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Ask For A Steak, End Up With A Sausage
“Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them being made.” -- Otto von Bismarck
Ain’t that the truth. And it’s never truer than it is at budget-bill time.
Appropriations bills, and for that matter any other kind of bills, are incredibly complicated documents by the time they ever come up for a vote. Even the simplest, most obvious proposal gets bogged down in subclauses and disquisitions and legal caveats and so on before it ever gets introduced, and then they all get even more weighted down with amendments and exceptions and corollary clauses and such before they ever reach the floor.
The bigger the bill, the more barnacles that it's encrusted with before it ever even leaves the dock. Every Senator and Congressman with an axe to grind or an agenda to pursue has to put his or her $.02 in, and back-door deals and quid-pro-quo's and lobbyist maneuverings make it such a mess that there's no way that any one bill can ever just be about any one thing by the time it finally comes up for a vote.
That's why it's equally specious to make oversimplified statements like "Congressman X voted against tax cuts for the poor" and "Representative Y voted to spend billions on selfish pork-barrel projects". The devil is in the details, and boy howdy are there ever a devilish bunch of details to deal with whenever we look at the legislative process. So let's see if we can't use a simpler example to address this topic instead:
Let's say that Joe and Jane Citizen have two kids, Jody and Jill Citizen. It's time for Jody and Jill to go back to school in the fall. They need all kinds of stuff for the new school year -- notebooks and pencils and backpacks, shoes and shirts and skirts, soccer balls and gymnastic outfits, you know the drill. That's a lot of stuff. How much is it going to cost, and who's going to pay for it, and how?
So Joe and Jane have to sit down and work out all the details before they can even start to shop for the kids' school needs. How much do they have to spend? They add up what's left in their paychecks every month after taxes, SSI, etc. They balance that number out against what it costs to pay the mortgage every month, the utilities, the car and health insurance, the groceries, etc. Then they can see what they have left to work with for the kids' back-to-school stuff.
So then Joe and Jane have to sit down and figure out what the kids' stuff is actually going to cost this year. The odds are pretty good that what they have to work with is less than what it'll cost to get the kids all the stuff they need, or at least all the stuff they want. This is when it starts getting messy, because the devil is in the details.
Joe and Jane both agree that to make this work, they'll have to cut expenses wherever they possibly can. So they forget about putting money into the kids' college fund again this year, because that's a laudable goal but they need to focus on what the kids need for school right here, right now. Some things are pretty much a given: books are books, backpacks are backpacks, and ya gotta have 'em, so that's that. But in the real world, shoes aren't always shoes, and other stuff isn't always a given.
So Joe says, “Well, I know that Jody has to have new shoes, but I don't think he really has to have the hundred-dollar sneakers he's asking for.” And then Jane says, “Well, I know that Jill's gymnastic classes aren't absolutely necessary, but they really make her happy and besides, the personal discipline she's learning in those gymnastic classes is one reason her grades went up last year.”
So Joe and Jane keep sitting down and they keep figuring it out until they come up with something that pretty much works, more or less. Jody does get his new shoes, but he doesn't get the hundred-dollar sneakers. Jill does get to take gymnastic classes again this year, but she won't get to go to computer camp next summer too because there's just not enough money to pay for both right now.
Jody gets the new glasses he definitely needs and Jill gets the braces her dentist says she needs. But Joe doesn't get the new glasses his eye doctor says he needs, because there's just not enough money left in the till to pay for both right now. And Jane skips lunches at the office to save money, and she works extra overtime to help pay for Jill's braces, even though that means she also has less time to spend helping Jill with her homework after gymnastics class.
And so it goes. You know the drill. It's a constant battle of give-and-take, of trading these means off against those ends, of balancing one set of needs against another set of needs and weighing all of them against these choices and those options.
Eventually it all gets done the way that eventually it all gets done. The kids get the stuff they get and they go back to school. And Jody bitches about how his parents don't care about him because they stuck him with these crummy ol' cheap sneakers. Jill's disappointed about computer camp, but at the same time she's happy because at least she gets to keep doing her gymnastics.
Meanwhile Joe gets eyestrain headaches and squints a lot, and Jane is exhausted by the time she gets home from work. And God only knows how they'll manage to pay for college when that comes around. But they both know that everything's a compromise and the devil's in the details and so life goes on somehow.
