In an effort to encourage millions of over-weight and unhealthy Americans to engage in some kind of physical exercise everyday, President Bush ran in a race last Saturday against his White House staffers. The "President's Fitness Challenge Run and Walk" was organized by the White House as part of a recent effort to get Americans to exercise at least 30 minutes everyday, because regular exercise will not only benefit Americans directly, but will also help save healthcare companies billions of dollars every year. President Bush touted his own exercise regimen as a model for other Americans; he runs regularly and also lifts weights. Apparently a similar White House initiative to encourage Americans to read everyday failed when it was discovered that President Bush's daily reading regimen consisted primarily of coloring and pop-up books.
The alleged fire starter of the 140,000-acre blaze burning in parts of Colorado pleaded not guilty to charges that she deliberately started a fire in Pike National Forest. Terry Barton could face 65 years in jail and fines of up to 1 million dollars if convicted of the charges against her. The incident has not been completely negative for Barton, however. The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Christine Todd Whitman, and White House officials have praised Barton's efforts to destroy thousands of acres of forest, and encouraged her to make her way to Alaska sometime to visit the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Israeli military forces reentered Palestinian towns last week in response to several terror attacks that left 31 Israelis dead and hundreds injured. Tens of tanks, armored personal carriers, and hundreds of troops are involved in these newest movements into Palestinian areas. Israeli and Palestinian sources reported Monday that an Israeli air strike killed a senior activist of the Hamas terrorist organization, a lower-ranked member of the terrorist group, and four bystanders, while injuring ten other civilians.
Israeli military sources were happy with the outcome of the attack, until they realized that they had only killed one-thousandth of one percent of the terrorists in Palestinian areas. "Two down, thousands more to go," as one analyst put it. Future plans include withdrawing from Palestinian towns, suffering several more terrorist attacks, reentering Palestinian towns in response to kill one or two terrorists, withdrawing from Palestinian towns, suffering several more terrorist attacks, reentering Palestinian towns in response to kill one or two terrorists
The kidnapping of 14-year old Elizabeth Smart has made national headlines as investigators continue their search for a man who entered the house and abducted the girl from her bed on June 5 in an upper-class town in Utah. Newspapers have dedicated pages and televisions stations have devoted hours to the Smart kidnapping, the most coverage of a crime with a child victim since the Jon Benet Ramsey murder case.
A month before the Smart kidnapping, 7-year old Alexis Patterson was abducted on her way to school in Milwaukee. Newspapers have dedicated zero pages and television stations have devoted zero hours to this kidnapping, most likely because Alexis was not white, wealthy, or part of a "picture-perfect" family as Elizabeth was. A note to little kids: don't plan on getting kidnapped unless you are white, affluent, and well-connected. No one, the media in particular, cares unless you are.
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge returned to testify before congress on Tuesday to answer questions regarding President Bush's proposed cabinet-level department to guard the nation against terrorist threats. President Bush's plans for the department include hiring 170,000 new federal employees and would combine parts of 22 existing federal agencies including the Secret Service and the Coast Guard. Under the president's plan, the FBI and CIA would remain unchanged, and would both forward information on to the new department. Such a change would be the biggest reorganization and biggest expansion of the federal government in fifty years.
Evidently President Bush has forgotten that just two years ago he championed the trimming down of big government and the elimination of thousands of federal jobs to lessen what he saw as excessive bureaucracy. But then again, why try to fix the FBI and CIA when you can just convince Americans that the terrorist problem will be solved with the addition of another huge department.
Last week in congress, after hours of fierce debate and bitter exchange, congressmen finally achieved their goal of accomplishing absolutely nothing. Representatives of both parties argued for hours about important issues including terrorism bills, Medicare, and lapses in national security, and by Friday's end were successful in their goal of not doing anything. "I came to work today hoping that nothing right, nothing good would get done for our country. I'm very happy to say that, with some hard work and perseverance this week, we were finally able to pull off this exact task," one senator was quoted as saying. Congress hopes to continue their accomplishments by doing absolutely nothing for the next several years.
