Mired in the depression of CNN imagery of Katrina aftermath, I welcomed a telephone call from a close friend who has adopted a family who has relocated from New Orleans with their car, their children and a few clothing items thrown hastily into a suitcase. My friend has mobilized a number of us and instead of sweltering in our ennui, we have one tangible thing to focus upon, helping them regain their lives in new surroundings.

In the meantime, the FEMA director should immediately be fired and perhaps the President should go back on vacation.

SOCIAL INSECURITY CALCULATOR

People have been saying for weeks that the president's privatization plan will cut benefits. Now all Americans can log onto democrats.gov and find out how true this is.
See how much you will lose under Bush Privatization.

PROPOSED FEDERAL BUDGET CUTS

Overview: The 2006 request

The following table shows the programs proposed for elimination in the President's 2006 budget request. [highlights in bold are mine]

Termination of these 48 programs frees up almost $4.3 billion based on 2005 levels for reallocation to other activities. Following the table is a brief summary of each program and the rationale for its elimination.

Program Terminations Program (2005 BA in millions)

Alcohol Abuse Reduction $32.7
Arts in Education 35.6
B.J. Stupak Olympic Scholarships 1.0
Byrd Honors Scholarships 40.7
Civic Education 29.4
Close Up Fellowships 1.5
Community Technology Centers 5.0
Comprehensive School Reform 205.3
Demonstration Projects for Students with Disabilities 6.9
Educational Technology State Grants 496.0
Elementary and Secondary School Counseling 34.7
Even Start 225.1
Excellence in Economic Education 1.5
Exchanges with Historic Whaling and Trading Partners 8.6
Federal Perkins Loans Cancellations 66.1
Foreign Language Assistance 17.9
Foundations for Learning 1.0
Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs 306.5
Interest Subsidy Grants 1.5
Javits Gifted and Talented Education 11.0
Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnerships 65.6
Literacy Programs for Prisoners 5.0
Mental Health Integration in Schools 5.0
Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers 2.3
National Writing Project 20.3
Occupational and Employment Information 9.3
Parental Information and Resource Centers 41.9
Projects With Industry 21.6
Ready to Teach 14.3
Recreational Programs 2.5
Regional Educational Laboratories 66.1
Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities State Grants 437.4
School Dropout Prevention 4.9
School Leadership 14.9
Smaller Learning Communities 94.5
Star Schools 20.8
State Grants for Incarcerated Youth Offenders 21.8
Supported Employment State Grants 37.4
Teacher Quality Enhancement 68.3
Tech-Prep Demonstration 4.9
Tech-Prep Education State Grants 105.8
Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program 3.0
TRIO Talent Search 144.9
TRIO Upward Bound 312.6
Underground Railroad Program 2.2
Vocational Education National Programs 11.8
Vocational Education State Grants 1,194.3
Women's Educational Equity 3.0
Total--------------------------------------------------------$4,264.4

Program Descriptions(figures reflect 2005 BA in millions)

Alcohol Abuse Reduction $32.7 Supports programs to reduce alcohol abuse in secondary schools. These programs may be funded through other Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities National Programs and State Grants for Innovative Programs.

Arts in Education $35.6 Makes non-competitive awards to VSA arts and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as well as competitive awards for national demonstrations and Federal leadership activities to encourage the integration of the arts into the school curriculum.

B.J. Stupak Olympic Scholarships $1.0 Provides financial assistance to athletes who are training at the United States Olympic Education Center or one of the United States OlympicTraining centers and who are pursuing a postsecondary education. Athletes can receive grant, work-study, and loan assistance through the Department's postsecondary student aid programs.

Byrd Honors Scholarships $40.7 Promotes academic excellence and achievement by awarding merit-basedscholarships to high school students, through formula grants to State educational agencies, who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement and who show promise of continued academic excellence.

