WATCH VIDEO OF McCAIN AND PALIN INVOLVED IN "TROOPERFATE" COVER-UP

Keith Olbmerman of MSNBC's "Countdown" exposes GOP veep candidate Sarah Palin who is involved in a cover-up of what has become known as "Troopergate."

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/yCotEniwQSI&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

IRAQ DOCTORS WILL CARRY GUNS FOR SELF DEFENSE

Iraq doctors ‘will carry’ guns for self-defence

Government grants weapons permit to doctors for self-defence, pledges not to detain them during security operations.

Source: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=28100

BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government on Monday said it will allow doctors to carry guns in self-defence, pledging that they will not be detained during security operations.

The cabinet agreed to grant weapons permits to doctors in the light of the killing by insurgents of a large number of professional people since the 2003 US-led invasion.

"The cabinet decided to allow each doctor to carry one weapon to defend himself," the statement said. Doctors will not be detained during security operations unless the health ministry has been informed.

In a move seen as an attempt to prevent the emigration of skilled people, the government is also offering better housing for doctors and a review of taxes imposed on professionals, the statement said.

McCAIN SAYS WE ARE WINNING IN IRAQ: EXPLOSION LEAVES 10 CASULATIES IN BAGHDAD TUESDAY

John McCain continues to say "we are winning in Iraq" totally ignoring events like what happened in Baghdad today.

Explosion leaves 10 casualties in central Baghdad

Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Tuesday , 30 /09 /2008 Time 10:52:01

http://tinyurl.com/43n3cc

BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: At least three civilians were killed and seven others were wounded on Tuesday in a car bomb explosion near the national theatre in central Baghdad, a police source said.
“A car rigged with explosives went off on Tuesday afternoon in front of a bakery near the national theatre in central Baghdad, killing three civilians and injuring seven, including four women,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.He gave no more details.Baghdad is the capital of Iraq and Baghdad province. With a municipal population estimated at 7,000,000, it is the largest city in Iraq. It is the second largest city in the Arab world (after Cairo) and the second largest city in southwest Asia (after Tehran).Located on the Tigris River, the city dates back to at least the 8th century, and probably to pre-Islamic times.Once the center of Dar al-Islam (the abode of Islam), Baghdad has been a center of violent conflict since 2003 because of the ongoing Iraq war.Baghdad's population is a mix of Sunnis and Shiites. It is mainly divided into two sides: the west (al-Karkh) and the east (al-Rasafa).

WHY DOESN'T THE MEDIA REPORT ON IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN ANYMORE? DEATH AND VIOLENCE SWEEP ACROSS BOTH WAR ZONES

Just because John McCain says "we are winning in Iraq" doesn't make it so. The truth is there growing violence and death in both war zones where we have close to 200,000 young Americans hunkered down and trying to keep from having their heads blown off.

Here is just a partial list of what is happening in both Iraq and Afghanistan which the mainstream media doesn't consider "news" anymore.

September 30, 2008
Source: http://warnewstoday.blogspot.com/

War News for Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Washington Post is reporting the deaths of three U.S.-led coalition soldiers in an IED attack in a southern Province in Afghanistan on Monday, September 29th. As always no other details were released.

MNF-Iraq is reporting the death of a Multi-National Division - Baghdad soldier at a Coalition force’s Combat Support Hospital after a small-arms fire attack in a northern neighborhood Baghdad on Tuesday, September 30th.

Iran Sends 160 Fuel Trucks to Iraq Everyday:Fighting Between Pakistani Troops, Militants Displaces Thousands: Pakistani officials put the number of displaced Bajur people at 500,000, most of whom sought shelter from their relatives across northwestern Pakistan, and 100,000 taking refuge in government camps.Taliban chief vows 'safe retreat' for foreign troops: statement: (a joke?)Reported

Security incidents:Baghdad:#1: Monday Police found one dead body in Saidiyah in Karkh bank (south Baghdad) today.

#2: Monday Mortars hit Hurriyah neighborhood (northwest Baghdad). Five people were injured with one house was damaged.

#3: Monday Mortars hit Ghazaliyah neighborhood (northwest Baghdad) near Um Al-Qura mosque. Three people were injured with some houses nearby were damaged.

#4: Monday Mortars hit Abu Ghraib (west of Baghdad). One person was injured with two houses were damaged.

#5: Iraqi police say a parked car bomb in Baghdad has killed three civilians and injured eight others. Police say the victims were having lunch at a kebab restaurant in Baghdad's mainly Shiite Karradah neighborhood when the explosion occurred around 3 p.m. Tuesday.

#6: The Iraqi army killed two militants, including a Syrian fighter, and arrested two other foreign fighters, from Syria and Yemen, in Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad, a security source said.

#7: Iraqi explosive experts detonated under control a bomb in Amil neighborhood in west Baghdad around 12:00 p.m.

#8: Police found two unidentified bodies in Baghdad. The first body was found in Talbiyah neighborhood and the second body was found in Amil neighborhoodDiyala Prv:

Jalawla:#1: A member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Tuesday was wounded in a blast that ripped through Diala's Jalawlaa district, a police source said. "Today, a roadside improvised explosive device (IED) in al-Jamaheer neighborhood, northern Jalawlaa, went off while a vehicle carrying Jamal al-Sayyid Khaleely, a KDP member, was passing the location, seriously wounding him and causing damage to the vehicle," the source told Aswat al-Iraq.

Mosul:#1: Monday Around 5:30 pm a car bomb detonated in Nabi Yunis neighborhood in Mosul before the Iraqi army experts defuse it. Nine people were injured including 5 Peshmerga members of the

PDK.#2: Gunmen stormed a coffee shop and killed an employee on Monday in central Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

#3: A body of a woman was found with gunshot wounds to her head on Monday in eastern Mosul, police said.

