Cheney Remark Rankles Pelosi - washingtonpost.com

Cheney better be careful with this. Right now he looks like he's picking on a woman. Fair or not, it's a dangerous path for a man such as he. His disconnect is also interesting. Maybe Condi the Kremlinologist can help us look into what's going on in the Veep office, but something weird is afoot.

Ruth Marcus - Bush's Stealth Tax Increase - washingtonpost.com

That leaves the middle class, the better-off and corporations to divvy up the tab. In that context, does it really make sense to permanently repeal the estate tax? To leave in place lower tax rates for the richest Americans? To continue to tax capital gains and dividends at far lower rates than ordinary income? These are the choices that the Bush budget entails, even if it fails, deliberately, to spell them out.

These questions are what Americans need to ask their leaders. There are going to be expenses in government and people like their military and other government services. Do you want the middle-class to pay or maybe those that can most afford it (and don't care as much since they have passed onto the great beyond) should?

Problems Stall Pentagon's New Fighting Vehicle - washingtonpost.com

"We were disappointed. We weren't shocked," program manager Col. John Bryant said.

Another Marine Corps weapons system failure. I'm wondering if the problem with this kind of development rests with the way the Pentagon is set up. I'm noticing my job too. The up or out promotion system costs a lot money when it comes to systems like this. I'd bet that in the last 11 years that there have been as many "project managers" and we, the Pentagon, has lost about 5 years in just getting everyone "up to speed" on this stuff. When the program started Col. Bryant was probably a captain, at best, doing maneuvers in North Carolina. Civilians are reduced to secondary roles and rarely do you have a guy last more than 2 years on something. This inefficiency has got to be replaced by a better system.