A Yuletide greeting

Kucinich

I think this is going to be a serious test of the Democratic Party. We were put in power because people expected a new direction in Iraq. It goes without saying that they expect greater transparency and oversight, but they also expect us to do something to bring the troops home. Now, if Congress goes ahead under Democratic leadership and votes to approve what some are now estimating as an additional $160 billion for the war in Iraq, bringing the total for the fiscal year to $230 billion, the Democratic Congress will have bought George Bush’s war. Now, who would buy a used war from this administration?

Congressman Dennis Kucinich speaking to Truthdig.

Iraq study group: U.S. underreported Iraq violence

Thought it was bad in Iraq? Well, it’s worse:

U.S. military and intelligence officials have systematically underreported the violence in Iraq in order to suit the Bush administration’s policy goals, the bipartisan Iraq Study Group said.

In its report on ways to improve the U.S. approach to stabilizing Iraq, the group recommended Wednesday that the director of national intelligence and the secretary of defense make changes in the collection of data about violence to provide a more accurate picture.

The panel pointed to one day last July when U.S. officials reported 93 attacks or significant acts of violence. “Yet a careful review of the reports for that single day brought to light 1,100 acts of violence,” it said. AP

This should be the wake-up call the Mass Media™ has been “waiting” for. Then again, the media shouldn’t need a wake-up call, they should be doing their job of reporting the news even if it is uncomfortable or invonvenient.

But the absolute kicker is this quote from the report:

“Good policy is difficult to make when information is systematically collected in a way that minimizes its discrepancy with policy goals.”

Translation: It’s bad for the country if its lead by power-hungry, lying bastards.