#4: Around 7:30 p.m. gunmen attacked al Baladiyat police station in downtown Mosul city injuring tow policemen.

Afghanistan:#1: Afghanistan's ambassador-designate, who was kidnapped last week in Pakistan's northwest region, has been freed, sources told Pakistan's News International.

#2: A British soldier shot dead a civilian who failed to stop his motorbike as it approached a patrol in southern Afghanistan. The man did not react to warning shots in Sangin district, Helmand province, the Ministry of Defence said, leading to fears that he was a suicide bomber.

#3: Pakistani troops backed by gunship helicopters killed 13 Taliban militants in fresh clashes in the troubled tribal district of Bajaur on the Afghan border, officials said Tuesday. Four Islamist insurgents were killed Tuesday and two were wounded in the shelling of a suspected vehicle in the town of Mamoond, a security official said on condition of anonymity. Troops killed another five extremists after a group of militants launched an attack on a military checkpost in the same town, sparking a gunbattle that lasted nearly one hour, the official said. A further four militants were killed overnight when jets pounded suspected hideouts in the area, security officials said.

WATCH VIDEO OF JOHN MCCAIN DEFENDING SARAH PALIN WITH KATIE COURIC ON HER REMARKS ABOUT PAKISTAN

Sarah Palin was asked by a voter what she thought about invading Pakistan and in this interview with Katie Couric Palin is helped along by John McCain, riding shotgun, who called the question "gotcha journalism" when the question to Palin came from a voter and not the media.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/FMNHgJH2680&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

WATCH SARAH PALIN IN SWIMSUIT COMPETITION FOR MISS ALASKA

One of the most viewed YouTube videos is this rare footage of GOP Vice President nominee Sarah Palin appearing in in a swimsuit in the 1984 "Miss Alaska" beauty pageant.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/rSdFIDygFwM&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

McCAIN SAYS HE WOULD "CONSIDER" A DRAFT. WATCH VIDEO HERE

McCAIN 'I MIGHT CONSIDER A DRAFT'

This blogger has been saying it for months and now the words are coming out of Republican Presidential candidate John McCain's own mouth.

In this video you will hear McCain tell a group of people he "might consider a draft."

If McCain is elected President and pursues war with IRAN (which McCain's good friend Sen. Joe Lieberman wants to do) there will have to be a draft.

Watch video here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/7t76K8fymsY&hl=en&fs=1

Click on diamond-shaped arrow in picture to activate video

McCAIN LEAVES FOX NEWS SPEECHLESS. WATCH VIDEO

Here are a collection of snippets from speeches John McCain has given during the primary season which indicates McCain is NOT the most scintillating orator to ever come down the political pike.

In fact, McCain leaves the "kids" at FOX NEWS grasping for words to try to explain McCain's monotone delivery.

And remember: this is before the electrifying speaker and screech owl Sarah Palin was added to the McCain ticket.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/3aMDJP4VxY4&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

CNN REPORTS: 34 KILLED IN BAGHDAD

Is this what John McCain means when he says we are "winning" in Iraq?

Dozens killed in Baghdad's deadliest day this Ramadan

Story Highlights
NEW: Thirty-four deaths by bombs are the most in one day in Baghdad this Ramadan
NEW: Four others killed in Diyala province
Fifteen killed in attacks involving suicide bomber, car bomb in commercial area
Car bomb near market in separate area kills at least 12

From Jomana KaradshehCNN
http://tinyurl.com/3j43cw


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Several bombings across Baghdad killed 34 people Sunday -- the bloodiest day in the capital during this holy month of Ramadan, an Interior Ministry official said.
Also Sunday, in Iraq's Diyala province, at least four people were killed and 17 others wounded in several attacks, a security official in the province said.
The attacks came as Iraqis prepared for Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan with feasts and celebrations. The holiday in Iraq begins Tuesday.

In Baghdad's central Karrada district, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest detonated minutes after a bomb in a parked car exploded, the Interior Ministry's head of Explosives and Ordnance Disposal unit said, speaking on state-run al-Iraqia television.

Twenty people were killed and 72 wounded in those attacks, which occurred in a busy commercial area in Karrada. Three women and four policemen were among the dead, and the wounded included seven policemen and women and children, the Interior Ministry said.

Initially, the Interior Ministry reported a roadside bomb followed the car bomb. But Iraqi Gen. Jihad al-Jabiri of the Interior Ministry later said that as people gathered about 328 feet (100 meters) from where the car had exploded, the suicide bomber detonated amid the crowd, causing most of the casualties.

Earlier Sunday, a bomb detonated in a car parked near a southwestern Baghdad market and mosque, killing at least a dozen people and wounding 35 others, the official said. The attack, which occurred shortly before Iftar -- the evening meal at which Muslims break their fast during Ramadan -- took place in a predominantly Shiite area.

Around the same time, a bomb attached to a car detonated on a bridge in southwestern Baghdad, killing the driver and wounding a civilian bystander, the official said. It was believed the bomb was attached to the car without the driver's knowledge, the official said.

Earlier Sunday, a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol close to a restaurant in western Baghdad's al-Mansour district, killing one soldier and wounding three others.

In Diyala province, a roadside bomb struck an Iraqi Army patrol in Balad Ruz Sunday morning, killing at least two soldiers and wounding 10 others, a security official in the province said. Balad Ruz is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of the provincial capital of Baquba.

In Diyala's Khan Bani Saad, near Baquba, gunmen opened fire on civilians Sunday and killed at least two people, the official said.

And in central al-Saadiya -- a predominantly Kurdish town northeast of Baquba -- a roadside bomb struck the convoy of Ahmed al-Zarqoushi, the town's mayor. The attack wounded al-Zarqoushi and seven others, including five members of his security detail and two civilian bystanders.

