DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion: "It's hard to argue for preservation of AmeriCorps in the face of $400 billion budget deficits, but its selection for the ax might say something about the nation's values. "

: "But what neither plan deals with is the escalating costs of prescription drugs and the questionable practices by drug manufacturers aimed at keeping those costs - and their resulting profits - high. Legal reforms talked about so much during the last congressional campaigns, which would have reduced costs by forcing drug companies to spend less on advertising and by making the criteria for releasing generic, less costly versions of the same drugs to the public less stringent, have been forgotten in all this new rhetoric. "

well, DUH
Opinion: Joel McNally: Family values for all (captimes.com): "There's an incredibly simple solution for people who are opposed to same-sex marriage. All they have to do is refrain from marrying anyone of the same sex. "

Yahoo! News - FCC Official: Fast Web Content Rules Not Needed Now: "'A competitive market will ensure that all content providers ... will be able to reach any Internet-connected customer without interference from software, hardware or access providers, regardless of affiliation,' Tom Tauke, Verizon's vice president for public policy, told the conference. "

yaya sisterhood
Court overturns Texas sodomy law

a uniter not a divider i think he said during the campaign. didn't he? couldn't tell from kurtz this morning.
The Great Divide (washingtonpost.com) Two wars later, we're back to the old red state/blue state divide in America.
It's hardly unusual, as the presidential cycle heats up, for the Dems who want Bush's job to be painting him as a failure. But rarely is there such a perception gap, with the Dems portraying the prez as devious and semi-incompetent, while GOPers see a strong, moral leader who has stood up to terrorists. The war in Iraq, in this regard, is either a brilliant triumph over a brutal dictator or an unnecessary conflict sold on a Big Lie.
Take a CBS/New York Times poll from last month? Does Bush have strong qualities of leadership? 92 percent of Republicans, 66 percent of independents and 50 percent of Democrats say yes.
Cares a lot about the problems of people like yourself? 63 percent of Republicans say yes, compared to 25 percent of independents and 9 percent of Democrats.
Do his policies favor the rich? Only 25 percent of GOPers agree, compared to 56 percent of independents and 82 percent of Democrats.
That, friends, is a pretty polarized country.

province seems to be poppin, and poopin, all over the place when referring to iraq.
Inexperienced Hands Guide Iraq Rebuilding (washingtonpost.com) "Before the war, nobody stopped and said, 'Aren't we going to need a bunch of people in the provinces?' "

iowa sure takes the civil war era seriously. besides all the reenactments going on around the state throughout the summer, there seems to be quite the fracas over the confederate flag.
DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion Why is burning the American flag protected as free speech, but displaying the Confederate flag is condemned as racism?
Ruth Naberhaus
Scranton

reka is a wonderful woman. i'd really like to shake her hand for the fine job she has done all these years at the des moines register.
DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion The students who sued chose to focus on Michigan giving a 20-point edge, out of a possible total of 150 points, to undergraduate minority applicants. They could instead have griped that it also awards 20 points to an outstanding athlete or impoverished student. Is that unfair to rich students or non-athletes? What makes athletic considerations fair and race ones unfair?

and they still can't figure out why health care costs are so out of control?
globegazette.com - North Iowa Local News Headlines In Mason City, a 30-day supply of the anxiety drug Alprazolam, for example, cost $97.09 at Mercy Westside Pharmacy, $14.29 at Walgreens and $15.39 at a Hy-Vee Food Store.

the birth tax. how ironic.
Goodbye, Death Tax. Hello, Birth Tax! Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the truly republican tax: The Birth Tax.
The Birth Tax is the interest paid on an enormous debt that republicans will create when they decide not to collect the estate tax anymore.

georgie's new best friend?
Russia Shutters Last Independent TV Station (washingtonpost.com) Boris Nadezhdin, a member of the Union of Right Forces party in the Russian legislature, called it "the last TV channel that ventured to criticize Russian leaders."
Echo Moskvy's editor in chief, Alexei Venediktov, said the closing of TVS gave the government a virtual monopoly on broadcasting. "It's like when all candidates are excluded from the election campaign, except for only one," he told the Interfax news agency

and then we get this in the next story about the poopyheads in sioux city
DesMoinesRegister.com | News A Sioux County chief deputy who will run against his boss in next year's election was demoted to a deputy job this week, just days after he announced his bid for sheriff
unbelievable.

HYPOC ALERT: this one's so blatant, it's nauseating. first we have the head republiCON telling us this about kerry's visit in mason city:
DesMoinesRegister.com | News Ed Gillespie, a GOP strategist who will assume the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, told Iowa reporters Friday that the Democrats seem more interested in attacking Bush than putting forward a "positive vision."

