Reuters: A total of 846 Palestinians and thirteen Israelis --- three civilians killed by rocket fire and 10 soldiers --- have been killed since the offensive began on Dec. 27.

Al Jazeera: The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 854 and more than 3,350 injured as the Israeli offensive entered its third week.

CNN: More than 800 Palestinians have been killed in the attacks, including 235 children, and about 3,300 people have been wounded, according to Palestinian medical sources. Thirteen Israelis, including 10 soldiers, have died since the operation began.

Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor working at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, told Al Jazeera: "We have been to many war zones, but the special thing is that the 1.5 million Gaza population are completely locked in.

"The civilian population has no way to hide. The population density is so high you can not do attacks like this without knowing that you are attacking the civilians.

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'If they want to rent a bus, show them where they can rent a bus'

The night before presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) left for Afghanistan, Iraq and Western Europe for a tour of US bases overseas, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a cable to US missions forbidding them from holding events for presidential candidates or arrange meetings for them.

Rice issued no such cable prior to foreign excursions by presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

You're all class, Condi.  

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Last week, ABC News reported what should be a bombshell: that "Top Bush Advisors Approved 'Enhanced Interrogation'."

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.

The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of "combined" interrogation techniques -- using different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time -- on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said. [...]

As the national security adviser, Rice chaired the meetings, which took place in the White House Situation Room and were typically attended by most of the principals or their deputies.

Unfortunately, there is a noticeable lack of outrage in the media about the story. Digby calls them out:

Since the national news is obsessed with the Pope's visit, "bitterness", "duck blinds" and how and what Democrats drink in diners and bars, they are not inclined to pursue this. Or maybe they just think the top echelon of the Bush administration personally approving specific torture techniques is business as usual by now. It isn't.

There was a time when many members of the press and many citizens of this country would rend their garments about what they would "tell the children" about sex in the White House. Oddly, they seem to be unconcerned about what to tell the children about torture being devised and approved in the same place. That tells you something about the provincial Village that runs our politics.

In the wake of this revelation and the crickets chirping in the media, Brave New Films, True Majority and DFA have launched www.CondiMustGo.com, which features an online petition to the presidential candidates urging them to call for the resignation of Condoleezza Rice and an ad that will air in the Philadelphia market after tonight's debate.

Watch it below:

I confess to not having covered it myself so I'm glad to get this issue some eyeballs tonight. Please sign the petition and watch the full length video at www.CondiMustGo.com. And use FireDogLake's letter to the editor tool to tell your local papers to cover this story.

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I wrote the following Diary recently.  However, since that time I've come to the realization just WHO George W. Bush might nominate if VP Cheney were to actually step down.

Condoleezza Rice

Don't laugh.  She could (unfortunately) be a winner for the GOP.  She's got foreign policy experience.  Talk shows have her FIGHTING Cheney over Iran and Iraq.  She also fought Rumsfeld when he was at the Pentagon.  She's a woman and she's black.  GOP gets the whole ball of wax in one person.

Below is my original Diary.

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Robert Naiman, Just Foreign Policy, February 16, 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen, I rise in defense of Condoleezza Rice.

It's great that the Bush Administration's failure to respond to Iran's peace offer of 2003 is again in the news, thanks to the Leverett affair and Glenn Kessler's reporting in the Washington Post.

But 99% of the press, expert opinion, blogging, and commenting on this that I have seen has missed the essential point.

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