Civic Education $29.4 Provides a single non-competitive award to the Center for Civic Education to conduct We the People, a program to improve the quality of civics and government education. Also makes non-competitive and competitive awards for the Cooperative Education Exchange, a program to improve civic and economic education through exchange programs.

Close Up Fellowships $1.5 Non-competitive award to Close Up Foundation supports fellowships to low-income students and teachers participating in Close Up visits to Washington, DC and other activities. Peer organizations provide scholarships to some of their participants without Federal assistance.

Community Technology Centers $5.0 Supports centers that offer disadvantaged residents of economicallydistressed areas access to computers and training.

Comprehensive School Reform $205.3 This program may duplicate activities that are carried out under the Title I Grants to LEAs program.

Demonstration Projects to Ensure Quality Higher Education for Students with Disabilities $6.9 Funds technical assistance and professional development activities for faculty and administrators in institutions of higher education in order to improve the quality of education for students with disabilities. New projects can and do receive funding under FIPSE.

Educational Technology State Grants $496.0 This program provides funding to States and school districts to support the integration of educational technology into classroom instruction,technology deployment, and a host of other activities designed to utilize technology to improve instruction and student learning.

Elementary and Secondary School Counseling $34.7 Elementary school and secondary school counseling may be funded through other Federal programs, such as ESEA Title V-AState Grants for Innovative Programs.

Even Start $225.1 This program aims to improve educational opportunities for children and their parents in low-income areas by integrating early childhood education, adult education, and parenting education into "family literacy" programs.

Excellence in Economic Education $1.5 Supports a grant to a single national non-profit educational organization to promote economic and financial literacy for K-12 students.

Exchanges with Historic Whaling and Trading Partners $8.6 Supports culturally based educational activities, internships,apprenticeship programs and exchanges for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and children and families of Massachusetts.

Federal Perkins Loans Cancellations $66.1 Reimburses institutional revolving funds for borrowers whose loan repayments are canceled in exchange for undertaking public service employment, such as teaching in Head Start programs, full-time law enforcement, or nursing. These reimbursements will no longer needed if the Administration's proposal to eliminate the Perkins Loan program is successful.

Foreign Language Assistance $17.9 Activities to promote improvement and expansion of foreign language instruction.

Foundations for Learning $1.0 Competitive grants provide services to children and their families to enhance young children's development so that they become ready for school.

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs $306.5 Provides grants to States and partnerships to support early college preparation and awareness activities at the State and local levels to ensure low-income elementary and secondary school students are prepared for and pursue post secondary education. The proposed new High School Intervention initiative may provide a more comprehensive approach to improving high school education and increasing student achievement, especially the achievement of those most at-risk of educational failure and dropping out.

Interest Subsidy Grants $1.5 Program finances interest subsidy costs of a portfolio of higher education facilities loans guaranteed under Federal agreements with participating institutions of higher education. Balances from prior year appropriations may be sufficient to cover all remaining obligations.

Javits Gifted and Talented Education $11.0 Primarily supports research and demonstration grants.

Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnerships $65.6 Program's objective is to stimulate all States to establish need-based postsecondary student grant programs.

Literacy Programs for Prisoners $5.0 Provides competitive grants to State and local correctional agencies and correctional education agencies to support programs that reduce recidivism through the improvement of "life skills."

Mental Health Integration in Schools $5.0 Makes competitive grants to increase student access to mental health care by linking school systems with the mental health system.

Migrant and Seasonal Farmworkers $2.3 Supports rehabilitation services to migratory workers with disabilities, but such activities may be funded through the VR State Grants program.

National Writing Project $20.3 Supports a nationwide nonprofit educational organization that promotes K-16 teacher training programs in the effective teaching of writing.

Occupational and Employment Information $9.3 Career guidance and counseling program.

Parental Information and Resource Centers $41.9 Funds parent education and family involvement activities.

Projects With Industry $21.6 PWI projects help individuals with disabilities obtain employment in the competitive labor market.