SARAH PALIN IS FOR CENSORSHIP: WATCH THIS EYE-OPENING VIDEO

This video about Republican Vice President candidate Sarah Palin is based on an article that recently appeared in the New York Times.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/eUZgYqGtEy8&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO


Palin FIRED a librarian for refusing to remove books from the library she found morally or socially objectionable. Palin never offered specifics of which books she wanted banned. There is no list.

Palin moved to fire the librarian for simply refusing to go along with her plan. According to the article Palin DID fire the librarian. She was only rehired after the town protested.

Palin FIRED city officials that appeared in a commercial for the incumbent mayor. Even the head of the Wasilla Museum!?

Palin BLOCKED all city officials from speaking to the press without her permission.

Sound like anyone we know? BUSH?

And this was for a town of less than 10,000 people.

Imagine what she will do if she were vice president! President!!!

ARE YOU A PUPPET? WATCH AS JON STEWART SLICES AND DICES PALIN, ROVE, O'REILLY, HANNITY AND FOX NEWS

FOX NEWS has never been held to any kind of journalistic standards. FOX NEWS is a propaganda branch or mouthpiece for the BUSH White House, the GOP and now the McCAIN/PALIN ticket.

In this video, Comedy Central's JON STEWART, host of the "Daily Show," splices together clips from various FOX NEWS anchors and commentators to show how they live by double-speak and are shameless in the way they lie to their audience of sheep.

One of many FOX NEWS' slogans is: "We Report. You Decide."

A better slogan for FOX NEWS would be: "We Distort. You've Been Had."

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/LPEmfVeqKtM&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

WATCH THE EERIE COMPARISON BETWEEN SARAH PALIN AND MISS SOUTH CAROLINA AND MUCH MORE

This video takes excerpts from the three interviews Republican vice president candidate Sarah Palin has conducted and mixes it with a rambling statement from "Miss South Carolina" to show the similarities between Palin and "Miss South Carolina."

But there is much, much more with some of the leading journalists in America voicing their opinions about Sarah Palin and how she is NOT ready to be a heartbeat away from sitting in the Oval Office if she and 72-year old John McCain are elected.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/ntEE9Zy-qQQ&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

McCAIN'S YOUTUBE PROBLEMS JUST BECAME A NIGHTMARE

John McCain says he doesn't know how to send an email. Apparently McCain also doesn't know anything about the modern-day internet and YouTube who caught him in these LIES.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/GEtZlR3zp4c&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

McCAIN LIED ABOUT HIS SUPPORT OF VETERANS AND TROOPS IN DEBATE

John McCain flat out LIED to the American public when he rattled off all he is done for veterans during the first Presidential debate with Barack Obama.

Too bad Obama didn't have THESE facts to toss right back at McCain and see how the LIAR would have answered them:

McCain Lied about his Support of Veterans and Troops

by: Brian McGough

Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 00:05:21 AM EDT
http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1957


In Friday's debate John McCain said "I know the veterans, I know them well, and I know that they know that I'll take care of them, and I have been proud of their support and their recognition of my service to the veterans, and I love them, and I'll take care of them, and they know that I'll take care of them."

Truth be told, this is not the case. McCain has a lackluster voting record when it comes to veterans' issues, and America's veterans know it. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America have given McCain a grade of "D" when it comes to voting in their interest. The Disabled American Veterans have given McCain a 20 percent rating when it comes to voting in the interest of disabled veterans.

McCain has voted 29 times against veterans' medical benefits. In April 2006, McCain joined only 13 other senators in voting against an amendment that would increase funding for the VA to provide outpatient care and treatment. Earlier that year, McCain voted against increasing funding for military and veterans' hospitals. This was money that could have been used to fix the problems at Walter Reed before it became a national disgrace.

McCain was a staunch opponent of the bipartisan Webb/Hagel GI Bill. This bill would have provided better educational opportunities to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. McCain called this bill "too generous" and tried to introduce his own watered down bill. McCain didn't even bother to show up to vote for the bill. After it passed the two staunchest opponents of the GI Bill, President Bush and John McCain, tried to take credit for its passage.

McCain has an equally bad record when it comes to supporting our active duty soldiers. McCain opposed the Webb/Hagel Dwell time amendment. This amendment would have ensured that for every day troops were deployed, they would spend one day at home.

This time would have allowed troops to decompress from combat stress and to focus on maintaining the equipment necessary to fight a war. Our troops and equipment are now dangerously overstretched.

McCain opposed the Bayh amendment that would have provided $360 million for the procurement of up-armored humvees at a time when roadside bombs were killing American troops.

McCain voted to kill the Reed Amendment. This amendment would have begun to increase the size of the active army in 2003 and focused on stability operations.

McCain voted against the Dodd amendment that would provide an additional $320 million in protective gear for our troops in harms way.

McCain also voted against a Landrieu amendment that would have given our National Guard and Reserve troops the equipment they needed to survive on the battlefield.

There is a distinct pattern in these votes, and that pattern shows that John McCain is no friend to veterans on Capitol Hill. He may say all he wants that he is, but that doesn't change the fact that he votes time and time again against the needs of veterans and active duty soldiers.

OBAMA IS RIGHT: McCAIN IS WRONG ON IRAQ WAR: WATCH VIDEO

The best exchange of the presidential debate Friday night was when Barack Obama nailed John McCain on the IRAQ WAR.

This video chronicles all the times in the past what McCain said about the IRAQ WAR and shows how wrong McCain was in the past over what he said about the IRAQ WAR.

