this is what is so wrong with "today's army" and donald rumsfeld in particular. from the oregonian (via fairuse)

Jeremiah Adler yearned for the type of mettle-testing adventure he never found in his pacifist, vegan upbringing in the Garden Home area of Southwest Portland. snip

He enlisted in the U.S. Army -- not just a two-year stint, but a five-year commitment with a chance to attend the U.S. Army Airborne School.

"I didn't want to be the average infantryman, the average grunt," says Adler, now 18. He wanted to make a difference, he says, not only to the Iraqis he hoped to help liberate, but to the military itself.

But only hours after arriving for basic training at Fort Benning, Ga., he had a change of heart. The Army, he says, wanted to turn him into "a ruthless, coldblooded killer," and he wanted no part of it.

what nobody seems to care about is what these 'kids' are going to be like when they return.

and interesting detail about the taiwanese press in the LAT, caught by slate's Today's Papers:

When one professor offered a course on media ethics, "none of his
journalism students signed up. Asked why, several said they didn't want to
become 'schizophrenic,' constrained by boring niceties that had no place in the
real world."

as we get closer to the day we bomb iran, and we all know it's coming.... little by little, rove has got the media machine churning out lil' bits of the puzzle that he is using to justify the invasion. so that when the time comes, the American people will be so dead against any truth that may lie in the underwash of allegations leading up to the invasion. it worked before, so why not use the gameplan again.

Iran's contact with the network run by Mr. Khan has been known for some time. But the government's failure to turn over documents detailing the nature of those discussions until confronted with evidence is being cited by American and European investigators as another example of the country's continued reluctance to disclose the inner workings of its program, which Iran insists is for commercial energy production, not weaponry. Over the past two years, it has hidden nuclear facilities, including some designed to enrich uranium, until the I.A.E.A. confronted it with evidence and forced it to open those facilities to inspectors.

While Iran is believed to have taken up only parts of the deal offered by the Khan network, its scope appears to resemble the package deal that the network ultimately sold to Libya a decade later. Libya also received the blueprints for a Chinese-designed nuclear weapon; it is unclear whether Iran was offered the same plans.

NYTimes

congrats to my best friend, and about the only one that really knows me, manny parrish, for appearing in the new klaus nomi movie.

and junior DARES to question another country about planting reporters???????

PUTIN GRILLS BUSH ON DAN RATHER
Sun Feb 27 2005 14:51:38 ET

George Bush knew Vladimir Putin would be defensive when Bush brought up the pace of democratic reform in Russia in their private meeting at the end of Bush's four-day, three-city tour of Europe. But when Bush talked about the Kremlin's crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed, TIME magazine will report on Monday.

If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed. "Putin thought we'd fired Dan Rather," says a senior Administration official. "It was like something out of 1984."

TIME's John Dickerson: The Russians did not let the matter drop. Later, during the leaders' joint press conference, one of the questioners Putin called on asked Bush about the very same firings, a coincidence the White House assumed had been orchestrated. The odd episode reinforced the Administration's view that Putin's impressions of America are often based on urban myths fed to him by ill-informed aides.

Developing...
drudge

R.I.P. the First Amendment. and when bushco gets rid of those evil lawyers, who'll protect the people from the fascist state?

A George Rogers Clark High School junior arrested Tuesday for making terrorist threats told LEX 18 News Thursday that the "writings" that got him arrested are being taken out of context.

Winchester police say William Poole, 18, was taken into custody Tuesday morning. Investigators say they discovered materials at Poole's home that outline possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers, and police.

Poole told LEX 18 that the whole incident is a big misunderstanding. He claims that what his grandparents found in his journal and turned into police was a short story he wrote for English class.

"My story is based on fiction," said Poole, who faces a second-degree felony terrorist threatening charge. "It's a fake story. I made it up. I've been working on one of my short stories, (and) the short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies."

Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. "Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it's a felony in the state of Kentucky," said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.

Poole disputes that he was threatening anyone.

"It didn't mention nobody who lives in Clark County, didn't mention (George Rogers Clark High School), didn't mention no principal or cops, nothing,"
said Poole. "Half the people at high school know me. They know I'm not that stupid, that crazy."

