S.,” said Bill Dreher, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities.

But this is a special book, deserving special mistreatment. With The Enemy at Home, I prefer to do the irresponsible thing and declare war on Dinesh D'Souza and his stinking mackerel of a book starting now. I intend to pound this scurrilous piece of scapegoating at every convenient opportunity. It is long past due that the likes of Ramesh Ponnuru (Death Party A-Go-Go), Jonah Goldberg (Hillary Clinton Was Himmler's Mistress), and now D'Souza be put on notice that they are not going to get away with vilifying liberals, mainstream Democrats, radical thinkers, academics, and entertainers as traitors and terrorist sympathizers. They want to wage culture war? Then, to quote Nabokov, they should brace themselves and prepare for the next crash. They want to practice character assassination? They've picked the wrong time, the wrong adversary.

It's one thing when Michael Savage or Ann Coulter denounce liberals as heathen traitors. One spouts halitosis on the radio, the other is an exhibitionist hag; both cater to their fan base. But D'Souza isn't some low-grade, high-volume performance artist. He's a research scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, which he thanks in the acknowledgments "for providing me with the institutional support to do my work." D'Souza writes, speaks, and thinks like something hatched in a think tank--a careerist toady.

For five years, Allen Stayman wondered who ordered his removal from a State Department job negotiating agreements with tiny Pacific island nations — even when his own bosses wanted him to stay.

Now he knows.

Newly disclosed e-mails suggest that the ax fell after intervention by one of the highest officials at the White House: Ken Mehlman, on behalf of one of the most influential lobbyists in town, Jack Abramoff.

The e-mails show that Abramoff, whose client list included the Northern Mariana Islands, had long opposed Stayman's work advocating labor changes in that U.S. commonwealth, and considered what his lobbying team called the "Stayman project" a high priority.

"Mehlman said he would get him fired," an Abramoff associate wrote after meeting with Mehlman, who was then White House political director.

The exchange illustrates how, more than two years after the corruption scandal surrounding the now-disgraced Abramoff came to light, people are still learning the extent of the lobbyist's ability to pull the levers of power in Washington. The latest revelations provide more detail than the Bush administration has acknowledged about how Abramoff and his team reached into high levels of the White House, not just Capitol Hill, which has been the main focus of the influence-peddling investigation.

The e-mails, disclosed as part of a report by the House Government Reform Committee, show how Abramoff manipulated the system through officials such as Mehlman, now the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Doing so, Abramoff directed government appointments, influenced policy decisions and won White House endorsements for political candidates — all in the service of his clients.

The report found more than 400 lobbying contacts between Abramoff's team and the White House.

Besides the Stayman matter, the e-mails reveal Mehlman's role in helping an Abramoff client, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, secure $16.3 million for a new jail that government analysts concluded was not necessary. Mehlman also helped Abramoff obtain a White House endorsement in 2002 of the Republican gubernatorial ticket in the U.S. territory of Guam.

Of particular interest was an exchange from two years ago when Foley griped to Jeb about getting shunned by Jeb's older brother, or as he is referred to by acronym, POTUS - President of the United States.

"Have I done something to offend the White House ... I am always getting the shaft ... they came to ft pierce a few weeks ago and said I was not allowed to attend ... yet joe negron is there ...

"Tomorrow Potus is in Martin County and i am told I am not allowed to be there either. I can't quite figure what I have done but this is a continuing pattern of slights ... I have constantly put the President in the best possible light on everything from haiti to hurricanes ... sorry to trouble you ... I wouldn't if this wasn't so frequent."

Another reason?

Jeez. What could Foley have done that was so horrible, so reprehensible that George W. Bush took special care to make sure Foley was told to stay away?

Anybody have a clue here?

Help me solve this mystery.

Jeb was no help.

"I know it is nothing you have done. Promise." Jeb answered Foley. "I think it relates to debate prep time."

Debate prep time? Nah, that's clearly a dodge.

If that were the case, then why wouldn't Negron also be a debate prep time liability?

No, there must be some other reason. I've been racking my brain over this one all week, trying to come up with something the White House knew about Foley two years ago, something that might make the congressman radioactive.

Hmm. I know this is far-fetched. But the only thing I can think of is that the White House knew that Foley had a penchant for stalking high-school-age boys in the congressional page program.

Follow the trail

How would that info trail work?

OK, Foley's former chief of staff, Kirk Fordham said he knew about Foley's page problem in 2003, and he passed it on to House Speaker Dennis Hastert's chief of staff.

Foley, once the Republican front-runner for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Bob Graham in 2004, suddenly withdrew, citing his father's health.

Meanwhile, the White House selected Mel Martinez to run.

Fordham leaves Foley to work for the Martinez campaign.

You can go Fordham to Hastert to Bush, or if you don't like that, Fordham to Martinez to Bush.

Of course, this is totally farfetched, because the major flaw in this theory is that it would mean George W. Bush is a president willing to keep terrible secrets from the American people.

And I can't imagine that. So we just may never know why the president started "giving the shaft" to Foley two years ago.

It could end up being just one of those things — like torture, domestic spying and secret prisons — that's too important to share with the American people.

A congressman who admitted to having an affair and a senator accused of using racial slurs will get some political help from President Bush next week.

Bush will make campaign stops Thursday in Pennsylvania and Virginia to help the two troubled Republicans as the GOP struggles to maintain its endangered grip on the House and Senate.

"The President has made a commitment, and he's going to fulfill the commitment," White House press secretary Tony Snow said Friday.

Bush's appearances are intended to give a boost to four-term Rep. Don Sherwood (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., and Sen. George Allen (news, bio, voting record), R-Va.

Sherwood had one of the safest seats in Congress as his conservatism played well in his heavily Republican, rural district in northeastern Pennsylvania. Democrats didn't even bother fielding a candidate in the last two elections.

Then last year Sherwood admitted to a five-year extramarital affair with a woman 35 years his junior. He settled a lawsuit claiming he had choked her.

"Mr. Sherwood has certainly admitted to what has gone on, and the president also believes that we're all sinners, we all seek forgiveness, and in this particular case, he's supporting Don Sherwood's candidacy," Snow said.