News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Sen. McCain Defends Bush's Iraq Plan
GOP, Democrats skirmish over Iraq plan
Bush authorized raids on Iranians in Iraq: Rice
Withdrawals could start if Iraq plan works: Gates - Video
Analysis: Iraq PM's silence telling
Iraq FM defends detained Iranians
Military.com Blog: Time the Enemy in Iraq

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Officials Warn of Webcams as Terror Tools
Anti-Tank Shell Hits U.S. Embassy in Athens
Somali warlords agree joint army but gunmen clash
Pakistan says it's not a terrorist haven

Other Military News
Sergeant Under Fire for Playboy Spread
Pentagon survey says troops fatter, drinking more

Worldwide Wackos
Second N.Korea nuclear test depends on U.S.: Kyodo

Homegrown Moonbats
Ford once called Carter a 'disaster'

Politics / Government
Boxer Slips Rice Sucker Punch
VIDEO: Tony Snow Fires Back After Boxer Blasts Rice
House OKs Medicare Drug Price Bill
McCain ties 2008 fate to troops plan in Iraq

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment
Duke DA Asks State to Step In - VIDEO
Cops: 2 Women Pimped Girls on Craigslist
Thief Steals Dying Mom's Video to Young Son

U.N. News
China, Russia cast rare veto against U.S. on Myanmar
New U.N. leader to meet Bush in Washington next week

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News / Watching the Web
Judge Tosses Libel Case Against NY Times

Science / Nature
Japan Issues Tsunami Warning After 8.3 Magnitude Earthquake in the Pacific Ocean
Freezing Weather Spreads Across Middle America; 2 Deaths Reported, Flights Delayed
Comet Dazzles Stargazers - PHOTOS
Sri Lanka floods displace 60,000
Archaeologists find ancient stone tools

Oddities
U.S. skunk seeks ride home: only brave need apply
Chewing gum ad becomes Sino-Russia sticking point

Other News of Note
Lost and Found
Missing Missouri 13-year-old found alive with boy who vanished in '02; suspect charged
VIDEOS: Sheriff Speaks - 'Never Stopped Looking' - Miracle
Man Saves Woman From NYC Train's Path
New exhibit of King papers shed light on "Dream"
Scientists prepare to move Doomsday Clock forward
Man known as Secret Santa dies in Mo. (This is really sad)

Fox News
Cops Hunt Killer in South Bend, Indiana
Small Plane Crash in Calif. Kills 2 - PHOTOS
17 Students Hurt in Pa. School Bus Crash
Irwin's Widow: Death Footage Destroyed
Texas High School Teacher Charged Under 'Peeping-Tom' Law for Videotaping Girls Wrestling
Over-the-Counter Cold and Cough Medicines Can Kill Babies, CDC Says
James Brown's 5-Year-Old Son Left Out of His Will

Reuters: Top News
ASEAN leaders weigh charter, wrangle over Myanmar
Spain arrests Argentine ex-president Isabel Peron
Telomeres may predict heart disease risk, study finds
Video games, rock'n'roll find common ground
AMD warning shows processor momentum shifting
Yugoslavia lives on in Kosovo time capsule
Somali refugees in Kenya downbeat about return
Bilingualism delays onset of dementia
Beckham agreed Los Angeles move after advice from Cruise
Madonna urges more people to adopt from Africa
Wall St Week Ahead: Stocks focus on earnings, inflation
Dow ends at record as energy up on higher crude
Nasdaq calls PR Newswire lawsuit "desperate"
Microsoft shares up as safe software bet
Oil rises on OPEC jitters after 15 pct slide - Video
A new tack with ETFs
On the radar: Unit Corp.
BP CEO Browne to retire earlier than planned
Dolans raise offer to take Cablevision private
Disney's Iger earned $17 million in 2006
Wal-Mart clarifies healthcare figures
First conviction in HP board leak scandal case
Exxon meets green groups as climate focus surges

