UPI:

The U.S. Department of Defense is creating a Public Affairs "rapid response team" to respond to what it sees as unfair or inaccurate coverage.

Many of the additional staff at the Pentagon Public Affairs Office will be dedicated to booking television news appearances for DOD officials and their representatives, and to trying to convince reporters and newspapers to cover the stories that the Pentagon wants to see more of.

Others will be dedicated to monitoring the Internet, creating podcasts and responding to reports on blogs, negative stories and terrorist propaganda.

The Pentagon press office in the last few weeks has also inaugurated a new blog on its Web site defenselink.mil to respond immediately to news reports it objects to. Read on...

Anybody else see SEVERAL red flags on this one?

WaPo :

The top U.S. military commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., predicted last week that Iraqi security forces would be able to take control of the country in 12 to 18 months. But several days spent with American units training the Iraqi police illustrated why those soldiers on the ground believe it may take decades longer than Casey's assessment.

Seventy percent of the Iraqi police force has been infiltrated by militias, primarily the Mahdi Army, according to Shaw and other military police trainers. Police officers are too terrified to patrol enormous swaths of the capital. And while there are some good cops, many have been assassinated or are considering quitting the force.

"None of the Iraqi police are working to make their country better," said Brig. Gen. Salah al-Ani, chief of police for the western half of Baghdad. "They're working for the militias or to put money in their pocket." Read on...

DECADES???? Holy friggin' cow. What have we wrought?

Heard it on CNN a few minutes ago. Now:

Gunmen seized two Sunni coaches from a youth club Wednesday in Baghdad, while authorities searched for dozens of Shiites abducted along a dangerous highway north of the capital in another outbreak of Iraq's relentless tit-for-tat sectarian violence.

More troops will only bring more deaths to our soldiers, but still John Kerry is running their programming.

John McCain had this weird---glazed look in his eyes as he attacked John Kerry's botched joke on Hannity & Colmes Tuesday night. (Here's Kerry's reply to the distortions)

Download | play -WMP Download | play -QT

How quickly St. McCain forgot his high praise of Kerry:

In his work toward that day, Kerry earned the "unbounded respect and admiration" of McCain, who, like others in the Senate, originally viewed Kerry with suspicion. "You get to know people and you make decisions about them," says McCain. "I found him to be the genuine article."

or this :

On a more serious note, McCain added later, "I think that the best Americans from both parties should be the nominees of their parties, so that the American people would have the very best to select from, and I would certainly put Sen. Kerry in that category."

It's sad how an election cycle will bring out the worst in people. I guess the Republicans are that desperate, but by bringing up the Iraq war front and center, they might have made a mistake:

In attacking Mr. Kerry and defending the war, the White House clearly made the calculation that achieving what has been its main strategic goal this year — firing up a dispirited conservative base — would outweigh any risk that might come in spotlighting a war that Republican Party officials said had become a huge burden for its candidates.

I really had to laugh at this interview between Mark Halperin and Hugh Hewitt the other day. He's the political director at ABC and engaged in a whining email exchange trying to prove that he's not part of the "liberal" media to the likes of Hewitt. Now that's good fun. Usually a person with Halperin's job would know that the Cowardly Lion is one of the most biased and dishonest right wing talkies there is.

It makes no difference what Halperin does or says to Hewitt. NONE. He will ridicule Halperin no matter what. It's part of the conservative shtick, but what's so telling about this exchange is that Halperin actually thinks he'd be allowed into their club. Mark, please wake up. Wolf Blitzer was just treated the same way by Lynne Cheney and yet he expressed similar outage that the Lynnster would question his patriotism. As Greenwald says:

Isn't there something extremely unseemly about the political director of ABC News engaging in such an intense campaign to win the approval of one of the most blindly partisan, extremist Bush followers in the country?

As Ezra notes:

It is now a matter of public record, however, that Mark Halperin is writing with an eye towards Hugh Hewitt's approval. Everything he writes must be judged through that lens. Much of it must be discarded for that reason. He's no longer a journalist, can no longer protect his pretensions of intellectual independence. He's no longer, if he ever was, worth reading.

Is there any clearer indication why our media is so screwed up?

From the Secret Letter From Iraq:

Biggest Outrage — Practically anything said by talking heads on TV about the war in Iraq, not that I get to watch much TV. Their thoughts are consistently both grossly simplistic and politically slanted. Biggest Offender: Bill O'Reilly.

Will O'Reilly attack the soldier's patriotism? I wish him well.

(h/t penndit )

On CNN Newsroom this morning, hosts Heidi Collins and Tony Harris were covering the incident at George Allen's speech yesterday, where blogger and constituent Mike Stark was physically assaulted by apparent members of Allen's staff. During their reporting they continually referred to Stark as a "protestor". This video also contains a different angle of the attack as well as better audio:

Download | play - WMV Download | play - MOV

At the end, Heidi Collins says: "The really scary thing I saw though - because you just don't know who you are dealing with anymore - because he had a backpack on". Of course only suspicious people would be wearing a backpack (or carrying luggage) in a place like a HOTEL!

Instead of CNN reporting off of what sounds like talking points from the Allen campaign, why don't they actually report and try to get Stark's side of the story. Here is a letter Stark has written, talking about what happened:

My name is Mike Stark. I am a law student at the University of Virginia, a marine, and a citizen journalist. Earlier today at a public event, I was attempting to ask Senator Allen a question about his sealed divorce record and his arrest in the 1970s, both of which are in the public domain. His people assaulted me, put me in a headlock, and wrestled me to the ground. Video footage is available here, from an NBC affiliate.

I demand that Senator Allen fire the staffers who beat up a constituent attempting to use his constitutional right to petition his government. I also want to know why Senator Allen would want his staffers to assault someone asking questions about matters of public record in the heat of a political campaign. Why are his divorce records sealed? Why was he arrested in the 1970s? And why did his campaign batter me when I asked him about these questions...Read On

AP via MSNBC:

House Speaker Dennis Hastert is expected by many Republicans to step aside as the GOP's leader if Democrats win big in next week's election. He may be on his way out even if the GOP emerges with a narrow majority.

The No. 2 House Republican, Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, is looking very much like a candidate to fill Hastert's shoes even though some Republicans appear to be agitating for fresh faces all around, win or lose. Read on...

The Bush Cultists have so little to run on that they have to LIE about Pelosi to try and rally their base and make her the "Big Bad." Kevin Drum finds Thomas Sowell at his worst.

As regards the war on terrorism and the terrorists’ war against the west, Nancy Pelosi has opposed having international phone calls to and from terrorists monitored by American intelligence agencies.

Drum explains: This is, flatly, a lie. Pelosi, like many Democrats, opposes NSA surveillance of American residents without a warrant. That is all she opposes. Period.

Happy Halloween!

Skimpy Halloween Costumes Scary for Parents

Are Halloween costumes becoming more strip club than storybook?
Some say the holiday is becoming scarier thanks to costumes with less material.

Parents are having a harder time finding kid-friendly costumes at party supply and costume stores.

Monday said they are looking for attractive outfits for their children that do not show too much skin.

I don't even want to imagine what the Washington Page Halloween party was like, do you?