Nearly 3,000...

1010 WINS - On-Air, Online, On Demand: At least 2,993 members of the U.S. military have been killed since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an AP count.

25,000 dead or wounded.
...
December was shaping up to be one of the worst months for Iraqi civilian deaths since The Associated Press began keeping track in May 2005.

The AP didn't start counting civilian deaths for the first two years of the war??

Through Thursday, at least 2,139 Iraqis have been killed in war-related or sectarian violence, an average rate of about 76 people a day, according to an AP count. That compares to at least 2,184 killed in November at an average of about 70 a day, the worst month for Iraqi civilians deaths since May 2005. In October, AP counted at least 1,216 civilians killed."

Total, as far as anyone can tell ('cause the media wouldn't report on it), is over 22,000. If there are 22,000 Iraq civilians killed, how many are wounded?

Pray even harder for our troops...

Hussein executed, Iraqi TV stations report - CNN.com: "BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been executed, according to two Arabic language media outlets."

Idiots in charge...

Spam and the ISG.

TPMmuckraker December 28, 2006 02:20 PM: "Over at the National Review's blog, The Corner, Cliff May apologizes for posting a year-old anonyous forwarded email as news. May, let's note, was an adviser to the James Baker-led Iraq Study Group."

Ice Storm

So, the blizzard that went through Denver and NE Colorado dumped some rain on parts of Kansas, and then dumped some snow, resulting in an ice storm. Wreaks havoc on the poor trees, the power lines and the highways. But man, oh man, it's beautiful when the sun shines on it.

My mom took these pics:

Lawmaker stands firm on Quran criticism - Yahoo! News

Lawmaker stands firm on Quran criticism - Yahoo! News: "Goode also told Fox News he wants to limit legal immigration and do away with 'diversity visas,' which he said let in people 'not from European countries' and 'some terrorist states.'

In his letter, Goode wrote that strict immigration polices are necessary 'to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America.'"

Hmmm...wouldn't those traditional values include the Bill of Rights? 'Specially, oh, say, the first one??

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I think we need to require that all of our elected officials take the new immigration test as a condition of being allowed to circulate a petition to get their names on the ballot.

Unless Mr. Goode is talking about another "traditional" value on which our country was founded -- bigotry and slavery. Or women not being able to vote.

I still believe...

In a changing nation, Santa endures:
“Santa, some people are saying they don’t believe in you,” she told him shyly.
“Well, what do you say to them?”
“I tell them they haven’t met you.”

Blizzard

There was snow all over the state today. And wind. I-25 closed. I-70 closed. DIA closed (and that's no small thing, lemme tell you). All the mountain passes closed. Avalanche warnings. And we're still under a blizzard warning until tomorrow mid-morning or so.

It's chilly, chilly, chilly. Makes for a beautiful white Christmas. Makes travel sorta sucky, though. People tell me there's been more snow in this area so far this year than there was all winter last year. I don't mind. Not fond of the ice, but the snow is beautiful.

Mr. Snow Miser had his way with us today ;)


Mr Snow Miser in mp3

Lies and the lying liars who tell them...

Independent Online Edition > UK Politics: "The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. "

If Blair lied, Bush lied. Too bad our press won't print the L-Word.

"Mr Ross revealed it was a commonly held view among British officials dealing with Iraq that any threat by Saddam Hussein had been 'effectively contained'."
...
"At the same time, we would frequently argue when the US raised the subject, that 'regime change' was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos."
...
"The Foreign Office had attempted to prevent the evidence being made public, but it has now been published by the Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs after MPs sought assurances from the Foreign Office that it would not breach the Official Secrets Act."
...
"Mr Ross said in late 2002 that he "discussed this at some length with David Kelly", the weapons expert who a year later committed suicide when he was named as the source of a BBC report saying Downing Street had "sexed up" the WMD claims in a dossier."
...
"Mr Ross, 40, was a highly rated diplomat but he resigned because of his misgivings about the legality of the war. He still fears the threat of action under the Official Secrets Act."

Rare White Dolphin extinct

baiji.org foundation – Overview: "Wuhan, 13 December 2006 – The Baiji Yangtze Dolphin is with all probability extinct. On Wednesday, in the city of Wuhan in central China, a search expedition, under the direction of the Institute for Hydrobiology Wuhan and the Swiss-based baiji.org Foundation, drew to a finish without any results. During the six-week expedition scientists from six nations desperately searched the Yangtze in vain."

Thanks, George.

Is this some of the "good news" to which Laura Bush was referring when she complained that the media covers nothing but the bad?

Women Lose Ground in the New Iraq - washingtonpost.com: "For much of the 20th century, and under various leaders, Iraq was one of the most progressive Middle Eastern countries in its treatment of women, who were encouraged to go to school and enter the workforce. Saddam Hussein's Baath Party espoused a secular Arab nationalism that advocated women's full participation in society. But years of war changed that.

In the days after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, many women were hopeful that they would enjoy greater parity with men. President Bush said that increasing women's rights was essential to creating a new, democratic Iraq.

But interviews with 16 Iraqi women, ranging in age from 21 to 52, show that much of that postwar hope is gone. The younger women say they fear being snatched on their way to school and wonder whether their college degrees will mean anything in the new Iraq. The older women, proud of their education and careers, are watching their independence slip away."

A (sort of) fun way to kill a few minutes

Well, OK. I got sidetracked in my searching by messing around with the Google Image Labeler. It's something to do for a bit.

Who says there's no draft?

