Darkness & light

To those of you in the Ivan-zone, or whose families are, best wishes and many towels to all of you.

To those of you who also celebrate Rosh Hashana, L'shana Tova Tika-Teyvu!

(no subject)

Oh, this is just kind of ewwwy. I mean, obviously, they had to do something with the silver they found, but it should've just entered the general coinage circulation, anonymously. Not as this.

In other news, did anyone see the thing about the Bush administration's plan to cut Homeland Security's budget next year, when they get a new Director?

The White House put government agencies on notice this month that if Bush is reelected, his budget for 2006 may include $2.3 billion in spending cuts from virtually all domestic programs not mandated by law, including education, homeland security and others central to Bush's campaign.

Between that and the testimony from Michael F. Scheuer, the former chief of the agency's bin Laden unit that, three years after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency has fewer experienced case officers assigned to its headquarters unit dealing with Osama bin Laden than it did at the time of the attacks, despite repeated pleas from the unit's leaders for reinforcements, and that there has been no "systematic effort to groom Al Qaeda expertise" among C.I.A. officers since Sept. 11, 2001, I now, officially, do not feel safer, thanks.