On Thursday, a judge raised Poole's bond from one to five thousand dollars after prosecutors requested it, citing the seriousness of the charge.

and the best comment i've heard yet came from a fellow DU'r

you would think that this would just be "Columbine fallout" but after the initial backlash against "trench coat mafia" type kids it quieted down for a while...this trend is definitely the result of *'s Puritanical whitewashing and fear mongering of the US citizenry, especially some of the most vulnerable: quirky adolescents in the educational system who refuse/cannot toe the status quo line and learn what it takes to be a good little brownshirt repubs

--ForceOfNature

what can you say about a man who took the presidency of the United States as his second civil position? other than he always has to be a star.

and the oscar gooooooooooes tooooooo..... the woman who hates everybody, Ms. Maureen Dowd, MoDo to her friends, for offering up one of the best concise peeks into the soul of george w. boosh.

It was remarkable to see President Bush lecture Vladimir Putin on the importance of checks and balances in a democratic society.

Remarkably brazen, given that the only checks Mr. Bush seems to believe in are those written to the "journalists" Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and Karen Ryan, the fake TV anchor, to help promote his policies. The administration has given a whole new meaning to checkbook journalism, paying a stupendous $97 million to an outside P.R. firm to buy columnists and produce propaganda, including faux video news releases.

The only balance W. likes is the slavering, Pravda-like "Fair and Balanced" coverage Fox News provides. Mr. Bush pledges to spread democracy while his officials strive to create a Potemkin press village at home. This White House seems to prefer softball questions from a self-advertised male escort with a fake name to hardball questions from journalists with real names; it prefers tossing journalists who protect their sources into the gulag to giving up the officials who broke the law by leaking the name of their own C.I.A. agent.

W., who once looked into Mr. Putin's soul and liked what he saw, did not demand the end of tyranny, as he did in his second Inaugural Address. His upper lip sweating a bit, he did not rise to the level of his hero Ronald Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Instead, he said that "the common ground is a lot more than those areas where we disagree." The Russians were happy to stress the common ground as well.

An irritated Mr. Putin compared the Russian system to the American Electoral College, perhaps reminding the man preaching to him about democracy that he had come in second in 2000 according to the popular vote, the standard most democracies use.

Certainly the autocratic former K.G.B. agent needs to be upbraided by someone - Tony Blair, maybe? - for eviscerating the meager steps toward democracy that Russia had made before Mr. Putin came to power. But Mr. Bush is on shaky ground if he wants to hold up his administration as a paragon of safeguarding liberty - considering it has trampled civil liberties in the name of the war on terror and outsourced the torture of prisoners to bastions of democracy like Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. (The secretary of state canceled a trip to Egypt this week after Egypt's arrest of a leading opposition politician.)

"I live in a transparent country," Mr. Bush protested to a Russian reporter who implicitly criticized the Patriot Act by noting that the private lives of American citizens "are now being monitored by the state."

Dick Cheney's secret meetings with energy lobbyists were certainly a model of transparency. As was the buildup to the Iraq war, when the Bush hawks did their best to cloak the real reasons they wanted to go to war and trumpet the trumped-up reasons.

The Bush administration wields maximum secrecy with minimal opposition. The White House press is timid. The poor, limp Democrats don't have enough power to convene Congressional hearings on any Republican outrages and are reduced to writing whining letters of protest that are tossed in the Oval Office trash.

When nearly $9 billion allotted for Iraqi reconstruction during Paul Bremer's tenure went up in smoke, Democratic lawmakers vainly pleaded with Republicans to open a Congressional investigation.

Even the near absence of checks and balances is not enough for W. Not content with controlling the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court and a good chunk of the Fourth Estate, he goes to even more ludicrous lengths to avoid being challenged.

The White House wants its Republican allies in the Senate to stamp out the filibuster, one of the few weapons the handcuffed Democrats have left. They want to invoke the so-called nuclear option and get rid of the 150-year-old tradition in order to ram through more right-wing judges.

Mr. Bush and Condi Rice strut in their speeches - the secretary of state also strutted in Wiesbaden in her foxy "Matrix"-dominatrix black leather stiletto boots - but they shy away from taking questions from the public unless they get to vet the questions and audiences in advance.

Administration officials went so far as to cancel a town hall meeting during Mr. Bush's visit to Germany last week after deciding an unscripted setting would be too risky, opting for a round-table talk in Mainz with preselected Germans and Americans.

The president loves democracy - as long as democracy means he's always right.