This video snapshot dissects McCain's past remarks about the IRAQ WAR and shows how Obama was able to pin McCain to the wall over what he has said in the past.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/xG1aOORf8Pc&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

U.S. INVASION DESTROYS THE PREMIERE HOSPITALS IN BAGHDAD

IRAQ: The Biggest Hospitals Become Sick

Inter Press Service

By Arkan Hamed and Dahr Jamail

BAGHDAD, Sep 25 (IPS) - Not even the elevators work now at Baghdad Medical City, built once as the centre for some of the best medical care.One of the ten elevators still does, and the priority for this is patients who have lost their legs -- and there are many of them.

The rest, the doctors, patients and students at the four specialised teaching hospitals within the building complex, just take the stairs, sometimes to the 18th floor.

This is in a city that had been given dreams of great development five years back, around the time of the U.S.-led invasion. And much of the corporate-led media in the U.S. and Europe still insists that the situation in Baghdad has "improved".

The improvement that such media sees, no one in Iraq does.

As with Baghdad Medical City, so with Baghdad, and so with Iraq.

The elevators are just another reminder of a country that's not working."It's so bad here that patients who are moderate cases don't come for treatment at all," says Abdul Razak, an elevator serviceman at the complex. "They just send a family member to describe their condition and collect medicine."It's a hard day's work for Razak when he is operating the elevator. "The smell of my sweat mixes with the smell of at least 20 other people who crowd into the lift." It gets less sweaty to the extent there are more wheelchairs.Razak has been doing his job for the last ten years, the first five of them quite happy ones. "We used to have a special elevator just for doctors and professors," he says. "But by now most have left, and some have been killed. I know three doctors who have been killed."Past the elevators and up the stairs, it gets worse.

"There is no air-conditioning in the building, when temperatures can be 48C, almost no qualified staff to serve patients, no antibiotics, and sometimes not even basic material for intravenous treatment," says Dr. Samir Abdul Zahra, who treats patients while also doing his medical studies.There are no senior doctors around. "Most of them left because of the situation in the city, the lack of security," Dr. Zahra says. And that affects teaching as much as treatment. "We are educating ourselves now.

This means also that young doctors are taking on complex cases they are simply not qualified to deal with."This dilemma is particularly acute at Baghdad Medical City because it is the largest medical complex in Iraq, and the most serious cases are usually taken to this hospital.At this complex now, it is not even safe to drink tap water any more. Sometimes doctors cannot find water even to wash their hands. Equipment is often not sterilised.And the prescriptions they write can mean little. "Most of the medicines we have here are out of date, and we lack almost all basic antibiotics," says Dr. Saad Abu Al-Noor, a pharmacist at the supply warehouse at Baghdad Medical City. "We cannot get medicines from the stores because of lack of security, and because there is just too much corruption all over."

Patients in need or their family members are sent out to the shops to buy catheters, disposable syringes and essential medicines, Dr. Noor said. "If the patient is lucky, he can find the items on the black market. And then the question is if they can afford these things. The price is ten to 20 times higher than it should be."And finally, when all is at hand for the very few, and a doctor of some kind is available, electricity is often lacking for serious treatment.

The hospital gets about two hours of electricity a day. It has some generators, but these have to be cut out frequently.The Medical City, located in central Baghdad, includes the Baghdad University College of Medicine.

The largest hospital in the complex is the Surgical Specialties Hospital built in 1980. The second largest is the Baghdad Teaching Hospital, built in the early 1970s, which contains the out patient clinics and the emergency department. The complex has over a thousand beds for patients.

WATCH AS SARAH PALIN TELLS KATIE COURIC ABOUT ALASKA AND ITS RUSSIAN NEIGHBOR

In Pt. 2 of CBS' Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin, Couric asks the GOP vice president candidate whether she ever has had meetings with Alaska's neighbor Russia.

You won't believe how Palin answers Couric's question.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/ezxqgDDND6Q&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

CASUALTY REPORT FROM IRAQ---THE FORGOTTEN WAR

For the past several months, and in particular the past week, the war in IRAQ has been totally forgotten and the American public hasn't got a clue what is happening in IRAQ because NOBODY in the media reports on the IRAQ WAR anymore.

The IRAQ WAR has become "THE FORGOTTEN WAR II." (The Korean War was the first "FORGOTTEN WAR.")

Below is an updated report on two US. soldiers wounded in AFHANISTAN and IRAQ and a series of bombings and killings in IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN.

Click on any name or topic in "BLUE" to obtain more information:

Casualty Reports:staff sergeant Chuck Isaacson, 29, was paralyzed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. For Isaacson, a flight engineer on a Chinook helicopter, Feb. 18, 2007, was a regular day transporting service members from one spot to another in southern Afghanistan. But the aircraft suffered a mechanical failure during a snowstorm and the Chinook crashed, killing eight of the 22 people aboard. Isaacson woke up hanging outside the wreckage by his harness and realized he couldn't move his legs. Lying in 10 inches of snow, he waited several hours for help to arrive. He was the only flight crew member to survive. Isaacson's lungs collapsed, and his injuries included a broken leg, broken ribs, broken neck and three fractures in his back. Doctors fused his spine from near the top of his neck to his lower back. Months of rehabilitation followed. Now Isaacson, who is paralyzed from the waist down.

Cpl Joshua Hoffman, USMC 1st BN 24th Marine Regiment-Michigan was hit by sniper fire in Iraq in 2007 on his 3rd tour of duty. The sniper’s bullet severed his spinal cord at the base of his neck and left him a quadriplegic. After over a year in the hospital Josh still faces months, if not years, of physical rehabilitation and therapy as he strives to regain movement in his upper body and develop his language skills.

Reported Security incidents:

Baghdad:#1: A roadside bomb wounded six people, including one soldier, in the Zaafaraniya district of southeast Baghdad, police said.

