Collective Sigh

LEXINGTON, Ky. — President Bush has visited this city just once, but his imprint is everywhere.

His impact is evident in Bill Langley's living room, where there's a shrine to the son who died in Iraq.

It's in the sagging public-housing projects whose redevelopment was recently delayed by the rejection of a $20 million federal grant request.

Money from his budget will soon be used to help clean up a stagnant pond at Gainesway Park so kids in a low-income neighborhood can get fishing lessons from senior citizens.

Police cruisers have new computers thanks to homeland security funds, but community development director Paula King has seen four years of "decreases in federal funding for social service programs ... and really stiff competition" for everything else.

Sometimes a president's legacy is not apparent until after he leaves the White House. However, Bush's presidency has been marked by dramatic events such as the Sept. 11 attacks and the 2001 recession and his aggressive responses: war with Iraq, deep tax cuts, new emphasis on homeland security. Here and across the nation, he has altered budget priorities, the way public schools are run and how people think about politics and religion.

Lexington is surrounded by vast horse farms with barns that are almost as lavish as the mansions overlooking acres of bluegrass and miles of white fences. It is home to the University of Kentucky (UK), famous for its basketball champions. Still, by most measures, it's very much like the rest of America. The changes that have occurred here mirror the effects of Bush's tenure in communities everywhere.

People here chose Bush over Democrat Al Gore in 2000. Last year they picked Bush over John Kerry. They shop at giant discount stores. Many of them go to church every Sunday — and Wednesday evenings, too. After work, they clog Broadway and Man O' War Boulevard as they head to their kids' soccer games or a Lexington Legends minor-league baseball game.

Interviews with more than three dozen residents and government officials over five days found that people admire Bush's values, but they're nervous about the economy and about how education policies affect their kids. They have strong feelings about him and his impact on their lives.

Sharon Purcell was drawn to Bush because of his blend of faith and politics.

"I look at his faith background and his values, and I feel he puts people's feelings first in any situation," says the bank supervisor, 47.

Because of him, she says, her future votes will always be based on candidates' morality and values.

David Baseheart, 61, owner of a small shop that sells horse gear, worries about criticizing a president whose openness about his faith has made him popular here. "They think it's un-American to say anything bad about Bush," he says. "Religion and politics have become too mixed, and that's not healthy."

College student Amanda McMullin, 28, has her own story about Bush's impact on her life. A senior who's majoring in political science at UK, she got a $1,000 federal Pell Grant last spring but was denied when she applied again. She had been counting on the money to pay for books. Budget-driven changes in the formula used to factor state and local taxes into students' need led to an increase in her household income that made her ineligible.

Asked if she blamed Bush when her application was denied, she says, "I'm sure that came out of my mouth." She's been working more overtime as a hospital admissions clerk to make up the difference.

Money is always tight these days; she and her fiancé, fellow student Eddie Raymond, 28, paid $1 each for bleacher seats at a Legends game one recent evening.

Part of Bush's legacy here is less tangible than dollars, buildings or grant formulas. His boldest decisions — to go to war and take an uncompromising stance on terrorism — have touched off a passionate national debate that's reflected here.

People here are proud of U.S. troops, and many of them adorn the rear bumpers of their cars with stickers shaped like yellow ribbons that say so. Still, when they're asked how they feel about Bush, the first thing many people bring up is the war with Iraq. Those who support it are adamant, and so are opponents. Every Thursday, a small group of anti-war protesters gathers on a downtown corner.

Jack Keck, 58, a clerk at Dan's Discount Jewelry & Pawn, a pawn shop on Versailles Road, thinks his neighbors' feelings about Bush are complicated. A lanky Vietnam veteran who has a son in the Navy and another in the Army, he says people here "agree with Bush on social issues, perhaps — this is a pretty conservative place."

As Keck talks, a steady stream of people come into the shop with stereos and jewelry to pawn.

"Things certainly haven't improved in the last four years," he says. "Inflation keeps moving but wages haven't. Times are tough."

Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, said on the CNN program "Late Edition" that the committee was "going to go into quite a series of hearings in regard to cover." The practice of intelligence cover has come under scrutiny during the investigation of the disclosure of the C.I.A. employment of Valerie Wilson, who had worked under cover for the agency for 18 years before being publicly identified as a C.I.A. operative in 2003."

Manualism is the art of producing music by squeezing one's hands together. It takes many years of practice and even then is still quite difficult to control. It may be one of the hardest instruments in the world to play. The number of people who are performing manualism on stage is extremely few.