WATCHING NIGHTLINE and pat o'brien claims: i dont know if its the war in iraq, or if its the economy, or what, but America has an insatiable appetite for celebrity news.

i can tell you why. they want shit that aint off some wire and sanitized.

one has GOT to wonder just what in God's name gives the NYT any credibility writing at all about iraq. from today's TP over at slate:

Ah, Shiite ... From the NYT's correction page:

The caption on Feb. 14 for a picture by Reuters with the continuation of an article about the Iraqi elections misstated the reason Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite cleric, was weeping. He was participating in a mourning ritual as part of Ashura, a holy Shiite festival - not reacting to results showing that his political alliance had won a slim majority of seats. A second caption for a Reuters photo misstated the reason a Shiite was shown flagellating himself in a Baghdad procession. He was taking part in the same mourning ritual, not celebrating the election outcome.

i can't name a person more hated and vilified by just their mere presence, let alone when they open their mouths, than judy woodruff. i'll take any bet that she hasn't received money, and i mean a lot of money (it would take a lot of money for me to sell my soul, wouldnt it for you?) from the rnc handlers.

nothing would give me more pleasure than to create a website that had users typing in words, and she barking on the 'right' ones.

she makes me puke every time i hear her.

this fuckn blogger. and fukn google for messin with that damn toolbar blogger. they should have left well enough alone, but no, they had to get their dirty lil' fingers in there and mess everything up.

anyway, what i meant to say before i was so rudely cut off from posting by an obnoxious graphical user interface, was that this was a brainstorming even like none other.

sheeeeeesh.... from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Software scientists at Microsoft Research have teamed up with biomedical researchers in Seattle, Boston and Perth, Australia, to see if computer techniques used to defeat e-mail spam can also be used to help design a vaccine that can defeat AIDS.

Today, members of this unique collaboration will announce a plan to use "machine learning" or "data mining" computational techniques to decipher HIV's wildly creative genetic ability to constantly change and disguise itself from immune system detection and deletion.

"HIV mutates like crazy, but it does show a pattern," said Dr. David Heckerman, a physician and computer scientist at Microsoft Research.

"It isn't completely random," added Heckerman's colleague Nebojsa Jojic. Just as a spammer can add only so much nonsense or other disguising characters without obscuring the message, Jojic said, so can the AIDS virus vary only so much without disabling itself.

what nobody seems to be picking up is that when they (in this case, the post) quote someone, as they did here with grant, they don't connect him to someone of such low expectations. iow, if the guy is impressed because you dressed yourself, would you value his assessment of you?

I was very impressed," said Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform, a London-based research group that favors strong links to North America. "Of course it's only words -- but in diplomacy, words set the tone."

The visit "does imply that Bush 2 is very different than Bush 1," Grant added. "If he can at least go through the motions of taking the European Union seriously, because the expectations are so low I think they will certainly forgive him for being the Big Bad Bush of the first term."

he's on record now. as if that would matter since he said the same thing about iraq months before he bombed baghdad. from yahoo:

Many Europeans also are nervous about a possible U.S. strike against Iran to stop its suspected nuclear weapons program, and Bush gave mixed signals about American intentions.

"This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous," the president said with a slight smile. "Having said that, all options are on the table." He made a similar statement last week, saying a president never says never about military action.

well well welllll...... about time some responsible journalists took this administration head on about the privitizing social security. looks like the administration has been caught in their zeal to sell broker services. from the los angeles times:

WASHINGTON — President Bush believes Americans are so eager to join the "ownership society" that, given a chance, two-thirds of those eligible would divert funds from Social Security into the personal investment accounts he proposes.

But when public employees in seven states were offered the opportunity for similar accounts during the last decade, nowhere near two-thirds signed up for them. In many instances, the figure was closer to 5%.

so there's tapes now of georgie admitting to smoking pot, and i guess other things. i'm tracking down the tapes now. but this could be explosive.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush (news - web sites) has indicated in interviews secretly taped by a friend before he became president that he used marijuana but would not admit it for fear of setting a bad example for children.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050221/od_uk_nm/oukoe_bush_marijuana_1

but what is not being discussed is that he lied about smoking pot. just as he lied about everything else.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH BLOGGER??? the blogger toolbar item produces errors whenever i try and post something, and now i cant even post it from within blogger.

nope.... YOU FUCKS. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING ??????


HTML ERROR

Required field cannot be left blank

Stop showing errors for this post

whenever i need to know what the ilk like rush limbaugh is screaming and whining about, i can usually just turn to the des moines register and catch a letter to the editor that sounds like it's out of a twilight zone script. and there was one today:

I read with shock and awe of the U.S. plan to have minority Sunnis occupy high-level ministerial positions after the Iraqi "election" - their candidates not having fared well. This is an abomination of the American form of democracy where "winner takes all" is the rule.

Allowing losers to help determine policy is tantamount to treason. The winning party worked hard to obtain the victory and should be able to enjoy the spoils. Why should the U.S. government prop up these losers?

