Perhaps it is a lot faster for a pilot, co-pilot, and flight engineer to board a cargo plane and get ready to take off compared to a passenger jet with a larger crew and hundreds of passengers?

To Pat, your letter was thoughtful, well written and incredibly sad. Here's hoping that the holidays find you and your fellow soldiers safe, and that the New Year brings with it the hope that you'll be home soon. You are all appreciated, sincerely T

Olivia - try to have a Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish everyone a safe, happy holiday season. I hope 2007 will be much more peacful and happy for everone.

Great Job- Brian!! Such Excellence!

I'd thought I'd be taking a breather from posting on difficult issues during the holiday weekend, but what I saw last night has gotten my hackles up and will probably bother me all through Christmas if I don't do so, so this couldn't wait.

To its credit, NBC Nightly, when headlining the new "snapshot" of America's population did mention that due to Katrina Louisiana was "The Biggest Loser." I feel, though, that there should have been a more detailed report on its ramifications. Did you know that due to her population loss of about 5%, Louisiana could lose one of her 7 seats in the House, and, consequently, an electoral vote? Already she has a tremendous problem with her congressional delegation's lacking political clout and her being treated by the Bush Administration as a small, poor state that doesn't matter--which, I imagine, resulted in the following FEMA atrocity.

Did you know that, just in time for Christmas, Louisiana, though hardest hit by Katrina and Rita, has again gotten the shaft from FEMA? She will be getting only $75.4 million for "Katrina cottages" and other permanent post-disaster housing? For Mississippi, in contrast, which suffered less destruction, FEMA played a veritable Santa Claus by awarding $281.3 million, almost 4 times what Louisiana got. So Mississippi will be having a very merry Christmas indeed in anticipation of this grant, while poor Louisiana got a lump of coal from the Grinch.

Did you know that Democrats want to form a panel similar to the 9/11 Commission to investigate who was responsible for New Orleans' levee failure and to probe government efforts to rebuild New Orleans? At a time when Louisiana and her people are being robbed of recovery aid they have a right to be receiving, this good news cannot come at a moment too soon. As Louisiana Rep. Bobby Jindal said, "anything that causes more attention to be focussed on the Gulf Coast is a good thing."

Anybody who cares about Louisiana and the rest of the storm zone enough to want more attention focussed on the area clearly still has an uphill battle. I have been grateful for the fact that for 2-3 weeks NBC Nightly had been airing more post-Katrina coverage. But now I am upset. Last night I got that sinking feeling when I saw Ron Mott and Martin Savidge, both of whom had recently been reporting out of New Orleans, covering the salacious Duke rape case and troops in Korea's DMZ respectively. It makes me wonder if anybody's even left in the New Orleans bureau to cover Christmas in the storm zone.

At this joyous time of year, when Americans' thoughts should be going out to Katrina survivors in Louisiana and elsewhere in the storm zone, these poor suffering people have instead been forgotten--abandoned to endure Christmas all alone amidst great hardships and devastation. Their urgent needs are being neglected by government agencies such as FEMA which should be helping them, and now the mainstream media has callously turned its back on them, which is morally wrong. Obviously some hard-hearted individual in a comfy chair in New York decided their continuing plight not worthy of coverage, and to send anybody who would cover Christmas in New Orleans all the way to places such as Korea. It saddens me to think that anyone could be so lacking in empathy and compassion at a time of year when such things are sorely needed for those still in pain.

Take a moment to visualize a man living in a cramped FEMA trailer while struggling to rebuild his ruined home in the Lower 9th. Couldn't he be your brother, your father, your son, your friend? Couldn't he even be...you? Put yourself in the shoes of a man trying to put back together the pieces of his shattered life in the war zone-like conditions of a New Orleans that looks worse than Baghdad--and then ask yourself what really matters.

Brian,

This is a note received from one of the FOB Camp Falcon soldiers; your report highlighted that base in last night's news. The report stated much of what is presented below, but I thought hearing it in a soldier's word might add to the story...

Friday, December 22, 2006

Christmas & New years
Current mood: cynical

What exactly I hope to gain from this I'm not quite sure. Perhaps if I put it down on paper it won't be running circles in my head keeping me up at night. Perhaps we can all just breathe and let it out.

What are we doing here? What in the heck do we hope to gain from this? I kid myself into researching grad schools today and looking up scholarships including the fullbright as if I don't have another six years until I get out of the military. I even realized how much I enjoy taking a concept and putting it to paper. So here is the thought that I developed for my non-existant fullbright scholarship that I'd be almost 30 years old by the time I could use.

