Free Republic

The Dow Jones Industrial Average set a new bear-market closing low, as the financial sector continued to decline and investors found little impetus to buy in a flurry of economic data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 89.68 points, or 1.2%, to close at 7465.95. The blue-chip benchmark had flirted all week with its five-and-half-year closing low of 7552.29, set on Nov. 20. Thursday, the Dow briefly dipped under its five-and-a-half-year intraday low of 7449.38 of Nov. 21.

Top Democrats on Monday reacted to the 4,000th U.S. death in Iraq by calling for a change in policy.Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) called the event a “grim milestone” and advocated a new course on Iraq. “It is past time to end this war that should never have been waged by bringing our troops home, and finally pushing Iraq's leaders to take responsibility for their future,” Obama stated.His rival for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), said at the onset of a speech on the economy that the news of the 4,000th U.S. death in Iraq is...

U.S. fatalities in war exceed those from Sept. 11 Military deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan reach 2,974 The Associated Press Updated: 7:44 p.m. PT Sept 22, 2006 U.S. military deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan now surpass those of the most devastating terrorist attack in America’s history, the trigger for what came next. The latest milestone for a country at war came Friday without commemoration. .......................... Not for the first time, war that was started to answer death has resulted in at least as much death for the country that was first attacked, quite apart from the higher numbers of enemy and...