10/18   Wow, watch the democratic party implode!  Swami's political little
        brother sure called that one right.
        \_ Huh? -motd political ignorant
        \_ ob ^democratic^republican
           \_ You're right.  The minority party imploded in 94 and never
              recovered.
	...

7/13    So Molly Ivins makes another mistake in her retraction (but to her
        credit she did retract it):
        http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/23493
        She claims: "The high-end estimate of Iraqi civilian deaths in this war
        is 100,000, according to a Johns Hopkins University study published in
        the British medical journal The Lancet last October, but I was sticking
	...

6/20    Curiosity got the best of me, and I read the Lancet study, too.  It's
        quite thorough, undeceptive, and straightforward.  Responding to
        emarkp's post (http://csua.com/?entry=38170
        RE: Confidence Intervals. (1)Assuming a normal(it's not, it's
        skewed), there's a 90% certainty there were over 40k dead, 85%
        certainty over 51k dead, 75% certainty over 68k dead. (2) this CI
	...

6/20  Subthread about mortality rates yanked from above Lancet post
        \_ This is ordinarily true, but I would be curious to see some
           pre-Saddam data.  Naturally, I doubt we could find something like
           that.  -- ilyas
           \_ The study actually recorded pre-Saddam data.  Pre-Saddam death
              rates were 5.0(3.7,6.3)/1000/yr, Post-Saddam data were
	...

11/10   So, er, can anyone explain why we gave the Fallujah rebels so much
        advance warning about what we were going to do?
        \_ To prevent civilian casualties. The goal was not to destroy the
           rebels/terrorists, but to control the city. It makes it possible
           to conduct the vote in January. Rebs/terrs in the urban areas are
           the cause to most of the Coalition's headaches. The civies will
	...

11/8    http://csua.org/u/9vg (New York Times)
        American-led large-scale assault on Falluja has begun
        "They'll win if it's bloody; we'll win if we minimize civilian
        casualties." -Marine
        A Falluja resident who tried entering the city on Monday said he had
        found no way through the seal. The resident said the situation was
	...

10/25   Strong soviet leader prefers Bush.  (yahoo news)
        http://tinyurl.com/3ngsc
        \_ NASCAR supports Bush, which is much more important.
           "I'm not an issue guy," Waltrip said. "I know the man."
           I really think that's what it comes down to for most people. Most
           people aren't geeks or political junkies, so for them all the
	...

10/13   Insurgent Alliance Fraying in Fallujah
        http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28105-2004Oct12.html
        The proposal the [insurgent] delegation took back to Fallujah calls
        for surrendering control of the city to the Iraqi National Guard. U.S.
        forces would remain outside the city unless the lightly armed
        government forces were attacked. But first, all foreign fighters must
	...

5/11    Captured on video:  Iraqi insurgents shown slitting throat and removing
        head of American contractor from Philadelphia using a large knife.
        (Yes, this is just after he names the members of his family and his
        hometown to the camera.)  Nick Berg's body found on Saturday in
        Baghdad.  It's all over the news now.
        \_ These people hate freedom.
	...

5/6     To whoever was suggesting the Branch Davidians were murdered in cold
        blood without provocation, these are the names of the four ATF agents
        killed when they tried to serve a search warrant:
        Conway LeBleu, Todd McKeehan, Robert Williams, Steven Willis
        \_ I'm one (the other?) guy who argued with ilyas. Call me "fascist".
           Now, I've read some conspiracy theories out there purporting that
	...

        0/3 dude!
        \_ "The pattern and practice of the Saddam Hussein regime was to do
           exactly what you said, to murder and torture, and the killing
           fields are filled with mass graves. And equating the two, I think,
           is a fundamental misunderstanding of what took place" at Abu Ghraib
           - Rumsfeld
	...