Goal: Travel to Ireland to examine the effects that the occupational British force has had on the people in order to ascertain if residents based on location, income, or religion have united in order to pursue change. This is derived from the belief that an occupying military in a western country will unintentionally galvanize a people to come to terms with their own differences and bond so that they might impose change politically.

Further, recognizing an inherent difference between western and eastern governments and 'democratic' countries, to determine if the occupation of eastern countries has created similar examples of unification. I believe that not only will you find drastically different examples of coming together, but that while a western country with a history of democratic aspects to its government can be occupied, it will revert to its own preoccupation memories of what democracy should be and it will unify via voting parties along income lines to bring about the changes. Whereas in eastern countries occupied by militaries, there is no presupposition of democracy in the western sense and instead will revert to its history of reliance on local protection based on relgion and proximity to each other.

Purpose being to state that western countries have a long standing tradition of basing the allegiance of the people on the betterment of the country as a whole whereas an eastern country basis its allegiance on the town or local area through religion. So whereas a western or first world country sees significant unification along income brackets due to military occupation. An eastern or third world country will find a decentralization with the larger government and return to a more chaotic state which permits crime and violence to flourish by only unifying based on location and religion.

---------

So what's the point? The point is that we are trying to democratize a people who aren't concerned with what happens 20 feet away from them on the other side of the canal. We are trying to tell farmers that they should be concerned with the cost of oil when they have just enough flour to make bread the staple food for the entire family of 13 in their one room house. We are trying to keep people safe without addressing the militias aggressively which threaten the people.

We are making politics the rhyme and reason for war. Not only do we use this war as an extension of our politics, but we base every move in it on the political ramifications they might create. We can't go after the people shooting us because we might offend the Iraqi leader who is empowered by that militia. We have to wait until someone shoots directly at us until we can shoot back. We cannot destroy IED's when we find them, we must wait hours and hours in the open for EOD to show up to do what we're qualified to do ourselves.

We're not fighting a war. We're discovering a thousand ways to slowly lose. There are no defining battles here. We aren't going to take their colors and their leader isn't going to surrender his sword. We don't live in the 19th century anymore. People back home expect something to satisfy themselves that we have done a good job here. I don't know what to tell them. I have nothing worthwhile to say. The simple fact is that we do the best we can with our hands tied behind our backs. We find weapon caches and destroy them. But our discovery of those things pisses people off so they place more ied's out for us because we're being successful against them.

When we come back... when we all come home... what in the hell are we supposed to tell our families? That we went because we were told to and tried to do the impossible which is convert an entire culture to western democracy which of course didn't work and we lost a lot of great men and women in the meantime? That we didn't fight a war, that we tried to police a nation with an ROE that doesn't allow us to do our job while receiving no replacements? That we asked people to keep giving and keep giving and keep giving even though we only have two hands? Or perhaps that we ignored everything ever written on the subject that said don't weigh down your troops when fighting a local insurgency as they will always out maneuver your troops since they know the terrain and can use it against you.

Maybe we'll ignore that too and issue side plates and over 80 lbs of equipment and make it mandatory that people carry it all, and then nomex body suits to prevent you from spontaneously combusting but which somehow we are supposed to walk around in all day long when they don't breathe and we will all go down as heat casualties or be too exhausted to try to move quickly when it's necessary.

So there it is. There's my Christmas wishes and new years hopes for everything. Can someone just tell me what I'm supposed to say to my kids in years when they ask? Just... tell me what we're doing so that the only memory of this place, this time, isn't just a wall at the capitol.

Too many people have died already to make this all in vain.

Brian, my wife has a Christmas card for you and a special message. But, she doesn't know where to send it. Can't find the address for your office.
She was very impressed with your sign off on Friday night.

Dave, TN

Well said!

Dear Brian,

Thank you for the timely story of the Secret Santa, man that gives selflessly year after year. To know that he has cancer of the esophagus should be an eye-opener for all of us as this cancer's numbers are growing faster than any other cancer in the USA. Of the 15,000 people diagnosed this year with esophageal cancer, 13,000 of them will die, not such great statistics. What's even more alarming are the ages of the people contracting this disease, sometimes as young as early 20's, this disease was once labeled an "old man's disease" not so any longer. Our firefighters and police officers are also more prone to contract this deadly cancer because of the work they do fighting fires and dismantling meth labs, a new study in Utah is taking place as we speak and we need to hear more about this.

I would like to see your story taken one step further as the type of cancer that he has was not even named, and it needs to be to make people aware of it, it's symptoms and what can be done to treat it. If you'll remember, this same cancer just took the life of Gov. Ann Richards only a few months after diagnosis.

