Ed Freeman was second in command of Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, and flew with Major Bruce Crandall during the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965. He passed away Wednesday morning at the age of 80.

Flying as Crandall's wingman during the 4-day battle, they each flew over 20 resupply and rescue missions under intense enemy fire. When other evacuation units said it was too dangerous to fly, Freeman flew 14 separate missions and evacuated 30 wounded soldiers from the field (he and Crandall together are credited with rescuing 70 wounded men).

Freeman was awarded a DFC for his actions, however many, including his CO Bruce Crandall, felt he deserved the nation's highest honor. On July 16, 2001, President Bush presented Freeman with the Medal of Honor.

Bruce Crandall was awarded this honor himself in 2007.

Rest in peace soldier.

(via the Man of Substance)

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 07:58 AM | Comments (26)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:35 AM | Comments (18)
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Kathy from Cakeeater Chronicles (a fellow Iowa State University alum who thinks I'm a brilliant blogger .... well, she IS taking a lot of pain meds right now) is asking for donors to contribute to her nephew James' entry in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes for the greater Omaha area. The walk was held earlier this month, but they're still accepting donations for this cause.

As some of you morons might remember, I was diagnosed with mild, manageable Type 2 diabetes after my big blood sugar scare in March. I threw a few bucks into their pot last year when Kathy featured this fundraiser, but now I'm thinking that I should ask you, my favorite cluster of morons on the interwebthingy, to chip in a few ducats as well. It's a good cause, and James has had Type 1 diabetes from birth, so he's not a fat, Little Debbie-scarfing tubbo like me who brought it all on himself.

Go over and give what you can afford, and maybe even make a non-profane comment referencing Paul Anka in the comments to your gift. If we get a bunch of comments referencing Paul Anka & his "integrity kick" on their team page, it'll leave them wondering "Who ARE these people, and did they steal anything while they were here?"

No donation is too small. Hey, if you cut next week's supply of Val-U-Rite discount Vodka with aftershave, you'll have an extra $5 to kick in to a great cause. You should probably think twice before skimping on your anti-psychotic meds to save some money, but you can surely find another place in your budget to make some adjustments.

Ace, thanks for letting me pass the hat here. You're a mensch. A mensch drenched in the blood of a thousand hobos, but a mensch nontheless.

Even though I'm asking you for money for a great cause, I promise you that I will NEVER post a video of a drunken Russ from Winterset singing a karaoke version of "You'll Never Walk Alone". There's just some things you don't do to your friends, even if they are "just" fakey internet friends.

UPDATE: I was unaware of the JDRF's position on Embryonic Stem Cell research. While I consider that branch of research to be morally troubling & a practical dead end compared to non-embryonic stem cell work being done currently, I still think that the JDRF does good work. If you have a moral problem with giving them any money, I understand. If that's the case, could I ask you to find a comparable organization that doesn't support ESCR and make a donation to them instead?

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 07:27 AM | Comments (17)
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The Cowbell Falls Silent

I don't know how to break this to you, because you're mostly optimists and tend to rebel against this kind of hard reality, and also because you're drool-sputtering morons and I'm not sure how much you're really picking up when I'm not shaking a keyring in your faces.

But anyway.

The economy is in the dumper, folks.
Here's yer proof:

Aaron Spelling's Widow Moves To Condo, Reflecting Housing Downturn

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) -- The pending transfer of the widow of television producer Aaron Spelling to a condo unit from a mansion reflects the downturn of the American economy and the real estate market.[my emphasis. *jingle, jingle*]

Candy Spelling, when Aaron was still alive, lived with her husband for almost two decades in a 56,500-square foot French chateau-style mansion which had a wine-tasting room, bowling lanes and silver, china and gift-wrapping rooms. Aaron was the man behind hit TV series like "Charlie's Angels" and "Seventh Heaven."

Recently she bought a high-end condo unit for $47 million at The Century in Los Angeles, which has identified wealth with estate living, not a high-rise lifestyle. The 140-unit building is still under construction. Spelling will have two penthouse floors measuring 16,500 square feet, which boils down to $2,848 per square foot.

Devastating. Devastating.

Look; you and I know how to survive in such diminished splendor.

We know how to stretch every pound of Almas caviar, how to manage with just three race cars and one Rolls Royce Phantom Coupe, how to make that trip to Geneva work double-duty by visiting both Patek Philippe and Chopard.

But this pampered queenie is about to taste some bitter realities when she moves into her $47M hardtimes crib.

Maybe some of you tough ghetto dogs can dispense some advice in the comments here to help her survive and adjust to life in the gutter.

UPDATE: Commenter brian puts his finger squarely on the quivering point:

Waitasecond.

Someone actually wrote - for reals - that a pampered rich widow moving into a 47 million dollar condo...

IS EVIDENCE OF AN ECONOMIC DOWNTURN?

