Daily Briefing: Go With What Works

• Bush addresses UN General Assembly, wants to embrace a peace-loving Iran, avoids Ahmadinejad like he had the enriched uranium in his pocket. [ WP , NYT , LAT , W$J ]

• White House "blinks" in stand-off with McCain's gang, torture bill being revised. [ NYT ]

• Troop levels in Iraq not going down in 2006, could go up. [ WP ]

• Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki at least partially to blame for that. [ NYT ]

• Laura Bush "is the most popular Republican in the country right now." [ WP ]

• Seemingly bloodless coup in Thailand threatens young democracy, stalwart sex trade unaffected, thanks for asking. [ W$J ]

• An Iraqi reporter chillingly laments the lack of good Samaritans in his Baghdad neighborhood. [ LAT ]

• Aerospace giant Boeing wins multi-billion dollar contract for border security in spite of the massive fuck-ups with its luggage screening work. [ WP ]

• George Allen figures a little extra ethnicity couldn't hurt, embraces Jewish roots. [ WP ]