Pacific Ocean (Dec. 3, 2005) - A crew member of a U.S. Marine Corps CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter, assigned to the “Sea Elks” of Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron One Six Six (HMM-166), looks out the window of his helicopter as it settles on the flight deck for landing aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu (LHA 5). Peleliu and Expeditionary Strike Group Three (ESG-3) are underway off the coast of Southern California conducting Composite Unit Training Exercise (COMPTUEX) in preparation for an upcoming scheduled deployment. U.S. Navy photo by Journalist 2nd Class Zack Baddorf

Some Charges Dropped - Judge throws out conspiracy counts against DeLay
Money-laundering charges upheld, dashing hopes of a return as House majority leader

'Not Afraid of Execution'
Lawyers leave trial; ex-Iraqi dictator yells at judge; former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark speaks on behalf of Saddam Hussein
Video: Saddam Hussein on Trial
Reporter's Notebook: Trial Drama

by Tech. Sgt. Andy Dunaway
November 30, 2005
Staff Sgt. Jason Lyday, from the 101st Airborne Division, at Forward Operating Base McHenry, demonstrates to Iraqi trainees the correct handling of the AK-47 rifle in a tactical situation. This photo appeared on www.army.mil.

On the heels of the stories about Joshua Sparling's repulsive Christmas card, and the third-graders whose teacher tried to have them participate in an anti-war letter campaign, Debby at Soldiers' Angels sends this:

Hello Pam,

Patti asked me to send you these photos and info. She thought perhaps you would like to use them

Photo 1 and 2, Here are 12,000 Christmas Cards Boxed and on their way to Iraq on Monday! The Soldiers Angels group in the Kansas City (MO) met Saturday, Dec 3th to count and box up 12,000 Christmas Cards for our wonderful Heros in Iraq!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Photo 3 and 4.... items will soon be on their way to Iraq! Items were donated by SA in the Central Region United States.






A HUMONGOUS HOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAH to the Central Region Soldiers' Angels!!!

To learn how you can help Soldiers' Angels in their work supporting our troops, visit:

Soldiers' Angels

Soldiers' Angels Germany

I am, as always, very proud to be a member of this wonderful organization (two adoptees safely home, one on the way, one currently deployed in Afghanistan).

A CH-53 helicopter from Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 466 carries fuel tanks and Marines to a landing zone where they refueled tanks and vehicles of 2nd Tanks.Photo by: Cpl. James D. Hamel

Read Story Associated with this photo

Check out these OpEd pieces by Salena Zito, a columnist over at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - about Cindy Sheehan's latest stunt, and the Iran threat.

Jagged Little Pill
If you harbored any lingering doubts as to the motivation of Cindy Sheehan, grieving mom turned Mother Peacenik, harbor no more.

Sheehan's latest nerve-scraping -- an Internet-posted open letter to Barbara Bush -- reveals her in all her politically motivated glory. She sheds her usual passive-aggressive drivel and goes for the throat.
"(My son) didn't want to go to Iraq, but he knew his duty. Your son went AWOL from a glamour unit," Sheehan writes.

Childlike in her vitriol, she attacks Mrs. Bush for failing to raise a decent human being. And she accuses the president of killing her son, Casey, who died in Iraq...More here


The monster in our closet
Remember when, as a kid, you were convinced a monster lived in your closet?

Most parents dismiss a fear-gripped child's insistence that the bogeyman lurks in the dark. But ask any kid who lay huddled under the bedcovers waiting for the inevitable grisly attack to spring from the closet. That monster was real.

A reality shift is going on in America right now that deals with our own closet-monster, Iran. And this bogeyman is real, a serious threat, and it should be dealt with accordingly; dismissing it will have deadly consequences.
The phrase "wipe Israel off the face of the map," proclaimed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, should make that clear. As one Holocaust survivor put it, "When someone in power tells you that they want to kill you, they will." - More here

Decidedly good reading.

Philadelphia, Pa. (Dec. 3, 2005) – U.S. Naval Academy football players carry the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy off the field following a 42-23 victory over the Black Knights of Army. This was the 106th Army vs. Navy Football game, held for the third consecutive year at Lincoln Financial Field. The Mids have now won the past four Army-Navy battles, and now lead the series at 50-49-7. Navy (7-4) has accepted an invitation to play in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 22. U.S. Navy photo by Damon J. Moritz

Fox News this morning ran an unbelievable story.

I've said it over and over - there's a real thin line between anti-war and anti-troop, and it gets tromped right over all the time...

