Most mainstream media have omitted in reporting the news that over a year ago, public health experts put the number at 100,000.

The original Lancet study is online—registration is required to access. The radio show This American Life also did a segment earlier in the year on the credibility of the Lancet study, and found it to be credible. Link to broadcast is here.

The Lancet study was widely critiqued by the right for its methods, which were made public and employed very common statistical sampling techniques, some deriving from a Pentagon statistictian. So should the method behind Bush’s number be made public.

I trust a group of (hopefully) non-partisan public health experts far more than Bush and Rummy.

It turns my stomach that our president can actually justify this war to himself and others despite this massive and unnecessary loss of life. Will no one point out to him the immorality of “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here” when it causes the death of innocent women and children? He claims that we are bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East. What good is freedom when you must worry every day about your children dying, no to mention when your electricity will work and where your next job will come from?

After the speech ended early, Bush — in a rare move — took questions from the audience. When the president was asked about the number of Iraqi deaths in the war, he estimated 30,000 people have been killed since March 2003.

According to Reuters, a White House spokesman said Bush was giving a figure based on media reports and the number wasn’t an official estimate from the U.S. government.

I was under the impression from everything I’ve heard that this figure is far greater that 30,000. Has anyone seen the media reports the White House referenced and can anyone provide better figures on this so we can hold the White House to account on their ridiculous statement.

I’m Jewish and I know the freakin’ lyrics.

What the hell is wrong with this guy?

• Bush knew there was no Iraq-9/11 link – The National Journal is reporting that the September 21, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing informed Bush that “the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda.” The article goes on to say that not only did Saddam not ally himself with Al Qaeda but that he distrusted the organization and considered infiltrating it with his own security operatives.
• Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazeera, the story grows – This one is a bit (but only a bit) harder to believe. A group of international journalists has been claiming for a while that the US Military has purposefully attacked Al Jazeera offices and employees. Now some documents have leaked out in Britain seeming to corroborate these claims. While Downing Street won’t comment, the two people who leaked the documents are being prosecuted under the UK’s Official Secrets Act. [UPDATE:] Juan Cole seems to believe it.
• Willy Pete use classified as “chemical” by pentagon – Finally the White Phosphorous story is starting to get some traction in the mainstream media. This story has been bubbling on the blogs for the past few days and what it comes down to is that it seems that US troops are using WP as a chemical weapon. Now of course the Bushies say that it’s not a crime since WP isn’t considered a chemical weapon in any treaty we’ve signed but Kos rightly points out that our moral standing in the world is not based on legalistic arguments. More at ThinkProgress, AlterNet, and The Wizard. If you didn’t know, WP melts skin right to the bone and was used on civilians during the US invasion of Fallujah.

A war built on lies, the murder of journalists, chemical warfare on civilians, and the utter destruction of the moral highground that our country has always held so dear. This is the legacy of Bush and Cheney. Hopefully at least things are changing here.

No surprise, Gary was ahead of the ball and had a queue of Harriet Miers strips all ready to go for confirmation week.

Also, in case you missed it, the White House earlier in the week sent a cease-and-desist letter to the parody news publication, The Onion, requesting that it stop using the Presidential seal on its weekly radio address spoof. Right…. Well The Onion fired back with this weekend’s Weekender section featuring our lovely first lady, Laura Bush.

This is NOT going to be a good day for Bush. Laura must be out on her balcony chain smoking her nerves away…

2 percent of African Americans approve of the president. 2%!!

Tim Russert this morning said of the new poll, he could not “find a pollster who can remember any President ever getting just 2 percent approval from African-Americans.�

Read more about this article here

The fidgeting clearly corresponded to the questioning. When Lauer asked if Bush, after a slow response to Katrina, was “trying to get a second chance to make a good first impression,” Bush blinked 24 times in his answer. When asked why Gulf Coast residents would have to pay back funds but Iraqis would not, Bush blinked 23 times and hitched his trousers up by the belt.

When the questioning turned to Miers, Bush blinked 37 times in a single answer — along with a lick of the lips, three weight shifts and some serious foot jiggling. Laura Bush, by contrast, delivered only three blinks and stood still through her entire answer about encouraging volunteerism..

It’s almost sad to watch as Bush fades into his role as a legitimately failed President.

UPDATE: C&L has the video and you’ve got to watch it. First of all, the people behind him aren’t doing anything!! Bush seems like a elementary school debater, deflecting criticism with weak attempts at humor and dancing around like he needs to ask teacher if he can use the bathroom. It’s a really bad sign when even Matt Lauer can make you look foolish.

With that off my chest, there are ways to still get to the Select content and today’s editorial by Tom Friedman is particularly enlightening. He offers a unique take on the quagmire in Iraq by claiming that it is not the intelligence failure on WMDs that will ultimately be seen as the Bush cabal’s downfall in Iraq, but rather their complete misunderstanding of the socioeconomic status of the country prior to invaasion:

But I think Saddam knew how busted and bankrupt his country and army were. Therefore, he never wanted to completely erase the impression that he had W.M.D. Saddam lived in a den of wolves. The hint of W.M.D. was his only deterrent shield left against his neighbors, his enemies at home and the West. (This was alluded to in the Duelfer W.M.D. report.) So he tried to allow just enough U.N. inspections to clear him on W.M.D., while playing just enough cat and mouse with the U.N. to leave the impression that he still had something dangerous in the closet.

The Bush team, and the C.I.A., not only failed to learn that Saddam had no W.M.D., they failed to appreciate how devastated Iraqi society really was. The Bush team, listening largely to exiles who had not lived in Iraq for years, thought that there were much more of an Iraqi middle class and more institutions than actually existed. So Mr. Bush thought taking over Iraq would be easy. That is the only way I can explain his behavior.

This intelligence failure about Iraqi society is what is killing us today. Because what really happened after the U.S. invasion is that what little Iraqi state existed just fell apart in our hands, like a broken vase. And then Rummy let the shards get looted.

Friedman has a tendency to create his own grand hypotheses and then treat them as fact, but this one rings true with me.

[UPDATE: Here's a link to the full version.]

Fast forward 20 years and we find ourselves in a similar situation. George W. Bush has been the biggest failure in American history and yet he won a second term (barely) and has survived scandal after lie after scandal.

Friends, for many years W. could do no harm. Until now. His approval ratings are at 37% today, the worst ever measured in this particular poll. Will it stay this low? The answer is probably no.

But, the teflon has cracked in this Presidency and Bush’s reckless days leading an apathetic nation are over.

Does anyone know of a website that has a counter on it ticking down to the end of this long, national nightmare that is the Bush Administration?