As we have proven here in the United States, a little dynamic tension is good for the country. It builds character. The idea that "Shutting the Sunni Arabs out of power could alienate Sunnis and lead to more internal strife" is more leftist claptrap obviously espoused by a vast liberal press bent on foisting its agenda on this emerging democracy.

Being a uniter, not a divider, is for France, the Dutch and the United Nations. Let the winners rule. Making Iraq more like America is the goal here, is it not?
-R. G. Riley Jr.,
Des Moines.

i could save enough money in education, to fund education.

for the next decade.

how, you say.

stick around, i'll tell you after dinner.
or email me for a quicker answer.

once you hear it, you'll slap yourself on the head wondering why you didn't think of it.

really.

email me and find out for yourself.

oops... here

i could save enough money in education, to fund education.

for the next decade.

how, you say.

stick around, i'll tell you after dinner.
or email me for a quicker answer.

once you hear it, you'll slap yourself on the head wondering why you didn't think of it.

really.

email me and find out for yourself.

oops... here

i just got home from a full day, funeral in the morning, haircut & shopping in the afternoon. caught cbs news about how the fda will now pay more attention to the safety of drugs, AFTER they hit the market.

this right after capping lawsuits in the so-called tort reform..... NOW we see their game. i'm jus pissed that nobody else is catching on to their kon game. they're liars, cheats & thieves. every last one of 'em.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

the head of the AMA is a bigot, and no doubt a bush sympathizer. in fact, i would go so far as attributing his actions as those i'd expect from nazi soldiers.

White Plains, New York) The president of the American Medical Association has come to the defense of New York Medical College under attack for banning a gay students group from campus.

In an interview with the Westchester Journal News AMA President John Nelson said as a private institution the college has the right to set and enforce its own policies.

Nelson then said that the school was acting no differently than Brigham Young University in banning Coca-Cola from campus or its suspending of four athletes accused of raping a 17-year-old girl.

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/02/021505nyMed.htm

from today's des moines register, a couple of iowans noticed that article i heard about on DU:

No, Gen. Mattis, killing is not fun

Every once in a while, you get a glimpse into the thinking of someone, and it really makes you sick (" 'Fun to Shoot Some People,' " General Says," Feb. 4). Lt. Gen. James Mattis made one of those comments.

He actually said, "It's fun to shoot some people." Anyone who thinks that has no place in our military. When it is necessary to go to war, killing another person should be something that is done out of necessity. It should not produce joy. That is sick.

Mattis is a psychopath who should be given a dishonorable discharge and a lot of time in the care of someone capable of helping him deal with his mental illness.
-Dana Barrer,
Mitchellville.

***

"It's a hell of a hoot . . . It's fun to shoot some people," said Lt. Gen. James Mattis. Not for me, general.

During World War II, I commanded a combat-infantry platoon in the Northern Solomons, New Guinea and the Philippines. My machine-gun platoon killed Japanese soldiers; I killed two with my rifle. We took no pleasure in that; It certainly was not what the general was pleased to call "a hoot."

At one point in the Philippines I led my platoon past what had been a Japanese artillery unit. Uniforms were stripped, bodies were shattered, guts were hanging out.

Mattis may have considered it a hoot. I was sickened by the sight. I led my platoon to our next engagement. I was 22 years old.
-John C. McLaughlin,
Iowa City.

the nytimes has something that took my eyes off what i was doing:

City health officials announced on Friday that they had detected the rare strain of H.I.V. in one man whose case they described as particularly worrisome because it merged two unusual features: resistance to nearly all anti-retroviral drugs used to treat the infection, and stunningly swift progression from infection to full-fledged AIDS. Scientists say that only with more testing will they hope to determine how virulent the strain is and how specific to this one man its effects are.

That combination drug resistance and rapid AIDS onset, the officials said, could signal a new, more menacing kind of infection, and its discovery set in motion an anxious search by city workers to find the man's sexual partners and have them tested.

The infected man, gay and in his 40's, tested negative for H.I.V. in May 2003, then tested positive last December, health officials said. Investigators believe he may have contracted the virus in October when he engaged in unprotected anal sex with multiple partners while using crystal methamphetamine. By last month, it was clear that three of the four classes of anti-retroviral drugs used against H.I.V. were not working in this case, and the man showed signs of AIDS, including rapid weight loss, a high level of the virus in his bloodstream, and a depleted supply of crucial immune system cells.