So how are you going to summarize all of that in 5-second sound bites and 2-sentence talking points? ... "Joe is anti-education because he voted against letting children go to computer camps" ... "Jane is a bad mother because she'd rather work than stay at home with her kids" ... "The economy's in trouble because people like Joe and Jane are spending money on non-essentials rather than putting it into private accounts for their future retirement" ... And so it goes.
You see what I mean here? You ask for a steak and you end up with a sausage instead. And remarks like “Senator Z voted against funding our troops and defending our country" are every bit as invalid as statements like "Joe is anti-education and Jane's a bad mom."
Everything's a compromise. The devil is in the details. And it's never that simple. Not in the real world, anyway.
Nice story, Rick.
I guess Joe could point out that he was for education before he was against it. But then they'd just call him a . . . well, you know.
Nice going Rick.
OT, but important too, does anyone here live in Fairfax or Prince William Counties? Then come ask Tom Davis about Social Security.
Fairfax City Hall 10:30 tomorrow morning
~~and it looks like Joe and Jane will also have to make room for Gran & Gramps, because their president has blown the healthcare budget on "other priorities"...are we headed back to the 1930's when many families were forced to live 3 generations under 1 roof, not because they want to, but because they have no other choice?
Bush administration wants in-home care for more elderly, disabled
By Tony Pugh, Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration believes it can improve services for Medicaid beneficiaries and help the program's shaky bottom line by caring for more elderly and disabled patients in their homes or through community-based programs.
continue~
http://tinyurl.com/5caj5
The Word from the American Construction Industry
WAR ON TERROR
Failing Grade for Port Security Funding Program 2/23/2005
By Tom Ichniowski
The Dept. of Homeland Security program to provide grants to ports around the country has a variety of flaws and has not measured up to its goal of tightening security, according to a new, critical report from the department's inspector general's office.
Only 21% of the $515 million in grants awarded to port authorities and companies with portside facilities through December 2003 actually had been spent as of last Sept. 30, says the IG report, released Feb. 16. Moreover, hundreds of projects got grants "despite dubious scores by its evaluators against key criteria," the report says. The IG report said that "the majority of projects have not been completed and the program has not yet achieved its intended results in the form of actual improvement to port security."
The study (available at www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/OIG_05-10_Jan05.pdf) also says that "the current design of the program compromises the program's ability to direct resources toward the nation's highest priorities," but a DHS official disputed that contention.
---------------------------------------SNIP-------------------------
http://enr.ecnext.com/free-scripts/comsite2.pl?page=enr_document&article=nebiar050223
Dominitrix?
Condoleezza Rice's Commanding Clothes
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived at the Wiesbaden Army Airfield on Wednesday dressed all in black. She was wearing a black skirt that hit just above the knee, and it was topped with a black coat that fell to mid-calf. The coat, with its seven gold buttons running down the front and its band collar, called to mind a Marine's dress uniform or the "save humanity" ensemble worn by Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix."
As Rice walked out to greet the troops, the coat blew open in a rather swashbuckling way to reveal the top of a pair of knee-high boots. The boots had a high, slender heel that is not particularly practical. But it is a popular silhouette because it tends to elongate and flatter the leg. In short, the boots are sexy.
Rice Will Go To London, not Middle East
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4827095,00.html
I'm tracking her.
I just listened to Canadian radio & heard a panel discussing their lavish (compared to ours) budget & their opposition to the missile defense shield.
Scott Ritter Says US Plans Attack on Iran in June
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/2295/2/
(He spoke in Olympia, WA)
New site (to me):
Alex Rodriguez - Political Director - Ohio Honest Elections Campaign
http://www.ohiohonestelections.org
Where was your VOICE when we needed it Mr. Powell ?
Powell criticises Iraq troop levels and rift with Europe
By Robin Gedye
(Filed: 26/02/2005)
Colin Powell, the former US secretary of state, has for the first time publicly criticised troops levels in Iraq and spoken of the rifts between himself and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, that undermined his role as architect of American foreign policy.
Mr Powell, in his first interview since resigning last November, also told The Telegraph of his "dismay" at the deterioration in relations between America and Europe and of his "disappointment" with France.
Colin Powell
Mr Powell: regrets fall-
out with Europe over Iraq
While holding back from blaming Mr Rumsfeld by name for the problems that eventually persuaded him to resign, Mr Powell showed that much of the innuendo and leaks surrounding his volatile relationship with the defence secretary had been well-founded.
more>
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/26/wpowell26.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/02/26/ixportaltop.html
NO SURRENDER !!!
