This picture made me realize it was exactly two years ago that I stood on the mall so filled with hope. . . .

The Defense Department’s annual budget is a phantom figure, falling far short of what we truly spend on defense. It doesn’t include either supplemental appropriations, or money allocated to defense by other departments.

But in trying to come up with a true figure, what should be included?

Obviously, the large part we’ve played in driving and reporting on the health care debate, the dominant story of the latter half of the year, gives FDL a big leg up in any annual overview of the best of online reporting, but the other three stories on Sargent’s top five list were also, for lack of a better word, “ours.”

Here’s Firedoglake’s most popular videos of 2009. What does this collection say to you about this year?