#2: Gunmen killed a civil servant in a drive-by shooting in southeast Baghdad, police said.Gunmen shot an employee in the Ministry of Municipalities and Works on the main road of al-Rashid Camp at 8 a.m. Thursday.

#3: A roadside bomb near a police patrol wounded at least three civilians in eastern Baghdad, police said.A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol near al-Shaab Stadium in east Baghdad wounding three civilians.

#4: The U.S. army in Iraq denied on Thursday that its forces wounded Iraqi civilians by random fire in eastern Baghdad. “The U.S. forces did not randomly shoot any civilians in al-Fadieliya region in eastern Baghdad,” Abdellatif Rayan, the U.S. army's media adviser, told Aswat al-Iraq, describing such news as bare of truth. A police source had said yesterday that seven civilians were wounded by U.S. random fire when an explosive charge went off targeting the forces in eastern Baghdad.

#5: An IED placed in a dumpster near Maysaloon Square, east Baghdad exploded at noon Thursday wounding three civilians.

#6: A roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in al-Rabae Street the thoroughfare in al-Jamia neighbourhood, western Baghdad injuring four people including one policeman.

#7: A roadside bomb targeted civilians near al-Samarrai Mosque in Amil, southeast Baghdad at six p.m. Thursday killing two, including one child, injuring five, also including one child.

#8: Three unidentified bodies were found in Baghdad today by Iraqi Police; one in Karrada, one in Palestine Street and one in Doura.

Diyala Prv:Baquba:#1: update Iraqi police on Thursday raised the death toll in an ambush against Iraqi forces raiding a Sunni village northeast of Baghdad to 35, most of whom were police commandos sent to the area as part of a U.S.-backed military crackdown. A police officer in the provincial military operation center said 27 policemen were killed, raising the total to 35. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity.

#2: A roadside bomb targeted civilians in al-Kharab village, 4 km to the south of Baquba at 5.30 p.m. killing three people including one female, all from one family

.Kut:#1: Policemen found unknown civilian body in the wee small hours of Thursday morning in northern Wassit, a security source said. “A police force found the body in al-Dabouni district in north of Kut,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq.“The blind-folded body bore signs of torture and was sent to the forensic medicine department in al-Zahraa hospital in Kut,” he added.

Sinjar:#1: The Iraqi army killed three gunmen in the district of Sinjar on Thursday, 390 km (240 miles) northwest of Baghdad, Brigadier-General Khalid Abdul Sattar, the spokesman for Iraqi military operations in Nineveh province said.

Mosul:#1: One civilian was killed and three others wounded when gunmen attacked a police patrol with rocket-propelled grenades in western Mosul 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.Four civilians were killed or wounded in a missile attack in western Mosul city, a security source said on Thursday. "An RPG attack launched by gunmen from alleys in Bab Sinjar area, western Mosul, on a police patrol vehicle left one civilian killed and three others wounded, who were close to the scene," the source told Aswat al-Iraq. "None of the patrolmen was injured," the source noted, adding that one of the civilians was seriously wounded and another had his leg cut off.

#2: Three insurgents from the al Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq killed themselves when police raided their house in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said. They included an Iraqi man, Malik Mohammed al-Jabouri, who Askari said was a senior commander of the group in Mosul. They died when a Saudi Arabian fighter amongst the three detonated his suicide vest.

Afghanistan:#1: Helicopter gunships Thursday pounded militant positions in northwest Pakistan along the Afghan border, leaving 14 Taliban rebels dead. “According to preliminary reports, at least 14 miscreants were killed and numerous injured in today’s shelling,” a security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, using the term Pakistani officials employ to refer to militants.

#2: On Wednesday, intense fighting in Bajaur resulted in the death of seven troops and 25 militants, military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. Dozens of fighters attacked the troops stationed at a government school building in the Rashakai area. The two sides exchanged rocket and mortar fire during the hours-long fighting, after which military helicopters and jets bombarded the militants.

#3: In one attack, a remote-controlled bomb blew up a police vehicle near the southern border town of Spin Boldak late Wednesday, killing two border policemen, Kandahar province police chief Mutiullah Khan told AFP.

#4: Another remote-controlled bomb blew up early Thursday in the nearby city of Kandahar and killed a civilian man who was crossing a road, a policeman at the scene said. The explosives, fixed to a bicycle, were detonated as a minibus carrying police trainers to work was passing, said the policeman, Gul Mohammad. The vehicle was only slightly damaged.

#5: NATO says Pakistani troops fired at their helicopters patrolling eastern Afghanistan, but no damage is reported. In a statement, NATO says its helicopters did not cross into Pakistan's airspace when they came under fire near Tanai district of Khost province.

BREAKING NEWS: 1 US SOLDIER, 43 IRAQIS KILLED, 35 IRAQIS WOUNDED

If the Presidential debate is held Friday, Sen. Barack Obama will have plenty to talk about in respect to the situation in Iraq. Here is what happened on Wednesday in Iraq.


Wednesday: 1 US Soldier, 43 Iraqis Killed: 35 Iraqis Wounded

Updated at 11:31 p.m. EDT, Sept. 24, 2008

http://www.antiwar.com/updates/?articleid=13500

At least 43 Iraqis were killed and another 34 were wounded in the latest violence. Among them were 35 security personnel who were killed in a bold attack in Diyala province. Also, the Department of Defense reported that a U.S. soldier died from an non-combat illness.

A contentious debate over a provincial elections law ended today when Parliament unanimously passed the law. The main stumbling block had been indecision over a power-sharing scheme for multi-ethnic Kirkuk. Elections there will be postponed until those specific issues are resolved, but lawmakers hope that polls will open elsewhere before the end of January.

Gunmen ambushed a number of security personnel in Dulaimiyat, killing 35 of them. The bulk of the dead were policemen and Awakening Council members.