~~on topic
Changes to be made to the Campaign Finance law? It gave birth to the "527's", which was used to hatch the swiftvets travesty among other things. Many influential non-profits are opposing the changes....
Nonprofits Fight Campaign Finance Plan
By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Nonprofit groups including the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters are opposing legislation that would place new restrictions on partisan interest groups that spend in congressional or presidential elections.
Acting as an alliance called the Coalition to Protect Independent Political Speech, the half-dozen groups sent an e-mail Friday urging other nonprofits to join them in writing letters to Congress against the proposal.
"It goes too far to root out a few problem groups," the alliance wrote. In addition to the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters, the coalition includes NARAL Pro-Choice America; OMB Watch, which bills itself as a watchdog group seeking greater government openness; and the liberal Alliance for Justice, which keeps an eye on judicial nominees, and People for the American Way.
The legislation, sponsored by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Marty Meehan, D-Mass., would place tax-exempt partisan groups known as 527s under the same strict fund-raising and spending limits that apply to political action committees.
continue~
http://tinyurl.com/58lop
As Rice walked out to greet the troops, the coat blew open in a rather swashbuckling way to reveal the top of a pair of knee-high boots. The boots had a high, slender heel that is not particularly practical. But it is a popular silhouette because it tends to elongate and flatter the leg. In short, the boots are sexy.
Posted by: DiAnne at February 25, 2005 09:41 PM
picture here:
http://www.overpressure.com/archives/drrice.html
See how it works?
-----
Feds In Charge of Access Fees to Public Lands; Some Cry Foul
WASHINGTON — The government now has permanent authority to charge access fees to public lands, because of a law quietly slipped into last year’s massive federal budget.
The law replaces the so-called Fee Demo program, a trial program that let the government collect fees at trailheads in national forests, grasslands and other public lands.
Activists are mobilizing to fight the move.
“We have all owned these lands in common for generations, and if we’re going to change the way we manage them, we ought to do it in public,” said Kitty Benzar of the Western Slope No-Fee Coalition.
[snip]
Activists are crying foul at the way the act became law. Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, introduced it last year, but it got stuck in a committee.
Regula then attached it as a rider to the massive budget bill that passed last December. That bill had to pass to fund the federal government, so representatives had no chance to vote on Regula’s proposal on its own merits. The budget bill is a popular vehicle for riders because Congress must pass it every year. Regula is vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the most powerful House committee.
Regula’s press secretary did not return two calls seeking comment.
Most of the affected lands are in the Western states. Some sites will remain free, such as the museums and monuments in Washington, D.C., and the Statue of Liberty.
[Full story here: http://tinyurl.com/3j42n]
give 'em a centimeter and they'll take a kilometer,
Otter
~~A fascinating interview with Bill Moyers:
"The mainstream media doesn’t give a damn. It wants the most flamboyant outspoken sensational Pat Robertson it can get."
Corporate Media, Coming of the Rapture, and the Culture of Fear: Coffee Talk with Bill Moyers
by Nick Welsh
Spend five minutes on the phone with Bill Moyers, dubbed by some “the conscience” of American journalism, and it’s abundantly obvious that the man is troubled, and profoundly pi**ed off; though it’s doubtful someone so imbued with good Southern manners would use such talk. Now 70, Moyers has spent most of the past 55 years hunting the truth behind his craft, a working journalist tracing the twisted paths of power for both newspapers and television. Embodying that rare combination of graciousness, dignity, and passion, Moyers has been audacious enough to tell “the truth behind the news,” rather than to report the “he-said-she-said” ping-pong that often passes for news. And the truth about the news business — and democracy — as Moyers sees, could not be more grim.
continue~~
http://www.independent.com/cover/Cover953.htm
Cost of the Bush European tour –in the billions?
Deutschland -
German Green Party parliamentary leader Isa Thomas is calling for a complete accounting of expenditures in Rheinland-Pfalz caused by the recent visit of President Bush. Apart from the obvious personnel expenditure for police costs, he is also seeking an accounting for non-personnel pubic expenditures as well as private economic losses.
Most schools, businesses, and factories were closed for at least one day. Elective surgeries were canceled at the University Klink, staff placed on standby, and one entire floor cleared in case of emergency. Other hospitals were also required to limit procedures.
As was typical of many retailers, one Mainz market vendor claimed a loss of 17,000 Euro for the day. The population of the metropolitan area is over 1.2 million.