AP World News
Charles, Camilla headed to NYC, Philly
Teen makes PGA cut - and it isn't Wie
Spokeswoman: Jackson resolved bill suit
Sweeney eager to get past Bonds incident
Italian couple arrested in family deaths
SMU faculty members oppose Bush library
Wynn vs. insurers over punctured Picasso
FDA investigates Texas embryo business
Toni Braxton sues her former manager
Feds probing stock options grant to Jobs
Italian scientists give Dante a makeover
Bravo will make Paula Abdul docu-series
Man files lawsuit to take wife's name

Military.com
Vets Fight Changes in N.J. Curriculum
Check Out our Military Hardware Guide
Audio Excerpt of Norman Mailer's Latest
Play Trivia and Win an iPod
Maximize Your Military Lifestyle
Largest Veteran Job Board in the World

CENTCOM: News Releases
IRAQI POLICE FORCES DETAIN 6 INSURGENTS DURING RAID NEAR ISKANDARIYAH

47 INSURGENTS DETAINED BY IRAQI POLICE AND ARMY IN FALLUJAH

IRAQI ARMY FORCES CAPTURE LEADER OF INSURGENT CELL DURING RAID IN DIYALA

USJFCOM
Not your typical reserve position: USJFCOM seeks reserve officers to join Standing Joint Force Headquarters

More about Standing Joint Force Headquarters Core Elements - podcast

Exercise to begin to prepare Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa for deployment

More about the mission rehearsal program

USJFCOM commander discusses importance of personnel recovery - podcast

Campbell takes command of Joint Forces Command Army component

Department of Defense
NEWS UPDATES
Security Focuses on Broader Region - Story
Stability & Security in Iraq Report (pdf)
For Top News Visit DefenseLink

ON THE GROUND
Safety Officer Develops Lifesaving Tool - Story
U.S. Air Assets Support Strike in Afghanistan - Story
Iraqi, Coalition Forces Conduct Major Offensive - Story
Soldiers Use Air Assets to Capture Bomb Makers - Story
U.S. Air Force Engineer Helps Afghans Rebuild - Story

IN IRAQ
Hundreds of Ramadi Residents Join the Police
U.S. Army Cavalry Train Iraqi National Police
New Networks Monitor Power Distribution in Iraq
Troops Help Iraqis Secure Neighborhood
Cavalry Troops Teach Iraqis Advanced First Aid
U.S. Soldiers Give Wheelchairs to Iraqis in Need
Iraqi-American Soldier Returns to Homeland
Terror Suspects Captured in Meat-Packing Plant

IN AFGHANISTAN
Afghans Graduate From Agricultural Course
Afghans, U.S. Soldiers Distribute Relief Supplies
277th Named Army’s ‘Top Aviation Battalion’
Panjshir Team Helps to Repair Mosque

BACKGROUND
IRAQ
Renewal In Iraq
Iraq: Security, Stability
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq
Multinational Force Iraq
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (PDF)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Weekly Reconstruction Report (PDF)
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Fact Sheet: Budget Request
Fact Sheet: War on Terror
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

Weather
Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Germany
Ansbach Aschaffenburg Berlin Berlin-Tempelhof Berlin/Schonefeld Bremerhaven
Darmstadt Frankfurt Frankfurt/Main Freiburg/Breisgau Garmisch
Garmisch-Partenkirchen Geilenkirchen Gelnhausen Giessen Kitzingen
Hanau Am Main Heidelberg Mainz Mannheim Nurnberg Stuttgart Trier
Wiesbaden Wurzburg

Gitmo

Guam
Agana Agana Heights Agat Andersen AFB Asan Barrigada

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

Japan
Kadena Air Base Okinawa Tokyo Yokohama

Philippines
Baler Radar Site Catanduanes Radar Site Manila

South Korea
Cheju Upper/Radar Chonju Chunchon Inch'on Kunsan Masan Mokp'o
Osan Pusan Seoul Suwon Taegu Taejon Tonghae Radar Site Ulsan Yosu

* If you're deployed, and want to see your location's weather listed here, please email me! *

