Today's Stuff

Nets, Particularly CBS and Couric, Treat 655,000 Iraqi Death Guestimate as Credible

Despite how the estimate of 665,000 Iraqi deaths caused by violence since the war began -- a number forwarded in a new report from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health -- represents quadruple the highest monthly rate as tracked by the UN and is 13 times larger than the total compiled by the Iraq Body Count group, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric set up a Wednesday story on the guesstimate by declaring as fact: “Now we're learning that the war has been a lot more deadly than we knew.” David Martin proceeded to treat the number as perfectly reasonable as he put the blame on the U.S.: "A new and stunning measure of the havoc the American invasion unleashed in Iraq. A study published in the British journal Lancet estimates 655,000 Iraqis -- 2.5 percent of the entire population -- have died as a consequence of the war. To understand how large, consider this: The same percentage of the much larger American population would be 7.5 million dead.”

Unreal.
Has anyone bothered to do the math?
655,000 people in 3 years.
218, 333.33 people per year.
613.29 people per day.
25.55 people per hour.

How fookin' rediculous is that number?
The islamo-fascists are lucky if they get 25 people in one attack.
Give me a break!

S.Korea Finds No Abnormal Radioactivity
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea said Thursday it had detected no abnormal radioactivity levels within its borders after a declared North Korea nuclear test blast this week.

Lee Moon-ki, the director general for nuclear energy at South Korea's Science and Technology Ministry, said in an interview before an announcement by his ministry that his country had also detected no increases of radioactivity at the suspected test site in North Korea. He later retracted that statement, saying he misspoke.

N.Korea warns Japan against sanctions

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea threatened Japan on Thursday with "strong countermeasures" if it goes ahead with tougher sanctions over Pyongyang's reported nuclear test.

Japan and the United States are pushing for tough measures against the North, although diplomats say China opposes the more punitive parts of a draft resolution Washington wants the U.N. Security Council to adopt in a vote, possibly on Friday.

Did it happen, or was it just a large TNT detonation in the north? At any rate, the North Koreans need to be slam dunked on this one. That little despot is out of control. Apeasement didn't work under the Clinton administration, I am certain that it will not work now.

Sanctions by the United States, Japan, South Korea and China would be a good starting point.

China Reluctant to Back Korea Sanctions

BEIJING (AP) - China appeared to shy away Thursday from backing U.S. efforts to impose a travel ban and financial sanctions on North Korea for its claimed nuclear test, saying any U.N. action should focus on bringing its communist neighbor back to talks.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said North Korea should understand it had made a mistake but "punishment should not be the purpose" of any U.N. response.

Did anyone really think that China would play along with the rest of the world?
Not me.