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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Skywatcher who wrote (426028)7/12/2003 2:31:24 PM
From: John Chen  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 769670
 
Chris,re:"Bush...bucks stop here??". Bush has a secret
agenda he cannot confess. Israel seized the opportunity
of her life-time to sucker USA into the ME.
It's a convenient 'excuse' for both:
1. Israel, must get USA deeply(deadly) involved in ME.
2. USA, the system is broken. The 'have' vs. 'have not',
and the 'Elites' vs 'losers'(everyone else).

Expect:
1. More WARs to "unite the country".
It worked for Hitler and most 'communist countries".
2. More money.
AG needs to prime/oil the almighty military.



To: Skywatcher who wrote (426028)7/12/2003 2:54:12 PM
From: Skywatcher  Respond to of 769670
 
Bush...the compassionate one....letting HEAD START AND AMERICORPS get screwed....
these are VOLUNTEERS.....gee....guess he can't remember the POINTS OF LIGHT that his daddy and he have been shoving down our throat for years....
and the ENTIRE SENATE SEES THROUGH THIS....85-7!!!!!!!!!
Senate Vote Shows Support for Troubled AmeriCorps
Bill gives volunteer service program an extra $100 million, but backing in the House is uncertain. The agency's
chief executive resigns.

From Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Friday to give an extra $100 million
this year to AmeriCorps, signaling strong bipartisan support for the
government's financially troubled volunteer service program.

Senators voted 71-21 to defeat an attempt by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) to
strip the money from a spending bill. Advocates of AmeriCorps say that
without the extra money, the program would have to leave unfilled up to
20,000 of its planned 50,000 volunteer slots.

AmeriCorps has struggled with severe cash problems since last year, when it
signed up 20,000 more volunteers than it could afford. That has led the
agency to come under withering bipartisan criticism in Congress for
mismanagement and inefficiency.

On Friday, Leslie Lenkowsky, chief executive of the Corporation for National
and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps and other federal
volunteer agencies, announced his resignation.

Despite the Senate's vote, the fate of the extra money is in doubt. Rep. James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.), who
chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls AmeriCorps' budget, said he opposed the
extra money because of the agency's "poor management and weak financial oversight."

Sessions cited those problems in his failed effort to kill the extra money for the program. He and others
said it was likely the money would not be spent until next year anyway.

"This is not an emergency. It's just one more typical bureaucratic failure," Sessions said.

But supporters said that without the allocation, hundreds of volunteer programs from coast to coast
would have to be shut down quickly.

"Who are we going to punish if we don't put out the money. Not the bureaucracy but the volunteers in
our communities," said Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), who led the effort to win the extra $100
million.

AmeriCorps volunteers tutor children, repair houses and perform other work with nonprofit
organizations.

Each volunteer receives a $9,300 stipend for service to the corps and is eligible for a $4,725 college
grant afterward. A volunteer serves up to a year.

The volunteer program has already received $275 million for the current federal budget year, which
ends Oct. 1.

Mikulski demanded Lenkowsky's resignation last month. National service corporation spokesman
Sandy Scott said that was not a factor in Lenkowsky's departure.

President Bush intends to name David Eisner, formerly vice president of corporate relations at AOL
Time Warner, as his replacement.

The extra AmeriCorps money was included in a bill providing $2 billion this year for natural disasters,
fighting forest fires and investigating the February crash of the Columbia space shuttle. The bill also had
$2.5 billion for the Senate and other congressional operations next year.

The bill includes extra money for the Capitol Visitors' Center, an underground structure being built east
of the Capitol that has encountered big cost overruns. And senators added millions for clearing trees
infested with beetles and repairing levees.

The overall bill was approved by a vote of 85 to 7.