Aretha Franklin & Billy Preston
O Holy Night

10 U.S. Deaths in first 3 days of December.

12/03/06 MNF: Two Soldiers killed, two others wounded Multi-National Division
Two Task Force Lightning Soldiers, assigned to 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, were killed and two others were wounded from an explosion near their vehicle that occurred while they were conducting operations in Multi-National Division [URL pending]
12/03/06 MNF: Soldier killed in Baghdad
A Multi-National Division - Baghdad Soldier was killed during combat operations in the Iraqi capital Dec. 3.
12/03/06 MNF:Two Soldiers and 1 Marine killed in Western Iraq
Two Soldiers assigned to 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group and one Marine assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5 died Saturday from wounds sustained due to enemy action while operating in Al Anbar Province.
12/03/06 AP: Iraq vet learns to compete as an athlete in new way
Melissa Stockwell knows it makes no sense to play the “what if” game wondering what if she hadn’t gone on the convoy that day in Iraq, what if the bomb hadn’t ripped into her Humvee, what if the truck hadn’t swerved into the guardrail
12/03/06 AP: Women face emotional wounds of war
The nightmares didn’t start until months after Alicia Flores returned home. The images were stark and disturbing: In one dream, a dying Iraqi man desperately grabbed her arm. In another, she was lost in a blinding sandstorm.
12/03/06 AP: An injured war vet and her dog start over - together
Jamie Dana nearly died in a bombing in Iraq - her lungs collapsed, her spine was fractured, her pelvis was shattered - but when she watches news of the war, she thinks she still should be there.
12/03/06 AP: Corona Marine Killed Near Baghdad
The military says Private First Class Jason Franco died of a gunshot wound to the head October 31st — just two months shy of his 19th birthday. The shooting, which the Defense Department called a “nonhostile incident,” is under investigation.
12/03/06 DoD Identifies Air Force Casualty
The Department of Defense announced today the death of an airman deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Maj. Troy L. Gilbert, 34, of Litchfield Park, Ariz., died Nov. 27 when his F-16C fighter crashed 20 miles northwest of Baghdad, Iraq.
12/03/06 AP: F-16 pilot downed in Iraq listed as KIA
An American pilot whose F-16 fighter jet went down in Iraq was listed as killed in action following DNA analysis of remains recovered at the crash site, the U.S. Air Force said Sunday. Maj. Troy L. Gilbert, 34, was supporting troops fighting…
12/03/06 Reuters: Roadside bomb wounds 3 students in Basra
A roadside bombing targeting British military patrol in the southern oil city of Basra wounded three university students, police said.
12/03/06 Reuters: Insurgent captured in Ramadi
U.S. and Iraqi forces captured a member of an insurgent cell on Saturday south of Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad. They also arrested three other suspects during the raid, the U.S. military said in a statement.
12/03/06 Reuters: U.S.-Iraqi forces launched an offensive in Baquba
U.S.-Iraqi forces launched an offensive in the town of Baquba north of Baghdad, killing three insurgents and detaining 44. Three Iraqi soldiers were wounded in the operation, the U.S. military said in a statement.
12/03/06 Reuters: Adviser to electricity minister kidnapped
Gunmen kidnapped Haitham Yassin, an adviser to the electricity minister, on Saturday in Baghdad’s northern Shaab district, police said.
12/03/06 Reuters: Suicide car bomb kills 3 in attack on senior police officer
A suicide bomber blew up a car near the convoy of a senior police officer, killing three of his guards and wounding two others near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police said. The police officer was wounded in the incident.
12/03/06 Reuters: Roadside bomb wounds 6 in Baghdad
A roadside bomb wounded six people near al-Shaab Stadium in east-central Baghdad, police said.
12/03/06 Reuters: Ten students wounded by Mortar fire
A mortar round landed on a secondary school, wounding 10 students in Bab al-Muadham district in north-central Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.
12/03/06 Reuters: Insurgent killed in Baghdad
The Iraqi army killed an insurgent and wounded 90 in different parts of Iraq during the last 24 hours, the Defence Ministry said.
12/03/06 Reuters: Official of the Mandaean religious group killed
Gunmen killed an official of the Mandaeans, a pre -Islamic gnostic religious group, after they dragged him from his house on Saturday in northern Baghdad, police said.
12/03/06 Reuters: Body of Iraqi Football Association found
Police found the body of Hidaib Mejhoul, a member of the national Iraqi Football Association, in Baghdad’s Yarmouk district on Saturday, relatives said. Mejhoul, who had been kidnapped from his home on Thursday, had been shot twice in the head…
12/03/06 Reuters; Suicide car bomber kills 2, wounds 4 in Mosul
A suicide car bomb exploded near a police patrol in Mosul, killing two and wounding four, police said.
12/03/06 Reuters: Six bodies found in Mosul
Six bodies were found in and around Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. All had gunshot wounds.
12/03/06 Reuters: US airstrike in Iraq kills 8, including women, child
A U.S. airstrike destroyed a foreign fighter safe house in a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, killing five insurgents, two women and a child, the U.S. military said on Sunday.
12/03/06 MNF: Two 13th SC(E) Soldiers killed in Al Anbar
Two Soldiers assigned to the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) were killed by an improvised explosive device while conducting a security patrol in the Al Anbar province of Iraq Dec 2.
12/03/06 RFE: Iraq Violence Continues After Triple Bombing
Funerals are scheduled in Baghdad today after more than 50 people were killed yesterday in a triple car bombing in a Shi’ite neighborhood.
12/03/06 AP: 6 Militants, 3 Others Die in Iraq Raids
U.S. soldiers destroyed two buildings being used by insurgents in a town in Anbar province, killing six militants, two women and a child, the military said Sunday.
12/03/06 nncogannett: Bullets haunt local sergeant wounded in Iraq
Sgt. Audrey Hettinger…recalls hearing small-arms fire ahead. Then the bullets started coming at her truck. In her first combat experience she began firing back, then was hit several times in the belly area of her armored vest.
12/03/06 AP: Women warriors making history for U.S. military
A goodwill mission to deliver kerosene heaters to Iraqi schools erupts into the fiery chaos of a roadside bombing — and Maj. Mary Prophit shields a comrade so he can rescue a critically burned Iraqi soldier.
12/03/06 MNF: Soldier killed by roadside bomb
A Multi-National Corps - Iraq Soldier died from injuries sustained when the convoy he was traveling in struck an improvised explosive device near Taji, Iraq, at approximately 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
Source