Even though the anti-retroviral "cocktail" has extended many lives, some infected people still deteriorate and end up with AIDS, but that process usually takes many years. Doctors say that for a patient to reach that stage in a matter of months is extremely troubling.

has nobody even bothered to ask the most important question about iraq today? or has it been asked, only to get the infamous turn off by changing the subject. i dont know, but it seems to me, someone needs to step up to the plate, and my guess is that's why howard dean was successful at getting the reins of the DNC.

here's a message to mr. dean, as i stomped plenty of pavement in north iowa for you during last winter.... HOLD THIS ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNTABLE. accountable to the American people, not just to the American elite. make this administration make public it's plans regarding iraq. all we hear is what is happening, not why. filled with promise after promise about how great things WILL get. only, nobody seems to care when.

the next time someone bashes seymour hersh over at the new yorker, needs to be bitchslapped with some facts, such as this lil' gem, caught by today's papers over at slate:

Unmanned U.S. planes have been monitoring Iranian airspace in search of nukes, reports the WP. The drones complement satellite recon by sampling the air for traces of nuclear activity. The story elaborates on news broken by Seymour Hersh last month. Iranian civilians first spotted the drones in December but thought they were flying saucers. Though the United States believes that Iran's nuclear energy program is a front for developing nuclear weapons, Condoleezza Rice said that an Iranian invasion is not on the menu "at this time."

at this time?? what the hell are they up to, you might ask. well, just make sure you ask someone with a brain to tell you, like a democrat.

it's par for the course. whenever i pick one letter from the register, there's undoubtedly going to be another that deserves the same attention.

Set my television free, Congress

Way back in the history of broadcasting, Congress guaranteed local TV broadcasters that if they had agreements to carry network programming, no other broadcaster in its reception area could carry that same programming. This World War II-era government-controlled monopoly model persists to this day, and is why fans of "American Idol" are stuck with a basketball game (" 'American Idol' loses to Hawkeye Games," Feb. 9).

Ironically, the technology to overcome this is cheap and seamless: Since TV stations upload their signals via satellites, cable or satellite providers could retransmit those signals to their subscribers, so they could watch "Idol" on, say, Chicago's Fox affiliate, WFLD, instead of the basketball game on Des Moines' Fox affiliate, KDSM.

But providers aren't allowed to do that, thanks to the deceptively named Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA). Passed in 1999, the law, which ossifies the restrictions imposed by ancient technology, holds viewers hostage to the whims of local broadcasters and their advertisers.

There are no similar federal regulations restricting other forms of consumer choice: If you don't like a car dealership in Des Moines, you are free to shop for that car in the Quad Cities, or in Minnesota, for that matter. Don't like your bank? Open an account with another. But if your local TV station chooses to pre-empt network programming - such as when WOI's owner, Capital Communications, refused to air the "Nightline" segment involving the reading of the Iraq war dead - the viewer has no recourse.

You could argue that "it's only television." But when TV is such a huge part of our culture, and when it is the overwhelming provider of our news and information, should this massest of media really remain a state-controlled franchise? It is past time for Congress to tear down the walls of broadcaster protectionism and allow viewers to make their own choices.

-Ira Lacher,
Des Moines.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050213/OPINION04/502130321/1035/OPINION

can't get the blogger thing on google's toolbar to work. 'error on page' is all that gets expressed.

Besides, Social Security wasn't intended to make anyone rich. It was created to keep people from being poor.

--ANDIE DOMINICK, DSM Register editorial writer

well, this is my 2nd install of XP on this new 250gig 16mb buffer harddrive. but boy does it sing. and worth every penny of the $140 or so i paid for it at staples.

i jus watched cbsnews doing a piece on the predator, showing released dod video of a predator taking out some roadside bomb or something, and just misses the car going past. what really got my blood flowing from this terrorist activity was the announcer joking about how the driver must have gotten the scare of his life.

have we descended into such horrific animals as to joke about terrorizing another human being?

i'm ashamed to be an American after watching cbsnews tonite. God help us.

and the post sums it up rather tiday:

A Breathtaking Budget (washingtonpost.com): "Either way, the fiscal 2006 budget proposed yesterday by President Bush is breathtaking -- in the first approach as farce, in the second as tragedy. "

slate's TP nails this administration's priorities down pat:

Don't Let me Down, Truce By Eric?Umansky: "Among the programs to face the hypothetical scalpel: The EPA would be cut nearly 6 percent, with the biggest chunk coming from a clean-water fund. A program to help people pay their heating bills would be cut by 8 percent. And that good-for-nuthin' bureaucracy known as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be trimmed by about 12 percent.
Of course, not all programs are facing cuts. From the Post: 'Financing for the apprehension of Army deserters would double.' "

kudos to Dr. Bret McFarlin (nice irish name isn't it) for getting Quasar's Quote For The Day:

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Medical care corrupted by market forces and profit motives is what's truly bankrupt."

this letter writer demonstrates the fallen logic used by the reich-wing to denounce gay marriage.