Ready to Teach $14.3 This program supports competitive grants to nonprofit telecommunications entities to carry out programs to improve teaching in core curriculum areas, and to develop, produce, and distribute innovative educational and instructional video programming.

Recreational Programs $2.5 Supports projects that provide recreation and related activities for individuals with disabilities to aid in their employment, mobility,independence, socialization, and community integration.

Regional Educational Laboratories $66.1 Regional Educational Laboratories are funded to provide high quality research and development products or evidence-based training and technical assistance.

Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities State Grants $437.4 Provides formula grants to States to help create and maintain drug-free,safe, and orderly environments for learning in and around schools. The Administration proposes to redirect some of the program's funds to provide an increase for Safe and Drug-Free Schools National Programs.

School Dropout Prevention $4.9 Significantly higher funding for dropout prevention and re-entry programs may be available through Title I Grants to LEAs, Title I Migrant State Grants,and State Grants for Innovative Programs. Also, at the 2006 request level, States are required to reserve approximately $110 million from their Title I allocation for purposes of helping students stay in school and make the transition to public schoolsfrom local corrections facilities and community day programs.

School Leadership $14.9 Program supports recruiting, training, and retaining principals and assistant principals.

Smaller Learning Communities $94.5 A program for the purpose of creating smaller learning communities to strengthen high school education and raisie achievement.

Star Schools $20.8 Supports distance education projects to improve instruction in a variety of curricular areas.

State Grants for Incarcerated Youth Offenders $21.8 Formula grants to State correctional agencies assist and encourage incarcerated youth to acquire functional literacy skills and life and job skills.

Supported Employment State Grants $37.4 A program to develop collaborative programs with appropriate public and private nonprofit organizations to provide supported employment services for individuals with the most significant disabilities.

Teacher Quality Enhancement $68.3 Program provides funds to improve recruitment, preparation, licensure, and support for teachers by providing incentives, encouraging reforms, and leveraging local and State resources to ensure that current and future teachers have the necessary teaching skills and academic content knowledge to teach effectively.

Tech-Prep Demonstration $4.9 This program establishes secondary technical education programs on community college campuses.

Tech-Prep Education State Grants $105.8 A separate State grant program to support State efforts to develop structural links between secondary and postsecondary institutions that integrate academic and vocational education.

Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program $3.0 Program provides minority, low-income or disadvantaged college students with the information, preparation, and financial assistance needed to gain access to and complete law school study.

TRIO Upward Bound $312.6 Provides grants to colleges to support intensive academic instruction for disadvantaged high school students and veterans to generate the skills and motivation needed to pursue and complete a postsecondary education.

Underground Railroad Program $2.2 Provides grants to non-profit educational organizations to establish facilities that house, display, and interpret artifacts relating to the history of the Underground Railroad, as well as to make the interpretive efforts available to institutions of higher education.

Vocational Education National Programs $11.8 The program's activities include research, assessment, evaluation, dissemination, and technical assistance.

Vocational Education State Grants $1,194.3 Funds would be redirected to support a new strategy for programs at the high school level and for a community college access initiative.


Women's Educational Equity $3.0 Activities promoting educational equity for girls and women.

HAGER APPOINTMENT FOR FDA COMMITTEE

President Bush has announced his plan to select Dr. W. David Hager to head up the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee.

The committee has not met for more than two years,during which time its charter lapsed. As a result, the Bush Administration is tasked with filling all eleven positions with new members. This position does not require Congressional approval. The FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee makes crucial decisions on matters relating to drugs used in the practice of obstetrics, gynecology and related specialties, including hormone
therapy, contraception, treatment for infertility, and medical alternatives to surgical procedures for sterilization and pregnancy termination.