So, dude (or dudette) that signed up a few years ago for "two weeks a year and one weekend a month" is now going to stay longer than a year and go more than 3 or 4 times to Iraq?

And what could Hannity do on his trip to Iraq? Ask real questions? Nope.

Army, Marine Corps To Ask for More Troops - washingtonpost.com: "In addition, the Army will press hard for 'full access' to the 346,000-strong Army National Guard and the 196,000-strong Army Reserves by asking Gates to take the politically sensitive step of easing the Pentagon restrictions on the frequency and duration of involuntary call-ups for reservists, according to two senior Army officials."

What say you, ISG??

Apparently nothing.

Census Counts 100,000 Contractors in Iraq - washingtonpost.com: "There are about 100,000 government contractors operating in Iraq, not counting subcontractors, a total that is approaching the size of the U.S. military force there, according to the military's first census of the growing population of civilians operating in the battlefield."

But what about the lesbians?

Or, real men don't eat tofu. Evidently, soy makes one a homosexual.

WorldNetDaily: A devil food is turning our kids into homosexuals: "Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality. That's why most of the medical (not socio-spiritual) blame for today's rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products."

Ok, but what about the lesbians? If soy is so "feminizing" you'd think, what with all the tofu we eat, we'd be long straight by now.

Jesus' General

Jesus' General

The Fighting First Family

I created this tribute to the contribution the Bush children, nephews, and nieces are making to the war effort.

With friends like this....

With "friends and lawyers" like this, who needs enemies and. . .well . . laywers??

AH: Al Gore responds to Lindsay’s loopy e-mail - Access Hollywood - MSNBC.com: "According to a rambling, typo-ridden e-mail the New York Post’s Page Six says Lindsay sent to friends and lawyers, the actress plans on leaning on Gore."

Well, that didn't take long

GWB being GWB. On the ISG report:

But this president may not be in much of a hurry to accept Baker's ideas about that — or much else. Asked if Baker would help implement the report, a spokesman for Mr. Bush said, 'Jim Baker can go back to his day job.'

Iraq

I assume the report will be here (after CNN posts it, doubtless).

In the meantime, 2908 are dead, with 46,137 non-mortal casualties. More than 49,000 US men and women hurt or killed because of this stupid, stupid war.

UPDATE: When I posted the numbers this a.m., there were 2908 dead. Now, 11 hours later, there are 2919 gone.

Hallmark needs a card...

Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts - Mary Cheney and Partner Are About to Be Moms - washingtonpost.com: "Mary Cheney, the vice president's openly gay daughter, is pregnant. She and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, are 'ecstatic' about the baby, due in late spring, said a source close to the couple."

Uh, hey, American Citizen. You're being watched...

Millions assigned terror risk score on trips to the US | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited: "But civil liberties groups fear it amounts to an unwarranted intrusion on privacy. 'This is a tremendously significant deal. It means the federal government has secretly assigned a terrorist rating to tens of millions of US citizens,' said Marc Tenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington.
David Sobel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation told the Associated Press: 'It's probably the most invasive system the government has yet deployed in terms of the number of people affected.'
The ATS database works by drawing together information held on individuals and companies from the US Treasury, customs and immigration departments and enforcement agencies. Commercial airlines supply data through passenger name records, and foreign governments share intelligence on a bilateral basis."

Don't think that 'rendering' couldn't happen to you. It could.

snowflake

Ok, it's not the best picture. If i would have realized it was there, I'd have tried to take a better one. It's been snowing here all day. It truely is beautiful. Hopefully it'll be sunny enough for me to take some pictures of the mountains tomorrow.

Record heroin production

It's really too bad that Bush wasn't more into nation building. Remember this from the 2000 debates?

I think what we need to do is convince people who live in the lands they live in to build the nations. Maybe I'm missing something here. I mean, we're going to have kind of a nation building core from America? Absolutely not. Our military is meant to fight and win war. That's what it's meant to do. And when it gets overextended, morale drops.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but perhaps if Bush had been a bit more into helping these people, rather than sending a few bombs over then sending 140,000 troops to Iraq, Afghanistan opium production wouldn't have have set records in 2006.

Opium production in Afghanistan, which provides more than 90 percent of the world's heroin, broke all records in 2006, reaching a historic high despite ongoing U.S.-sponsored eradication efforts, the Bush administration reported yesterday.

Northern Sun

So, one of my favorite places to shop is Northern Sun. I've purchased a few things from this site. The Disappearing Civil Liberties mug is one. I think I might need to get this button:

Officials Expect No Big Changes, No Matter What Panel Advises

Just what about the elections last month did our dear president not understand? Certainly Iraq was not the only issue that helped voters pick democrats. But it was one of the major issues. Whatever. Stay the course, I guess. No matter what. January 20, 2009 cannot get here soon enough.

Officials Expect No Big Changes, No Matter What Panel Advises - washingtonpost.com: "In a further indication that the White House may be digging in its heels, the U.S. officials told the diplomats that President Bush looks forward to seeing the Iraq Study Group report, but they stressed that he will have the last word on what happens next and will not succumb to outside pressure, the sources said."

Well-known GOP activist held in sex-predator sting

They're gonna have to stop campaigning on "family values" pretty soon. Unless this is actually what they mean.

The Seattle Times: Local News: Well-known GOP activist held in sex-predator sting: "Larry Corrigan, a well-known activist in local Republican politics as a backer of U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert and King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng, was arrested Wednesday in an Internet sting for allegedly trying to arrange sex with a 13-year-old girl."