AP: Bush said in June 2004 that he would fire anyone in his administration shown to have leaked information that exposed the identity of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame. On Monday, however, he added the qualifier that it would have be shown that a crime was committed.

U.S. needs exit plan for Iraq

Here's what two N.C. Republicans want President Bush to do

A letter from U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, a Greensboro Republican:

My good friend and colleague, Rep. Walter Jones, has been taking heat from some for his principled and heartfelt stance against further U.S. involvement in the war in Iraq. Since I have expressed many of the same sentiments, I wanted to share a few thoughts.

Since late last year, I have been increasingly vocal about the need to discuss a timely withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. It is my belief that it was appropriate to dispatch troops to remove Saddam Hussein from power since it was obvious that the United Nations had no intention of doing so. I have said all along that I think our entry strategy into Iraq was brilliantly planned and executed, but I have yet to discern a similar exit strategy. I don't think we have one, and no one in official Washington has yet to spell one out to my satisfaction.

Walter and I are becoming increasingly frustrated by the daily loss of American lives, along with the enormous cost to the American taxpayers, in an operation that should be taken over by Iraqi citizens. Walter has been criticized by some for sponsoring legislation (H.J. Res. 55) that begins the effort of reducing U.S. troop involvement. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, H.J. Res. 55 "requires the president to establish a plan for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, but does not appear to impose a strict timetable for its implementation. If the bill becomes law, the president could interpret it as making the withdrawal contingent on the success of Iraq's transition to democracy, and leaving much to the discretion of the executive branch."

Walter is not trying to micromanage the war or tie the president's hands, but wants to foster an immediate dialogue on an effort to reduce U.S. involvement in Iraq. No less a conservative than William F. Buckley has written, "The day has come, and the advent of that day has to be heralded, when we say that our part of the job is done as well as it can be done, given the limitation on our will and our strength. It is an Iraqi responsibility to move on to wherever Iraq intends to go."

To that I can only say Amen, brothers Walter and Bill.

Adoption firm: No Catholics

A local Christian adoption agency that receives funds from the sale of Mississippi's Choose Life specialty car tags will not consider Catholics as adoptive parents.

"It has been our understanding that Catholicism does not agree with our Statement of Faith," wrote Bethany Christian Services director Karen Stewart in a July 8 letter to Sandy and Robert Stedman, a Catholic couple in Jackson seeking to adopt. "Our practice to not accept applications from Catholics was an effort to be good stewards of an adoptive applicant's time, money and emotional energy."

A former CIA covert agent who supervised Mrs. Plame early in her career yesterday took issue with her identification as an "undercover agent," saying that she worked for more than five years at the agency's headquarters in Langley and that most of her neighbors and friends knew that she was a CIA employee.

"She made no bones about the fact that she was an agency employee and her husband was a diplomat," Fred Rustmann, a covert agent from 1966 to 1990, told The Washington Times.

Today: Bush visit will block traffic

President to visit Gaston, tour mill, talk jobs

President Bush comes to textile country today to promote a new trade agreement in a region ravaged by plant closings. A guide to the president's visit:

The Trip

Air Force One will arrive in Charlotte around lunchtime (exact details are restricted by the White House for security reasons). Bush's motorcade will whisk him to Belmont for a mill tour -- the first stop ever in town by a sitting prez -- then he'll speak at Gaston College. (Expect road closings and traffic backups along the route.)

Want to see Bush? You're out of luck. Tickets have been given out.

The Issue

Bush is visiting to seek support for the Central America Free Trade Agreement, known as CAFTA.

Supporters say the deal makes it easier for U.S. companies to compete against China, and will help shore up democracy and prosperity in the Western Hemisphere. Critics say CAFTA will encourage textile firms to send more operations and jobs to Latin America.

The Politics

The treaty has been approved by the Senate (from the Carolinas, only Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., voted no) and a decision is expected soon in the House, where it's a close vote.

U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, a Charlotte Republican who represents part of Gaston County, backs it and will fly down with Bush. But, according to a survey released this week, she's the only House member in the Carolinas who does.

A suicide car bomber sped up to American soldiers distributing candy to children and detonated his explosives Wednesday, killing up to 27 other people, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. One U.S. soldier and about a dozen children were among the dead.

Captain Miller: Caparzo, get that kid back up there!
Private Caparzo: Captain, the decent thing to do would be take her over to the next town.
Captain Miller: We're not here to do the decent thing, we're here to follow fucking orders!

****

Captain Miller: [to the squad while pointing at Caparzo's dead body] THIS is why we don't pick up children!