Today in History
0888 - Duke Odo becomes king of West-France
1099 - Crusaders set fire to Mara Syria
1547 - Earl Henry Howard of Surrey sentenced to death
1559 - Elizabeth I crowned queen of England in Westminster Abbey
1610 - Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th satellite of Jupiter
1621 - Jan Pieterszoon Coen's fleet sets sail to Moluccas (from Jacarta)
1695 - Jonathan Swift ordained an Anglican priest in Ireland
1733 - James Oglethorpe & 130 English colonists arrive at Charleston, SC
1794 - Congress changes US flag to 15 stars & 15 stripes
1830 - Great fire in New Orleans thought to be set by rebel slaves
1849 - Vancouver Island granted to Hudson's Bay Co
1854 - Anthony Foss patents the accordion
1863 - Chenille manufacturing machine patented by William Canter, New York City, NY; Thomas Crapper pioneers one-piece pedestal flushing toilet
1865 - Federals attack Fort Fisher, NC
1869 - National convention of Black leaders meets in Washington, DC
1874 - US troops land in Honolulu to protect the king
1888 - National Geographic Society founded (Washington DC)
1894 - Revolution in Sicily crushed by government troops
1898 - Emile Zola publishes his open letter (J'accuse) in defense of Captain Alfred Dreyfus in Paris
1908 - French pilot Henry Farman is 1st European to fly roundtrip
1915 - Earthquake in Avezzano Italy kills 30,000; W. Churchill presents plan for assault on Dardanelles
1920 - New York Times editorial (falsely) reports rockets can never fly
1922 - Conference of Cannes concerning German retribution payments ended
1924 - Nationalist Wafd-party wins Egyptian parliament elections
1927 - US & Mexico battle over oil interests
1930 - "Mickey Mouse" comic strip 1st appears
1935 - Plebiscite in Saar, indicates a desire (90.3%) to join Nazi Germany
1939 - Belgian premier signs Burgos-treaty for trade relations with Franco
1942 - German U-boats begin harassing shipping on US East Coast; Henry Ford patents a method of constructing plastic auto bodies; Interallied war trial conference publishes St James Declaration
1943 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Casablanca; Hitler declares "Total War"; Russian offensive at Don under General Golikov; US infantry captures Galloping Horse-ridge Guadalcanal
1951 - German General F Christian freed early from Dutch prison; 9 Jewish Kremlin physicians "exposed" as British/US agents; known as the Doctors' Plot
1953 - Gas explosion in Belgium coal mine kills 14; Marshal Josip Tito chosen president of Yugoslavia
1954 - Military rule in Egypt; 318 Mohammedan Brotherhood arrested
1957 - Wham-O Company produces the 1st Frisbee
1958 - 9,000 scientists of 43 nations petition UN for nuclear test ban
1959 - De Gaulle grants amnesty to 130 to Algerian death row convicts; King Boudouin promises Belgian Congo independence
1966 - 1st Black selected for Presidential cabinet (LBJ selects Robert C. Weaver-HUD)
1967 - Coup in Togo
1968 - Beginning of Tet-offensive in Vietnam; Minnesota North Stars center Bill Masterton fatally injured (dies on 15th)
1979 - Charlie Daniels hosts the Volunteer Jam
1979 - YMCA files libel suit against Village People's YMCA song
1980 - Head of narcotic brigade arrested for drug smuggling in Belgium; Togo's constitution becomes effective
1982 - Air Florida 737 takes off in a snowstorm, crashes into the 14th St Bridge in Washington, DC, & falls into the Potomac River, killing 78
1982 - Hank Aaron & Frank Robinson elected to Hall of Fame
1983 - AMA urges ban on boxing, citing Muhammad Ali's deteriorating condition
1985 - 99-year-old Otto Bucher scores a hole-in-one at Spanish golf course; Express train derails in Ethiopia, kills at least 428
1986 - Bloody coup overthrows government of South Yemen
1987 - W. German police arrest Mohammed Ali Hamadi, suspect in 1985 hijacking
1988 - Supreme Court rules (5-3) public school officials have broad powers to censor school newspapers, plays & other expressive activities
1989 - "Friday the 13th" virus strikes hundreds of IBM computers in Britain; Jerry Parks, Oklahoma defensive back, charged with shooting a teammate; Ruins of Mashkan-shapir (occupied 2050-1720 BC) found in Iraq; Subway gunman Bernhard Goetz begins 1-year jail sentence; Computers across Britain hit by "Friday the 13th" virus
1990 - 1st elected US black governor inaugurated (Douglas Wilder-Virginia)
1991 - UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar meets with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad; 42 killed in exhibition soccer match in Johannesburg South Africa; President Mario Soares of Portugal re-elected
1992 - US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer pleads guilty but insane
1993 - STS-54 (Endeavour) launches into orbit
1994 - Italian government of Ciampi resigns; Tonya Harding's bodyguard, Shawn Eric Eckardt & Derrick Brian Smith arrested & charged with conspiracy in attack of skater Nancy Kerrigan
1995 - 26 HNL teams unanimously ratify agreement to end NHL strike; America3 becomes 1st all-female crew to win an America's Cup race

