AS AN APPETIZER to his new blog at Pajamas Media -which opens tomorrow-, actor Ron Silver has written a great article. Don't miss it.

THE IRANIAN REGIME is aiming at its critics in cyberspace; it has lashed out against Pajamas Media, among others. It's quite an honor.

UPDATE. Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit is also proud.

WORSE BY THE DAY, EH?

October is on course to record the second consecutive decline in U.S. military and Iraqi civilian deaths and Americans commanders say they know why: the U.S. troop increase and an Iraqi groundswell against al-Qaida and Shiite militia extremists.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch points to what the military calls "Concerned Citizens" — both Shiites and Sunnis who have joined the American fight. He says he's signed up 20,000 of them in the past four months.

"I've never been more optimistic than I am right now with the progress we've made in Iraq. The only people who are going to win this counterinsurgency project are the people of Iraq. We've said that all along. And now they're coming forward in masses," Lynch said in a recent interview at a U.S. base deep in hostile territory south of Baghdad. Outgoing artillery thundered as he spoke.

UPDATE. Read this too.

MICHAEL YON, who has been independently blogging from Iraq, writes on the media disinformation on the country's present situation. Don't miss it.

FROM THE H-BOMB to the human bomb: French philosopher André Glucksmann writes on modern terrorism, which "seeks to combine the annihilating power of Hiroshima with the nihilistic gospel of Auschwitz." Read it all.

IRAN'S new chief nuclear negotiatior is not just more extremist than the alleged 'moderate' that Larijani was. It's worse. Much worse.

HEH. There's dead that you can laugh about. It's almost a moral obligation.

AHEM:

A strong majority of Afghans approve of the presence of NATO-led troops in their country, including from Canada, and want the foreign soldiers to remain to fight the Taliban and support reconstruction efforts.

In a poll of Afghans conducted by Environics Research on behalf of The Globe and Mail, the CBC and La Presse, respondents expressed optimism about the future, strong support for the government of President Hamid Karzai and appreciation for the work being done by NATO countries in improving security.

MEDIA HONESTY MATTERS: 101 media frauds. It's discouraging when you see all of them like this, in just one place.

ETA TRIES TO KILL AGAIN: the bodyguard of a Socialist councilman has been seriously injured after a bomb in his car exploded (could have been a car bomb that went off, the Spanish media is reporting). This comes after almost the entire leadership of Batasuna, Eta's banned political wing, were arrested during a meeting last week. Its mouthpiece, the Basque newspaper Gara, described the arrests as "a declaration of war".

TODAY'S must-read.

MULLAH VS. MULLAH: a fascinating look into the internal power struggle in Iran. Don't miss it.

IRAQ: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. That's not Bush, it's the venerable magazine of the British Left.

VIOLENT DEATHS IN IRAQ down... by half! Spanish media silent.