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blog-heap o' links
Army Pfc. Christopher
T. Blaney, 19, of Winter Park, Fla., died in Taji, Iraq, from a non-combat
related incident on Sept. 29. Blaney was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th
Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. The
incident is under investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 16:47:55Army Staff Sgt.
Edward C. Reynolds, Jr., 27, of Groves, TexasArmy Pfc. Henry Paul, 24, of
Kolonia Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. Marine Lance Cpl.
James Chamroeun, 20, of Union City, Ga., died Sept. 28 of wounds
received while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar
province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd
Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
Army Staff Sgt. Jose
A. Lanzarin, 28, of Lubbock, Texas, was killed in Ar Ramadi, Iraq, on Sept.
26, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle during
combat operations. Lanzarin was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry
Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany. defenselink.mil/ ... 19:57:16Army 1st Lt. James N.
Lyons, 28, of Rochester, N.Y., died on Sept. 27 in Baghdad, Iraq, of
injuries suffered when his mounted patrol came in contact with enemy forces
using small arms fire during combat operations. Lyons was assigned to the 1st
Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort
Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 19:56:55Army Cpl. Casey L.
Mellen, 21, of Huachuca City, Ariz., died on Sept. 25 in Balad, Iraq, of
injuries suffered when his mounted patrol came in contact with enemy forces
using small arms fire during combat operations in Mosul, Iraq. Mellen was
assigned to the 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd
Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), Fort Lewis, Wash. 
ROGERSVILLE, Tenn... A man who
flagged down a police cruiser for a ride to "a house on the hill" was charged
with possession of marijuana... appeared unsteady on his feet and asked for a
ride "to a house on the hill." "I asked him what house, and he just replied 'A
house on the hill,'..." [officer] asked... if he was taking any medication...
young man said he had been smoking marijuana... Army Spc. Jared J.
Raymond, 20, of Swampscott, Mass., died on Sept. 19, in Balad, Iraq, of
injuries suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his M1A2
Abrams Tank during combat operations in Taji, Iraq. Raymond was assigned to the
1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort
Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 17:46:51Marine Pfc.
Christopher T. Riviere, 21, of Cooper City, Fla., died Sept. 26 of
wounds received while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al
Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment, 3rd
Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.
WILFORD, Idaho... Snakes
fell on Lyman Hepworth's head when he opened the door to a pump house near the
small house the couple planned to buy. "When it warmed up, we walked onto the
yard and the whole yard moved..." reached to turn on a light and discovered the
pull cord was actually a snake... Turns out the property was a winter snake
sanctuary, likely a snake den or hibernaculum where snakes gather in large
numbers to hibernate for the winter... likely a terrestrial garter snake... a
protected species meaning the Hepworths cannot bait them or kill them... Their
plan: They sent a videotape of the house, their children and, of course, the
snakes to the producers of "Extreme Home Makeover..." 
It's quite a commentary on the Slick One that millions on
both sides of the political fence would guess he plotted this tantrum in
advance. Count me in on that number... breitbart.com/ ...
13:58:527-Eleven Inc. is dropping Venezuela-backed Citgo as its gasoline
supplier at more than 2,100 locations and switching to its own brand of fuel...
7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris said that, "Regardless of politics, we
sympathize with many Americans' concern over derogatory comments about our
country and its leadership recently made by Venezuela's president Hugo
Chavez..." Army Sgt. Velton
Locklear, III, 29, of Lacey, Wash.Army Pfc. Kenneth E Kincaid, IV, 25, of Lilburn,
Ga. Army Staff Sgt.
Carlos Dominguez, 57, of Savannah, Ga., died of injuries suffered in
Taji, Iraq, on Sept.23, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his
HMMWV during combat operations. Dominguez was assigned to the 414th Civil
Affairs Battalion, Utica, N.Y. defenselink.mil/ ... 21:41:09Army Spc. Windell J.
