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Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 08/30/2011 10:31:21

Good Morning.

Today is our 3,086th day in Iraq, and our 3,614th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing wars, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4474
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4335
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3615
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 246
Since Operation New Dawn: 46

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,747
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 942
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,487
Journalists - Iraq : 348
Academics Killed - Iraq: 448

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 242, 364, 500, 000 .00


I hope everyone has come through the hurricane this weekend in one piece. There's still some hard work ahead to recover, and perhaps more damage to come as the floodwaters move downstream, but for the most part I think we got through in one piece.
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45 comments (Latest Comment: 08/30/2011 22:13:22 by Mondobubba)

Not All About You
Author: Raine    Date: 08/29/2011 13:12:31

Thursday I wrote a blog, Life is Fragile, Handle with Care and since then most regular members of the this blog experienced something we call Irene. It may have been a hurricane or tropical storm.

Lost in thought over the weekend was the Anniversary of Katrina- one of the nations most expensive deadly and mismanaged disasters. On August 29, 2005, after the brunt of the storm hit, the Greater New Orleans levee system failed. 80% of the city was underwater. Please note-- this was AFTER the hurricane hit the New Orleans area.
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36 comments (Latest Comment: 08/30/2011 00:30:29 by TriSec)

The Candidates Part Cain!
Author: velveeta jones    Date: 08/28/2011 15:04:28

Herman Cain is indeed running for President on the GOP ticket in 2012. I know, I know, I also thought it was just a joke. Turns out, he really means it! Has a website and everything!

But who is Herman Cain, you ask? I am here to tell you the facts as I've seen and heard them from various anonymous sources.
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6 comments (Latest Comment: 08/28/2011 23:25:00 by livingonli)

Posers
Author: TriSec    Date: 08/27/2011 13:39:09

Good Morning!

We all know the poser....there's all kinds of imposters and dopplegangers out there that make you go "hmmm".

Looking over the Presidential candidates is easy pickings....we've got Mitt Romney, who pretends to be some kind of "Mr. Fixit", saving companies and creating jobs (by shutting them down and shipping the bits overseas), and of course your friend and mine Rick Perry is playing that card too, but leaves out that most of the jobs he's created are minimim-wage that you probably can't live on.

Ron Paul pretends to be a serious candidate, and while I will tip my cap for some of his foreign policy ideas, he also comes up with stuff like this....so that's the end of that.

I won't include people like Michelle Bachmann or Sarah Palin in this category; they exist in a different reality from the rest of us, and only occasionally do our two worlds intersect.
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20 comments (Latest Comment: 08/28/2011 01:38:47 by wickedpam)

A Deficit of Confidence
Author: BobR    Date: 08/26/2011 12:49:59

Disappointment... disillusionment... anger... These are the emotions the electorate is currently feeling after the national embarrassment that was the debt ceiling battle. Something so mundane got escalated to a pissing match of immense proportions, and nearly brought down our (and possibly the global) economy. In the smoldering wreckage of the aftermath, our credit rating got downgraded by S&P, and even Moody's gave us a guarded outlook for the future.
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62 comments (Latest Comment: 08/26/2011 22:56:58 by TriSec)

Life is Fragile, Handle with Care.
Author: Raine    Date: 08/25/2011 13:07:27

Well this certainly is an interesting week. Yes, I was a little shaken up by the earthquake on Tuesday. I will readily admit it. While our friends on the west coast giggle about it, I would like to remind them that we on the east are simply not used to quakes. -- a 5.8 quake is not a small one, despite the giggles and jokes about chai latte, plastic lawn chairs, etc. With the earthquake out of the way, many people here on the east coast are preparing for what may potentially be a devastating hurricane.

It's not lost on me that this week is also the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on Monday, August 29, 2005. Nor have I forgotten that we are fast approaching the tenth anniversary of the Attacks of September 11. These were seminal events; ones that caused panic, sadness and fear and death for many Americans.

On Tuesday, I was lying on the couch. I was watching a bit of TV before I was to go and vote in the Virginia Democratic primary. I felt a rhythmic thump on the back of the couch, and I assumed it was our dog wagging her tail. I quickly realized that it wasn't the dog, and that was when things got a little crazy. I stood up grabbed the couch and caught the lamp as it nearly fell on me. The bookshelves swayed and the piano started banging against the opposite wall. I knew this was a damn earthquake, and in those 30-45 seconds I froze. I was actually proud of myself for having the wherewithall to make sure I was out of the line of the bookshelves and the Piano -- I turned my face away from our large living room window. I really didn't know what else to do. I was scared, to be quite honest. When It stopped, I was even more frightened.

I was afraid that it was just the beginning. I was waiting for more quakes. I wasn't sure if things would get worse or if it was over. I called Bob and told him what happened and after I hung up I cried. I felt silly for doing that, I didn't know why I was crying, until I knew why I was crying. The last time I felt such uncertainness, was on September 11, 2001.
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46 comments (Latest Comment: 08/26/2011 01:52:42 by livingonli)

Fault Lines
Author: BobR    Date: 08/24/2011 12:47:58

There are so many songs that can be used to describe the earthquake that hit our area yesterday: "Shake, Rattle, and Roll", "Shakin'", etc. It was eventually tagged as a 5.8, with an epicenter near Mineral, VA. Damage has been minimal, but it was felt over a wide area, thus saturating the news coverage.
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46 comments (Latest Comment: 08/25/2011 13:05:03 by Mondobubba)

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 08/23/2011 10:31:05

Good Morning.

Today is our 3,079th day in Iraq and our 3,607th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing wars, courtesy of antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4474
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4335
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3615
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 246
Since Operation New Dawn: 46

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,744
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 937
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,487
Journalists - Iraq : 348
Academics Killed - Iraq: 448

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 239, 114, 500, 000 .00



Continuing on from Saturday, I'll try to be brief today and just pull a summary and talking point or two from each story...there's still a lot to go through.
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61 comments (Latest Comment: 08/23/2011 20:33:38 by Mondobubba)

The Man Who Would be King
Author: Raine    Date: 08/22/2011 15:30:49

As of the writing of this blog, it should be reported that Colonel Qaddafi has not given up control of Libya. We have a blog post going (thank you Will in Chicago) that has the overnight updates here, and I hope to update it as the day progresses.

Gaddafi's future is tentative at best, but that didn't stop John McCain and Lindsey Graham from issuing this statement
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23 comments (Latest Comment: 08/23/2011 01:21:26 by livingonli)

The Battle for Tripoli
Author: Will in Chicago    Date: 08/22/2011 10:35:51

As the new blog for today is not up yet, I thought that I would put up a brief stub updating our bloggers on the changing conditions in Libya.

From Al Jazeera English:

Fighting rages near Gaddafi's compound
Gaddafi's location still unknown as rebel forces battle to control Tripoli.
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11 comments (Latest Comment: 08/22/2011 16:10:22 by wickedpam)

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