Wounded Hero Joshua Sparling, recovering from wounds received in Ramadi, Iraq, has received only one Christmas card so far this year.

It says (if you can believe this):

Dear soldier,
Have a great time in the war and have a great time dieing (sic) in the war.

Miguel

P.S. - DIE

It's written as if a young child wrote it - the card front is decorated with patriotic stamps. If - and it's definitely "if" - a child wrote it, they were most certainly prompted.

It's pathetic, disgusting, and absolutely wrong.

Fox posted Joshua's address - this is one Hero who deserves a shower of cards from those who support our troops:

Joshua Sparling
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20307-5001

An angry Sparling, by the way, keeps the card above his bed to motivate him.

More to be posted on the Fox Friends Insider today.

My card will be in the mail this morning.

UPDATE:
Card's on the way! Two Babes and a Brain has a picture of the card, and links to other blogs talking about this, including Michelle Malkin, who also has pictures up.

TORQUED — U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Bruce Miller uses a torque wrench to tighten a bolt while inspecting a Joint Direct Attack Munition on Balad Air Force Base in Iraq, Nov. 30, 2005. Miller is deployed with the 332nd Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Shannon Kluge

1492 - Columbus discovers Hispaniola (El Espanola/Haiti).
1496 - Jews are expelled from Portugal by order of King Manuel I.
1590 - Niccolò Sfondrati is chosen as Pope (Gregory XIV).
1757 - The Prussian army beats the Austrians at the Battle of Leuthen.
1766 - London auctioneers at Christie's hold their first sale.
1792 - George Washington is re-elected as U.S. President.
1798 - Government troops occupy Hasselt.
1804 - Thomas Jefferson is re-elected as U.S. President.
1813 - Lübeck surrenders to allied armies.
1831 - Former President John Quincy Adams takes his seat as a member of the House of Representatives.
1832 - Andrew Jackson is re-elected as U.S. President.
1837 - Canada faces an uprising under William Lyon Mackenzie.
1846 - C.F. Schoenbein obtains a patent for the cellulose nitrate explosive.
1848 - President Polk triggers the Gold Rush of '49 by confirming the discovery of gold in California.
1854 - Aaron Allen of Boston patents the folding theater chair.
1861 - The Gatling gun is patented.
1862 - Battle of Coffeeville, MS.
1876 - Daniel Stillson of Massachusetts patents the first practical pipe wrench; a fire at the Brooklyn Theater kills 295, either trampled or burned to death.
1879 - The first automatic telephone switching system is patented.
1881 - The 47th U.S. Congress (1881-83) convenes.
1892 - Anti-semite Hermann Ahlwardt is elected to Germany's Reichstag.
1893 - The first electric car, built in Toronto, debuts - it can go 15 miles between charges.
1905 - Henry Campbell-Bannerman becomes PM of England.
1908 - For the first time, numerals appear on football uniforms (University of Pittsburgh).
1918 - An oil refinery on Curaçao opens.
1925 - The German government of Luther falls.
1933 - At 5:32 p.m. EST, the 21st Amendment is ratified; it is the only amendment adopted to repeal an earlier amendment (18th Amendment - Prohibition).
1935 - The first commercial hydroponics operation is established in Montebello, CA.
1936 - The Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Kirghiz become constituent republics of the Soviet Union.
1941 - Sister Elizabeth Kenny's new treatment for infantile paralysis is approved; a Russian counter-offensive in Moscow drives out the Nazi army; the U.S. aircraft carrier Lexington and five heavy cruisers leave Pearl Harbor.
1942 - Seyss-Inquart orders students in Nazi-Germany to go work; the West Indies chocolate/coffee drop occurs above the Netherlands.
1944 - German troops rob all the silver coin in Utrecht.
1945 - The "Lost Squadron" crashes east of Florida, in the Bermuda Triangle.
1946 - President Truman creates the Committee on Civil Rights by Executive Order #9808.
1950 - Sikkim becomes a protectorate of India.
1952 - The worst smog ever in London kills more than 4,000.
1955 - The AFL and CIO merge, with George Meany as president; a historic bus boycott begins in Montgomery, AL.
1957 - NYC becomes the first city to legislate against racial or religious discrimination in housing market (Fair Housing Practices Law).
1960 - Ghana cuts diplomatic relations with Belgium.
1967 - Benjamin Spock and Allen Ginsberg are arrested protesting the Vietnam War.
1972 - The Australia Labour party wins the parliamentary election/
1974 - In Tehran, Iran, an airport terminal roof collapses, killing 17; the final episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" airs on the BBC.
1975 - NASA launches the space vehicle S-196; it fails.
1977 - Egypt breaks off diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen.
1978 - Pioneer Venus-1 begins orbiting Venus; the European Union establishes the EMS (European Monetary System).
1979 - Irish premier Jack Lynch resigns.
1982 - Seattle University Baptist Church declares sanctuary for Central American refugees
1983 - A car bomb shatters a nine-story building in Beirut, killing 12.
1984 - French colonists kill 10 Kanaken in New Caledonia.
1988 - The Shuttle Atlantis launches the world's first nuclear-war-fighting satellite; A North Carolina federal grand jury indicts PTL founder Jim Bakker on fraud and conspiracy charges.
1989 - The French TGV train reaches a world record speed of 482.4 kph.
1990 - Former Noriega aide Luis del Cid pleads guilty; Salman Rushdie, author ("The Satanic Verses" - he was ordered to death by Iran for blasphemy), appears in public for the first time in two years.
1991 - Charles Keating, Jr. (Lincoln Savings and Loan fraud), is found guilty; the "New York Daily News" files for protection under Chapter 11.
1993 - Astronauts begin the repair of the Hubble telescope in space; Rafael Caldera is elected President of Venezuela.
1997 - STS-87 (Columbia 24) lands.

