Credible

Ugh:

Q Thank you, Mr. President. Back on Iraq. A group of American and Iraqi health officials today released a report saying that 655,000 Iraqis have died since the Iraq war. That figure is 20 times the figure that you cited in December, at 30,000. Do you care to amend or update your figure, and do you consider this a credible report?

THE PRESIDENT: No, I don't consider it a credible report. Neither does General Casey and neither do Iraqi officials. I do know that a lot of innocent people have died, and that troubles me and it grieves me. And I applaud the Iraqis for their courage in the face of violence. I am amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they're willing to -- that there's a level of violence that they tolerate. And it's now time for the Iraqi government to work hard to bring security in neighborhoods so people can feel at peace.

No question, it's violent, but this report is one -- they put it out before, it was pretty well -- the methodology was pretty well discredited. But I talk to people like General Casey and, of course, the Iraqi government put out a statement talking about the report.

Q -- the 30,000, Mr. President? Do you stand by your figure, 30,000?

THE PRESIDENT: You know, I stand by the figure. A lot of innocent people have lost their life -- 600,000, or whatever they guessed at, is just -- it's not credible. Thank you.

You know the 30,000 figure that Bush threw out was made more than 9 months ago, nine months that the military admits have been the deadliest since the occupation. Just adding up the months it is clear that deaths are, even conservatively approaching 50,000 civilian deaths.

Second, even at the Cornhole, the one individual familiar with such methodologies used in these studies admits that they are regularly used to estimate casualties and deaths. The same methodology has been used and accepted by Bush Administration figures in regard to places like Darfur. But God forbid, credible scientific methodologies be found as "credible".

What is credible?

Oh, stuff like this:

Against the backdrop of what has previously been disclosed, the court filing sheds particular light on how Mr. Bush and some of his top deputies had begun to pull in different directions. Even as some officials, including Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, started to reveal deep doubts that Mr. Hussein had sought uranium to reconstitute his nuclear program, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby were seeking to disseminate information suggesting that they had acted on credible intelligence, while not discussing their actions with other top aides.

By the way:

I am amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they're willing to -- that there's a level of violence that they tolerate.

The polling out of Iraq makes it pretty clear that the vast majority of those in Iraq (especially those not living in the Green Zone) want us the FUCK OUT of Iraq. Though Osama and Al Qaeda who Bush says he listens to...do not!

Plus, how fucking condescending that the Iraqi people are now the equivalent of a Timex Watch. Maybe they could use the old John Cameron Swayze voice-overs.