New Link Added.

I've added Debbie Schlussel to my Top Blogs section. Rush mentioned her blog on his show yesterday. So, I decided to check it out. It seems pretty good, though I'm not sure I agreed with everything there. But most of it seemed right on target. I've also noticed a very severe oversight in my Top Blogs section,Rush Limbaugh is not there. This is now fixed.

October 17th White House Press Briefing.

As usual Tony Snow does an excellent job of articulating the President's message. I just wish he and the President would trumpet the progress we're making in Iraq. Progress like schools, health care and infrastructure that would balance out the bad news. Not that we should gloss over the bad news. But, the American people need to know that death and destruction is not the ONLY going on in Iraq. We are doing good things over there and the American people would glad to know it.

Bad Math Or Just Dishonest Reporting?

The newly released report from theLancet medical journal puts the mortality rate in Iraq at over 650,000 since 2003. Iraq Body Count basically says that number seems to be inflated. In their article "Reality checks: some responses to the latest Lancet estimates" by Hamit Dardagan, John Sloboda, and Josh Dougherty, they point out the problems with the Lancet report.

One astounding implication of the Lancet report that stuck in my mind is point 1 in the Iraq Body Count's summary "On average, a thousand Iraqis have been violently killed every single day in the first half of 2006, with less than a tenth of them being noticed by any public surveillance mechanisms". Can you imagine 1000 people a day being killed in Iraq and the MSM not reporting it with as much fanfare as they could muster? They would be able to turn numbers like that into a get out of Iraq campaign that couldn't fail. But, they do not. Which can only mean that the Lancet numbers are incorrect. Don't take my word for it, read the reports for your self and decide which one you think is more accurate.