A payday in December in Chicagoland...

I didn't see anything in the news today that struck me and nothing spectacular really happened in my life today so there won't be a lot to say besides the daily details about the Iraq war. My work day was very slow as many days in December are. The one thing of note was that a couple of friends and I went out to Culver's for a long lunch. After work I went downtown and ran a few errands. I ended up going to see Marshall Field's Christmas Windows. This year they did Snow White: Fairest of Them All, the Brothers Grimm's version of Snow White. It was a little creepy like many Grimm stories are. The window artists spend all year getting ready for their one month show and it shows. The windows were very cool if a little creepy. I then went to Christkindlmarket, Chicago's international Christmas craft market, at the Daley Center and looked and had dinner. The rest of the night has been spent going through my email and emailing friends.

Now for my daily detailing of the Iraq War (as opposed to the "War on Terror" which I think is just as ridiculous and unwinnable). 5 people were listed as having been killed in the last 24 hours which brings the total for December to 8 and the total for the war to 1265. The month that I will be documenting tonight will be July 2004, the first full month of "free Iraq" when the Coalition Provisional Authority which could also be known as the United States gave control to the provisional government which the US appointed (Can you say puppet?). 54 soldiers were killed in July which brought the total to 912. The soldiers that died in the month of July are as follows:

July 1: Sgt. Kenneth Conde Jr., Sgt. Christopher A. Wagener, Lcpl. Timothy R. Creager

July 2: Ssgt. Stephen G. Martin, Lcpl. James B. Huston Jr., 2nd Lt. Brian D. Smith

July 5: Lcpl. John J. Vangyzen IV, Cpl. Dallas L. Kerns, Lcpl. Michael S. Torres

July 6: Lcpl. Justin T. Hunt, Cpl. Jeffrey D. Lawrence, PFC Rodricka Antwan Youmans, Lcpl. Scott Eugene Dougherty

July 7: Sgt. Michael C. Barkey, PFC Samuel R. Bowen

July 8: Spc. William River Emanuel IV, Spc. Sonny Gene Sampler, Spc. Joseph M. Garmback Jr., Spc. Jeremiah W. Schmunk, Sgt. Robert E. Colvill, PFC Collier Edwin Barcus, Spc. Shawn M. Davies

July 10: Cpl. Terry Holmes Ordonez, Ssgt. Trevor Spink, Sgt. Krisna Nachampassak, PFC Christopher J. Reed

July 11: SFC Linda Ann Tarango-Griess, Spc. Dana N. Wilson, Ssgt. Dustin W. Peters, Sgt. Jeremy W. Fischer, Sgt. James G. West

July 13: PFC Torry D. Harris

July 14: Cpl. Demetrius Lamont Rice, PFC Jesse J. Martinez

July 15: Ssgt. Paul C. Mardis Jr.

July 16: Lcpl. Bryan P. Kelly

July 17: SFC David A. Hartman, Spc. Craig S. Frank

July 19: Sgt. Dale Thomas Lloyd, PFC Charles C. "C.C." Persing, Flight Lt. Kristian Michel Alexander Gover

July 20: Spc. Danny B. Daniels II, Cpl. Todd J. Godwin, Ssgt. Michael J. Clark

July 21: Lcpl. Mark E. Engel, PFC Nicholas H. Blodgett

July 22: PFC Torey J. Dantzler, Sgt. Tatjana Reed

July 24: Lcpl. Vincent M. Sullivan, Spc. Nicolas J. Zangara

July 27: Sgt. DeForest L. "Dee" Talbert

July 28: PFC Ken W. Leisten, Lt. Col. David S. Greene, Gsgt. Shwn A. Lane

July 29: Spc. Joseph F. Herndon II

Details on these soldiers can be found at Iraq Coalition Casualties.