Look at these pictures. Now ask yourself, what would drive this red faced man with the slack expression back to the bottle again so many years after finding Jesus and cleaning up his act?

Is it the realization that after 3 years in office the economy is still languishing despite running up huge deficits? Is it the realization that the Iraq war has distracted from the real war on terror?

Ask your friends and colleagues if they know why Bush is drinking again?

Note The question is not: “Is Bush drinking again?” The question is “Why is Bush drinking again?” If you ask the latter, and someone asks the former in response, simply restate the proper question: “Why is Bush drinking again?”

It looks like President Carter is questioning Zell Miller’s credentials as a Democrat too. (Not to mention his honor)

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: September 05, 2004 – September 11, 2004 Archives

There are over 1000 US dead in the Iraq war.

That works out to be under 2 fatalities per day over the entire course of the campaign. That’s not a huge number compared to the rate during WWII , or even the Vietnam war.

The number looks grimmer when you look at the trends though.

• During “major operations” in the spring of 2003 there were about 4 American dead per day.
• During the period from the end of major operations to the “transfer of power” to an interim Iraqi government at the end of June ’04, there were ~1.7 per day. June ’04 itself had about 1.4 per day
• Since the transfer, the number has been steadily climbing. The month of August saw about 2.1 American dead per day. One week into September, and we are already at 3.2 dead per day.

from icasualties.org

This uptick is even more discouraging considering that the US has been rushing to transfer security responsibility in more and more territory to Iraqi forces.

Tallies of Iraqi deaths are a bit less clear. Iraqbodycount.net estimates between 11,793 and 13,802 based on tallying reports from a variety of sources. Grim, but probably some distance to go before the US has killed more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein (rough estimates start at 100,000, not including war dead, or displaced people who may have died for want of food or shelter).

How any of this amounts to a war on terror is still beyond me though.

This piece is a great summary of the mess the present administration has lead us into:

Dowbrigade News:

John Kerry, asked to comment on today’s milestone in Iraq – a political softball to his wheelhouse, just begging to be swatted over the wall – answered, in his gaunt, sonorous and sepulchral tomes, “Over 1000 of America’s sons and daughters have now given their lives to the war on terror.”

NO, NO, NO, John. That is the Bush lie. They have given their lives to an obscure, oil-drenched Texas family feud, to a personal vendetta that has nothing to do with the real security of the United States and in fact is making us less secure by breeding a million widows and orphans who blame us for their misfortunes and will spend the rest of their lives trying to get back at us.

link from scripting.com

Folllowing up on the Pentagon investigating Kerry’s service record, Slapnose has more details, as well as some links questionaing what this news actually means. It may be that the conservative attack group that requested the investigation is merely overplaying some procedural step, like the Pentagon acknowledging receipt of their request.

The Pentagon is investigating Kerry’s war record. That the investigation is happening now, in the midst of a presidential campaign in which Kerry is the Democratic challenger, rather than at any other time in the past 30 years is a pretty good indication that this is an abuse of power that would have made Nixon blush.

Meanwhile, we can’t very well investigate Bush’s war record, because he doesn’t have one, at least not prior to doing an bungling job as commander in chief durring the “war on terror.” We can’t investigate his military record either, because so much of it has conveniently gone missing, with key documents missing or “accidentally” destroyed.

(9/6 added a link)