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Rekha Basu thinks the YMCA should be more liberal in its view of 'family' to include gay lovers, but where do we draw the line? Why not also include your live-in boyfriend or girlfriend?"

the "well DUH" quote of the day:

globegazette.com - North Iowa Local News Headlines: "We believe that a project manager is necessary for an effort of this size,' said John Michel, president of the chamber board. 'No private business would launch a $10-$20 million project with only a committee of volunteers ? no matter how well qualified or well intentioned ? to oversee its completion.'"

the park inn is the last of the frank lloyd wright buildings, and has been the subject of quite the infighting among the elite of mason city.

what a shame. shame in that someone had to be on the receiving end of drug's evil grip. one has to wonder tho, in such a family-value-high-moral area of the country, how it could happen that one gets elected as district attorney, TWICE.

Texas prosecutor faces charges - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - February 07, 2005: " Mr. Roach, a Republican who first won election in 2000 with a strong anti-drug campaign, was arrested in a Gray County courtroom on Jan. 11 as several of his peers looked on in amazement.
After confiscating two handguns from the district attorney's briefcase, FBI agents converged on Mr. Roach's home, his office and an apartment rented by the district attorney's office. According to court documents, officials said they found 35 more guns, along with a cache of cocaine, methamphetamines, marijuana, scales and syringes. "

the smoke and mirrors of this administration's campaign has begun. from the LAT:

"It doesn't quite compute," said Isabel V. Sawhill, director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution think tank, who foresees a shortfall slightly larger in 2009 than now.

It is the 2004 deficit that Bush is promising to cut in half, but he's not starting with the actual 2004 deficit of $412 billion.

Instead, his benchmark is the projected $521-billion deficit that his Office of Management and Budget estimated a year ago, when the fiscal year was four months old. Using half of that figure, Bush's goal is to reach a deficit of $260.5 billion.

If Bush were to start with the actual 2004 figure, his goal would be a deficit of $206 billion — $54.5 billion more.

There are more twists. Bush proposes to cut the deficit in half not in dollars but as a share of the economy. If the economy grows, as is projected, then the deficit will decline as a share of the economy even if it does not shrink by a single dollar.

The 2004 deficit was 4.5% of the economy. So in fiscal 2009 it must be 2.2% or less. That is exactly the average share of the last 43 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Finally, the budget that the president will send to Congress will, like his past budgets, omit some major deficit-raising items.

It will, as Vice President Dick Cheney said on "Fox News Sunday," be "the tightest budget that has been submitted since we got here." It will hold the growth in domestic programs whose spending levels are set in annual appropriations bills to less than inflation.

But these programs, because they exclude defense and giant benefit programs such as Social Security, account for about $1 of every $5 the government spends.

Most of the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will not be included in the budget. Instead, it will be sent to Congress as a supplemental budget request for 2006, just as the administration recently announced an $80-billion supplemental request for the current fiscal year.

Nor will the cost of introducing private investment accounts to Social Security — $754 billion over the first 10 years alone — be found in the budget, according to administration officials.

That cost will be borrowed, Cheney said, calling the figure a "manageable amount" in terms of dealing with the deficit. He acknowledged that it would also be necessary to borrow "trillions more" after the first decade, but he argued that the private accounts eventually would greatly enhance Social Security recipients' retirement income.

On the tax side, the budget is not expected to show the effect of its proposal to curb the alternative minimum tax, which is likely to win congressional approval.

This tax, designed to hit wealthy individuals who shelter much of their income from taxes, has been snaring a growing number of taxpayers whose income has merely grown with inflation. Preventing the alternative minimum tax's reach from growing would add $44 billion to the deficit that today's budget will project for 2009, the CBO said.

Even if the administration succeeded in getting the actual 2009 deficit to half of its 2004 size, analysts at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities expect it to rocket back upward shortly thereafter. They point out that the first wave of the baby boom generation would reach the full retirement age of 66 in 2012, sending federal retirement and healthcare costs soaring.

"The 2.2% deficits won't be sustainable for long," predicted Richard Kogan, a senior fellow at the center.

The problem, watchdog groups say, is that the government's spending habits and penchant for cutting taxes do not match the administration's budget-restraint rhetoric.