We need to get the word out and we need your help. Too many good people are losing their lives to this disease. Barb Price, sister of Steve, firefighter battling cancer of the esophagus.....

About FedEx being the first flight out of Denver when the airport opened. These FedEx people are pretty driven and I suggest the crew might have weathered the storm aboard a fully fueled airplane and the minute the rumor came that the airport was going to reopen, their ground crew de-iced and they were ready to go - while other flights were still loading passengers. I've been in these closures and the minute one flight takes off, it is simply one less plane ahead of me!

Holiday Greetings to you, Brian, your family and staff at MSNBC.

Peace on Earth and may Bush get back on his meds this year.

For Brian and all the 'bloggers' here is the Peggy Noonan/Brian letter:
PEGGY NOONAN

News of a Sleighing
This just in: Santa Claus is coming to town.

Friday, December 22, 2006 12:01 a.m.

Sunday is Christmas Eve. It feels wrong to speak here of small and sentimental things such as politics. The most passionately committed Americans right now, and the most imaginative, are children waiting for a large laughing man with a full white beard. And so a newscast Brian Williams could give on Sunday evening:
Brian Williams: Good evening and welcome to "NBC Nightly News." Reports this evening that that great symbol of Christmas, Santa Claus, has begun his amazing annual journey and is on his way to the home of every child in the world, bringing gifts, joy and cheer. Our full field report begins with NASA, and news of a successful liftoff.

NASA spokesman: Brian, it was all systems go and A-OK for Santa and his sleigh this morning. We can confirm a successful launch from the North Pole. We picked up, via audio sensors, a great whooshing sound, and then "Ho, ho, ho!" Santa entered the stratosphere just after dawn, did a waving flyby of the space station, and has now leveled off at some 2,000 feet.

Williams: And word also from Norad, in the mountains of Colorado.

Norad spokesman: Brian, Santa is now on our radar. We are tracking him also through satellite and infrared sensors. You can see here on the screen--that blip, or rather cluster, is the sleigh, and the reindeer. And I want to note here on the screen a curious red dot that seems to be both part of the blip and leading the blip.

Williams: Is the red dot sign of a problem or malfunction of some sort?

Norad spokesman: No. It's Rudolph. Rudolph is once again guiding the sleigh. There had been concern--Santa is ageless, but Rudolph was getting old. However he's here again this year. Gallant old deer.

Williams: It is well known that Santa comes only at night when the children are asleep. So let's go to London, where it is just past midnight, and our correspondent Jim Macedo.

Macedo: Brian, a light snow is falling tonight, the skies clear and dark. I am standing here in front of 48 Doughty Street, near Bloomsbury Square. This was the home of Charles Dickens, the writer who as much as anyone made the symbols of Christmas famous with his story "A Christmas Carol." Now as you look in the windows of homes nearby you can see, under the Christmas trees, many gifts, all wrapped in bright paper. So Santa has apparently been here. But I'll tell you the most amazing thing we've seen--if the camera can move in--look here into the Dickens house. It's a museum now, and an hour ago it was dark and closed. But in the past few minutes lights within began to glow, and people dressed in Victorian garb began to arrive, as if for a party. Suddenly a room lit up and we saw a tree, beautifully lit with candles and red bows. Then a little boy walked in, limping on a crutch. He was holding the hand of an old man with grim lines in his face, but a merry look in his eyes. And together they sat under the tree and began to open presents. We couldn't hear their conversation, but from the house a moment ago we heard an old carol, and then someone said, "God bless us, every one." There were cheers and laughter, and--

Williams: Jim, I must interrupt you. We have a report that Santa has been over the Atlantic, where he was seen by travelers on the Queen Elizabeth 2. The QE2 blew its great whistle in his honor, and Santa in response circled low over the ship, and dropped presents. And now I am told he has just flown over Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts, where he dipped his sleigh back and forth. Apparently Santa also goes out of his way to show respect for whatever country whose airspace he's entering. It is expected that Santa will at some point turn south, and enter the airspace of Washington D.C., where our own Tim Russert has been waiting. Tim, any sign, as dusk envelops our nation's capital?

Russert: Thanks, Brian, and Merry Christmas. Dusk has turned to evening here, and just now a sound of laughter and sleigh bells seemed to come from the sky. Here at the Capitol itself, on the House side, the new speaker-designate, Nancy Pelosi, came and stood on the broad marble steps and seemed to search the sky. Then all of a sudden she pointed, and waved with great enthusiasm. I followed her eyes and looked up, but I'm afraid what she'd seen had passed. But children in a crowd nearby seemed to see what I could not. They began to point, and some burst into applause. I'm hearing Jim Miklaszewski has more from the White House.

