Up Is Downism

The administration will be saying how much improvement is being made in Iraq:

USA Today leads with a new human rights report by the U.N. mission in Iraq that says the situation in the country is "rapidly worsening" as violence continues to increase. The report takes aim at the Iraqi government for not addressing persistent problems with the torture of detainees, and for its failure to release civilian casualty figures.

...


U.N. staffers said Iraqi government officials told them privately they didn't want to release the civilian death toll figures out of fear that they would further undermine public opinion.

Update: Funny. Next I run into this story about how things are getting better in Iraq while they actually aren't:

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians.

Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Got it? There's more peace in Baghdad because we don't count the violence!

I'm going to perform a miracle. Right now. Right before your reading eyes.

Poof!

The United States murder rate just dropped to zero because I refuse to count them as murder!