After much wrangling, it was done. in the wee hours of the morning, on a snowy Sunday Monday, we defeated the GOP filibuster. HCR is not dead. It will now go to a joint committee between the House and the Senate, where the bill will be merged and a final vote taken.
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24 comments (Latest Comment: 12/21/2009 21:56:44 by livingonli)

Good Morning.

Those of you that followed this space regularly know that for a number of years, we ran a Saturday blog highlighting third-party politics and issues in these United States.

During the 2008 primary season, I went down to my City Hall one April day and changed my registration from "U" (unenrolled) to "D"...specifically to vote for Mr. Obama in the general election.

With much relief and joy, I stood on the mall with 2 million of my closest friends, and watched and made sure George and Laura left Washington safely.

Well....here we are almost a year later. The next opportunity I have, I'm going back to city hall to change my registration back to "U". I let my membership in the Libertarian Party lapse over the past year...and I don't know if I'm going back or not. (The Bob Barr fiasco was just too painful; the Libertarians are now just as fractious and infighting as the Republicans...and Democrats...seem to be.)
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4 comments (Latest Comment: 12/20/2009 05:27:03 by livingonli)

Hey guys, looks like we are back up.

I may try again to write a blog...
 
2 comments (Latest Comment: 12/18/2009 13:06:41 by wickedpam)

Good Morning.

Today is our 2,463rd day in Iraq and our 2,991st day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do, with the latest casualty figures from Iraq and Afghanistan, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4371
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4232
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3908
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3512
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 143

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 325
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 934
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 604
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,395
Journalists - Iraq: 335
Academics Killed - Iraq: 431

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

$ 942, 936, 000, 000 .00


Here at "Ask a Vet", we've spent the last 5 years focusing almost exclusively on Iraq, with the ocassional story about Afghanistan almost as an afterthought. Iraq isn't going away anytime soon, but as the war in Afghanistan continues to 'surge', you'll be seeing more stories in this space.

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28 comments (Latest Comment: 12/16/2009 02:18:14 by TriSec)

Delegates to the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen held informal talks yesterday during a one-day break from negotiations aimed at crafting a new global climate change treaty.

Amid a sea of protesters, this conference could be the cornerstone of President Obama's commitment to once again being a member of "the believers". That is, that the United States will acknowledge Global Climate change and be a part of the solution to solving our planets dire problem.

However, As the 12-day conference entered its second week, analysts reported little progress in replacing the current treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
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4 comments (Latest Comment: 12/14/2009 01:53:00 by AuntAzalea)