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Five service members were missing Tuesday night after a Navy helicopter crashed into the sea off Southern California on Tuesday, the military said. The MH-60S helicopter, which was carrying six people, crashed around 60 nautical miles off San Diego at 4:30 p.m., the Navy said.... USS Abraham Lincoln..

To prove the liberal media never, ever stops promoting the Kennedy “dynasty” ad infinitum, the December 16 edition of people magazine highlights this story in the table of contents: “JFK’s only grandson, Jack Kennedy Schlossberg, steps up to carry the family torch.” He’s only 20 and going to Yale. The headline is "HEIR TO CAMELOT." Next to his picture on page 92 is the caption “A HUNK LIKE HIS UNCLE: Schlossberg has JFK Jr. infatuation potential – and more. ‘He will be a major figure of his generation,’ predicts Kennedy family biographer Laurence Leamer.” It's hard to tell if this...

American actress Daryl Hannah is arrested in front of the White House along with other environmental protesters opposing a planned oil pipeline from Canada to the US Gulf Coast. Hannah was released after paying a $100 fine, following her arrest for failure to obey a lawful order, said US Park Police spokesman Sergeant David Schlosser. More than 70 people were arrested in the Tar Sands Action protest on Tuesday, which is named after efforts to block the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project to bring oil sands petroleum from Canada to Texas refineries.

He was a published author. He inspired a president. He barked at members of Congress and foreign dignitaries. Splash, Vicki and Edward M. Kennedy's beloved Portuguese water dog and a constant presence at the senator's side, bounding and romping as he rumbled through the halls of power, has died. The death of the 13-½-year-old curly-haired canine is eliciting fond tributes, fit for the passing of such a famous fixture of official Washington. Splash, after all, hobnobbed with Elton John, leapt around the Oval Office, and once growled at Joe Biden and Paul Wellstone when the two senators wouldn't stop talking...

The art of driving through a puddle and splashing pedestrians is nothing new -- we're sure mammoths were running through puddles at high speed to splash cavemen even before the invention of the wheel -- but filming it and posting it to YouTube is. Well now drivers have been warned they could face criminal charges for carrying out a drive-by-drenching. Kerry Callard, 29, was recently caught after soaking a group of kids at a bus stop in Plymouth, Devon, and uploading the footage to the web. The clip, called 'drowning school kids' was filmed by her partner who provided a...

Kennedy Endorses Water Dog For Obama Family [from the unbelievable but true file!] WBZTV.Com ^ | January 13, 2009 Senator Ted Kennedy made an important political endorsement Tuesday [January 2009]. Massachusetts' Senior Senator endorsed the Portuguese water dog as the perfect pet for the nation's new first family. [snip] "A Portuguese water dog is the perfect choice for first dog," Kennedy said in a written statement. "The Obama girls -- and their parents -- will love a Portuguese water dog. They're loyal, smart, loving and they became a real part of the family. And they definitely do not shed." Senator...

A resident said she didn't know the late Senator, but they were "neighborly." She remembers him as just another member of the community taking advantage of a favorite dog park, but his arrival was a little different than most. "He would drive up in a chauffeured car with his dogs and a tennis racket and a ball," she tells WTOP. "He bat the balls with the tennis racket, and the dogs would chase the ball."

Kennedy Endorses Water Dog For Obama Family [from the unbelievable but true file!] WBZTV.Com ^ | January 13, 2009 Senator Ted Kennedy made an important political endorsement Tuesday [January 2009]. Massachusetts' Senior Senator endorsed the Portuguese water dog as the perfect pet for the nation's new first family. [snip] "A Portuguese water dog is the perfect choice for first dog," Kennedy said in a written statement. "The Obama girls -- and their parents -- will love a Portuguese water dog. They're loyal, smart, loving and they became a real part of the family. And they definitely do not shed." Senator...

Boeing's HyFly hypersonic missile fails in bid for Mach 6 By Graham Warwick An attempt to fly a hypersonic cruise missile demonstrator at Mach 6 has failed, after the scramjet engine powering Boeing's HyFly malfunctioned and the air-launched vehicle plunged into the Pacific Ocean. The January 16 flight was the last under the HyFly programme, which was designed to demonstrate a missile-like vehicle with a range of 400nm (740km) and a maximum cruise speed exceeding Mach 6. The previous flight, in September 2007, failed to meet its objectives. The HyFly is powered by a dual-combustion ramjet (DCR) built by Aerojet....

Michael Ramirez's cartoon commentary on Ted Kennedy's Senate Immigration Bill announced Thursday is here.

LA JOLLA – Newly announced Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made his first campaign appearance in California yesterday, telling supporters he intends to withdraw American troops from Iraq by March 2008. He also subtly scolded rivals who voted to authorize President Bush to go to war. “It's not going to be easy,” Obama told between 400 and 500 supporters at the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla at a late afternoon fundraising reception. “There are no good options in Iraq at this point. There are only bad options or worse options. But the worst option is to continue to put our...