Miklaszewski: Brian and Tim, Santa came by the White House too. And for our purposes most striking was what came from the Residence, the part of the White House where the president and first lady live. When the sleigh bells rang, the lights started going on and off in what appeared to be a pattern. We asked a military aide, and he said the president has been learning Morse code. The message he sent through the lights was, apparently, "Way to go, Big Nick." Big Nick is the president's nickname for Santa Claus, who is also called St. Nicholas.

Williams: All right, good reports all. And so we reach the end of our newscast. And we ask: What is the Santa phenomenon? I think Santa comes to remind us that kindness and generosity can be a surprising gift from someone you don't even know. To remind us that something can be a gift even if it arrives awkwardly, such as tumbling down a chimney. Maybe Santa comes just to touch our hearts. It is also worth noting--and perhaps this was our lead this evening--that children seem to look forward to Santa not only with a feeling of expectation, but of love. And love is a very good thing.

That's our show tonight. Oh--I am being told now that Santa has issued a statement. He said, "Don't forget the cookies." And we have, just now, the first ever audio tape. Air traffic control in Cleveland just recorded these words through the open mike of a Delta airliner en route to Los Angeles. It's a man out of the darkness saying. "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night."

Copyright © 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Brian,

Great job this year. I never miss the broadcast or the blog. Have a wonderful holiday and do something fun with your family during the break. (If you are skiers, I suspect you'll have to go west.) As my 17-year-old would say, peace out.

Dear Brian,
Merry Christmas, couldn't quite make out if you response to the letter writer was cynical or in support of christmas past. we were shaking our heads.
As a weekly business traveler and happy user of fedex, when the airport was ready to open, I am sure FEDEX was the only airline who was actually prepared to go in a quick an efficient manner, while the others were following their inefficient almost bankrupt processes!

Merry Christmas to you and your staff, sir.

Merry Christmas, Brian, to you and your family. Also Best Wishes to the behind the scenes folks at Nightly News. I hope you have a chance to rest during the Holidays and regain your voice, you are sounding better. Thanks so much for continuing your stories of inspiration and hope...the stories from the soldiers all around the world makes me realize how much they sacrifice.
My husband works for FedEx, they transport important items, including medicines and think how many disappointed kids there would be if their gifts did not arrive :)
Sincerely, Louise Yankovich

Dear Brian and all at NBC Nightly News,

Thank you for all you do year round to bring us the news. Your newscast is first rate and I love all your blogs. Thank you as well for having Tom Brokaw appear from time to time.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all. To those of you covering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stay safe and know we are thinking of you and your families.

Brian...Just wanted to tell you that I don't always get to watch the nightly news around dinner hour..but I always make a point to racing to the tv and turning it on just before you have your "Making a Difference" story...near the end of the news broadcast and watch to see who has "made a difference" in someone's life somewhere in this world! It never fails me how and when I watch any of these stories you show..I'm either in tears ..from something sad to tears of joy....my day is complete and feel better watching that short story..it just brings such inspiration, love, caring and so much understanding to so many unbeleiveable great people out there! How and where you find them I wonder..but each day , each story effects all of us in so many ways more then we think! Thanks..All the best in 2007...with hope of more peace, love and keep bringing those "making a difference" stories continue to brighten our days!
Deborah Chute, Mt. Pleasant, S.C.

Happy holidays!

Brian, what the heck was that slap you gave the guy who wrote you about a good old fashion sign off?
Smetimes memories are worth re-living...we can get back to the misery tomorrow..

Brian, we had no idea that you could be a straight man. Tonight you commented that the shuttle landed safely in Florida but the luggage is in Atlanta. We roared!!! You didn't miss a beat, no smile, no nothing. We loved the newscast, as always.

Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year to you and your family.

GREAT newshour. A WWII & Korea conflict veteran says so.
Ralph, Betonville, AR Home of Wal*Mart(hooray)

I know you deserve some time off with your family, so Merry Christmas and have a wonderful new year.
I liked your funny comment about the space shuttle's luggage probably going on to Atlanta - and you didn't crack a smile!
I do continue to make time every evening to watch your news cast. NBC has got to have the best news-gatherers in the business.

But their luggage went on to Atlanta? :D Nice shot! Thanks for that small Christmas present! I'll be grinning all weekend!

Joyeaux Noel!

Brian and all the news staffers who work so hard at bringing us the news: Hope you all have a very safe and wonderful holiday season. You all deserve a break from the news business as I know it can be a very grueling and grinding business. Thank you for your committment,dedication. and thoroughness. And Happy New Year to you all!