The L.A. Times story is here. Not surprisingly, the Pentagon dismisses the estimate out of hand, but as Jon points out, it’s right in line with this extrapolation of last year’s Lancet study, which was also dismissed out of hand, despite using widely-accepted methodology.

Meanwhile, when random Americans were polled a few months ago by the Associated Press, the median guess for the death toll was under ten thousand.

Obviously, we really have no idea how many innocent people have died in Iraq.  But there’s at least a fair chance that however bad you may think Iraq is, you might need to multiply it by one hundred.

Again substituting puffins for pudus, since puffins may be the pudus of the tiny-aquatic-bird world anyway…

Forwarded by alert reader Billie after my Iceland trip, specifically this post about the annual Puffin Rescue on the island of Heimaey:

I just hope the one on the right isn’t thinking this is some sort of mating ritual.

Because, well, splinters.

Lots more Iceland stuff I’d like to post if I ever get a minute.  In the meantime, if you ever get the chance, just go.

Rep. John Boehner’s communications director has now provided an excuse for his boss’s already-notorious comment to Wolf Blitzer that the blood of Americans is a "small price:"

"Wolf asked about the money spent in Iraq, and that’s what Mr. Boehner was referring to when he said our troops’ efforts are critical for the safety and security of our country."

This is, of course, precisely the excuse rather easily predicted — and, as described in advance, a rather horrifying admission that when confronted with both dollars and American blood in the same question, the GOP’s leader in the House only hears the dollar amounts.

The predictability of the current leadership’s inhumanity would be almost funny if it weren’t so goddam awful.

Not sure how many of you have ever clicked any of the links to other blogs on the lower right (under "Too Many Links"), much less the one unobtrusively titled "Riverbend."

That’s the pseudonym of a carefully anonymous young Iraqi woman from a mixed Shi’a-Sunni family, whose blog, Baghdad Burning, has been a humane, courageous, and often heartbreaking first-person chronicle of events since shortly after the beginning of the US invasion. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Until last week, the blog had been worrisomely un-updated since April. The last entry said that Riverbend’s family had decided to try to get out of the country, to flee Baghdad, like millions of other Iraqis, as refugees. (By some estimates, up to 15% of the entire population have been displaced from their homes.) I’ve been peeking in once every week or two ever since, hoping to see some good news.

Good news, of a kind, there is. For those following her saga, Riverbend and her family have made it into Syria. Now they start over. But they’re alive and safe.

Take a day and read the whole blog sometime, front to back. You may never read about Iraq the same way again. 

And once you’ve come to understand Riverbend’s story… just multiply by millions.

TPM grabbed this from CNN, and C&L reposted the video. This isn’t some minor guy speaking. This is the leader of the Republicans in the House of Representatives, John Boehner, telling us how he really feels about the very soldiers his ilk are constantly instructing us to "support:"*

Here’s the transcript — Boehner is quite pointedly asked not just about the financial cost, but about "the loss in blood, the Americans who are killed every month."

I suppose maybe Boehner may claim that he wasn’t paying attention to the second part of the question, that all he heard were the dollar figures. That would be simply restating the problem. Rather precisely.

There are so many other falsehoods packed into that one brief response that it’s almost like one of those Highlights for Children puzzles where you have to find two dozen things hidden in a cartoon tree. No, we’re not "making success." No, General Petraeus didn’t really outline anything "pretty clearly;" the Pentagon itself reportedly disagrees with a great deal of the what was ultimately just a rehash of longstanding Bush administration talking points. No, the war isn’t going to "stop Al-Qaeda" (which isn’t centered in Iraq, of course, had no connection to Saddam before the war, but which now uses the war itself as a major recruiting tool). No, we’re not going to unilaterally "stabilize the Middle East," no matter what happens in Iraq. And so on. How many ways can the GOP House Minority Leader disconnect from reality in one paragraph? Find ’em all!

And the blood of American soldiers, not to mention countless Iraqi civilians, continuing to be spilled so allow this nonsense can continue? It’s "a small price."

* "Support," remember, means "allow to die and be maimed in large number for no clearly attainable objective other than preventing a massive loss of face for the war’s supporters."