From a John Nichols article at The Nation:

This coming Tuesday, in San Francisco, the official canvass of the results of the November 7 election must be completed and those results will be certified.

On that day, this will be formal confirmation of the intentions of the voters of San Francisco.

Two of those intentions will be of particular, if conflicting, significance.

First, the voters will have reelected their representative to the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, who in January will become the Speaker of the House.

Second, the voters will have joined the citizens of several dozen other communities across the country in formally requesting that their congressional representatives take the necessary steps to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Continue reading here

This is the cutest dog!! Thanks Joe and Libby, and warm wishes right back at you!!

Check out the costs for the medical benefits for the troops and
then the backlog of paperwork there is and will be. Our troops are not
getting the help they need when they get home. Oh…Halliburton checks are
cashed of course.

H/T JoeWo for post

James Doran, New York

Court hears of a gross inability
Inexcusable, says top accountant
[tag]
Bob Greifeld[/tag], the chief executive of the Nasdaq stock market, admitted under oath that he did not understand how to calculate gross profit margin, one of the most rudimentary formulas in business accounting.

The admission is humiliating for Mr Greifefld, an MBA graduate who is in the thick of a hostile bid to take over the London Stock Exchange, one of the most significant moves of his career.

Mr Greifeld’s lack of basic accounting knowledge was exposed this year during a case in the New Jersey Superior Court. The Nasdaq chief filed a lawsuit against a company called Tours of Enchantment, which had organised a $600,000-plus reunion for his family at a luxurious castle in Ireland.

Read more here

I can’t wait for the book and movie…….

LONDON, England (AP) — An inquiry into the death of a poisoned ex-KGB spy was expanding outside Britain, the country’s senior law and order official said Sunday, as investigators visited Washington and prepared to travel to Moscow.

A potential witness in the investigation into the death of former Russian agent and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko had been interviewed in the United States and a team was ready to leave London for Russia within days, a police official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case, said British police hoped to question a number of people in Moscow — including Andrei Lugovoi, another former spy who met Litvinenko on November 1, the day the 43-year-old fell ill.

Home Secretary John Reid said Sunday the inquiry was expanding and would go wherever “the police take it.”

Read more at CNN.com

ATLANTA - The wife of a Georgia legislator known for his strong support of immigrants’ rights is in hiding after federal agents came to their home on Tuesday with an order to deport her to her native Colombia, her lawyer said.

In a written statement issued Wednesday, state Sen. Curt Thompson, 37, a Democrat, said his wife, Sascha Herrera, 28, missed an immigration-related court hearing in February 2005. Thompson said notices about an asylum application that had been mistakenly filed on her behalf had been sent to the wrong address, causing her to miss the hearing.

Read more at Chron.com

And the word from the Dems is……………. …………………. ……………… …………….

WASHINGTON - In the 14 years since he left government, former CIA director Robert Gates has advised 10 different companies, assessing issues as varied as Saudi Arabian oil drilling, mutual funds performance and restaurant sales at Romano’s Macaroni Grill.

“I first sought him out because I considered him to be of exceptional good judgment and intelligence,” said Rodney B. Mitchell, president of the Houston investment firm The Mitchell Group, which used Gates as a senior adviser.

As Gates awaits Senate confirmation to serve as President Bush’s secretary of defense, ethics watchdogs worry about the revolving door between government and private business that allowed Gates to align himself with defense contractors, investment houses and a global drilling company involved with Vice President Dick Cheney’s former employer, Halliburton Inc.

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This picture was taken in Westchester, a suburb of Chicago.

CHICAGO — Some crews repaired downed power lines, others swept debris from train tracks and National Guardsmen went door-to-door checking on residents after the Midwest’s first big snowstorm of the season.

As temperatures fell below freezing, officials warned Saturday that some people could be without power for days.

The storm was blamed for at least 13 deaths as it spread ice and deep snow from Texas to Michigan and then blew through the Northeast late Friday and early Saturday. Schools and businesses were shuttered, and hundreds of travelers were stranded by canceled flights.

More here