COUNTDOWN TO QUARTER OF A TRILLION DOLLARS CELEBRATION BEGINS - ''apparently''

Britain and America were preparing to celebrate their 250th billionth dollar spent on the war with Iraq very soon.
It might not be in your name, but it's you that paid for it.
You can keep up with the progress thanks to E.R.'s war cash counter at the bottom of the page (right at the bottom, scroll, baby, scroll) for this momentus occasion.
While New Orleans' poor remain homeless and eating ready meals, and in the UK public services and schools face ''modernisation'' (ie private contractors) in the name of efficiency, it's amazing where both the UK and the US have found one quarter of a trillion dollars from in the past three years.
And funded two missions to Mars!
The war works out at almost 3,000 dollars a second, or $150k a minute. Even E.R.'s high production values can't compete with that kind of cash burn.
War and space are the Keynesian stalworts of capitalist governments. They say they don't have state industries, but when it comes to making sure we have an enemy and a dream, fear and ambition, then they know it's money worth spending.
''Apparently'' there's not really going to be a party or any celebrations for spending 250 billion dollars on an illegal, failed war after all.
Sorry.