NY Times at Starbucks

Two headlines while SOF waited for her latte.

Item one. Rumsfeld has so broken the Army that they are forced to beg directly for money. He won't do it for them, because he wants further cuts in high tech weapons. But the Army is badly damaged by his mangling of the military.

Rumsfeld Shift Lets Army Seek Larger Budget - New York Times: "But Mr. Rumsfeld is requiring the Army to make its own case. The defense secretary has broken Pentagon precedent by allowing the Army to make its financial case directly to the president’s Office of Management and Budget, a task normally managed by the defense secretary and his staff rather than by the individual military services. The Air Force and the Navy also asked to present their budgets directly to the budget agency and the requests were granted."

Remind me how he keeps his job again? Oh right, because if he didn't, Prez Bush might have to admit that he has mismanaged two wars.
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Item two. The times notes that Religious organizations have eluded federal regulation in areas where the state has a compelling interest. Like daycare centers. The private ones can expect spot inspections, but the church ones (at least in Alabama, do not. They don't have to follow civil rights laws, etc. Read on and remind me how much religion is under attack again?

An analysis by The New York Times of laws passed since 1989 shows that more than 200 special arrangements, protections or exemptions for religious groups or their adherents were tucked into Congressional legislation, covering topics ranging from pensions to immigration to land use. New breaks have also been provided by a host of pivotal court decisions at the state and federal level, and by numerous rule changes in almost every department and agency of the executive branch.

The special breaks amount to “a sort of religious affirmative action program,” said John Witte Jr., director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at the Emory University law school.