HYPOC ALERT
Senate Votes to Allow Importing of Prescription Drugs From Canada After today's vote, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, went to the Senate floor and denounced the underlying Medicare legislation. Mrs. Clinton said the bill would create a confusing, bureaucratic "Medicare maze." She made her point with a chart reminiscent of the one Republicans used in 1994 to ridicule the plan Mrs. Clinton had developed as first lady to guarantee health insurance for all Americans.

is anybody surprised?
Report Says U.N. Embargo Does Little to Halt Al Qaeda (washingtonpost.com) A key weakness in the U.N. sanctions regime, the panel says, is the submission by U.N. members of lists of terrorist suspects who are inadequately identified or whose names are misspelled. For instance, 34 individuals on the list are identified by only a single name. Further confusion has been caused by the varied translations of names from Arabic to English and other languages.
The United States and other governments have also been reluctant to put the names of some suspected terrorists on the U.N. terrorism list in bids to maintain secrecy as they conduct their own investigations. "There have been some reports of known al Qaeda members, not on the list, having been turned back, detained or arrested while in transit," the report says.

DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion I can't figure how Republicans win elections when at least 80 percent of the people would be better served by Democrats

A Stranger in Faris By Eric Umansky The Wall Street Journal says that with growing concern about the cost of rebuilding, the White House is tossing around the idea of helping to pay for it by issuing Iraqi securities (aka debt) backed by future Iraqi oil revenues.

i'm not a financial planner or anything, but doesn't this sound a bit like kenny-boy talk?

A Stranger in Faris By Eric Umansky "These guys are growing in resistance, and they're still being troublesome, and you have to ask what's motivating them," said one defense official

i dont have to ask. do you? it's plain as day. their motivation is for the occupation to get the hell out. can we say palestinian?

DesMoinesRegister.com | News Coverage would not start again until the cost rises to a total of $5,800 annually. At that point, Medicare would cover 90 percent of the costs over that amount.

i'd sure like to know why there's a gap
DesMoinesRegister.com | News After seniors pay the first $275 out-of-pocket under the Senate plan, Medicare would pick up half the cost of each prescription up to $4,500 a year. At that point, Medicare recipients would encounter a major gap in coverage

violence? and just why is that mr secretary?
CBS News | Deadly Attacks On U.S. Forces | June 19, 2003 17:42:49 "You've got to remember that if Washington, D.C., were the size of Baghdad, we would be having something like 215 murders a month," said Rumsfeld. "There's going to be violence in a big city."

globegazette.com - North Iowa Local News Headlines Heard Moerman report that the city's participation in challenging Alliant Energy's statewide "equalization" rate policy will save Alliant customers in Mason City $858,000 a year. Legal fees for the city totaled $20,110.

whats up with all these retractinos and dismissals and resignations in the papers lately? it's like a god damn hail storm out there. and it's worrisome. simply because it's all of a sudden. and convenient. convenient because the threat that was so bad that justified war, wasn't a threat at all. now its all about CYA. and the way this cartel does that is bully, bribe, and threaten. and it's working. because we have whey too many wimps in places that it shouldn't be that much of a problem.

FCC Votes to Ease Media Ownership Rules

WASHINGTON - Federal regulators relaxed decades-old rules restricting media ownership Monday, permitting companies to buy more television stations and own a newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the same city.

RSSified - well, what the fuck is this for ?? i've read like 20 pages on it, and still dont quite get the purpose.

i can hardly wait. as they say in poopyville... BRING IT ON.... oh wait, it's georgie's call, and election is still too far away.
The Observer | Special reports | Blair: I have secret proof of weapons

Stung by claims that the Government exaggerated the threat from Saddam, Blair said he was waiting to publish a 'complete picture' of both intelligence gained before the war and 'what we've actually found'.
Asked if he knew things he could not yet reveal, he said: 'I certainly do know some of the stuff that has been already accumulated as a result of interviews and others... which is not yet public, but what we are going to do is assemble that evidence and present it properly.'

DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion

I'm getting weary of the pejorative use of the expression "tax-and-spend Democrats." Of course they tax and spend. That is what they are elected to do. It's their job to spend public money wisely and usefully.
But the "borrow-and-spend" Republicans continue to increase the public debt and spend our grandchildren's money with questionable wisdom.
William E. Johnson
Des Moines.

how does the logic of :he's had 12 years to hide these WMD' as a basis for coming up empty on proving saddam's guilt, and at the same time, showing the WMD movie at the United Nations with such detail about these very weapons, including satellite photography. it's absurd that we should believe that the CIA found these weapons and know of their existence with photographs on may 1st, but on may 15th, they cant find anything. as far as i'm concerned, anybody who swallows that load of crap outta be sick to their insides for a year.

yepson won the Poopyhead of the Year award last year. he was one of the early fedayeen out to destroy the democrats. the countless emails i've sent him to congratulate him on his continuing to shine in poopyville, have been unresponsive. oh well, guess he's not too proud of at least one thing.
DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion

Here's your raise, Yepsen
David Yepsen asks in his May 22 Register column, "Democrats, Heed the Errors of Losing Class of '84," "Isn't repealing a planned tax cut the same thing as increasing taxes?"
If Yepsen worked for me, I'd say, "We plan to cut your salary by 10 percent starting July 1." Then, on July 1, I'd say, "We've decided to repeal that salary cut we planned. So enjoy your salary increase."
Dick Heimer
Sheffield.

where in God's name do these people get their water? i could care less if this person (sic) is jewish, israeli, or indian. this person is obviously saying that to tell the truth, is to bring dishonor to all that we should be patriotic about. how much more of this insanity is going to weave into the fabric of our lives?
DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion

Basu dishonored men and women in uniform everywhere by implying the rescue of a prisoner of war behind enemy lines was nothing more than an elaborate theatrical performance.
Robert Zeis Jr.
Des Moines.

and so it starts. get the 'echo chambers' active again. loyalty for loyalty's sake. ya, rite. how long did it take the germans to realize they were on the wrong side?
Bush Fills Key Slots With Young Loyalists (washingtonpost.com)

"He keeps promoting people up from the farm club to jobs that once were reserved for giants," said Paul C. Light, a specialist in bureaucracy who is a New York University professor of public service. "That means a relatively green team, but one that will take direction from the coach. It could be interpreted as a sign of extraordinary hubris."
Aides said Bush's preference for promoting from within gives him a hardworking, committed team beholden only to him, without their own agendas. But other people close to Bush used the term "echo chamber" as they described their worry that a culture so driven by "loyalty for loyalty's sake" could produce a White House that was deaf to brewing political or governing crises

just so there's a clear record of their promises, so that if it fails, and God i hope it doesn't, not because i wish this administration luck at all, but it would be disasterous for the people if it didnt. like i heard somewhere yesterday: this shouldn't be a victory for the president, it should be a victory for the American people.
Bush Signs $350 Billion Tax Cut Measure (washingtonpost.com)

Bush aides said they were standing by their earlier predictions that the package will add 1 million jobs to the U.S. economy

Bush Signs $350 Billion Tax Cut Measure (washingtonpost.com)

"When ideological people find themselves in a hole, they ask for a bigger shovel."
-former President William Jefferson Clinton

According to the White House's own numbers, the federal government is looking at deficits from now until, well, basically forever. (Today's Financial Times reports that the Treasury Dept. commissioned a study, since downplayed by the White House, that found that the government is now facing "chronic" deficits.) As for jobs, as Slate's Daniel Gross, among others, has noted, the one million or so paying gigs that Bush predicts will be created are 1) not all that much considering the number of jobs the economy has been shedding 2) darn expensive on a per job basis.

these two letters are today's picks from the des moines register.
DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion

Against Iran
The drumbeat against Iran has begun.
I see George Bush's econoomic plan.
Perpetual war.
Robert Price
Prairie City.



No Iraqi smoking gun
The weapons of mass destruction (WMD)were the main reason for waging the Iraqi war.
Now our troops can't find any WMD.
Will WMD come to stand for "Words of Monstrous Deception," lies told by President Bush and his henchmen and women?
Robert W. Gernes
Des Moines.

considering the june 2 vote by chairman powell (kinda sounds communistic duznt it) to relax ownership rules for media megacorps, you can now check to see who owns what here

Sun-Sentinel: Opinion

"Rarely," said Rumsfeld, "had so many been so wrong about so much."

And if one shifts the focus of his remarks, he was absolutely right! The whole rationale for the war put forwarded by Rumsfeld, President Bush, Colin Powell and all their cohorts was wrong.

Chicago Tribune: 9/11 panel told of cover-ups before attacks

WASHINGTON -- The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were made possible by gaping holes in airline security, government cover-ups that prevented problems from being fixed and a failure to respond to a growing threat that terrorists might use airliners as weapons, witnesses told an independent commission this week.

"The notion that these hijackings and terrorism were an unforeseen and unforeseeable risk is an airline and FAA public-relations management myth," said Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general at the Department of Transportation, in testimony Friday.

so lets see here, when the war in iraq was just a plan, anti-war folx were vilified by the poops because they thought we had hoped the plan would fail. so now that this road map to peace is hoped by many israelis to fail, wanna bet we dont hear a peep from the poops?
The 'Map' Quest By Sam Schechner

The papers all lead with the Israeli cabinet's narrow, but expected, approval of the U.S.-backed peace plan between Israelis and Palestinians, otherwise known as the "road map." The vote marks the first time the Israeli government has officially accepted the Palestinian claim to statehood, but some on the cabinet made clear they had only voted for the plan to avoid a standoff with the U.S., and they expect, or perhaps even hope, that it will fail.