See (Deutsch) http://rhein-zeitung.de/a/rlp/t/rzo130429.html
A spokesperson for the Rhein shipping industry claims the closure of barge traffic cost nearly 500,000,000 Euro.
Lufthansa may sue the German government over extra and unexpected flight cancellations caused by modified security measures and a tardy departure of the Bush motorcade. The amount is likely to be in the many millions. See post http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
In Mainz, very pragmatic city administrators are adding up the costs of everything from police pay, the welding of sewer covers, and providing portable toilets.
They expect a total within a few days - “in six digits” - which will be submitted to the Office of the Federal Chancellor. It’s unclear if any compensation will be forthcoming. Retailers and workers are not likely to be compensated.
See (Deutsch) http://www.swr.de/nachrichten/rp/mainz/index.html#meldu...
It is also unclear if the American administration will be forced into an accurate accounting of its own costs.
It is difficult to think of another Presidential visit on this scale: a large entourage, hundreds of vehicles, 1,000 special agents and (according to one Berlin reporter) several thousand undercover agents, 1000 extra police in Brussels, weeks of coordination with European officials, and a focused surveillance of its citizens and foreign nationals.
DiAnne,
That story is not about to close up. The Green are very powerful in Germany, and we never saw such paranoaic measures taken all over the (empty) places Bush visited.
We are not used to it and still wonder what is wrong with this guy? Does he feel so unsecure in the real world?
I think the problem is with your secret services as well. I remember of walking on an empty street some years in Paris by Montparnasse. No traffic, no buses, nothing, not even cops; and suddenly I saw a motorcade coming at full speed from nowhere with police cars opening the way all sirens out... A big black armoured car passed, the noise stopped, the streets ramained empty, and I still couldn't fancy why.
That was Hillary Clinton coming back from an informal trip in Corrèze, where she had met with madame Chirac, and I only got to understand when watching the 8 pm news!
Why such a Hollywoodian security?
I have nothing against Hillary, but at the big show that takes place each time an American president or official gets overseas. We don't make so much fuss for the other leaders, and they don't get killed or attacked.
Why do they impose such measures?
Andre- If the streets were closed to the public, how is it that you were walking down them? I'm not being sarcastic- I'm just wondering.
"The idea that the Iraq war may have created a threat that did not exist before the invasion runs counter to the White House-Pentagon orthodoxy that beating the terrorists in Iraq may spare us from having to fight them on our home soil." [Daniel Schorr]
NDI - it's all about seizing power
By Daniel Schorr
President Bush made an interesting remark when he announced the appointment of John Negroponte as NDI - National Director of Intelligence. He said that Ambassador Negroponte "understands the power centers of Washington."
What the 9/11 commission had in mind when it recommended a superchief of intelligence was someone who understands power centers abroad and can coordinate the intelligence community's understanding of the threat that the United States faces.
But maybe the president had it right. Maybe the NDI's first job is to get the traditional intelligence power centers to work in harness. Nothing revealed the need for a strong hand at the tiller more than the unseemly spectacle that the intelligence community exhibited on Capitol Hill the day before the Negroponte appointment.
Before the Senate Intelligence Committee, CIA Director Porter Goss warned that "Islamic extremists are exploiting the Iraqi conflict to recruit new anti-US jihadists," some of whom will scatter to build terror cells around the world.
The idea that the Iraq war may have created a threat that did not exist before the invasion runs counter to the White House-Pentagon orthodoxy that beating the terrorists in Iraq may spare us from having to fight them on our home soil.
Perhaps that was why Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, appearing before a House committee on the same day, displayed unusual testiness. Asked how many insurgents there are in Iraq, he said, "I'm not going to give you a number" because "it's not my business to do intelligence work." Asked how long the war might last, he said, "There's never been a war that was predictable as to length."
But Vice Admiral Lowell Jacoby, director of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, was more cooperative in an appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee. He said the Iraq insurgency has grown "in size and complexity over the past year," and is now mounting an average of 60 attacks a day, up from 25 last year.
Negroponte has his work cut out for him in getting the disparate elements of his domain to stop acting like competitive power centers. Especially the power center named Donald Rumsfeld, who has expressed concerns about outside control of the Pentagon's intelligence budget - which represents 80 percent of the $40 billion total budgeted for intelligence.
• Daniel Schorr is the senior news analyst at National Public Radio.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0225/p09s02-cods.html
Two Murders and a Lie
By Reporters Without Borders
Thursday 15 January 2004
An investigation of the US Army's firing at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on 8 April 2003.