Simmons, 20, of Hopkinsville, Ky., died of injuries suffered in Taji, Iraq,
on Sept.23, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV during
combat operations. Simmons was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 67th Armor
Regiment, 4th Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. defenselink.mil/ ... 03:02:01Marine Lance Cpl.
Howard S. March Jr., 20, of Buffalo, N.Y., died Sept. 24 while
conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq.
He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II
Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.Marine Lance Cpl. Rene Martinez,
20, of Miami, Fla., died Sept. 24 while conducting combat operations against
enemy forces in Al Anbar province, Iraq. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 2nd
Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp
Lejeune, N.C. defenselink.mil/ ... 03:01:32Army Pvt. Eric M.
Kavanagh, 20, of Glen Burnie, Md., died of injuries suffered in Baghdad,
Iraq, on Sept. 20, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV
during combat operations. Kavanagh was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th
Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Schweinfurt,
Germany. There he was on live television, the man those who have
worked for him have come to know – the angry, sarcastic, snarling,
self-righteous, bombastic bully, roused to a fever pitch. The truer the
accusation, the greater the feigned indignation... it is important to answer
his distortions and misrepresentations. His self-justifications constitute a
mangling of the truth which only someone who once quibbled about what the
"definition of ‘is’ is" could perform... nypost.com/ ... 03:16:45Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday accused Bill
Clinton of making "flatly false" claims that the Bush administration didn't
lift a finger to stop terrorism before the 9/11 attacks. Rice hammered
Clinton... for his claims that the Bush administration "did not try" to kill
Osama bin Laden in the eight months they controlled the White House before the
Sept. 11 attacks. "The notion somehow for eight months the Bush administration
sat there and didn't do that is just flatly false - and I think the 9/11
commission understood that... What we did in the eight months was at least as
aggressive as what the Clinton administration did in the preceding years..."
sharply disputed Clinton's claim that he "left a comprehensive anti-terror
strategy" for the incoming Bush team during the presidential transition in
2001. "We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al Qaeda..." hughhewitt.townhall.com/ ...
03:10:57....books like Lawrence Wright's cannot be manipulated,
and so Clinton launches into a furious counterattack on Wallace, Fox and ABC,
the Bush Administration and right wing critics and media. This fascinating bit
of theater --part paranoia, part panic-- distills Clinton's argument to: "Who
you going to believe, Dick Clarke and his memoir, or everybody and everything
else?.." Army Sgt. 1st Class
Charles J. Jones, 29, of Lawrenceburg, Ky., died in Baghdad, Iraq, from
a non-combat related incident on Sept. 20, Jones was assigned to the National
Guard's 149th Brigade Combat Team, Louisville, Ky. The incident is under
investigation.defenselink.mil/ ... 20:07:06Army Cpl. Bobby T.
Callahan, 22, of Jamestown, N.C., died on Sept.19, in Baghdad, Iraq, of
injuries suffered when his HMMWV rolled over while maneuvering. Callahan was
assigned to the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team,
10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. The incident is under
investigation. defenselink.mil/ ... 20:06:51Army 1st Lt. Ashley
L. (Henderson) Huff, 23, of Belle Mead, N.J., died of injuries suffered in
Mosul, Iraq, on Sept.19, when a suicide vehicle-borne improvised explosive
device detonated near her mounted patrol during combat operations. Huff was
assigned to the 549th Military Police Company, 385th Military Police Battalion,
Fort Stewart, Ga. defenselink.mil/ ... 20:06:33Army Sgt. Allan R.
Bevington, 22, of Beaver Falls, Pa., died of injuries suffered in Ar
Ramadi, Iraq on Sept.21, when an improvised explosive device detonated near him
during combat operations. Bevington was assigned to the 40th Engineer
Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany.
defenselink.mil/ ... 20:04:24Army Cpl. Cesar A.
