2,757 American soldiers dead since the beginning of 2005

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Saturday June 07, 2008 · 3:12 PM PDT

2008/06/07 · 15:12

Based on the information at the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, we can guess that if John Kerry had been elected president, that's approximately how many men and women who dedicated their lives to protecting us have died under Bush. Nearly all of them would likely be alive today under President Kerry.

Then there's the civilian cost: a bare minimum of 35 civilians lost per day in 2005, 72 per day in 2006, 60 per day in 2007 and 33 per day in 2008 thus far. Extrapolating, that's 12,775 innocent people killed in 2005, 26,280 in 2006, 21,900 in 2007 and approximately 5,000 in 2008, give or take a few helpless children. And that's just the deaths that have been duly recorded; the real numbers are almost certainly much higher.

Roland X

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Saturday January 26, 2008 · 8:08 PM PST

2008/01/26 · 20:08

Yes, it's a lame joke. Gallows' humor and all that. My apologies, Senator Edwards...but it's time to face the truth. You will not win this nomination.

I really hoped it wouldn't come to this. I've been an ardent supporter of yours for months, and believe that you have the best platform of the major candidates. Watching the media ignore you has been infuriating, and the enmity you've earned from the megacorps has only increased my respect for your devotion to the needy and your willingness to fight for them, and us all. I have the greatest sympathy for the situation you're in with your wife and her cancer, and have found others' willingness to see it as a mark against you either unfortunate, sad or obscene, depending on their reasons.

Yet it has clearly come to this: you came in third in your home state in the Democratic primary. You would almost certainly win it in the general, were you our candidate, but you will not be our candidate. It is simply reality, barring an unprecedented miracle or an all-too familiar tragedy, that your nomination will not happen.

Roland X

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Thursday January 10, 2008 · 7:43 AM PST

2008/01/10 · 07:43

(Note: Cross-posted on my wife's account at Calitics)

I'm sure that around here, Jerry Lewis of CA-41 fame needs no introduction. Well, a few Democrats have entered the race.

Tonight (writing this as of January 9th), I just met one of them, and Dr. Rita Ramirez-Dean strikes me very much as the real deal. Passionate, outspoken, dedicated and strong-willed, with a life story that has "true Democrat" stamped on it, Dr. Ramirez-Dean could very well help us replace a, well, Jerry Lewis with a real progressive. Crooks and Liars has a great if brief post about her.

Roland X

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Wednesday January 09, 2008 · 1:45 PM PST

2008/01/09 · 13:45

Mrs. Roland X here, using my hunny's login until mine finishes going "live" :-).

I'm sharing the job posting I saw on a writerr's list, since maybe someone here might be interested. I have no other connection with the organization than having seen and decided to forward this.

Details below the fold:

Roland X

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Wednesday July 04, 2007 · 12:14 AM PDT

2007/07/04 · 00:14

That's how many votes we need in the Senate to convict.

It one of two fundamental realities that the impeachment argument continues to ignore. When I first diaried about this last night, I was more annoyed that Scooter effin' Libby was the final straw -- these guys are up to their necks in blood, and a f*cking commutation of sentence is the bridge too far? Now, though, I see that the whole thing has come down to a supposed argument about passion vs. clarity. Those who think this isn't going to work -- especially over Scooter effin' Libby -- are being reduced, whether gently or viciously, to Vichy Dems. They (or we, depending on the time of day for me) don't have the guts to fight back, to defend the Constitution, to 'go nuclear,' to bring it on.

Tell that to Digby. Among the consequences of not convicting are, most perilously, giving all of Bush's monstrous betrayals the patina of legality.

Roland X

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Monday July 02, 2007 · 11:41 PM PDT

2007/07/02 · 23:41

Okay, so Scooter Skates. It's unquestionably a travesty of justice, a particularly toxic icing on a radioactive (yellow) cake. Bush and Cheney are displaying what, in another era, would be a shocking disdain for the justice system.

Honestly, though, after the so-called election in 2000, the USA PATRIOT Act, after making a mockery of the counterattack in Afghanistan, after Iraq, after the actual outing of Valerie Plame, after the so-called election in 2004, after Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, after 'extraordinary rendition,' after illegal wiretapping, after Katrina and Rita, after Walter Reed, after the war on science, reason and facts, after the firing of the US Attorneys, after their butchery of Habeas Corpus -- the fundamental bedrock of the Western concept of liberty -- after all that and a thousand other ways, great and small, in which this vile, inhuman lot have wiped their collective asses with the Constitution and 225 years of struggle for a better nation and world...this is the straw? Seriously?