"This administration has a schizophrenic fiscal policy," said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, which lobbies for smaller deficits. "It has a big-government spending policy and a small-government revenue policy."

and speaking of the budget and veterans.... i think i posted a short blurb from this article, but more needs to be noted:

In Michigan, for example, thousands of veterans are on waiting lists for medical services, and some reservists returning from Iraq say they have been unable to obtain the care they were promised. A veterans clinic in Pontiac, Mich., put a limit on new enrollment. Cutbacks at a veterans hospital in Altoona, Pa., are forcing some veterans to seek treatment elsewhere.

But Cynthia R. Church, a spokeswoman for the Department of Veterans Affairs, defended the administration's record. "Our budget increase from 2001 to 2005 for health care alone has been more than 40 percent," Ms. Church said. "President Bush has kept his commitment to veterans."

(snip)

Other budget details came to light over the weekend as well. Sifting through documents, Tobin L. Smith, a policy analyst at the Association of American Universities, which represents 60 large research universities, found a shift in priorities at the Pentagon.

"In the budget request for 2006," Mr. Smith said, "Defense Department spending for science and technology is significantly reduced, while the budget for development, testing and evaluation of major weapons systems increases."

one only has to know that health care costs between 2001 and 2005 have risen dramatically more than 40 percent. but this is how the administration will fool the American people.

and veterans, rightly so, get their own space in the WP. give a whole new meaning to supporting our troops.

The New York Times > Washington > Bush Budget Raises Drug Prices for Many Veterans: "President Bush's budget would more than double the co-payment charged to many veterans for prescription drugs and would require some to pay a new fee of $250 a year for the privilege of using government health care, administration officials said Sunday."

yes, it's still early yet, but we'll have to watch and see just how they fare up in the end with what they're saying now.

$2.5 Trillion Budget Plan Cuts Many Programs (washingtonpost.com): "On the domestic side, according to documents, the budget would consolidate 18 community development block grant programs into one Commerce Department program for a savings of $1.8 billion. It would slice law enforcement grants to states from $2.8 billion to $1.5 billion. And it would cut 48 education programs totaling $4.3 billion, including $2.2 billion for high school programs, mostly state grants for vocational education.

The budget would cut $440 million in Safe and Drug-Free School grants, $500 million in education technology state grants, $225 million for the Even Start literacy program, $280 million for Upward Bound programs for inner-city youths and a $150 million talent research program, according to the documents.

The budget includes no subsidy for Amtrak and would eliminate $20 million for the next generation of high-speed rail and $250 million for railroad rehabilitation. Several Energy Department programs would be eliminated, as would $100 million in grants for land and water conservation. The budget proposal would cut $94 million in grants for the Healthy Communities Access Program and phase out rural health grants, the documents said. Bush touted his commitment to such programs during his reelection campaign. The president would terminate the Community Food and Nutrition Program, and cut a migrant and seasonal farm worker training program. He would renew his effort to cut a $143 million program for the removal of severely distressed housing. "

bush's budget: it's like when someone spends all his money on clothes, then bitches about not having enough for food. only in this case, he eats out all the time with his poker buddies and leaves the wife & kids at home with bare cupboards. and why nobody is brave enough to make the comparison, isn't really hard to understand. they're all afraid of losing whatever was promised them if they drank the kool-aid.

an interesting factoid:

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Nearly half of all bankruptcy filings each year are a result of medical debt and illness. And about 70 percent of those who declared bankruptcy due to medical reasons had health insurance, a new Harvard University study has found. Those involved averaged $13,460 in out-of-pocket expenses."

it's not often i paste a entire editorial, but this one deserves shouting from the rooftops:

DesMoinesRegister.com: "One of the propaganda techniques intended to undermine public confidence in Social Security is to describe the Social Security trust funds as 'nothing but a bunch of IOUs.'

Well, duh. Name an investment that isn't 'just an IOU.'

Social Security currently collects more in payroll taxes than it pays out in benefits. As a result, a surplus of more than $1.4 trillion has accumulated. This surplus is invested in special U.S. treasury bonds and earns annual interest. According to AARP, Social Security earned $80 billion in interest from this invested surplus last year.
Those treasury bonds are what the Social Security detractors characterize as 'nothing but IOUs' - the implication being that the government won't make good on the bonds when the time comes to cash them in.

What nonsense. In more than 200 years, the U.S. government has never defaulted on its bonds. They're the safest investment in the world. If things ever get so bad that the United States even contemplates defaulting on its debt, the country will have a lot bigger worries than the health of Social Security.

Consider the alternatives. Retirement funds could be deposited in a bank, but certificates of deposit are 'nothing but IOUs' from the bank. They could be invested in corporate bonds, but those are 'nothing but IOUs' from the corporations.