In Uthmaniya, gunmen attacked a checkpoint killing three policeman and wounding five others.
In Baghdad, a bomb planted on a car killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded six others in Shabb.

In Fudhailiyah, seven Iraqis were injured during an attack on an American patrol. Gunmen wounded four people, including a brigadier general in the Interior ministry during an attack on their vehicle. A body was found in Ur. Also, 26 suspects were detained.

A bomb blasted a convoy carrying the security commander in Samarra. Six bodyguards were injured.

One policeman was killed and another was wounded during a raid in Khan Bani Saad.
Gunmen killed a school guard in Abara.

A roadside bomb wounded three policemen in Saidiya.

In Mosul, a roadside bomb wounded two Iraqi soldiers. Police arrested two men who threw a hand grenade at a checkpoint; no casualties were reported. Four suspects were detained.
A weapons cache was found in Basra.

A man was killed while trying to plant a bomb in Kirkuk.

Also, an Iranian news agency reported that about 200 Shi'ite websites have been suffered cyber attacks

U.S. IS GOING TO HIDE THE RISING DEATH COUNT IN AFGHANISTAN

'Grim' Afghanistan Report To Be Kept Secret by US
US intelligence analysts are putting the final touches on a secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan that reportedly describes the situation as "grim", but there are "no plans to declassify" any of it before the election, according to one US official familiar with the process.

PALINTOLOGY: WATCH AS SARAH PALIN IS CLEANSED OF WITCHES BY HER 'WITCH HUNTER' PASTOR

Shocking Footage of Palin Praying With 'Witch Hunter'

By Max Blumenthal, MaxBlumenthal.com
Posted on September 24, 2008, Printed on September 25, 2008

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/100149/shocking_footage_of_palin_praying_with_%27witch_hunter%27/

Wasilla, Alaska

On September 20 and 21, I attended services at the church Sarah Palin belonged to since she was an adolescent, the Wasilla Assembly of God. Though Palin officially left the church in 2002, she is listed on its website as "a friend," and spoke there as recently as June 8 of this year.

I went specifically to see a pastor visiting from Kiambu, Kenya named Thomas Muthee. Muthee gained fame within Pentecostal circles by claiming that he defeated a local witch, Mama Jane, in a great spiritual battle, thus liberating his town from sin and opening its people to the spirit of Jesus.

Muthee's mounting stardom took him to Wasilla Assembly of God in May, 2005, where he prayed over Palin and called upon Jesus to propel her into the governor's mansion -- and beyond. Muthee also implored Jesus to protect Palin from "the spirit of witchcraft." The video archive of that startling sermon was scrubbed from Wasilla Assembly of God's website, but now it has reappeared.

WATCH VIDEO OF SARAH PALIN AS SHE IS CLEANSED OF WITCHES BY ALASKA WITCHCRAFT PASTOR:


http://www.youtube.com/v/kj-on3kfWuE&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW IN PICTURE TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

Read more here: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/100149/shocking_footage_of_palin_praying_with_%27witch_hunter%27/

BULLETIN: MARTIAL LAW EFFECTIVE OCT. 1. WATCH VIDEO

Amy Goodman of the Democratic Underground http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x197567 reports the 3rd Infantry Division is being brought back to the U.S. for crowd control beginning Oct. 1 as the U.S. enters a state of martial law.

WATCH VIDEO HERE:

http://www.youtube.com/v/OvVAKx8E_r4&hl=en&fs=1

CLICK ON DIAMOND-SHAPED ARROW TO ACTIVATE VIDEO

MESSAGE TO SENATOR McCAIN CONCERNING DEBATES: BRING 'EM ON!

Message to Senator McCain concerning debates: Bring em on!

By Mary MacElveen
http://www.marymacelveen.com/blog/_archives/2008/9/25/3899993.html

In these past two weeks since the stock market crashed two times within one week, it was Senator John McCain who said, “The fundamentals of our economy are strong” only for President Bush to say Wednesday night, “The economy is in danger” For the first time in these eight long years, it was President Bush’s words that I believed and that is not saying much since I have consistently written of his failed administration. By the way where was Bush when the first crash happened?

Being a heart patient and witnessing McCain’s erratic behavior during this crisis, my heart palpitated. It was only hearing Senator Barack Obama calmly state in a news briefing certain key points that must be included in this $700 billion dollar bailout did I feel the palpitations lessen. Such as oversight and taxpayers being treated like investors.

For McCain to dictate how the both of them should react to this crisis is a tone that only a dictator would use and we have had eight long years of Bush who once said, “I am the decider” It took guts for Obama to stand up to McCain and not blink concerning McCain’s call for a postponement of the debates and say, "This is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who, in approximately 40 days, will be responsible for dealing with this mess," Obama also stated, "It's going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once." In fact he has been in constant contact with Hank Paulson and others in congress to be kept up to speed.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee even chimed in saying, that, “Obama’s and McCain’s help was not needed.”

Bush even stated during his speech to the nation on Wednesday night which counters McCain, “We're in the midst of a serious financial crisis, and the federal government is responding with decisive action.” So, Senator McCain, let the debates go on or as Bush once said in the early days of the Iraq War while painting a target on our soldier’s back, “Bring em on.”

There were many other key words contained within Bush's speech that I feel will send some Americans into panic mode such as danger, collapse, and “some serious negative consequences" While the fault lies with an unbridled free-market system with little regulations which is the Republican philosophy when it comes to doing business, at least he was coming clean in how this will affect Americans. Unlike McCain who switched gears day-to-day last week and who became confused as to who the Prime Minister of Spain was.

