There are ten days to go, but October has been the deadliest month of the year for U.S. troops in Iraq.

For Iraqis, it's been even worse:

So far this month, at least 907 Iraqis have been killed in war-related violence, an average of 43 a day.

Senior State Department official Alberto Fernandez, in an interview with al-Jazeera, said "the U.S. had shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq."

And what does Bush have to say? The other day he said we're not leaving until we win. Yesterday, he met with his advisors and the report is there will be a shift in strategy -- geared to make the Iraqis take over. Another election time shuffle:

Frank Rich fancies himself a wizened cynic, awake to all the ills of Democratic spinelessness. But Obama weaved his spell, to the point that Rich rips Hillary for the exact positions Obama himself holds, while getting his facts wrong in the process. Too funny:

That’s why it’s important to remember that on one true test for his party, Iraq, he was consistent from the start. On the long trail to a hotly competitive senatorial primary in Illinois, he repeatedly questioned the rationale for the war before it began, finally to protest it at a large rally in Chicago on the eve of the invasion [Since Obama ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004, it is hard to see how Obama could have been doing that]. He judged Saddam to pose no immediate threat to America and argued for containment over a war he would soon label “dumb” and “political-driven.” He hasn’t changed. In his new book, he gives a specific date (the end of this year) for beginning “a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops” and doesn’t seem to care who calls it “cut and run.” Contrast this with Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, who last week said that failed American policy in Iraq should be revisited if there’s no improvement in “maybe 60 to 90 days.” This might qualify as leadership, even at this late date, if only John Warner, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, hadn’t proposed exactly the same time frame for a re-evaluation of the war almost a week before she did.

Obama's position on Iraq today is precisely Hillary Clinton's position - the Levin Amendment's no set date withdrawal resolution. But Frank Rich is intent on lionizing Obama, damn the facts.

I've been searching for the transcript to former President Bill Clinton's "Common Good" speech at Georgetown this past week for days. I should have known Think Progress would have it.

Read and spread it around, and use it to help send Republicans packing.

Here's more on Common Good Progressivism.

The one bright spot for the GOP this election cycle has been the success of Joe Lieberman's reelection run so far. Red State is ecstatic:

Amusingly, the netroots is now hyping the candidacy of Republican Alan Schlesinger, who is also a candidate for the Connecticut Senate seat in the event that anyone has forgotten. The netroots seems to believe that this will somehow trick Republicans into voting for a non-viable candidate and allow Lamont to sneak his way past Lieberman for the Senate seat. And somehow, they seem to think that no one is wise to this.

If the Republicans are able to hold Lieberman's seat, it certainly will be the biggest win of the cycle for the Republicans.

More reason to redouble our efforts for the Democratic candidate, Ned Lamont.

A new Newsweek poll finds that Republicans are losing support among their base. Here are some of the findings:

• Majority Wants Dems to Win Congress;
• 31 Percent of White Evangelicals Would Vote for Democratic Candidate in Their District
• Bush Approval at 35 Percent;
• 56 Percent Say President Won't Be Able to Get Much Done in Remainder of Term
• 74 Percent Support Dems on Drug Pricing, Including 70 Percent of Republicans;
• 68 Percent Support Dems on Hike in Minimum Wage,
  Including 53 Percent of GOP
• 65 Percent of Americans Say U.s. Losing Ground in Iraq;

And perhaps the worst for the GOP,

• Terrorism Trails as Issue Behind Iraq, Economy, and Health Care

To ease overcrowding in its prisons, Great Britain is about to bring back prison ships, also known as "floating jails."

The government has advertised for contractors to provide up to 800 places on ships in England and Wales.

Britain closed its last prison ship in 2005.

The director of the Howard League for Penal Reform has criticised the Home Office's decision to advertise for spaces on ships and warned it could lead to more prisoner re-offending.

Britain used prison ships in the U.S. during the Revolutionary War.

Spencer Ackerman has left The New Republic and it is major hit to that publication, for Ackerman was clearly the best they had. There are other fine writers still at TNR of course, Chait for instance and Frank Foer himself. But Ackerman stood out.

Ackerman has a new blog -
I am sure it will fast become a must read.

Last year while patrolling the border, two border agents, Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, stopped a van carrying 743 pounds of pot. The driver, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, fled across the border and both agents fired. One of the bullets hit Aldrete-Davila in the behind.

Federal prosecutors convinced a jury in March that the agents had shot a defenseless man and schemed to cover it up. Much of the evidence against them came from the drug runner, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, who reported the shooting to a friend at the Border Patrol in Arizona. Aldrete-Davila was given immunity from prosecution by the U.S. attorney's office.

Yesterday, the agents were were sentenced to federal prison terms of 11 years and 12 years.

The Minutemen decried the sentence. Why?

This makes me very uncomfortable. A group in Congress is trying to reach out to faith-based voters to sell them on how Democrats are are a party of faith.

Rather than cede red states to Republicans, the party is buying airtime on Christian radio stations, with the message that Democrats are indeed a party with deep moral convictions.

Moral convictions are fine. Religious-based pitches are not.

I want the Democrats to win in November, but not by pandering to those who want to mix religion and politics.

Update: Scout_Prime at First Draft tells the G-d Dems to get out of the way. I agree. Why don't they follow those calling for the Common Good instead of Republicans?

I am a newcomer to posting here at TalkLeft, but have been a longtime reader and fan of Jeralyn, Chris and LNILR.

What I have found since becoming a poster at TalkLeft is the intelligent and generally civil exchange of ideas and arguments that the TalkLeft community brings. And it can only get better now that TalkLeft has installed Scoop software, the best there is in my opinion. The best voices, and often, the best conversations, will often now be found in the diaries, linked in the right hand column.

Jeralyn has been generous with us in making this investment in Scoop. I wish to emulate her generosity, and ask the TalkLeft community to join me. I am offering a $500 matching contribution to TalkLeft - I will match your contributions dollar for dollar up to a maximum of $500. Thus, you can double the value of your contributions, be they 10, 25, 50 or whatever you can give, courtesy of my wallet. I think Jeralyn can count on the TalkLeft community to express its gratitude for her hard work and generosity with a litle generosity of our own.

Matt Stoller posits:

Now, this race is exceptionally strange, because it means that Connecticut is cutting against the national tide pretty aggressively. . . . Is the war is less important in Connecticut than nationally? I don't think so. Could it be Lamont? Is it because Lamont didn't successfully paint himself as opposed to the war? Not likely. So what is going on, exactly? . . . {I]n a nutshell. Joe Lieberman has promised to end the war in Iraq, and it's a message that a substantial number of antiwar Democrats, Republicans, and unaffiliated voters want to hear. . .

Boy does Matt give the Lamont campaign a free pass here. Lieberman has not said anything substantive on Iraq for months, including the primary campaign, and Lamont has let him get away with it. Lamont's campaign was given terrible advice and took it - broaden the message. For those who care, on the other side what I think the Lamont campaign should be talking about 24/7.