Japanese whalers are expected to face the most powerful anti-whaling protest ship they have ever seen when they try to kill up to 1000 whales south of New Zealand this summer The Leviathan –- a converted US Coast Guard ship – was recently bought by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and its leader Paul Watson, who has boasted of ramming whalers to stop them. The 61m ship has a top speed of 17 knots, enough to run down the Japanese whalers and the Leviathan crew won't be simply waving banners and trying to get in the way, the Sun Herald...

Kennedy assessed the situation and said “The problem here is the American president.” Earlier this week I interviewed Paul Kengor, author of The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism. The book is a fascinating and detailed study of President Reagan’s strategy to defeat the USSR and wreck international Communism. Among its most sensational aspects is a section detailing the domestic opposition to Reagan’s campaign for re-election in 1984 and his decision to deploy intermediate-range nuclear forces (INFs), Pershing II missiles, into Western Europe to counter the Soviet deployment of nuclear weapons across the Warsaw Pact. Specifically, Kengor includes...

HARTFORD, Conn. --Republican Rep. Christopher Shays defended the House speaker's handling of a congressional page scandal, saying no one died like at Chappaquiddick in 1969 when Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy was involved. "I know the speaker didn't go over a bridge and leave a young person in the water, and then have a press conference the next day," the embattled Connecticut congressman told The Hartford Courant in remarks published Wednesday. "Dennis Hastert didn't kill anybody," he added. Shays' comments recalled the Chappaquiddick incident, when Kennedy's car ran off a Massachusetts bridge, killing his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. Kennedy did not...

I have had the honor of serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee for 43 years, during which I've participated in confirmation hearings for every one of the justices who now sit on the Supreme Court. Over that time, my colleagues and I have asked probing questions and listened attentively to substantive responses. Because we were able to learn a great deal about the nominees from those hearings, the Senate has rarely voted along party lines. I voted, for example, for three of President Ronald Reagan's five Supreme Court nominees... But the careful, bipartisan process of years past -- like so...

In preparation for our recent trip to Washington, Little Marathon Pundit rode her bike to the local public library, checking out several books about our nation's capital. One of those books was the recently published My Senator and Me, A Dog's Eye View of Washington, written by Senator Edward M. Kennedy. It's a children's book written from the perspective of Kennedy's Portuguese Water Dog, Splash. Yes, the dog's name really is Splash, and pundits have made wisecracks about the name in reference to that 1969 driving incident, but in fairness to Splash, the wet-nosed one was named that before Kennedy...

SHOULD have brought a life vest and snorkel, Teddy. Sen. Ted Kennedy was having a ball reading to a captive roomful of New York City third-graders yesterday when suddenly a dangerous question spewed out of the mouths of babes. "When was your most embarrassing moment with Splash?" a pint-sized jokester from PS 11 in Chelsea asked Ted. The kid was asking about Splash - Teddy's black Portuguese water dog who, at that very moment, sat quietly at Ted's feet, along with another pooch named Sunny. But the adults in the room could not help but think about "splash." As in...

THE ISSUE: Sen. Ted Kennedy's membership in Harvard's all-male Owl Club. Picking on the ponderous Sen. Ted Kennedy is like picking only the low-hanging fruit — it's too easy...... *** ....when he first ran for the Senate, Kennedy's opponent said, "If your name was Edward Moore, instead of Edward Moore Kennedy, your candidacy would be a joke"........ the joke has been on us. Paul Bloustein Cincinnati, Ohio *** The person responsible (for Teddy's dog Splash's name) may well be Ted's old friend and occasional nemesis — John Barleycorn. James Ring Ossining *** Now that he's become a leading anti-Republican attack...

Ted Kennedy's alleged love child, Christopher Allen, appears to have corroborated The National Enquirer's claim that he's the son of the senator. The tab was unable to get the 21-year-old to talk last week, but he told us in an E-mail: "It is kinda shocking to finally find out who my real father is." Asked about the photo Wonkette.com posted of him, he said, "I don't remember taking a picture but then again, I have the classic Kennedy drinking problem." Sen. Kennedy's office has branded the Enquirer story "irresponsible fiction." …

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) on Thursday said he plans to vote against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito because the judge is "itching to overturn Roe v. Wade." Kennedy explained his position on Alito's confirmation, which is expected sometime next week, during a speech to the liberal Center for American Progress. The group, founded by John Podesta, who served as the chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, opposes Alito's confirmation because it fears Alito would cause "a profound shift in the ideological balance of the Court." Kennedy summed up liberal talking points against Alito, touching on several aspects of...