If he thought it was imperative to go to Washington to become part of these proceedings, then why did he parade his running mate Sarah Palin around at the United Nations for photo-ops and a course in foreign policy 101? If he felt it urgent then he should have flown back then and suspended his campaign then. You do not do so two days prior to the debates. That could have been done early last week when the crash first occurred. I agree with Obama that Americans need to hear from who will be their next president since there will be a transition after the November elections.

In our own thoughts hearing them answer certain key and vital questions, we need to take them out for a test drive in our mind. In both their temperament and tone, Americans must witness how they will handle future critical moments as we go forward.

Again if there was a sense of urgency coming from McCain to return to Washington, this article reported, “McCain said he would return to Washington on Thursday after an address to former President Clinton's Global Initiative session.”

I think that on Wednesday, Americans got a taste of the matrix where one takes either the red or blue pill. In the movie ‘The Matrix’ the difference between the red and blue pill is as follows, “When Morpheus and Neo meet, Morpheus offers Neo two pills. The red pill will answer the question "what is the Matrix?" (by removing him from it) and the blue pill simply for life to carry on as before. As Neo reaches for the red pill Morpheus warns Neo "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more." I do think that this was the moment in time where Americans needed to hear the truth for once. Like it or not, most of us have taken that red pill and we do not like what we see.

The late president, John F. Kennedy once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” and this is directed at those Hillary Clinton supporters as well as the eighteen percent that was reported today who are undecided, it would be irresponsible to elect John McCain as the next president.

There was a clear disconnect between Bush and McCain which was apparent on Wednesday night. Also from what was reported today the Republicans were in disarray when it came to this bailout. We cannot have four more years of Republican’s controlling the White House. We need clarity and not confusion.

The article that reported that eighteen percent of voters are up for grabs, this one passage stuck out, "A large chunk of these voters say they are hurting on a personal level from the country's economic woes, and, like everyone else, they say the economy is the top issue. Most haven't decided who would best solve their problems as president; neither candidate has an advantage on handling the economy."

While the article expresses that, one only has to remember the Keating Five scandal which John McCain was embroiled in and where the senate ethics committee stated he “showed poor judgment” We must also remember that McCain’s economic advisor Phil Gramm wrote most of the deregulation laws that got us to this point.

In a complete 360 from last week, McCain stated of this bailout, "I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time," The same sense of urgency came when it came to voting for the authorization for Bush to invade Iraq and we all know how that turned out. This time, congress has to be sure for the American people that this time they get it right. I think in that statement, it showed a McCain in panic mode and we cannot have a president who sends the American people into panic.

Those that are still on the fence need to hear from these two candidates come Friday night. In fact we as Americans need to hear from Senators Obama and McCain as to who can lead us rationally into the future. Let the debates go on.

You may contact the author at this email address, xmjmac@optonline.net

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Message-to-Senator-McCain-by-Mary-MacElveen-080925-104.html

http://www.marymacelveen.com/blog/_archives/2008/9/25/3899993.html

WATCH AS KATIE COURIC ASKS SARAH PALIN THE SAME QUESTION THREE TIMES----AND SHE STILL CAN'T ANSWER IT

GOP vice president candidate Sarah Palin was interviewed by CBS' Katie Couric and in this video you will see Couric ask the same question three times and she still can't get a plausible answer.

It is worth watching the video just to see Palin's final answer.

WATCH VIDEO HERE AFTER BRIEF COMMERCIAL:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4476649n

NEW YORK TIMES: McCAIN'S TOP CAMPAIGN ADVISER PAID $15 THOUSAND A MONTH BY FREDDIE MAC THROUGH AUGUST

If the debate this Friday night is cancelled, one of the primary reasons could be because John McCain would be asked why his top campaign adviser, Rick Davis, was on the payroll of Freddie Mac to tune of $15,000 a month right up until the end of August.

McCain helped put the United States in this financial mess by following the lead of former President Ronald Reagan who deregulated all the agencies that were put in place after the Great Depression to safeguard a meltdown like we are seeing now.

McCain just last month said nobody on his campaign staff were involved with lobbying for any of the financial companies caught up in the financial mess.

McCAIN LIED.

McCain Aide’s Firm Was Paid by Freddie Mac

By JACKIE CALMES and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/us/politics/24davis.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1222286698-CsaSoA+fIfdwg7ZOsEqcbg

WASHINGTON — One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.

The disclosure undercuts a remark by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years.

Mr. Davis’s firm received the payments from the company, Freddie Mac, until it was taken over by the government this month along with Fannie Mae, the other big mortgage lender whose deteriorating finances helped precipitate the cascading problems on Wall Street, the two people said.

They said they did not recall Mr. Davis’s doing much substantive work for the company in return for the money, other than to speak to a political action committee of high-ranking employees in October 2006 on the approaching midterm Congressional elections.

They said Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis Manafort, had been kept on the payroll because of his close ties to Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who by 2006 was widely expected to run again for the White House.

Mr. Davis took a leave from Davis Manafort for the presidential campaign, but as an equity holder continues to benefit from its income. No one at Davis Manafort other than Mr. Davis was involved in efforts on Freddie Mac’s behalf, the people familiar with the arrangement said.

A Freddie Mac spokeswoman said the company would not comment.

Jill Hazelbaker, a spokeswoman for the McCain campaign, did not dispute the payments to Mr. Davis’s firm. But she said that Mr. Davis had stopped taking a salary from the firm by the end of 2006 and that his work did not affect Mr. McCain.

“Senator McCain’s positions on policy matters are based upon what he believes to be in the public interest,” Ms. Hazelbaker said in a written statement.

The disclosure comes at a time when Mr. McCain and his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, are sparring over ties to lobbyists and special interests, seeking political advantage in a campaign being reshaped by the financial crisis and the plan to bail out investment firms.

