Via The Guardian:

A military cargo plane carrying three senators and a House member was forced to take evasive maneuvers and dispatch flares to avoid ground fire after taking off from Baghdad on Thursday night.

The lawmakers said their plane, a C-130, was under fire from three rocket-propelled grenades over the course of several minutes as they left for Amman, Jordan.

"It was a scary moment," said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who said he had just taken off his body armor when he saw a bright flash outside the window. "Our pilots were terrific. ... They banked in one direction and then banked the other direction, and they set off the flares."

Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., as well as Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Ala., were also on the plane.

"We were jostled around pretty good," said Cramer, who estimated the plane had ascended to about 6,000 feet. "There were a few minutes there where I wondered: 'Have we been hit? Are we OK?'" Read more...

James Pinkerton makes the laughable observation that the media failed to report about the scandal at Walter Reed because they are liberals who normally don't worry about the troops so why would they care about the conditions at Walter Reed.

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Pinkerton: The media typically come at the Bush administration from the left. They say the Iraq war is a terrible idea. The idea of going after the administration from the right as it were, that they're not supporting the troops enough, not body armor enough, not Humvee enough, not helping at Walter Reed enough. That is an angle that reporters don't naturally think of when they're waking up in the morning...

To him, supporting the troops is only allowed by the right wingers who send them into battle with little care of their needs. That's a slap in the face to many fine reporters, but I doubt they'll complain. Ask him how many stories FOX News produced looking at the cuts Bush has proposed to veteran benefits, bad equipment and extended tours of duty. He has no basis of fact, nor does he cite an example in his silliness.

Email him at pinkerto@ix.netcom.com and ask Pinky to justify his statement...

He's one of the best speakers in the House....

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Mr. Speaker, it is entirely possible and welcomed under the constitution of the United States to have disagreements about how we need to handle troop deployments, how we need to handle our situation in different wars and it is not to be said that because one party or one group of people have a different philosophy and a different strategy that somehow they are not supporting the troops.

Now, your party and your President, the Republican party, Mr. Speaker, and the Republican President are the ones who sent our kids to battle without armor, without body armor. It took Jack Murtha months to uncover it and then to finally get it paid for and distributed. It was the Republican party, Mr. Speaker, who sent kids into battle without up armored humvees. Nobody questioned the Republican party's patriotism. Nobody asked them if they supported the troops. We called you incompetent. We said you were incapable and derelict of your duty, you should have provided oversight. Enough of the unpatriotic business. I yield back the balance of my time.

Randi was on Paula Zahn with guest host Hedi Collins and debated CNN's resident wingnut Bay Buchanan over the job Bush is job.

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Transcript

COLLINS: Randi, the president admitted, for the first time, that American troops will be in Iraq until at least 2009. Is he really leaving it up to the next president to get this job done?

RHODES: He's leaving a mess for everybody.

He's leaving a mess for the middle class. He's leaving a mess for the soldiers. He's billing them for their body armor when they come home. He hasn't changed the strategy. While he was talking in this surprise news conference today, this -- these matinee appearances that the president gives, which, by the way, are for us. It's for news -- us in the news. It's for us in the media to watch him and then comment on him at night, when people are likely to be watching your show.

Nobody sees these matinee things, except for Bay and me and you, Heidi. And...

Channeling Donald Rumsfeld.

"A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials...read on"

Hinderaker will say that this story is further proof the NY times should be charged with treason.

GNN: "David H. Brooks, CEO of bulletproof vest maker DHB Industries, spared no expense for his 13-year old daughter’s entry into adulthood. The girl and 300 of her closest BFFs were entertained recently in New York’s Rainbow Room by Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Kenny G, Aerosmith and, believe it or not, 50 Cent (I guess 500 large can make you forget all about street cred). It was hosted by Tom Petty. The reported cost: $10 million.

According to United for a Fair Economy, Brooks and Co. have made a tidy profit outfitting our nation’s fighting men and women in body armor that allegedly couldn’t take a hit from a 9mm round......read on"

(hat tip Paul Rieckhoff)

Alan Shore for Congress

Pamela:Boston Legal took on the Iraq War tonight… with a case about "a paralegal" who is suing the U.S. Government, to vindicate the death of her brother killed in the Iraq war."

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Shore: "We talk about honoring our soldiers, well how about giving a damn when they're killed…The American public is more concerned about whether or not Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are a couple… The media spends more time on a missing Aruba girl… We have no time table on leaving Iraq… Mothers and fathers spend money on body armor for their kids, that they shouldn’t even have to wear… because they are not supposed to be there."

Greatscat filled me in. "Rumsfeld is violating the law passed by Congress last October by not reimbursing troops who have to purchase their own body armor and other supplies?"

Paul Rieckhoff has a lenghty post explaining what happened to him which includes a shocking video: "We as Troops don’t “go to war with the Army we have.” We go to war with the Army we are given by Rumsfeld. He and his DOD bureaucrats have failed our Troops again...read on"

The timeline below tells the story of how Secretary Rumsfeld and the Department of Defense have repeatedly failed to comply with Section 351 of Public Law 108-375, which requires the implementation of a reimbursement program for members of the United States Armed Forces who have been forced to purchase their own body armor or other protective, safety or health equipment for use in Iraq or Afghanistan.

In the Marine Corp Times: At a Thursday news conference, Dodd said he is not sure why it is taking so long and wonders whether the Pentagon intends to actually reimburse anyone. “The administration is either showing complete incompetence or utter indifference,” he said. “It feels as if I am getting a rope-a-dope with them, hoping I would go away.”...read on

Senator Dodd announced the introduction of the bill at a press conference today.