This is a record, folks. I think it's time to hit the Val-U-Rite before lunch today.

He's quite right, of course. It's a terrific Friday for to get blotto before lunch and abandon your post.

Posted by: LauraW at 06:33 AM | Comments (63)
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Another good article:

“I am very thankful to the West,” Maya said as her eyes welled up with tears. “They support us so much. We thought we were alone. I am so thankful for the support we have from the United States and from the West. The support is very important for us.” She tried hard to maintain her dignity and not cry in front of me, a foreign reporter in fresh clothes and carrying an expensive camera. “The West saved the capital. They were moving to Tbilisi. There was one night that was very dangerous. The Russian tanks were very close to the capital. I don’t know what happened, but they moved the tanks back.” And my translator, whose husband works for Georgia’s ministry of foreign affairs, made a similar guess that the West helped save the capital. “The night they came close to Tbilisi,” she said, “Bush and McCain made their strongest speeches yet. The Russians seemed to back down. Bush and McCain have been very good for us.”

Posted by: Ace at 08:24 PM | Comments (32)
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Serving ten years on two counts of right-wing conspiracy, I guess.

Posted by: Ace at 08:01 PM | Comments (9)
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Eh. Who can keep up.

This is like the world's longest, lamest mystery novel.

I don't buy it. I concede there's an outside chance that Romney could help in Michigan, but... Romney is considered to be an unacceptable cultist by many religious cons, so no help there, and he's considered now by many squishy centrists to be a religious con, so no help there.

I don't know. I like the guy (like not love), but he has the misfortune of being a feathered fish, a fish that will neither swim nor fly.

I suppose he could help with Northeastern socially-moderate fiscal cons... but does McCain need help with them?

Answer: Commenters inform me that Romney firms up Colorado and Nevada (looking shaky at best in most polls) due to their large Mormon populations.

Posted by: Ace at 07:34 PM | Comments (88)
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Also, at the very end, there's a picture of a White Man, but I think that's McCain himself, so I'm not exactly how to score that.

I'm going to mark that down as "subtle racism" until Joshie Marshall and the brain-trust at TMP explicate it for me. I think it may be possible that John McCain here represents a scared old Typical White Person who's all like, "Oh dearie me Martha, they're taking over the neighborhood and they're going to break in and steal my Centrum Silver!"

I think that's probably what he's doing in there. Again, we shall have to wait for the Racial Decoder Rings.

For those keeping score at home, that's three racist ads, two stirrings of age-old fears about miscegenation, one "revolting" and/or "despicable" reference to 9/11, one incidence of "subtle racism," one staged anthrax attack, one error and one fielder's choice.

Liberals call this "one of the darkest days in the history of political campaigning."

Karl Rove calls it "Thursday."

Bonus Timing-Questioning: From the guy who straight-facedly calls others "drama queen(s)" indulging in "emotional hyperbole."

Timing Is Everything

21 Aug 2008 07:40 pm

The Chicago-Sun Times reports that the Rezko sentencing has been bumped from September 3th to October 28th, one week before the election.

...

Isn't liberal super-hero Fitzpatrick in charge of this office and case?

I guess "They" got to him, too.

KRYMB.

Posted by: Ace at 03:26 PM | Comments (70)
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And by gratuitous I mean awesome (and no, it's not bloody or anything).

I have no idea if it's old or real but it made me laugh.

Some might read into this a metaphor of the Obama/McCain race, flashy vs solid substance but that would probably be racist so I won't go there.

Thanks to pajama momma who apparently is on a Capoeira mailing list for some reason. Capoeira is a martial art that is supposed to incorporate 'games, and dance'. And punches to the head.

Posted by: DrewM at 02:16 PM | Comments (30)
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Of course it's 99.9% likely a hoax, and 99.8% likely domestic and by an idiot who's not even organized enough to be decent at crude criminality, but there you go.

Rewrote... to clear up badly misleading wording that suggested that McCain himself "received" the letter. He didn't. It was opened by a poor staffer.

UPDATE: Timing Successfully Questioned by DKos.

On a day when McCain shows his true elitist reality, not knowing how many houses he owns, the Republican has two personal attack adds and an Anthrax scare as a response.

Think about that. Squelch. This is straight up Psy-Ops. But I think the white powder story is to obvious to be viewed as a coincidence. I believe there will be a backlash.

C'mon, McFailure is finally getting hammered "emotionally" by Obama and "Oh, shit, break out the Anthrax." Man they are transparent. It's clearly some wag the dog bullshit.

So, uhhhh.... The mailer knew McCain would make the number-of-homes gaffe two days ago when he placed the letters in the mail?

Is he suggesting McCain's gaffe was pre-planned? If that was the plan, to cover the gaffe with the fake anthrax... um, why not just avoid the gaffe in the first place?

Reaity-based. Layers.

Thanks to Hollowpoint.

Posted by: Ace at 02:52 PM | Comments (51)
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