One element of the pushback is that Rove didn’t technically leak Valerie Plame Wilson’s name, he only said “Wilson’s wife.”

But as far as the Intelligence Identities Protection Act is concerned, it’s not the name that matters. It’s the identity.

Washington, D.C.: What odds would you give at this point that this will lead to Rove's firing?

Dana Milbank: My predictions are often comically off, but here goes: This is Karl Rove's town, and the rest of us -- President Bush included -- are just living in it.

The Army's recent call-up of 5,600 soldiers from the Individual Ready Reserve – former active duty soldiers now in reserve status and subject to recall – further emphasizes the demands the Bush administration's poor planning has placed on our nation's most important resource – our troops. These soldiers, who have already completed their active duty enlistment but are within eight years of when they entered the military, must now leave their jobs and families behind and mobilize for active duty.

Week one is reserved for administrative in-processing. Soldiers are given their new ID cards and dog tags, receive cursory physical and dental examinations and immunizations, and fill out the reams of paperwork required to make sure the newly-minted soldiers will receive their pay, allowances and government insurance.

"And to make sure we identify to who we want our body to be sent to if we are killed," the IRR trainee added. "They actually said that in the event we are killed in action, 'where do we send your remains,' " he exclaimed. "It was great for morale."

"There is a lot of 'Hurry up and wait,' standing in line, and basically hanging around," the sergeant continued. "Some of the soldiers immediately go to sick call for a variety of reasons and we never see much of them again. We just mark in their training blocks. Everybody passes."

By week two, the soldiers have completed their administrative in-processing and are ready for training. However this is composed primarily of classroom lectures on subjects such as first aid – stopping the bleeding, dealing with sucking chest wounds. There are also lectures about common threats they will encounter such as IEDs, as well as sessions on learning Iraqi customs.

When the troops do go outdoors it is mostly for one-half mile runs to get all the out-of-shape troops back into battle-ready condition.

What the soldiers don't experience is most revealing, the sergeant said. There are no forced marches, no conditioning exercises, no live fire demonstrations, no fire-and-maneuver exercises, and no field exercises to test out the theories offered via PowerPoint.

(snip)

The Army says the IRR soldiers with infantry military occupational specialties will have an additional two weeks of specialized training at Fort Benning following CRC to bring them up to snuff before they head off to either directly to Iraq or Afghanistan or to a unit preparing for deployment.

One soldier who attended training last week said they arrived at the training site at nearly 0800 and were taken to an IED course where simulated explosive devices were hidden in a variety of locations along training "lanes." The training consisted of walking down the lanes being shown what to look for. They were also supposed to practice probing for land mines but that was cancelled when the instructor announced they had already done that in basic training. By lunch they were back in the barracks to spend the rest of the day working on "building maintenance."

Ditto for the M-203 range where each soldier fired just two grenades; the M-16 range, where they fired approximately 50 rounds each; the M-249 range where they fired about 25 rounds each, and the pistol range where they emptied a magazine or two at paper targets. Then it was back to the barracks for a long lunch and either barracks maintenance, physical training, PowerPoint classes – or more often than not, simply "hanging around" waiting for whatever comes next.

The fourth week is dedicated to out-processing, with a morning run and a few more classroom lectures and training exercises to round out the course. Then, at least according the training schedule and training forms, the reservists are deemed almost ready for war, the sergeant said.

The sergeant added in a tone of disgust that despite the brevity of the training, many soldiers still miss some or most of it because they are spending most of their time at Benning trying to get out of the Army. The trainee agreed that some of the IRR replacements spent their entire time at CRC exploring ways to be discharged.

The IRR soldiers are apparently well aware that the Army doesn't want to be burdened with anyone who has a physical malady that will ultimately make the service responsible for their care if they are retained. Therefore, the con artists, the lame and lazy and reluctant have found a possible way out and try and take it. Back and neck problems are popular. So are feet issues and psychological roadblocks. And, if they can't talk their way out, they exit with the rest of the class anyway because all their training blocks have been neatly checked off whether or not they actually attend the training, the sergeant said.

There’d obviously be some terrorists even if we weren’t in Iraq.

But I believe there are many more terrorists because we are in Iraq.

It’s enough of a motivator that people are willing to go and risk their lives or lose their lives.

People who would otherwise just be sitting around in mosques somewhere complaining about all of this, because we are occupying Iraq still, are willing to go out and fight.

We have to leave at a responsible pace.

But we have to realize that a lot of fighting that goes on there, a lot of the dying that goes on there, goes on because we’re there.

