Here I am in Arlington, VA - site of the 2007 Milblog Conference. Haven't managed to find anyone yet, so I'm hangin' in the room, having some lunch, and - what else? - blogging.

Cocktail reception is 8:00pm - 11:00pm - looking forward to seeing those I've met before, and meeting those I haven't.

More to follow.

Labels: Milblog Conference 2007

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Iraq's Neighbors Call for Sunni Inclusion at Conference
Iraq urges neighbors to block border infiltration

Operation Enduring Freedom
More civilians killed in U.S.-led raid: Afghan official

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Anti-Olmert Protest in Tel Aviv
Olmert's coalition under threat from key partner - Video
U.S. timeline runs into Israeli resistance
Cubans Attempt to Hijack U.S. Bound Jet
Carlos the Jackal to face trial in Paris

Other Military News
Search On for Missing Afghan War Veteran
Health Care System Puts Troops at Risk
Lawmakers Wants VA to Explain Bonuses

Worldwide Wackos
The Lady in Red - Iran ditches dinner because of violinist's dress
Iran to "break the leg" of enemies: Ahmadinejad
Chavez threatens to nationalize banks

Politics / Government
Giuliani OK If Court Upholds Roe vs. Wade
Ex-NYC mayor differs from pack on abortion
2008 Republicans back war, question handling
GOP contenders embrace Reagan legacy
Democrats not backing down on Iraq Bill
Secret Service Assigns Protection to Obama
Report: Obama's Irish Roots Unearthed
House OKs Hate Crimes Law Protecting Gays
Fed plans hearing on curbing U.S. mortgage abuses
Saying "I'm sorry" fails to soothe public anger

Illegal Immigration / Border Control
FBI to probe LA police clash at immigrant rally
Migration to U.S. tops death in Mexico (AUGGGHH!)

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment / Law and Order
Child Killed in Toxic Bathtub
Woman Speeding to Sick Dad Busted - VIDEO
Most-Wanted Child Rapist to Appear in Court
Teacher Charged With Sex Abuse of 11 Kids
N.J. Kids Shown Porn Instead of Cartoons
Cops: Couple Kept Son, 10, in Dog Cage
Tribal suit over blood samples dismissed

U.N. News
Beating global warming need not cost the earth: U.N. (No; for them to be happy, it just needs to cost the U.S...)

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News / Watching the Web
Imus to Sue CBS Radio for Breach of Contract
Clear Channel board rejects new bid as vote nears
Murdoch says to keep WSJ independent: reports
Reuters gets bid approach, shares soar
Reporting a deadly profession in the Philippines
Microsoft eyeing deal to buy Yahoo: report
Poll: Couric gets more negative response

Science / Medicine / Technology
Mercury Astronaut Wally Schirra Dead at 84
Face masks offer solace in pandemic, CDC says
DNA mutation causes heart disease in whites
Mercury's spin reveals molten, not solid core
Human food eyed in pet food recall probe

Mother Nature
Texas Storms Kill 3; Thousands Without Power
Delegates reach deal on climate change

Oddities
'Goat Man' of Sudan Becomes a 'Widower'
Time to choose world's stupidest pop lyric

Other News of Note
Ex-Duke coach blasts officials in book

Fox News
NYC Dean Gets 'F' for Parent's Note Errors
Queen Tours Virginia - VIDEO - PHOTOS

Reuters: Top News
Tough task for Blair successor after UK polls
France's Royal warns of violence if Sarkozy wins
Pakistan's Bhutto urges Musharraf to quit army
Court denies Vonage bid for patent case retrial
RIM courts broader market with BlackBerry Curve
Seniors wrongly viewed as grouchy and unhappy
Prosecutors seek 45 days in jail for Paris Hilton
George Lucas honored at San Francisco Film Festival
World stocks hit all-time peak - Video
Oil edges higher, Nigeria supports
Gold market waits for U.S. jobs data
European shares near 6-1/2-year high; payrolls eyed
Equities rally: Too much, too soon?
Haven from the subprime storm
EMI shares up 8 pct on takeover approaches
Kodak posts smaller quarterly loss
ABN says working with RBS, talks continue
Nokia Siemens Networks to cut 9,000 jobs