Reporters Without Borders called today for the reopening of the enquiry into who was really responsible for the US Army's "criminal negligence" in shooting at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on 8 April 2003 and causing the death of two journalists - Ukrainian cameramen Taras Protsyuk (of Reuters news agency) and Spaniard José Couso (of the Spanish TV station Telecinco).
The call came in a report of the press freedom organisation's own in-depth investigation of the incident, which gathered evidence from journalists in the hotel at the time, from others "embedded" with US Army units and from the US military soldiers and officers directly involved.
The report said US officials at first lied about what happened and then, in an official statement four months later, exonerated the US Army from any mistake or error of judgement. The report provides only some of the truth about the incident, which needs to be further investigated to establish exactly who was responsible.
Pentagon spokespersons said right from the start that an M1 Abrams tank opened fire on the hotel in legitimate self-defence in response to "enemy fire" coming from the hotel or the area around it. This line was maintained and emphasised at the highest official level in the days that followed.
Sgt. Shawn Gibson, the 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) tank gunner who fired the fatal shot, and his immediate superior, Capt. Philip Wolford, who authorised it, denied they had fired because of shooting from the hotel. They said the 4-64 Armor Company of the 3ID's 2nd Brigade, which was stationed on the Al-Jumhuriya Bridge soon after US troops entered Baghdad, was in fact seeking to neutralise an Iraqi "spotter" monitoring and reporting on US military activity. Some of this data caused the US Army to change its line slightly in its official report released on 12 August 2003. It did not speak of direct shooting but of an "enemy hunter/killer team" which required a response in legitimate self-defence. This too was a lie - by omission.
more>
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/022505A.shtml
I remember watching the live cam on the internet that day. I was watching and the cam was on the tanker, and of course the cam was located at that hotel. There were no sounds of gunshots coming from that hotel.
NO SURRENDER !!!
Haste Makes Waste !!!
Bush Urges Haste on Social Security Reform
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 26, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Back from stroking U.S. allies in Europe, President Bush now is lobbying a home-front target: wary lawmakers returning from a long congressional break, where they heard their constituents' concerns about Social Security overhaul. The lawmakers got an earful from voters back home. Now, Bush wants them to listen to him.
``Every year we wait to address this problem will make any eventual solution more painful and drastic, and we will saddle our children and grandchildren with an ever-greater burden,'' he said Saturday. ``We need to act now to fix Social Security permanently.''
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush.html
Why did he wait 4 years and until after re-election if it was so urgent ?
NO SURRENDER !!!
KerryDem
I used to watch that webcam too and peruse IndyMedia, so of course I know that the Saddam statue toppling was staged - a tiny area of a large square was roped off & the thing was pulled down by the military, with some "actors" around it. (See the illustration)
http://media.consumercide.com/saddamstatue.html
I'm also reading Anne Garrels book written about those times. She (NPR) & Adam Davidson (APR) were the only reporters I remotely trusted from the front & he's a business reporter!
Linda Enterkin
I can't answer for Paris but for security here for Bush, Kerry, Cheney, etc etc they only close certain places off.
You will see the lines of police motorcycles, the snipers on buildings, etc. and you can get close but you do not cross the police line.
I was on the "wrong side" during the WTO but never got caught.
``Every year we wait to address this problem will make any eventual solution more painful and drastic, and we will saddle our children and grandchildren with an ever-greater burden,'' he said Saturday. ``We need to act now to fix Social Security permanently.''
Posted by: KerryDem at February 26, 2005 11:50 AM
Hey Hopalong George, that is a really REALLY relevant question. How come in 4 years you have saddled our children and grandchildren with debt and deficits as far as the enlightened eye can see? How come you have saddled our children and grandchildren with a horrifically distasteful foreign policy doctrine that will take generations to put right?
For a prep school cheerleader from Connecticut with a staged ranch facade in Texas and a phony accent, you sure do know a lot about saddles.
Gimme an "F"....
I have a report that Powell also went on American tv with this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/26/wpowell26.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/02/26/ixportaltop.html
Powell criticises Iraq troop levels and rift with Europe
Colin Powell, the former US secretary of state, has for the first time publicly criticised troops levels in Iraq and spoken of the rifts between himself and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, that undermined his role as architect of American foreign policy.
Mr Powell, in his first interview since resigning last November , also told The Telegraph of his "dismay" at the deterioration in relations between America and Europe and of his "disappointment" with France.
More at link...