And whenever we leave, there’s going to be some degree of chaos.

The real analytical question is: is the difference in chaos, post-withdrawal, going to be substantially different if we leave next year, or five years from now?

And is that difference in chaos, post-withdrawal, worth the price that we’re going to pay for it?

Social Security Administration Has No Plans to Commemorate 70th Anniversary

When Social Security celebrated its 60th birthday in 1995, the Social Security Administration (SSA) invited the public to join a nationwide celebration. Disseminating a wealth of information about Social Security programs in keeping with the theme, "Social Security: We're Here for Your Benefit," the government conducted events nationwide to commemorate the day when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. Celebrations ranged from Yankee Stadium to historical and public education exhibits.

As Social Security approaches its 70th birthday on August 14, the SSA has no such plans to publicize the event. In a letter to SSA Commissioner JoAnne Barnhart, the American Federation of Government Employees asked her to explain the "decision to ignore this momentous occasion." According to internal White House memos reported by The New York Times in January, the Bush administration would use the agency to push out a message of Social Security's purported financial crisis through speeches, seminars, public events, radio, television and newspapers to the objections of many of its employees. Andrew Biggs, associate commissioner for retirement policy at the Social Security Administration, has appeared at President Bush's campaign-style events to promote privatization.

"People talk about 'Well, do you think God is blessing America or judging America?' Well, I think God is doing both right now," the SBC leader says, "and part of the judgment of God on America is abortion. We have a Social Security crisis because of abortion. If it weren't for abortion, we'd have 41 or 42 million more Americans working. They wouldn't have been aborted [if abortion were not legal], and they would be contributing to Social Security."

(Dr. Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention)

If Newsweek's report is accurate, Karl Rove is more morally repugnant and more anti-American than Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, after all, has no affiliation with, and therefore no presumed loyalty to, the United States. Rove, on the other hand, is a U.S. citizen and, as deputy White House chief of staff, a high-ranking official of the U.S. government sworn to uphold and defend our nation, its laws and its interests. Yet he sold out America just to get even with Joe Wilson.

Osama bin Laden, conversely, is loyal to his cause. He has never exposed an Al Qaeda agent's identity to the media.

But Senator Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican who sits on the Judiciary Committee as well, said the push for such detailed positions was highly objectionable and suggested that Democrats might be forming a strategy of trying to derail a nomination on the ground of withholding information.

"You cannot ask a judge to prejudge a specific matter," Mr. Sessions said. He pointed to other cases in which Democrats had raised objections to Bush administration nominees in part on the ground that information was being withheld, including the nomination of John R. Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations. "If the Democrats are pushing that, then they are trying to create an issue," he said.

Army enlistments down, re-upping on track

FORT BRAGG, N.C. -- Sgt. Jonathan Jacobs joined the Army to get away from his part-time jobs as a telemarketer and a cargo handler. He ended up in Iraq, but that didn't stop the 24-year-old 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper from signing up in March for another hitch, even though that could mean another tour in the Middle East.

He has a newborn son and says the Army offers him a career as a communication specialist and his family a secure future.

At a time when the Iraq war has made it tougher for the Army to recruit new members of its all-volunteer force, there's no hesitation to re-enlist among soldiers like Jacobs and other members of the Army's elite airborne units.

"The Army gives you a chance to see life,'' said Jacobs, of Bay Shore, N.Y. "You're secure. You have food. You have shelter. You have a paycheck.''

Even though the Army appears likely to miss its goal of recruiting 80,000 new soldiers this year, it's ahead of the pace needed to reach its goal of convincing 64,162 soldiers, from privates to top sergeants, to re-enlist by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

Through the end of May, 45,333 soldiers had re-enlisted, said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon. That's 70 percent of the Army's full-year goal.

Nearly 11,000 soldiers from the elite 18th Airborne Corps, which includes four of the Army's 10 active divisions, have "re-upped'' this year. That's about 86 percent of the corps' full-year goal, said the corps commander, Maj. Gen. Virgil Packett.

"The 18th Airborne Corps is carrying the Army right now in retention,'' Packett said.

And leading the corps is the 82nd Airborne, which has reached 97 percent of its annual goal, even though it has deployed regularly to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 82nd's paratroopers are "a special cut of American society,'' Packett said. "It takes a cut of a different person to jump out of an airplane.''

Staff Sgt. Daniel Metzdorf decided to re-enlist even though a roadside bomb blew off part of his right leg last year while he was in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne.