Granados, 21, of Le Grand, Calif., died of injuries sustained in Baghdad,
Iraq, on Sept.15, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV
during combat operations. Granados was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 8th
Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
The
Democratic National Committee has just launched a brutal attack on Fox News
that includes a toughly-worded campaign to use Clinton's on-air fisticuffs with
Fox's Chris Wallace to raise cash and to argue that the Democratic Party is on
the offensive on national security. In a scorching email that DNC chair Howard
Dean sent out to supporters today, Dean accuses Fox News of trying to "cover
up" the fact that Bush "downplayed terrorism as a priority" and that the
administration has "failed to eliminate Osama bin Laden since the attacks."
Dean's email -- which steers readers to a contribution page -- touts the
"powerful interview" in which "Clinton took on the extremist Republican
propaganda about 9/11." He also suggests that Fox is part of the "right
wing...propaganda machine..." foxnews.com/ ... 20:09:31This isn't mere spin.
It's full-scale invention. Before anyone starts taking our most recent
ex-president too seriously, let's review the bidding. Clinton wasn't the
president who ordered the Armed Forces to go after bin Laden without
reservation, to get him "dead or alive." He wasn't the one who sent thousands
of troops after Al Qaeda and nations that harbor and support terrorists
Instead, President Clinton responded to attacks on our troops in Somalia by
withdrawing, and responded to attacks by Al Qaeda on our embassies in Tanzania
and Kenya by bombing the aspirin factory of an innocent pharmaceutical firm in
Sudan. He reacted to Al Qaeda's bombing of the USS Cole by lobbing a few cruise
missiles at empty tents in the desert. He turned down Sudanese offers to
cooperate in tracking down and capturing bin Laden... washingtonpost.com/ ...
11:49:07Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said that he was stunned
when Bill Clinton accused him of a "conservative hit job..." "I thought it was
a fair, balanced and not especially inflammatory question... I even said, 'I
know hindsight is 20/20.' But he went off. And once he went off, there was no
bringing him back. He wanted to talk about it in detail. He wanted to conjure
up right-wingers and conservative hit jobs and a theory involving Rupert
Murdoch that I still don't understand... humanevents.com/ ... 11:48:22What a perfect way to
score points! You go on the one network that liberals perceive as a mouthpiece
for the other side, and you wait for the inevitable question about bin Laden.
And when you get it, you launch into a tirade designed to make headlines and
build the base.... You have to believe that Clinton offered himself up to Fox
for the explicit purpose of going off on Chris Wallace.... If this wasn’t
a planned tantrum, then why wouldn’t Clinton have just answered the
question and moved on? He was obviously expecting it, likely hoping for it, and
totally prepared for it... 
MILFORD, N.H... a teddy bear dropped into a pool at a Fish
and Game Department hatchery earlier this month clogged a drain. The clog
blocked the flow of oxygen to the pool and suffocated... 2,500 fish...
another dolphin gravely injured because of human
action... The baby bottlenose dolphin lost her tail, but perhaps her life could
be saved... a prosthetic tail. If the logistics can be worked out, Winter's
prosthesis would be the first for a dolphin who lost its tail and the key joint
that allows it to move in powerful up-and-down strokes... 
At least nine people died during the past two days after
severe storms spawned tornadoes, high winds and heavy rains throughout parts of
the U.S. Midwest and South... Eight people were killed in Kentucky, including a
father and his daughter who died after their truck was trapped in
floodwaters... An Arkansas woman died Sept. 22 when her boat was struck by
lightning on a lake... 
A few weeks after giving the 16-week-old cat a
new home two officers swooped on his house accompanied by charity workers to
demand he return his new pet. The action came after a single flea had been
spotted on the kitten... by one of the charity's officers during an earlier
visit to check the animal's welfare... [18yo says] "I was horrified. We have no
end of problems with teenagers around here - but you never see a policeman
tackle them. I understand the charity do these routine welfare visits, but they
were so rude, barging in without any warning..."