Dr. Hager, the author of "As Jesus Cared for Women: Restoring Women Then and Now." The book blends biblical accounts of Christ healing Women with case studies from Hager's practice. His views of reproductive health care are far outside the mainstream for reproductive technology. Dr. Hager is a practicing OB/GYN who describes himself as "pro-life" and refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women.

In the book Dr. Hager wrote with his wife, entitled "Stress and the Woman's Body," he suggests that women who suffer from premenstrual syndrome should seek help from reading the bible and praying. As an editor and contributing author of "The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of Sexuality Reproductive Technologies and the Family," Dr. Hager appears to have endorsed the medically inaccurate assertion that the common birth control pill is an abortifacient.

We are concerned that Dr. Hager's strong religious beliefs may color his assessment of technologies that are necessary to protect women's lives or to preserve and promote women's health. Hager's track record of using religious beliefs to guide his medical decision-making makes him a dangerous and inappropriate candidate to serve as chair of this committee. Critical drug public policy and research must not be held hostage by antiabortion politics. Members of this important panel should be appointed on the basis of science and medicine, rather than politics and religion.

American women deserve no less.

There is something you can do. Below is a letter to be sent to the White House, opposing the placement of Hager. Please copy all the text of this email and paste it into a fresh email and

SEND THIS TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW WHO IS CONCERNED ABOUT WOMEN'S RIGHTS.

Every 10th person please forward e-mail to president@whitehouse.gov

I oppose the appointment of Dr. W. David Hager to the FDA Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. Mixing religion and medicine is
unacceptable in a policy-making position. Using the FDA to promote a political agenda is inappropriate and seriously threatens women's health.Members of this important panel should be appointed on the basis of science and medicine, rather than politics and religion. American women deserve no less.

NEW "MIDDLE-CLASS" TAX-CUT BILL REPRESENTS CYNICAL POLICYMAKING

"The 'middle-class' tax-cut legislation that the House and Senate approved last night reflects an exercise in cynicism unusual even for Washington, D.C. Its “middle-class” label cloaks several significant deficiencies. For example, the legislation benefits high-income households considerably more than the middle class, and even though the bill emerged out of dormant legislation designed to help low-income working families, the revised legislation treats these families unfavorably."

Click on the title link above to read the full article from Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorties.

Tracking the Bush administration's environmental misdeeds Bush Greenwatch.org

The "honest guys critique of George W. Bush" The Case Against George Bush by Ron Reagan

Ten Stories

 "Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About."

 
The United Nations Department of Public Information presents a new initiative - "Ten Stories the World Should Hear More About."
 
This list includes a number of humanitarian emergencies, as well as conflict or post-conflict situations and spans other matters of concern to the United Nations, although it is far from embracing all of the many issues before the Organization.
The stories are not ones that have never been reported, but are often second-rung issues that need more thorough, balanced and regular attention. The list itself is a snapshot of the most compelling stories that, at this point in time, the Department of Public Information believes are in need of more media attention.

League of Pissed Off Voters

It's not enough to be pissed off - if we want to make a difference, we need to be informed, in touch, and empowered. No one is going to do it for us.

How to Get Stupid White Men Out Of Office

A book (Softskull Press; March 2004;) that documents 20 success stories from the past five years of young people who have swung or won elections –from city council to the US Senate- in 16 states, South Korea, and on the Internet. With an 80+ city tour focused on key swing states, the 12 co-authors and The League of Pissed Off Voters have built online and offline political tools designed to capture the imagination of young non-voters just in time for the November 2004 elections.

Call or write Naina Khanna, Program Director, League of Pissed Off Voters with any questions.

League of PISSED OFF Voters
226 W. 135th St, 4th floor
New York, NY 10030
naina@indyvoter.org 212.283.8879

World Changing

Wow! This site promises Models, Tools, and Ideas for Building a Better Future and it delivers. Grab an extra large cup of your favorite beverage, you'll be there for a while.

SEND HIM A CAKE

something in pink, with black lettering. "Goodbye" is sufficient, Mr. Tenet.