The diaries about our sad state of infrastructure even as we spend hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq reminded me of President Eisenhower's 1953 "cross of iron" speech.  Eisenhower became famous as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II and though he was president during the Cold War, his warning against the military-industrial complex sounds just as prescient today as it did almost 50 years ago. However, Eisenhower's lasting accomplishment is the interstate highway system. Has any infrastructure project done so much to change America?

Below the fold is an excerpt from Ike's "cross of iron" speech. Its sad that it took a 5 star general to recognize that spending money on war means spending lives at home.

And when you drive home tonight on an interstate Eisenhower built, remember the plaque on architect Christopher Wren's tomb in St. Paul's Cathedral, "If you seek his monument, look around you".

Conservative economist Paul Craig Roberts had an interesting column today about how conservatives that oppose the Iraq War have become pariahs to their former allies:

"I remember when friends would excitedly telephone to report that Rush Limbaugh or G. Gordon Liddy had just read one of my syndicated columns over the air. That was before I became a critic of the US invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration, and the neoconservative ideologues who have seized control of the US government..."            
 http://www.vdare.com/roberts/041126_conservatives.htm

There have been several diaries on what the Democratic party can do to win back middle America (or to be more precise, bring those few percentage points of voters to win swing states).  

Clearly gun control has already been abandoned, it seems that many folks think the way to win swing voters is to moderate the Democratic stance on gay rights and abortion.

The problem is, on guns, gays and abortion, the Democratic party will never  be able to outflank the Republicans.  However, the Dems could outflank the GOP on the issue of immigration.

Well you won't HAVE to go....

I'm working late here in Atlanta and I just heard a radio ad for KBR-- they're having a job fair on Saturday here for openings for all sorts of positions wth "immediate interviews for qualified applicants". I was only half paying attention to the radio until I heard "KBR".  Kellogg Brown & Root is the Halliburton subsidary that staffs up the contractors to drive trucks and sling hash.

Good article is yesterday's Times about the desperate souls driving trucks for KBR over in Iraq.  http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/27/international/middleeast/27convoy.html

I'm tempted to  cruise down there on Saturday, if only to ask them if they're covered by worker's comp.  :o)

Today's Washington Post has an article about two lobbyists. Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon (with ties to Tom Delay naturally) who were taking money from an Indian tribe to protect their El Paso, TX casino at the same time they (the lobbyists) were paying Ralph Reed to pressure the state to shut down the casino.  As it happens, the casino never reopened.  So the lobbyists made a $4.2 million fee and as for the casino employees?

"Days later, on Feb. 19, Scanlon sent Abramoff an El Paso Times news story headlined "450 casino employees officially terminated" with the message: 'This is on the front page of todays paper while they will be voting on our plan!'  

'Is life great or what!!!" responded Abramoff"

  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50258-2004Sep25.html

John Dean speculates that someone told the grand jury that Bush had knowledge of the leaks.  Seeing as its (as Dean puts it) "remarkably easy to obstruct justice", Bush's new lawyer would likely counsel him to plead the 5th if the grand jury summons him.
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20040604.html

Drudge had this article up.  
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-sister-soldiers,0,7183150,print.story?coll=sns-a p-nationworld-headlines

It's about three sisters all serving with the army in Iraq, one of them was due to be rotated back this month and is coming home... in a body bag.

At the bottom of the article is a link to the family's website with a photo gallery of the sisters in Baghdad, very very sad.

Franklin Foer posted a column at The New Republic (reposted at CBS News) arguing that Edward's only chance to win is to go negative on Kerry. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/18/opinion/main600986.shtml

The upside is that he still has an outside chance of bringing Kerry down.  The downside is that the more bark he peels off of Kerry, the less likely Kerry will select him as the VP candidate.

Over at Free Republic they're having a cow about an allegation made on Fox News today by John Loftus (a writer and former Justice Department official) that British Intelligence was spying on the DNC and Democratic politicians on behalf of the GOP.  Sort of like the way the British spied on the UN Security Council on  behalf of the US  last year.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1078597/posts

I have no idea of whether this report is legit or not, but its fun watching the freepers worry it might be true! To give one quote, "IF this is true, the GOP will lose EVERYTHING."

I have a question for any of you folks familiar with Iowa's caucus system.

Are the caucus delegates allocated by total voting population that night or by some sort of geographic division?  If someone sweeps Des Moines caucus sites, will that offset losing a bunch of small towns that have fewer total people voting than DM, but combined have more caucus sites?

If its by total population (one man one vote), the I suppose the pre-election polls will accurately reflect the likely caucus results.  If the the caususes are geographically divided (like, say the electoral college), then the polls are useless and next week could go any which way.