Mr. McCain’s campaign has been attacking Mr. Obama for ties to former officials of the mortgage giants, both of which have a long history of cultivating Democratic and Republican allies alike to fend off efforts to restrict their activities. Mr. McCain has been running a television advertisement suggesting that Mr. Obama takes advice on housing issues from Franklin D. Raines, former chief executive of Fannie Mae, a contention denied by Mr. Raines and the Obama campaign.

Freddie Mac’s payments of roughly $500,000 to Davis Manafort, the people familiar with the arrangement said, began in late 2005, immediately after Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae disbanded an advocacy coalition that they had set up and hired Mr. Davis to run.

From 2000 to the end of 2005, Mr. Davis received nearly $2 million as president of the coalition, the Homeownership Alliance, which the companies created to help them oppose new regulations and protect their status as federally chartered companies with implicit government backing.

That status let them borrow cheaply, helping to fuel rapid growth but also their increased purchases of the risky mortgage securities that proved to be their downfall.

The payments that Mr. Davis received for leading the Homeownership Alliance were reported in Monday’s issue of The New York Times. On Sunday, in an interview with CNBC and The Times, Mr. McCain responded to a question about that tie between Mr. Davis and the two mortgage companies by saying that he “has had nothing to do with it since, and I’ll be glad to have his record examined by anybody who wants to look at it.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/us/politics/24davis.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1222286698-CsaSoA+fIfdwg7ZOsEqcbg

BULLETIN: McCAIN WANTS TO CANCEL FRIDAY DEBATE WITH OBAMA

MSNBC News just announced that John McCain wants to cancel his debate with Barack Obama this Friday and concentrate on the financial mess in our country.

My reaction:

Where was this SOB for the past 23 years when he voted to deregulate every safeguard there was to keep this financial crisis from happening?

It should be noted, President Ronald Reagan started this financial mess when he deregulaed all the watchdog agencies that were put in place after the Great Depression to keep anything like we are seeing now from EVER happening again.

McCain also wanted to privatize social security which would have put people in the horrible position of paying for their own medical needs and putting their money into the stock market.

McCain has also voted against any more funding for the Veterans Administration.

Meanwhile, McCain's veep pick, "Puss 'n Boots," Sarah Palin, has been running around the UN and spending 20 seconds or 30 seconds with various world leaders.

Palin's "in depth" meeting with Afghanistan leader Hamid Karzai was about his new baby.

WASHINGTON POST: YOUR TAX DOLLARS: $13 BILLION WASTED OR STOLEN ON IRAQ PROJECTS

$13 Billion in Iraq Aid Wasted Or Stolen, Ex-Investigator Says

By Dana HedgpethWashington Post Staff WriterTuesday, September 23, 2008; A19
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/22/AR2008092202053.html

A former Iraqi official estimated yesterday that more than $13 billion meant for reconstruction projects in Iraq was wasted or stolen through elaborate fraud schemes.

Salam Adhoob, a former chief investigator for Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, an arm of the Democratic caucus, that an Iraqi auditing bureau "could not properly account for" the money.

While many of the projects audited "were not needed -- and many were never built," he said, "this very real fact remains: Billions of American dollars that paid for these projects are now gone."

He said a report that went to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top Iraqi officials was never published because "nobody cares" about investigating such cases. Many investigators, he said, feared for their safety because 32 of his co-workers have been murdered.

Adhoob said he reported the abuses to the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an agency charged by Congress with helping to root out cases of waste, fraud and abuse in the nearly $50 billion U.S. reconstruction effort. SIGIR spokeswoman Kristine Belisle said her agency continues to "actively follow up" on Adhoob's information, but she would not discuss ongoing investigations.

Read more http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/22/AR2008092202053.html

EXCLUSIVE: MALIKI SUGGESTS BUSH PUSHED TO EXTEND U.S. PRESENCE IN IRAQ TO HELP McCAIN

Last July, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said U.S. troops should be out of Iraq “as soon as possible” and endorsed Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) withdrawal plan. Obama “talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,” Maliki told Der Spiegel magazine.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/23/maliki-bush-mccain-iraq/

Days later, as Obama wrapped up meetings with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh reiterated his government’s stance, saying “the end of 2010 is the appropriate time for the withdrawal.”

Negotiating the post-UN mandate security agreement with Iraq, Bush argued for more time and both sides ultimately agreed that all U.S. troops would be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, not 2010, even though Bush has said previously that “if they were to say, leave, we would leave.”

Why did Bush go back on his word? A source tells ThinkProgress that White House communications staff were concerned that Maliki’s endorsement of the 2010 time line would damage Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) presidential campaign. Indeed, during an interview with Iraqi television last week (according to an Open Source Center translation), Maliki suggested that the U.S. presidential elections played a role:

Actually, the final date was really the end of 2010 and the period between the end of 2010 and the end of 2011 was for withdrawing the remaining troops from all of Iraq, but they asked for a change [in date] due to political circumstances related to the [U.S] domestic situation so it will not be said to the end of 2010 followed by one year for withdrawal but the end of 2011 as a final date.

In fact, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said that as part of the security agreement, Bush wanted U.S. troops to stay in Iraq even longer. “It was a U.S. proposal for the date which is 2015, and an Iraqi one which is 2010, then we agreed to make it 2011,” Talabani said.

But by endorsing Obama’s time line, Maliki indirectly slighted McCain, who has consistently and strenuously argued against setting a withdrawal date and has even said he wouldn’t mind having U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years. But Maliki’s new position has left McCain scrambling, first saying its “a pretty good timetable,” but then denying he used “the word timetable” and later settling on “anything is good.”

Despite Bush’s constant refrain that commanders, not politics, will decide the course in Iraq, it seems that trying to help his party retain the White House is more important.