AP World News
U.S. stock futures signal higher open
Pinkett Smith: Holmes is equal partner
Warriors stun Mavs, make NBA history
Kirilenko, Utah force Game 7 in Houston
Harrington's 66 gives him Wachovia lead
American Airlines pilots seek raise
French candidates make final push
Chief Justice speaks to Alaska bar

Military.com
Poll: Joan Baez at Walter Reed?
New Must-Have Benefits Guide
Op-ed: Middle East Earthquake
SpouseBUZZ: Live! Going to SD
The Web's Best Equipment Guide
Def Tech: Milbloggers a Dying Breed?
Send your love home!

CENTCOM: News Releases
COALITION IDENTIFIES TWO AL-QAEDA ADVISORS KILLED
COMMANDOS DISCOVER IRANIAN WEAPONS

USJFCOM
USJFCOM to assist as DoD and DEA partner up to support personnel recovery - podcast
Learn more about JPRA
Joint Knowledge Development and Distribution Capability rolls out enhanced Joint Knowledge Online - podcast
Noble Resolve 07 enhancing homeland defense - podcast
Liveblogging: Noble Resolve 2007
Learn more about Noble Resolve

DefenseLink
Secretary Urges Vigilance in War On Terror - Story
Gates Visits ‘Amazing’ Army Rehabilitation Center - Story
Gates Joins Revelers to Welcome Troops Home - Story
Agencies Must Act Now to Move Iraq Forward - Story
DoD Will Shield Troops from Funding Shortfall - Story
Progress Continues Despite Challenges in Iraq - Story

More Headline News
Air Force Team in Afghanistan Aims High
U.S. Marine Training Will Get 'Back to Basics'
Group Will Ensure Wounded Warriors Get Care
Bush: Al Qaeda Cannot Gain Safe Haven in Iraq

Military News
Officials ID Five Missing World War II Airmen
Webcasts Bring Graduations to Deployed Parents
Edwards Airmen Star in 'Ironman' Superhero Movie
U.S. Soldiers, Community Remember Wereth 11

America Supports You
Gates Expresses Thanks to Americans Who Support Troops - Story
Survivors Group Honors Benefactors
Arizona Team Thanks Troops
NASCAR Family Offers Support

War on Terror
‘Rat Trap’ Targets al Qaeda - Story
Coalition, Iraqi Forces Detain 39
Five Enemy Fighters Killed
Coalition Kills Seven, Nabs 21
136 Taliban Fighters Killed

Transformation
Tactical Pistol Qualification - Story
Unmanned Aircraft Wing Debuts
New Concept Ensures Latest Technologies Reach Warfighters
Technology Leaves No Place to Hide

Face of Defense
Army Scientist Studies Soldiers - Story
Soldier Helps African Youngsters
Soldier Beats Injury, Runs Marathon
Marine Helps Rebuild Iraq
Cousins Reunite at Speicher PX

DefendAmerica
NEWS UPDATES
Coalition, Iraqi Forces Detain 39 - Story

ON THE GROUND
Yusufiyah Joint Security Station Opens - Story
'Trackers' Return From Deployment in Pacific - Story
Fairchild Airmen Reunite with Family, Friends - Story
Communications Airmen Make the Connection - Story

IN IRAQ
Army Engineers, Iraqis Build New Water Plant
Task Force, Council Discuss Bank Reopening
Tops in Blue Perform for U.S. Airmen, Soldiers
Iraqi Soldiers Hustle Through Basic Training

IN DJIBOUTI
Marines Donate Fitness Equipment to Villagers
Marines Collect Sandals for Residents in Africa
Country Desk Officers Play Vital Role in Africa

IN AFGHANISTAN
Troop Commander Delivers Aid, Mentorship
Unmanned Aircraft Boosts Surveillance Efforts

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
'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: 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