"It's my life,'' said Metzdorf, 28, of Altamonte Springs, Fla., who uses an artificial leg and still must requalify as a paratrooper to remain with the division. "It's where I need to be.''

Metzdorf was in the crowd last week when President Bush spoke at Fort Bragg, refusing to set a specific timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

"I thank those of you who have re-enlisted in an hour when your country needs you,'' Bush told the audience of 700 soldiers and airmen.

Many of the military personnel said they were glad Bush made that point.

The president's comments "made me proud of what I am doing,'' said Pfc. Reese Combs, a 19-year-old paratrooper from Tampa, Fla. "It keeps me motivated.''

To be sure, there are soldiers who choose not to re-enlist. Some even try to get out of their original service commitments, said Chuck Fager, director of Quaker House in nearby Fayetteville, whose organization counsels unhappy members of the military.

Before the Iraq war started in March 2003, Quaker House's record for calls in a year was 3,128 in 2001. It took nearly 6,000 calls last year.

"People not wanting to go to Iraq was a very common concern,'' Fager said.

That attitude isn't shared by many of the paratroopers of Fort Bragg, even among those who have not yet served in the Middle East.

Spc. Daniel Torres, 28, plans to re-enlist later this year, calling life in the Army more stable that when he worked all hours as a materials handler for a biopharmaceutical firm.

"I know I want to re-enlist,'' said Torres, a married father of two from East Brunswick, N.J. "It's a better lifestyle. I'm comfortable.''

A contingent of conservatives talk radio hosts is headed to Iraq this month on a mission to report "the truth" about the war: American troops are winning, despite headlines to the contrary.

The "Truth Tour" has been pulled together by the conservative Web cast radio group Rightalk.com and Move America Forward, a non-profit conservative group backed by a Republican-linked public relations firm in California.

"The reason why we are doing it is we are sick and tired of seeing and hearing headlines by the mainstream media about our defeat in Iraq," Melanie Morgan, a talk radio host for KSFO Radio in San Francisco and co-chair of Move America Forward, said.

(snip)

The group will kick off the trip with a "Thank You BBQ" for the troops at Centcom headquarters in Tampa, Fla., before traveling to Kuwait to visit with soldiers. They will be flown from there to Iraq via military transport and will be sleeping in tents inside the secured Green Zone.

According to retired Col. Buzz Patterson, host of "The Buzz Cut" on Rightalk, the delegation of seven to 10 conservatives will also include two writers from the Web site FrontPage Magazine, which is published by David Horowitz and the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.

"The war is being won, if not already won, I think," Patterson, who is retired from the U.S. Air Force, said. "[Iraq] is stabilized and we want the soldiers themselves to tell the story." (link)

The Right's Long-Awaited Moment The conservative movement has within its grasp the control of all levers of the federal government.

Get ready for the Dale Trail in the hometown of the late stock-car driver Dale Earnhardt.

The self-guided tour will highlight such locales as the streets Earnhardt cruised in his youth and the restaurant where fans can order his favorite sandwich: sliced tomato on white bread, sometimes with lettuce and Miracle Whip.

"We're quite excited about the project," said Ann Sternal, executive director of the Cabarrus County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Leaders in Cabarrus see the trail as another way to emphasize the county's racing ties while luring more visitors. Since Earnhardt died in a crash during the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, thousands of race fans have continued to visit the region to connect with his legacy.

The White House said Thursday it is taking seriously the allegations by former hostages that Iran's hardline president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was one of their captors at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran a quarter century ago.

Progress has been made to improve conditions and protect detainees' rights at the U.S. prison for suspected terrorists, House Republicans and Democrats, including one who has advocated closing the facility, said Saturday.

The U.S. lawmakers witnessed interrogations, toured cell blocks and ate the same lunch given to detainees on the first congressional visit to the prison for suspected terrorists since criticism of it intensified in the spring.

A divided U.S. Supreme Court declared on Monday it was unconstitutional to post framed copies of the Ten Commandments in county courthouses but permissible to have a commandments monument on the grounds of a state Capitol. The two 5-4 rulings on the politically charged issue involving Ten Commandments displays on government property came in a pair of cases that have been widely regarded as the most important of the court term concerning church-state separation.

The 10-term congressman said in an interview with the News & Record of Greensboro that he's "fed up with picking up the newspaper and reading that we've lost another five or 10 of our young men and women in Iraq."

Support among Coble's 6th District constituents has also waned, his office said.

The dean of the state's congressional delegation said he arrived at his position only after many months of searching in vain for evidence that the Bush administration had a post-invasion strategy to deal with the transition to Iraqi self-government.