Justice Department Opposes Bid to Revive Sibel Edmonds Case
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/022605Y.shtml
Marc Trager
Give me a U
Linda,
Because I just got out from a building in an area where I had an appointment for 2 hours, without knowing it had been locked out in the meantime, and found myself alone on the sidewalk...
Remember, we don't have blocks and linear streets in Paris.
The cops were further to keep the street closed and I was in the middle wondering what was going on....
That's it.
Gimme a C
~~the president in bubbleland...
In reflecting back on the "cleared streets" in Europe for Bu$h's trip, and stories of all the protestors that were kept far enough away from Bu$hco that he never encountered them, and thinking about all the staged "town hall" audiences and staged campaign stops here, where only the bu$h-loyals were allowed in, and then the so-called "press conferences" with softball questions & questionees, and remembering that over-staged, hyper military parade on inauguration day.......it really does all resemble something out of the movies, scripts and all....
It has occured to me and probably to others as well, that possibly the last time George Bu$h had to leave his protected bubble in public long enough to answer a challenge from an articulate person with a real grasp of reality was in October during 3 televised debates. George Bu$h has not had to face a reality based question before the American people since John Kerry stood up, took the challenge and made Bu$h look like the man-in-the-bubble he really is. We have a totally staged president with a well managed PR machine...period....so far, the "teflon" has protected Bu$h in his bubble...but even teflon wears out ....eventually....but how much more damage can the policies of Bu$hco and the far-rightwing cause to the fabric of America before that happens?
This is no time to hide our light under a bushel. Speak up to your neighbors, friends, work to help restore democracy at your community level.
This is my new favorite article to print and share:
Is This Your Ownership Society?
by Holly Sklar
http://tinyurl.com/4kly5
~marc, DiAnne, here's your C
Gimme a K
2.4 Million Veterans Will Pay New Fee
HeraldNet
February 26, 2005
Republican majorities on the House and Senate veterans' affairs committees have voted to impose an enrollment fee of at least $230 a year on 2.4 million veterans - one of every three now eligible for Veterans Affairs Administration health care.
Those targeted are in priority categories 7 and 8, meaning they are neither poor nor suffering from service-connected disabilities. Half of the 2.4 million used the VA health system last year.
The Bush administration proposed the enrollment fee to hold down costs. The VA committees rejected another Bush proposal to raise co-payments on VA-filled prescriptions for these same priority 7 and 8 veterans.
more>
http://www.military.com/Content/Printer_Friendly_Version/1,11491,,00.html?str_filename=FL%5Ffee%5F022605&passfile=FL%5Ffee%5F022605&page_url=%2FNewsContent%2F0%2C13319%2CFL%5Ffee%5F022605%2C00%2Ehtml
Support our Troops, what a hypocrisy.
NO SURRENDER !!!
Oh by the way my husband is a Category 8.
NO SURRENDER !!!
One more thing, when my husband signed that contract and served 20 years, he was promised so much and those promises keep on being broken. He thought we would have a good retirement, he planned, well poof on that, next thing you know, they'll find out a way to lower his retirement checks, and they have already hit on medical, he is put on the bottom of the list and me as a dependant, heck the list disappears.
Can you tell I'm a bit perturbed.
NO SURRENDER !!!
Gimme a Y...
Why? Because we loathe you.
Hey, let's hear it for another fine role model... Mama's, don't let your babies bulk up to be cowboys.
Schwarzenegger: No steroid regrets
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has acknowledged using steroids during his years as a champion body builder, said he doesn't regret using the performance-enhancing drugs.
Marc,
BOY, does THAT explain a lot...
KerryDem,
I hear you--and I am sorry to hear that your husband (and you, of course) falls under the F-U Dept.
How do the other military families in your area feel about this administration now?
The Captain has turned on the "Fasten Seat belts" sign... things could get bumpy...
Yemen upholds 1 death verdict in USS Cole blast
Appeals court reduces sentence of another defendant to 15 years
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:33 a.m. ET Feb. 26, 2005
SAN’A, Yemen - A Yemeni appeals court on Saturday upheld the death sentence against a militant convicted in the 2000 al-Qaida bombing of the USS Cole and reduced a death sentence to 15 years in prison against another defendant.
The death sentence was upheld against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi suspected of being an associate of Osama bin Laden.
The court overturned a death sentence against Yemeni militant Jamal al-Badawi, sentencing him instead to 15 years in jail.
“This is an un-Islamic and illegal sentence,” al-Badawi shouted from inside the defendant’s cage.