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FALLUJAH, Iraq - Eight US marines were killed and nine wounded west of Baghdad on Saturday in the bloodiest attack on US forces in Iraq for months.
The US military gave no details of the circumstances of the deaths, which it said occurred in the western province of Anbar, which includes the rebel cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.
Witnesses said earlier they had seen three US vehicles burning on a road east of Fallujah, in Anbar province. It was not clear if that is where the marine (…)

By BOB HERBERT
Not long ago I interviewed a soldier who was paralyzed from injuries he had suffered in a roadside bombing in Iraq. Like so many other wounded soldiers I’ve talked to, he expressed no anger and no bitterness about the difficult hand he’s been dealt as a result of the war.
But when I asked this soldier, Eugene Simpson Jr., a 27-year-old staff sergeant from Dale City, Va., whom he had been fighting in Iraq - who, exactly, the enemy was - he looked up from his wheelchair and (…)

by Paul Krugman
Just in case, the right is already explaining away President Bush’s defeat: it’s all the fault of the "liberal media," particularly The New York Times, which, so the conspiracy theory goes, deliberately timed its report on the looted Al Qaqaa explosives - a report all the more dastardly because it was true - for the week before the election.
It’s remarkable that the right-wingers who dominate cable news and talk radio are still complaining about a liberal stranglehold (…)

By David G. Savage and Richard B. Schmitt
Administration lawyers argue that only the Justice Department, not the voters, may sue to enforce provisions in the Help America Vote Act.
Washington - Bush administration lawyers argued in three closely contested states last week that only the Justice Department, and not voters themselves, may sue to enforce the voting rights set out in the Help America Vote Act, which was passed in the aftermath of the disputed 2000 election.
Veteran (…)

A 9/11 CITIZENS’ GRAND JURY INDICTS ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS &
VISIBLE EVIDENCE OF DEPLETED URANIUM AT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
By Christopher Bollyn American Free Press
A citizens’ grand jury in Los Angeles has voted to indict the highest officials in the administration of George W. Bush for complicity in the events of 9/11.
LOS ANGELES, California - A citizens’ grand jury has voted to indict the highest officials of the U.S. government for complicity in the events of 9/11 after (…)

By Jeremy Laurance and Colin Brown
The first scientific study of the human cost of the Iraq war suggests that at least 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives since their country was invaded in March 2003.
More than half of those who died were women and children killed in air strikes, researchers say. Previous estimates have put the Iraqi death toll at around 10,000 - ten times the 1,000 members of the British, American and multi-national forces who have died so far. But the study, (…)

View the Video ( here )
With a new video proudly declaring war on Bush, Eminem steps into the political fray, perhaps the least likely - and most effective - generational leader imaginable.
By Davina Baum
There was merely a ripple in the cultural zeitgeist when Bruce Springsteen put aside his genial nonpartisan everyman stance and headlined the Vote for Change concerts, benefiting America Coming Together (ACT), and ultimately, John Kerry. No one blinked when Ani diFranco set off on her (…)

Speech by Bond preceded look at tax-exempt status
By Genero C. Armas
WASHINGTON — The NAACP’s chairman says the group’s tax-exempt status is under review by the government in an investigation he contends stems from a speech he gave that criticized President Bush.
The head of the Internal Revenue Service did not confirm that his agency was investigating the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, but he strongly rejected the idea the agency would conduct an audit for (…)

By William Rivers Pitt
So the bastard is still alive.
He isn’t dead of kidney failure or rotting in a cave somewhere in the Hindu Kush. He wasn’t smoked out of his hole, and he in no way appeared to be on the run. The images broadcast on every American television station in the last few hours showed a man apparently in good health, clothed in traditional white and wrapped in a golden robe. His hands were steady and his voice was clear. From all appearances, Osama bin Laden is tanned, (…)

by Jason Leopold
In October 2002, the New York Times reported that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered the military’s regional commanders to rewrite all of their war plans to capitalize on precision weapons, better intelligence and speedier deployment in the event the United States decided to invade Iraq, ignoring concerns from career military officials that American military forces will suffer a huge number of casualties under Rumsfeld’s plan.
Rumsfeld denied, in an Oct. 12, (…)