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JUST CALL IT THE INFO SANTA FOR TODAY: Tons, bags full, actually of things you may not have checked out this weekend...so here you are. FIRST OFF - IF YOU MISSED THE FIRST "CONSERVATIVE CELEBRITY SHOWDOWN" YOU CAN STILL WEIGH IN - THIS WEEKS MATCH-UP WAS ANN COULTER VS. LAURA INGRAHAM...GREAT RESPONSES CAME IN FROM ACROSS THE WORLD... Now from the goodie bag...HUGH HEWITT HAS PROOF: Finally some hard line evidence that TARGET has hurt themselves this Christmas Holiday season. Hugh and I have been championing the plight of the Salvation Army after it was kicked to the curb by Target this year...And since Wal-Mart has decided...

S.2401 Department of Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2005 SEC. 112. UP-ARMORED HIGH MOBILITY MULTI-PURPOSE WHEELED VEHICLES OR WHEELED VEHICLE BALLISTIC ADD-ON ARMOR PROTECTION. (a) AMOUNT- Of the amount authorized to be appropriated for the Army for fiscal year 2005 for other procurement under section 101(5), $610,000,000 shall be available for both of the purposes described in subsection (b) and may be used for either or both of such purposes. (b) PURPOSES- The purposes referred to in subsection (a) are as follows: (1) The procurement of up-armored high mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicles at a rate up to 450 such...

Wheeled vehicle ballistic armor protection (sec. 112) The committee recommends a provision that would add $610.0 million in Other Procurement, Army (OPA), for the procurement of up-armored high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWV) in sufficient quantities to acquire such vehicles up to a rate of 450 vehicles per month and for the procurement of add-on ballisticarmor protection for medium and heavy wheeled vehicles. The $610.0 million would be in addition to the $315.0 million increase in OPA for up-armored HMMWVs (UAH) the committee recommended elsewhere in this report. The provision will provide the Secretary of the Army with the flexibility...

U.S. Army photo by Spc. Andy Miller Soldiers of the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment conduct pre-combat checks on their new Humvees at Camp Striker near Baghdad International Airport on Thursday. The 1st Cavalry Division has provided the 82nd Airborne Division armored Humvees for operations in Iraq, division officials at Fort Bragg said Friday. ''We requested additional armored vehicles to ensure our paratroopers had the best equipment,'' said Maj. Amy Hannah, a division spokeswoman at Fort Bragg. The 82nd received more than 60 M-1114 "up-armored" vehicles in Iraq, Hannah said. Many soldiers in Iraq say the greatest threat they face...

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait - In a rare public airing of grievances, disgruntled soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment. "You go to war with the Army you have," Rumsfeld replied, "not the Army you might want or wish to have." Spc. Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled...