Midday Open Thread

• Eleven yesterday, eight today, 55 this month:

  Eight U.S. troops are killed in bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the alliance said, in one of the deadliest weeks for U.S. troops ahead of a presidential run-off.

  Several troops were also wounded in "multiple complex (bomb) attacks, just a day after 11 U.S. troops died in separate helicopter crashes.

• Alan Grayson (D-FL) calls a female lobbyist a "K Street Whore," which was either a blatantly sexist and offensive remark, or the same way one would describe a male lobbyist -- you make the call.
• Now that Max Baucus (D-MT) has done his bit for health care reform, he turns his attention to climate change legislation. He doesn't like that either.
• Arlen Specter (D-PA) tweets to the left:

  Just as we were finally able to pass hate crimes legislation, it's time to defeat the Defense of Marriage Act.

• Is it possible that Roy Blunt (R-MO) will be the next Republican who is just too darn moderate for the teabaggers?
• There's a joke in here somewhere:

  An intriguing nugget from this week’s Pew survey of which stories were deemed the most newsworthy by the big news orgs:

  The No. 4 story (at 5%) was the growing swine outbreak in the U.S. and the scramble for scarce vaccine.

  And a media outlet itself was a central player in the fifth-biggest story last week. The intensifying confrontation between the White House and the Fox News Channel accounted for 5% of the newshole.

• George W. Bush as a motivational speaker?
• Well, if you can win a prize ...

  In his latest attempt to drive attention to his hate-filled agenda, Terry has launched a contest to encourage people to make videos burning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in effigy. Randall Terry’s press release states:

  Join a Contest! Win Prizes!

  Who Can make the best “Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid BURN IN HELL!” video?

• If 6 out of 10 Americans support it, you can bet the GOP opposes it.
• If you're in the DC area on Thursday, you really ought to check out the Campaign For America's Future's Making It In America conference, which is being held from 9.30-3.30 at the Washington Court Hotel. The free event, which focuses on the need to build a clean, green, 21st-century American economy focused on the needs of working Americans, boasts an impressive speaker list -- including Sherrod Brown, Ed Rendell, Kate Gordon of the Apollo Alliance, Rich Trumka, and Leo Gerard of the Steelworkers. And rumor has it that Meteor Blades himself might even be in attendance.  Go! --Jake McIntyre
• The first of many?

  But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, [Matthew] Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.

  "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end."