Today in History
1303 - Flemings conquers Middelburg
1471 - Battle of Tewkesbury - King Edward IV vs Ex-queen Margaretha
1493 - Spanish Pope Alexander VI divides non-Christian world between Spain & Portugal
1494 - Christopher Columbus lands in Jamaica
1540 - Venice & Turkey sign Treaty of Constantinople
1626 - Indians sell Manhattan Island for $24 in cloth & buttons
1626 - Peter Minuit becomes director-general of New Netherlands
1634 - Johan van Walbeecks' fleet departs to West-Indies
1652 - Battle at Etampes - French army under Turenne beats Fronde rebels
1715 - French manufacturer debuts 1st folding umbrella (Paris France)
1747 - Willem IV appointed viceroy of Overijssel
1776 - Rhode Island declares independence from England
1783 - Herschel reports seeing a red glow near lunar crater Aristarchus
1805 - Henry C. Overing buys 80 acres of Throggs Neck in the Bronx NY
1814 - Bourbon reign restored in France
1818 - Netherlands & England sign treaty against illegal slave handling
1834 - Charles Darwin's expedition reaches 200 km from Atlantic Ocean
1843 - Great Britain annexes Natal
1846 - US state of Michigan ends death penalty
1847 - New York State creates a Board of Commissioners of Emigration
1851 - 1st major San Fransisco fire
1858 - War of the Reform (México) - Liberals establish capital at Vera Cruz
1861 - At Gretna LA, one of 1st guns of Rebel navy is cast
1862 - Battle at Williamsburg, VA; Yorktown VA - McClellan halts his troops before town as it is full of armed torpedoes left by CS Brigadier General Gabrial Rains
1863 - Battle of Chancellorsville ends - Beaten Union army withdraws
1864 - Ulysses S Grant crosses Rapidan & begins his duel with Robert E. Lee
1865 - Battle of Citronville, AL - Richard Taylor surrenders; Battle of Mobile AL
1871 - 1st baseball league game (National Association of Baseball Players), (Fort Wayne 2, Cleveland 0) Deacon Jim White gets 1st hit, a double
1878 - Phonograph shown for 1st time at Grand Opera House
1886 - Haymarket riot in Chicago - bomb kills 7 policemen
1888 - Italy & Spain sign military covenant
1893 - Cowboy Bob Pickett invents bulldogging
1896 - Grease fire ignites ½ ton of dynamite at Cripple Creek, CO
1897 - Fire in Paris France bazaar at Rue Jean Goujon kills 200
1910 - Canadian Currency Act, 1910, receives Royal Assent; Canadian parliament accept creation of Royal Canadian Navy; Tel Aviv founded
1912 - Italian mariners occupy Turkish Island of Rhodes
1915 - Italy drops Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary & Germany
1916 - At request of US, Germany curtails its submarine warfare
1917 - Arabs sack Tel Aviv
1923 - Bloody street battles between Nazis, socialist & police in Vienna; New York state revokes Prohibition law
1924 - 8th modern Olympic games open in Paris, France; German Republic election - fascists & communists win
1925 - League of Nations conference on arms control & poison gas usage
1926 - General strike hits Britain
1927 - 1st balloon flight over 40,000 feet (Scott Field, IL); Nicaragua agrees to a US-supervised presidential election in 1928
1931 - Mustafa Kemal Pasja becomes Turkish president
1932 - Al Capone, convict of income tax evasion, enters Atlanta Penitentiary
1938 - Douglas Hyde (a protestant) becomes 1st president of Eire
1940 - 21 "not neutral" Nazis & communists arrested in Netherlands
1942 - Battle of Coral Sea begun (1st sea battle fought solely in air); German occupiers imprison 450 prominent Dutch as hostages
1945 - German troops in Netherlands, Denmark & Norway surrender
1946 - 5 die in a 2 day riot at Alcatraz prison in San Fransisco bay
1948 - The Hague Court of Justice convicts Hans Rauter (SS) - sentenced to death
1949 - Air crash at Turijn (whole Torino-soccer team survives)
1957 - Alan Freed hosts "Rock n' Roll Show" 1st prime-time network rock show; Anne Frank Foundation forms in Amsterdam
1958 - Alberto Lleras Camargo chosen as President of Colombia
1960 - 1st great Delta dam closes, North-South Beveland
1961 - 13 Freedom riders began bus trip through South; Malcolm Ross & Victor Prather reach 34,668 meters (record) in balloon; South-Africa ANC-leader John Nkadimeng arrested
1964 - 70 GATT-countries confer in Geneva
1966 - Soviet Government signs accord about building Fiat factory in USSR
1967 - Lunar Orbiter 4 launched by US - begins orbiting Moon May 7
1970 - National Guard kills 4 at Kent State in Ohio (a number of Guardsmen are also wounded); Premier Kosygin affirms existence of Russian military advisors in Egypt
1972 - Vietcong forms revolutionary government in Quang Tri, South Vietnam
1973 - 1st TV network female nudity-Steambath (PBS)- Valerie Perrine
1978 - Russian President Brezhnev visits West-Germany
1979 - 1st woman prime minister of Great Britain (Margaret Thatcher); NASA launches Fltsatcom-2
1982 - British torpedo boat Sheffield off Falkland hit by Exocet (French-built) rocket
1984 - Dave Kingman's fly ball never comes down (stuck in Metrodome ceiling)
1986 - President Babrak Karmal resigns as party leader of Afghánistán
1989 - US launches Magellan to Venus; US space shuttle STS-30 launched
1990 - Latvia's parliament votes 138-0 (1 abstention) for Independence
1991 - President G.H.W. Bush is hospitalized for erratic heartbeat

