Good Morning.

Today is our 2,603rd day in Iraq and our 3,131st 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): 4395
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4256
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3932
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3536
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 167

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,054
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 689
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,457
Journalists - Iraq: 338
Academics Killed - Iraq: 437


We find this morning's Cost of War passing through:

$ 990, 190, 500, 000 . 00

In case you missed it, this past weekend was MayDay. An astonishing 7 Mays ago, "President" Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared..."Mission Accomplished".

Of course, for the men and women that still fight....the mission won't be accomplished until they are back home with their families far from war. But even then, the transition home isn't easy. Some soldiers walk off the plane and go home. But others are carried by their comrades and cared for in a "Warrior Transition Battalion"...which is supposed to be an intensive care transition unit for wounded and traumatized soldiers. Sounds like a great idea. Except when it isn't.

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46 comments (Latest Comment: 05/05/2010 02:25:12 by Raine)

Velveeta is perturbed this morning because she has recently learned from her sources ("The Soup" with Joel McHale on E!) that there is yet another "reality" teevee show about a large family. What is the world coming to?

You've probably heard me rant before about the over-sexed Duggar family which has 16, no, 18 kids rather, NINETEEN (19) children all of whom have been tortured with a 'J' name like Jinger or Jedidiah, but God forbid they would use anything ethnic sounding like Jose, Jorge, Jasmine or Juanita. So, it seems there are other shows out there in teevee land!! I won't bore you with the specifics. But suffice to say that there is a market in the world for viewing people who populate, seemingly without concern for the future of our world or the world their children will inherit.
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7 comments (Latest Comment: 05/02/2010 22:05:58 by Will in Chicago)

The oil spill advancing on the gulf coast like a toxic hurricane should reinforce in everyone's minds the urgent need to break our addiction to that black poison. All of the exhortations to drill off the coasts of VA, FL, and the Carolinas are getting drowned in a sludge of Texas Tea.
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47 comments (Latest Comment: 05/01/2010 00:51:27 by TriSec)

As a child, we used to enjoy spinning in circles and then trying to stand still. The world would keep spinning; it was dizzying. As I got older, I would enjoy the same disorientation from the loop-the-loops on roller coasters. I've been getting that same sensation lately watching and listening to Republican "leaders", pundits, and other right-wing loudmouths talk in circles and contradict themselves in spectacular ways. Whether it's healthcare reform, immigration reform, or Wall St. reform, the contradictions are breath-taking. Let's take these in order...
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42 comments (Latest Comment: 04/29/2010 12:56:18 by velveeta jones)

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

That is the text of the 4th Amendment of the Bill of Rights, an oft quoted document also known as the United States Constitution. In this past year, we have seen an awful lot of people using the 1st Amendment right to free speech in order to show their support of the 2nd amendment right to carry a firearm. Very little is being said about number 4.
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21 comments (Latest Comment: 04/27/2010 00:42:58 by Will in Chicago)