They could be invested in the stock market, the preferred alternative of the Social Security detractors. But stocks don't even rise to the level of an IOU. A company's stock comes with no promises whatsoever. There is only the hope that the company will keep paying dividends and the stock will appreciate in value.

Those who want to privatize Social Security have a right to argue that investing in stocks would be better than the existing system. But they should do it without implying that U.S. treasury bonds are somehow unsafe. In effect, they're saying that the full faith and credit of the United States of America is no good, and that's just plain nutso."

if it can happen in iowa, then it can happen anywhere.

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Maybe that's what happened in the 1990s, when the Legislature slashed the state income tax amid rosy assurances that lower taxes on upper-income people would cause the Iowa economy to explode in growth. It didn't happen.

There were promises that the tax cuts would create tens of thousands of new jobs in Iowa and the cuts would pay for themselves by generating more state revenue. What followed was a loss of jobs and the state's worst fiscal crisis since the Depression.
Measured against the promises, the tax cuts of the '90s have to be one of the state's biggest policy flops of all time.

There is a contrary example from a couple of decades earlier. In the 1970s, the state income tax was increased to finance the newly devised school-aid formula. What followed was one of Iowa's most prosperous decades of modern times."

what a great line!

globegazette.com - North Iowa Opinion Stories: "Instead of citizens paying the EPA to do its job, big agribusiness is now paying the EPA not to do it.

--Chris Petersen, Clear Lake"

i know this guy. he's a down-to-earth man who supported howard dean last year.

YOU GO CHRIS!!

one just HAS to ask: where are these 690,000 men & women now?

VOA News - New South Korean Defense Paper Softens Description of North: "The document, released Friday, drops 10-year-old references to North Korea as the 'main enemy' of South Korea, instead describing the Communist state as a 'direct military threat.' The revisions to the White Paper, the first in four years, reflect South Korea's policy of seeking to engage the North peacefully.
At the same time, the document says the United States would commit 690,000 military personnel, supported by about 2,000 war planes should North Korea attack.
The paper says that commitment would require 70 percent of all U.S. Marines, half of the U.S. Air Force, and 40 percent of the U.S. Navy, plus thousands of Army troops, to defend South Korea."

HIP HIP HOOORAY!! HIP HIP HOOORAY!!! i can't begin to express how happy this makes me feel.

The New York Times > New York Region > Judge's Ruling Opens Window for Gay Marriage in New York City: "New York State judge in Manhattan ruled yesterday that a state law that effectively denied gay couples the right to marry violated the state Constitution, a decision that raised the possibility that the city would begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples as soon as next month. "

what makes signs of intelligent life on earth? letters like this:

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Regarding the debate over the 'Buster' cartoon: I do not know which is a greater mental-health concern: those who pursue an interest in pornography or those obsessed with looking for sexual symbolism and lifestyle agendas in any type of children's media.

Pornography is demeaning, destructive and dangerous. However, looking for sexual or lifestyle messages in animation - live-action or pop culture created for and directed at children - is not any healthier and could become an obsession. A person must consciously think about either subject.

Had it not been suggested, neither my children nor I ever thought Bert and Ernie, Tinkie-Winkie, SpongeBob or Buster were promoting hidden messages. Watch more than just one single episode of 'Postcards From Buster' and you will learn more about America and cultural diversity than from any formal classroom setting.

Fearing fictional characters have a permanent, negative psychological influence is ridiculous and insulting to children. For those of us over 40, did Bugs Bunny dressing in drag titillate us? Was Pepe Le Pew's behavior sexual harassment? Were we seduced into blowing up our friends when we watched Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote? Did Donald Duck have a secret message by wearing a shirt but not pants?

Please stop throwing dirt on innocent childhood characters.

-Steven C. Woolery,
Pella."

DesMoinesRegister.com: "As many letter writers have pointed out, the Iowa Code protects medical practitioners from frivolous lawsuits. As the Register points out, malpractice premiums are a small percentage of medical overhead.

Moreover, insurance companies have not reduced premiums where caps have been established by legislation.

It is revealing that John Abramson, M.D., writes in his book, 'Overdosed America, The Broken Promise of American Medicine,' that a 2002 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported, '59 percent of the experts who write the clinical guidelines that define good medical care (the standard to which doctors are often held in malpractice suits) have direct financial ties to the companies whose products are being evaluated.'

It seems the cards are already stacked in favor of the medical professionals who are vociferously seeking tort reform to further isolate responsibility and accountability.

-Steven R. Hull,
Clive."