Roland X

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Thursday November 16, 2006 · 11:13 AM PST

2006/11/16 · 11:13

Now that 2006 is behind us (yeah team!), it's time to look ahead to '08. Since we don't always realize who's in our own back yard, I'm wondering how many other Kosaks, Kosites, and other Kos-folk there are in California's 43rd.

Of course, we can help out in the 26th and 41st (and visa-versa), so folks from there are welcome to speak up, too :-).

Morgan /|\
(Mrs. Roland)

More Foley hypocrisy: nudists

Roland X

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Tuesday October 03, 2006 · 7:38 AM PDT

2006/10/03 · 07:38

Found this news story today, and it doesn't look like anyone else has diaried this angle (if I missed anyone, my apologies.

Pasco nudists recall 'hypocritical' campaign
TALLAHASSEE - Three years ago, U.S. Rep. Mark Foley demanded that the state investigate a summer nudist camp for kids in Pasco County, warning it could expose innocent children to pedophiles.

More below the fold...
Read More

To Win, Say This: Bush is giving Iraq to Al-Qaeda

Roland X

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Thursday September 14, 2006 · 10:13 PM PDT

2006/09/14 · 22:13

Anbar belongs to al-Qaeda. That is the sobering assessment of the Marines' chief of intelligence:

Devlin reports that there are no functioning Iraqi government institutions in Anbar, leaving a vacuum that has been filled by the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq, which has become the province's most significant political force, said the Army officer, who has read the report. Another person familiar with the report said it describes Anbar as beyond repair; a third said it concludes that the United States has lost in Anbar.

Emphasis mine.

And now, as we know, Senate Intelligence Committee has confirmed what we already knew -- that Iraq and al-Qaeda not only weren't friendly, but despised each other.

So why aren't these two dots being connected by every Democrat in the country?

More over the flip. Read More

Allen's Ethnic Rally -- Irony at work

Roland X

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Tuesday September 12, 2006 · 2:38 PM PDT

2006/09/12 · 14:38

I went to look at Allen's site, and found this little bit of irony:

This little photo-op of his is pretty much the epitome of "Empty content."

Update: Edited to fix the typo in the title.

Morgan /|\
(Mrs. Roland)
"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire." --Robert Heinlein

Israeli/Palestinian conflict: beginning of the end?

Roland X

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Saturday July 01, 2006 · 9:48 PM PDT

2006/07/01 · 21:48

I am not an alarmist by nature...or perhaps, I didn't used to be. Six years of Bush madness may have made me sensitive to the insanity of our times. Even so, by any standard, the latest Israeli/Palestinian idiocy is mind-boggling, and threatens to explode across the Middle East.

Yes, I know, the Israelis are quite expert in smacking down any attempted invasions by their neighbors. I truly believe, however, that the current situation threatens to become very different. A toxic mix of religious extremism in several of the countries involved, a connected sense of self-righteousness in all concerned, and increasing desperation have left a very short fuse on a very large powder keg.

Top CIA Official: WH Ignored WMD Intel

Roland X

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Saturday April 22, 2006 · 10:37 AM PDT

2006/04/22 · 10:37

I'm amazed this hasn't been diaried:

A CIA official who had a top role during the run-up to the Iraqi war charges the White House with ignoring intelligence that said there were no weapons of mass destruction or an active nuclear program in Iraq.
...
"[The source] told us that there were no active weapons of mass destruction programs," says Drumheller. "The [White House] group that was dealing with preparation for the Iraq war came back and said they were no longer interested. And we said 'Well, what about the intel?' And they said 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change.'"

Wow. Just...wow.

Props to HuffPo, where this is the top story (as of this writing).
--
(/) Roland X
Fleeing the Chenon tyranny, the last Battleblog, Galactikos, leads a rag-tag fugitive web, on a lonely quest; a shining concept, known as Truth.

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2,757 American soldiers dead since the beginning of 2005

Dear John...

CA-41: Dr. Rita Ramirez-Dean for Congress

Job ad: Communications Director, Democracy North Carolina

Sixty-seven

Now you're outraged? Really?

Kosacs in CA-43?

More Foley hypocrisy: nudists

To Win, Say This: Bush is giving Iraq to Al-Qaeda

Allen's Ethnic Rally -- Irony at work

Israeli/Palestinian conflict: beginning of the end?

Top CIA Official: WH Ignored WMD Intel