Birthdays
1631 - Mary I Henriette Stuart, daughter of Charles I/Queen of England
1635 - Willem van Outhoorn, Dutch Governor-General (Dutch East Indies)
1796 - Joseph Pannell Taylor, Union Brigadier General
1820 - Julia Gardiner Tyler, 2nd wife of President John Tyler (1841-45)
1881 - Aleksandr F. Kerenski, Russian premier (1917-Prelude to Bolshevism)
1902 - Cola [Nicolas] Debrot Bonaire, Governor (Netherlands Antilles)/author
1914 - Abdel Karim Kassem, general/premier/dictator of Iraq (1958-63)
1918 - Kakuei Tanaka, Japanese PM (1972-74), convicted of bribe-taking
1922 - John Paul Hammerschmidt (Representative-AR)
1926 - Milton "Milt" Thompson, US NASA-test pilot/chief-engineer (X-15)
1928 - Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian President (1981- )
1938 - William J. Bennett, US Secretary of Education (1985-88)
1949 - Gerrit J. P, van Otterloo, Dutch MP (PvdA)
1951 - Gene Greenwood (Representative-PA)

Passings
1879 - William Froude, British civil engineer/shipbuilder (F Integer), dies at 68
1885 - Aleksandar I Karadjordjevic, monarch of Serbia (1842-58), dies at 78
1955 - Louis Breguet French aviation pioneer, dies at 75
1970 - Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandy Scheuer, William Schroeder, students at Kent State University killed by Ohio National Guard (a number of Guardsmen were also wounded there)
1971 - Donald Dexter Van Slyke, US chemist (Cyanosis), dies at 88
1975 - Moe Howard [Moses Horowitz], comedian (3 Stooges), dies at 77
1980 - Josip Broz Tito, leader of Yugoslavia (1945-80), dies at 87
1981 - Bobby Sands, Irish IRA terrorist, dies after hunger strike
1992 - Ismael Galeano "Commandant Franklyn" (Contra); Vitali Andreyevich Grishchenko, Russian cosmonaut, dies at 50
1994 - Karl Francis Hettinger, Onion Field survivor, dies at 59
1996 - Jean Crepin, soldier/industrialist, dies at 87
1997 - Vijayananda Dahanayake, PM of Sri Lanka (1959-60)

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Malone, Jimmy M., US Army (VA)

1967
Graham, James S., USN (PA); A4C shot down - remains returned August, 1985

Rogers, Charles E., USAF (IN); A1E shot down - KIA / BNR

1968
King, Paul C., Jr., US Army SF (MA); KIA in ground action

Labels: Headlines, History

...to Washington, D.C. for the Milblog Conference. Can't wait. In addition to enjoying the conference and catching up with some friends, I am also going to be meeting Patti of Soldiers' Angels face to face for the first time. Can't wait.

I'll be helping Andi with some of the set-up - I can't imagine what an undertaking planning all of this is!

Wish me a safe flight, and I'll be blogging later.

Labels: Milblog Conference 2007