More:

Meanwhile, Woodward reports that Casey, the president's commanding general in Iraq from 2004 to 2007, came to believe that Bush did not understand the nature of the Iraq war, that the president focused too much on body counts as a measure of progress.

"Casey had long concluded that one big problem with the war was the president himself," Woodward writes. "He later told a colleague in private that he had the impression that Bush reflected the 'radical wing of the Republican Party that kept saying, "Kill the bastards! Kill the bastards! And you'll succeed." ' "

Asked about his interest in body counts, Bush told Woodward: "I asked that on occasion to find out whether or not we're fighting back. Because the perception is that our guys are dying and they're not. Because we don't put out numbers. We don't have a tally. On the other hand, if I'm sitting here watching the casualties come in, I'd at least like to know whether or not our soldiers are fighting."

It says something that John McCain is such a nothing candidate that he's totally eclipsed by his VP pick.  Sarah Palin is not running for president.  Or is she?  Given McBush's age and health she very well could be.  Her speech was also in total contradiction to McSame's.    But neither one of them addressed the issues.

And on the issues IMHO McCain doesn't know/doesn't care.  Like Bush he wants to be a "War President".  He hardly seems concerned about domestic issues.

The pond is filled again.  We can splash around and have fun.  Seriously, I haven't been able to access the site all day today.  Great to have things in working order again.

I got to this: Do you think Sarah Palin would be in those meetings? and thought, "Shouldn't that be McCain?" As I understand it, McCain has been gone from the senate for a very long time - missing both discussion and voting are important negatives.

Then I wondered if Cheney was in the meetings instead of Bush, so I glanced at the article. I didn't see any mention of Cheney.

So I go back to thinking the question should be: Do you think John McCain would be in those meetings?

Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music. (George Carlin)

What, no post on the Cancerthon tonight?

It's just shameful that this country can build nuclear weapons, but can't cure the cancer uranium can cause.

My longest term friend just lost a third family member to cancer. Or was that the fourth? There have been so many. I was lucky NOT to lose my mother to cancer.

On the show, they said that one in every two men and one in every three women will get cancer at some point. Advice to avoid it? Quit smoking. Don't start smoking. Eat less read meat. Exercise, don't stress.

Of course, I can't help but wonder about the concentrations of cancer in certain areas, the other causes no one wants to discuss because it cuts into someone's profits....

Anyway - just my little plea to all of you. Even if you only have $5, every bit helps. Here's a link to the American Cancer society if you missed the show.

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/don/don_0.asp?from=hpbox

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

I read a couple of years ago that while the US had a "body count," the Vietnamese kept a "broken tool" count because it was a lot harder for them to construct a helicopter than it was to put a bunch of farmer's sons into uniform and to to give them sub-machine guns.
The thing is though, is that the essential PR problem with a guerrilla war is that, in a conventional war, there are lines on maps whereby a country can gauge progress. American citizens could see in World War II that the front lines were inexorably moving closer to the Rhine, that Allied forces had then grabbd a few bridgeheads, that they then moved beyond the Rhine.  
By contrast, body counts in a guerrilla war don't mean very much even if they're accurate.