We miss you and love you alot!!!

Thanks for sending this along! Manuel, all the best to you - thanks for being the Hero that you are. Keep your helmet on - take care, and stay safe.

Billy Budd, over at American Dinosaur, is going with some Tucson-area friends to a pro-troop rally outside the local Air Force Base.

To learn more about what they've got planned, stop on over at American Dinosaur.

And make sure to stop back later today, as he'll be posting an update, and some photos.

Give the lefties heck for me, Billy!

Jessi says...


My fiance is now serving in Iraq and if all goes well will be home in February. I pray everyday for his safe return.


Jessi, thanks for sending the picture. We are grateful to your Hero for his service, and will keep both of you in our thoughts and prayers.

News of Note
Hurricane Katrina
National Day of Prayer
Bush: No Tax Hikes
New Orleans to Reopen Next Week
Most Destructive Storm Ever?
Bush Vows to Rebuild
Sen. Vitter on Katrina Recovery
Bush, Putin Press Conference
Photo Essay: Hurricane Heroes

Fox News
Cheney to Have 'Elective' Aneurysm Surgery
Powerful Blast Rocks Beirut
Iraq Attacks Kill 24
Wisc. Deer Hunter Guilty
President's Nephew Arrested
Bush, Pols to Talk O'Connor Replacement Next Week
Schwarzenegger Announces Re-election Bid
College Journalist Fired After Pro-Racial Profiling Column
Ophelia Heads Out to Sea
Photo Essay: Storm's Wake
Pentagon May Want 'Able Danger' Hearings Closed

Reuters: Top News
U.N. summit endorses modest reforms
New Orleans bars get ready to open
Bush presses Putin on Iran nuclear program
Vatican's search for gays in seminaries raises alarm
Bloomberg opposes Roberts' nomination

AP World News
Chavez: U.S. Plans to Invade Venezuela (You've GOT to be kidding me)
Venezuela Denies Drug Smuggling Charge
Carter Gives Qualified OK on Ethiopia Vote
Iraq Cleric Urges Unity Against Violence
World Leaders OK Document at U.N. Summit
Lebanon Bombing Leaves 1 Dead, 23 Injured
Mugabe: Zimbabwe to Take Stake in Mines

Chicago Sun-Times
overnor surfaces in pension probe
Los Angeles-bound plane makes emergency landing in Tokyo
Roberts insists he's no conservative ideologue

Boston Globe: World
Bomb deaths exceed 190 in Iraq
Hunger strike widens at detention facility
Claims of Catholic favor fuel Protestant rioting in Belfast
Britain proposes longer detention without charge in terror cases
N. Korea, US deadlock on nuclear arms talks
Amid party graft, Brazil's leader loses his luster
Iran may give nuclear aid to other Muslim nations
After Gaza pullout, officials from Israel, Qatar meet at UN
Abbas faces crisis over Gaza chaos

Yahoo! News: War with Iraq
Musharraf: US can't just pack up and leave Iraq
U.S. Marine Killed in Explosion in Iraq

Toppling walls of race and gender, Iraq's Hadid builds for the future
Widows Frustrated Over Iraq Hearing
Rice predicts political backlash against Iraq insurgency
Berlusconi: Italy's Iraq Mission a Success
Suicide blasts kill 23 more in Baghdad
Car bomb kills 9 near Shi'ite mosque north of Baghdad

Department of Defense
Afghanistan Poised for Election Success — Story Transcript
Forces Defeat Foreign Fighters in Tal Afar — Story
Marine Killed, Forces Raid Terrorist Complex — Story
Bomb Kills Afghan Interpreter, Wounds Two — Story

ON THE GROUND
Military Working Dogs Save Many Lives — Story
Paratroopers Prepare City for Election — Story

FACE OF DEFENSE
Marine Volunteers to Extend Tour — Story

TOP NEWS
SPECIAL REPORTS
Hurricane Katrina
Iraq Transition of Power

IN IRAQ
Terror Occurs During Progress
Al Qaeda Declines in Northern Iraq
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps
Iraq Daily Update
Multinational Force Iraq

IN AFGHANISTAN
NATO Plans to Expand Role
Afghan Governors Confer
Afghanistan Daily Update
Maps
Afghan Reconstruction Group Recruiting

WAR ON TERRORISM
Anti-Terror Teams Prove Worth
Bush Urges U.N. to Support Iraq
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

MILITARY NEWS
NATO Transforms for Future
National Guard, Reserve Update

CASUALTIES
DoD Identifies Marine Casualty — Story

Weather
Iraq
Al Azamiyah Al Basrah Al Hillah Al Karkh Al Kazimiyah Al Kut An Nasiriyah Baghdad Baqubah Mosul Najaf Nineveh Tall Kayf

Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Gitmo

Today in History
1394 - Jews are expelled from France by order of King Charles VI.
1787 - The Philadelphia convention adopts the U.S. Constitution.
1789 - William Herschel discovers Saturn's satellite Mimas.
1862 -At the Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam), the Civil War sees its bloodiest day.
1908 - Thomas Selfridge becomes powered flight's first fatality.
1928 - A hurricane hits Lake Okeechobee, FL - 1,800-2,500 drown.
1934 - "Beethoven's 5th" is the first 33 1/3 rpm recording released.
1939 - The U.S.S.R. invades Poland.
1943 - A load of "ammunition in transit" explodes at Norfolk Naval Air Station.
1947 - James Forrestal is sworn in as the first U.S. Secretary of Defense.
1952 - "I am an American Day" and "Constituion Day" are renamed "Citizenship Day."
1953 - For the first time, "Siamese" twins are successfully separated.
1957 - Scott Crossfield takes the X-15 up for its first powered flight.
1959 - Transit 1A, the first navigational satellite, is launched; it fails to reach orbit.
1959 - A typhoon kills 2,000 in Japan and Korea.
1963 - "The Fugitive" premiers on ABC TV.
1964 - "Bewitched" premiers on ABC TV.
1967 - "Mission Impossible" premieres on CBS-TV.
1968 - Zond-5 completes its circumnavigation of the Moon.
1972 - "M*A*S*H," premiers on TV.
1976 - NASA publicly unveils the space shuttle Enterprise.
1978 - Begin, Sadat and Carter sign the Camp David accords.
1985 - The Soyuz T-14 carries three cosmonauts to the ..Salyut 7 space station
1986 - The U.S. Senate confirms William Rehnquist as the 16th Chief Justice.
1989 - Hurricane Hugo begins its 4-day sweep through the Caribbean, during which it will kill 62.
1990 - The U.S.S.R. and Saudi Arabia restore diplomatic ties.
1991 - North and South Korea joins the U.N.

Birthdays
0879 - King Charles III (The Simple) of France (893-923)
1271 - King Wenceslas II of Bohemia and Poland (1278-1305)
1730 - Baron Frederick von Steuben
1819 - Thomas Andrews Hendricks, 21st U.S. Vice President; while in office
1857 - Tsiolkovsky, rocket/space research pioneer
1869 - Christian Lange, pacifist/internationalist, Nobel Prize winner (1921)
1907 - Warren E. Burger, Supreme Court chief justice (1969-86)
1921 - Virgilio Barco Vargas, president of Colombia (1986-90)
1928 - Roddy McDowall, actor (Planet of the Apes)
1930 - Edgar Dean Mitchell, Captain USN/astronaut (Apollo 14); Thomas P. Stafford, USAF/astronaut (Gemini 6, 9, Apollo 10, 18)
1933 - Charles Grassley (Sen-IA)
1939 - David Souter, Supreme Court Justice

Passings
1908 - Thomas Selfridge, early aviator, in an air crash
1948 - Count Folke Bernadotte, U.N. mediator for Palestine, assassinated by Jewish extremists
1961 - Adnan Menderes, PM of Turkey (1950-60)
1980 - Anastasio Somoza, former Nicaraguan President, assassinated

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Klenda, Dean Albert, USAF (KS); F105 shot down

1966
Leetun, Darel D., USAF (ND); F105D shot down

1967
Grubb, Peter A., USAF (NY); RF4C shot down (w/Nellans)

Nellans, William L., USAF (IN); RF4C shot down (w/Grubb)

Stavast, John Edward, USAF (CA); RF4C shot down (pilot, w/Venanzi), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

Venanzi, Gerald S., USAF (NJ); RF4C shot down (navigator, w/Stavast) released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Colonel - alive as of 1998

1968
Davis, Edgar F., USAF (NC); RF4C shot down ("backseater" - pilot was rescued)

1972
Buell, Kenneth R., USN (IL); A6A shot down (co-pilot, w/Donnelly)

Donnelly, Verne G., USN (CA); A6A shot down (pilot, w/Buell), remains returned February, 1991

Goetsch, Thomas August, USN (TN); sea casualty - drowned, body not recovered

Turose, Michael Stephen, USAF (OH); F105D shot down, KIA, body not recovered (pilot was rescued)

Zorn, Thomas O'Neal, Jr., USAF (GA); F105G shot down, KIA, body not recovered