Birthdays
1381 - St Colette, abbess/reformer (Poor Clares)
1505 - Joachim II Hector, ruler (Brandenburg)
1807 - Napoleon Bonaparte Buford, Union Major General
1808 - Salmon P. Chase (Senator) cabinet member, 6th Chief Justice (1864-73)
1812 - Humphrey Marshall, Confederate Brigadier General
1815 - William Henry French, Union Major General
1835 - Gustaaf Rolin-Jaequemyns. Belgian jurist/minister of the Interior
1864 - Wilhelm K.W. Wien, German phyicist (Nobel 1911)
1869 - Emanuele F. Duke of Aosta, Italian General (WWI)/fascist
1898 - Pedro de Teixeira, de Mattos Dutch diplomat
1919 - Robert Stack, actor (Eliot Ness-Untouchables, Airplane, Unsolved Mysteries)
1936 - Edward R. Madigan (Representative-IL)
1937 - Hajé J. Schartman, Dutch MP (CDA)
1949 - Brandon Tartikoff, TV exec (NBC); Rakesh Sharma India, cosmonaut (Soyuz T-11)
1955 - Titus M. Mafolo, South African journalist/ANC-leader
1961 - Julia Louis-Dreyfus, comedienne (SNL, Seinfeld, Day by Day, Soul Man, Troll)
1966 - Tabitha Stevens, fictional character (Bewitched)

Passings
0533 - Remigius van Reims, 1st bishop of Reims (459-533)/saint, dies about 96
0858 - Aethelwolf, King of Wessex (Battle at Aclea)
0888 - Charles III the Fat One, King of Franconia/Roman emperor
1049 - Derrick IV, Count of Holland (1039-49), dies in battle
1177 - Hendrik Jasomirgott Babenberg Duke of Austria
1307 - Arnoud van Foreest, Dom deacon of Utrecht
1330 - Frederick (III) the Handsome, duke of Austria/German anti-king, dies
1691 - George Fox, founder of Quakers, dies at 66
1797 - Elisabeth C. von Brunswick-Bever,n wife of Frederick II, dies at 81
1879 - W.F. Hendrik, the Navigator prince of Netherlands/viceroy of Luxembourg, dies at 58
1914 - Bernardus H. Heldt, Dutch MP, dies at 72
1929 - Wyatt Earp, US marshall (OK Corral), dies at 80
1934 - Jean-Baptiste Marchand, soldier/explorer (Sudan), dies at 70
1947 - Veit Valentin, German/US historian (German People), dies at 61
1962 - Ernie Kovacs, comedian, dies in a car crash in West Los Angeles, at 42
1963 - Leonardus G. Kortenhorst, Dutch MP (KVP), dies at 76
1978 - Hubert Humphrey (Senator-MN, Vice President), dies at 66
1986 - Abdel Fattah Ismail, President of South-Yemen (1969-80), murdered
1988 - Chiang Ching-kuo, President of Taiwan (1978-88), dies at 81
1993 - Rene Pleven, PM of France (1950-51, 51-52)
1994 - Johan J. Holst, Norwegian minister of defense/foreign affairs, dies at 56

Reported Missing in Action
1961
Duffy, Charles J.; possibly dead

1967
Cronin, Michael P., USN (PA); A4E shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Captain - alive as of 1996, when he was active in getting the "War Crimes Act of 1996" passed

Turley, Morvan Darrell, USAF (MO); F100D shot down - remains recovered October, 1967

1969
Eaton, Norman D., USAF (OK); B57 shot down (pilot)