Good Morning.

Today is our 2,547th day in Iraq and our 3,075th 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:

Since war began (3/19/03): 4380
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4241
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3917
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3521
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 152

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,014
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 664
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,457
Journalists - Iraq: 338
Academics Killed - Iraq: 437

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

$969, 215, 350, 000 .00

So, did you all watch the Oscars?

I've been hearing about the Hurt Locker since it came out; it's been a huge story throughout the veteran's community and online, and it rightly won for Best Picture and Best Director....(and you had to love James Cameron's ex snatching the award right from under his nose.)

Of course...it is only 'just a movie'. How does it jibe with real life?

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46 comments (Latest Comment: 03/10/2010 02:51:22 by livingonli)

As you know, it's Oscar's night, but the day belongs to the (first and last) annual Plopsters Awards™ (pending). The award that goes to the dumbest and/or most deceiving of our Politicians and Pundits.

Here is the nominee's for Best Direction of Deceit:

Nominee - Sarah Palin and her use of "Death Panels" on, of all things, her Facebook:



A brilliant scam that made use of the casual social networking site - so "it must be true", right?
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14 comments (Latest Comment: 03/08/2010 02:17:50 by livingonli)

A picture is worth a thousand words, so the saying goes. Graphs in particular can bring a table of sterile data to life in a way that simple words cannot. My intention today is to let the pictures do the talking, and keep my words to a minimum. By my count, this blog will be worth over 5000 words! Much has been bandied about recently regarding the deficit and the process of budget reconciliation, so I will focus on that.

Let's start with a simple one. Three examples of budget reconciliation in action, and their effects on the budget balance:
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44 comments (Latest Comment: 03/06/2010 05:15:10 by livingonli)

We have seen two large earthquakes rock our hemisphere in the last couple months. The destruction was very different in the two countries, based on their building preparedness. But in both cases, the human preparedness seems to be lacking. Just how well prepared are we as a nation - and as a worldwide people - for these kinds of disasters?
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68 comments (Latest Comment: 03/04/2010 03:42:35 by livingonli)

Last Friday, Senators Kyl and Bunning blocked legislation to extend jobless benefits to Americans for one month. Both had different reasons. Kyle said he was blocking it because he wanted the now expired ESTATE TAX to not be reinstated, as scheduled. Bunning's reasoning was that he wanted this emergency bill paid for immediately. I could point out the hypocrisy that he voted for the Bush tax cuts, the 2 wars and numerous other deficit inducing spending programs passed over the previous 8 years -- but I won't.

Letting the Estate Tax (or as people on right talk radio like to call it -- the 'Death Tax') be reinstated after a period of time is actually a good thing (details to follow). Instead, these two Republican senators - with the support of others on their side of the aisle - have blocked a bill set to provided -however minor - relief to Americans out of work.
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42 comments (Latest Comment: 03/02/2010 04:06:58 by BobR)