well, i've heard it all now. in pat robertson's town, virginia beach, they have a campaign: NO BAD BEHAVIOR. golly gee, how sweet. they made hotels cancel reservations for the upcoming sexology expo 2003. they've arrested people coming out of bars for being drunk. and now they're arresting people who wear thongs. thongs, you know, those LEGAL swimsuits?
Good Clean Fun in Virginia Beach (washingtonpost.com)

Some tourists aren't even aware of the city's myriad regulations, Fuller said, such as the one prohibiting loud car stereos or Ordinance 22-10, otherwise known as the Thong Law, which prohibits exposure of "buttocks, with less than a fully opaque covering."

a rockefeller they should listen to.
DesMoinesRegister.com | Opinion

"I really am outraged. I express that to you with the respect and affection you know I have for you. This is not the way democracy is meant to work." - Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., to Grassley at the single meeting of the GOP-run conference committee on the tax cut, which lasted a half-hour.

i should start a 9/11 blog. just to store clips relating to the catalyst.
vigilant.tv - foxnews: Early Evidence Points to Bin Laden

U.S. intelligence also intercepted communications between bin Laden supporters discussing the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, according to Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
(see www.foxnews.com)

just the headlines this morning is enough to get my blood boiling at the incompetence of our citizens to wake the hell up and see the very transformation going on in today's America. we are turning into something alien to what i was brought up to believe America stood for: Liberty and Justice for All.

Congress watches its power ebb

Overhaul without oversight

Military waste under fire

Disunited Nations

then we have the tax cuts, everybody's saying no no no, but the only ones getting heard are the few saying yes yes yes. very few from the looks of it.

what comes to mind about a situation like this is either the monster will bite off more than it can chew, and end up choking on it, or, we'll have a power grab of astronomical proportions, unrivaled by even revolution standards, where the good vs evil, the rich vs the poor, mean the same thing.

in any event, what America was just four years ago, would be hardly recognized today.

gettin there

Health Care That Spares No Expense (washingtonpost.com)

Democratic presidential candidates and Republican congressional staffers are making claims about the greater fairness of government health insurance and the greater efficiency of private health insurance, respectively. Some tout the virtues of managed care, others believe the solution lies in tort reform. But the real problem is far deeper. We have come to expect, in this country, very high-tech health care, delivered without reference to price and thorough to the point of parody. Our doctors meet our expectations. No disease is too rare to test for, no technology is too expensive to use, and fear of litigation is not the only explanation.

BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID
Overhaul Without Oversight (washingtonpost.com)

Last month, as Congress was departing for a two-week recess, the Defense Department submitted a 200-page draft "transformation" bill that requests extensive new authorities. It is not an understatement to say that this bill, taken as a whole, is the most sweeping defense reform legislation proposed since the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, which changed both the structure and the policies governing our military. The only thing that is obvious and consistent throughout the 50 provisions included in this bill is the aggregation of power sought for the Department of Defense, removing the legal restrictions and congressional oversight that should safeguard against any abuses, however unintentional. This approach is a rush to judgment that will affect vast numbers of people and, in many cases, will enshrine bad policy in law.

well, this is a switch. i wonder what the story is behind this.
Palestinians in Gaza Turn Anger on Militants (washingtonpost.com)

In an unusual protest, about 600 Beit Hanoun residents blocked a main thoroughfare with trash cans, rocks and burning tires to show their anger at the militants and Palestinian Authority officials

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

The two-hour finale of ABC's reality romance hit "The Bachelor" was the big winner Sunday in the ratings race for young adult viewers, while the first half of a CBS miniseries about Hitler finished third, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research.

just goes to show ya, who do ya trust anymore. but one thing is for sure. hitler is a fabulous production. cbs did good.

MediaDailyNews 05-20-03

The two-hour special broadcast of 60 Minutes delivered a 9.1/16, 12.86 million. The first part of Hitler: Rise of Evil, focusing on the Nazi dictator's youth, earned a 9.0/14, 13.52 million. CBS placed first on Sunday in viewers and households with a 9.0/15 and an average of 13.22 million viewers. The other networks were NBC (7.9/13, 11.57 million); ABC (6.7/11, 10.62 million) and Fox (5.6/10, 9.66 million).

Peace in Pieces By Eric Umansky

Final Blair thought ... There are no doubt a number of institutional and management issues that in some way or another helped Blair snooker the Times and readers. Here's one to add to the pile: The NYT makes it unnecessarily difficult for readers to contact staffers. The LAT, WP, and WSJ all use a standard e-mail naming scheme. So, if you know the name of a reporter or editor, you can e-mail them. The LAT helps that along by publishing an editorial staff directory, while the WP has an easily contactable ombudsman. The NYT has none of that. Nor does it seem to have an e-mail address exclusively devoted to corrections