Birthdays
1661 - Robert Haley, earl of Oxford / English premier (1710-14)
1782 - Martin Van Buren, 8th U.S. President (1837-41)
1824 - Titian James Coffey, Attorney General
1826 - John Benjamin Sanborn, Union Brevet Major General
1839 - George Armstrong Custer, U.S. Major General (of Little Big Horn fame)
1861 - Armando V. Diaz, Italian marshal/minister of War (1922-24)
1863 - Paul P. Painlevé, French PM (1917, 1925) / mathematician
1896 - Willem F.M. Lampe, Dutch ambassador of the Dutch Antilles
1901 - Walter Elias Disney, animator (Mickey Mouse); Werner Heisenberg, German physicist (Nobel 1932)
1902 - (Steve James) Strom Thurmond (Senator-SC)
1903 - Cecil Frank Powell, British physicist, discovered pion (Nobel 1950)
1925 - Anastasio "Tachito" Somoza Debayle, President of Nicaragua (1967-79)
1927 - Rama IX (Bhumibol Adulyadej), King of Thailand (1946- )
1932 - Little Richard (Wayne Penniman), rocker (Tutti Frutti, Lucille)
1947 - Jugderdemidiin Gurragcha, first Mongolian space traveler (Soyuz-39)
1949 - Bruce E. Melnick, Commander USCG / astronaut (STS 41, STS 49)

Passings
1212 - Derek II of Are, Bishop of Utrecht (1197-1212)
1244 - Johanna of Constantinople, countess of Flanders (1205-44)
1355 - Jan III, duke of Brabant/Limburg
1560 - King François II of France (1559-60), at age 16
1594 - Gerardus Mercator, Flemish philosopher/cartographer
1791 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer
1870 - Alexandre Dumas writer (The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo)
1891 - Pedro II of Alcantara, Emperor of Brazil (1831-89)
1951 - "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, of baseball's black sox scandal
1963 - Herbert H. Lehman (Governor-NY)
1992 - Sergei Aleksandrovich Yemelyanov, Russian cosmonaut
1994 - Ronald Ridout, school textbook author

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Dibble, Morris F., US Army (NY); KIA in ground combat (same incident w/Eisenberger and Upner), body not recovered

Eisenberger, George J., US Army (OK); KIA in ground combat (same incident w/Dibble and Upner), body not recovered

Hyde, Jimmy Don, USN (OK); KIA, body not recovered

Upner, Edward C., US Army (AL); KIA in ground combat (same incident w/Dibble and Eisenberger), body not recovered

1966
Begley, Burris Nelson, USAF (KY); F105D shot down, remains ID'd December, 1993 (disputed)

Warren, Arthur Leonard, USAF (OH); RF101 shot down, remains returned September, 1986

1967
Russell, Donald Myrick, USAF (ME); F105D shot down, remains returned 1994 - ID'd June, 1996

1968
Berry, John A., US Army (CO); OH6A shot down (w/Evans), KIA, body not recovered

Evans, Billy K., Jr., US Army (VA); OH6A shot down (w/Berry), KIA, body not recovered

1969
Clark, John C. II, USAF (TX); F4E shot down (w/Harrold), remains returned November, 1997

Danielson, Benjamin F., USAF (MN); F4C shot down

Harrold, Patrick K., USAF (KS); F4E shot down (w/Clark), remains returned 1997