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5. Damn the Farm Bill Consequences
by Lynn Woolley
There are so many crises affecting the besieged American farmer that it's hard to tell which is worse. Is the flooding in the Midwest? Is it the possibility that the latest Farm Bill might get vetoed? Is it new enforcement procedures that threaten to stem the never-ending flow of cheap labor? Actually, it's that last one. The floods will abate eventually and the chance of a pork-laden Farm Bill not passing is slim to none. But, by golly, the administration has started enforcing immigration laws! What is Bush thinking?
4. Races of the Week
by John Gizzi Colorado's U.S. Senate Race: Schaffer vs. Udall Every election cycle, it seems, there is a U.S. Senate race that is a classic philosophical clash between a committed conservative and a passionate liberal. Certainly, most of the election battles of former Sen. Jesse Helms (R.-N.C.) and his Democratic opponents fit that bill. The initial election of Republican Bill Armstrong in 1978 was also one of the memorable ideological shootouts. After unseating liberal Democratic Sen. Floyd Haskell in Colorado that year, Armstrong went on to become one of the Senate's most principled, respected conservatives.
3. Gates and the Air Force
by Caspar Weinberger, Jr.
The recent news that the U.S. Army has been caught out on its procurement procedures is as much a negative by-product of our capitalistic system as it is an internal mess for the Department of Defense. Finally, the Army Chiefs have begun a broad review of procedures used to supply security forces in Afghanistan and Iraq with foreign arms. This has come about because Congress got tough via the Gansler Commission last October in publically criticizing our military procedures in managing many of DOD's weapons procurements, especially at the lower levels. The latest abuse concerns the main private supplier of ammunition to Afghanistan, a company called AEY, Inc. of Miami Beach. Hardly a major corporation, AEY operates from a hole in the wall in an unmarked office, incorporated only in 1999 and is now mostly led by the 22 year old son of the founder who has dubious credentials at best. Nevertheless, the "company" was awarded a contract that had a potential value of close to $300 million to be the primary supplier of ammunition for the Afghan security forces in their fight against the terrorist organizations Al Qaeda and the Taliban. (Continued Below) 
2. How to Buy the Tanker
by Jed Babbin Twice in the past six years the Air Force has tried to buy replacements for its fleet of dangerously old KC-135 air refueling tankers. And twice it has failed. The first failure was because an Air Force official cooked the books for her own financial gain. The second -- the now-overturned February 29 decision to buy the too big and too heavy European Airbus 330 tanker -- was the result of the Air Force cutting the warfighters out of the decision.
1. Will 2008 be a Rerun of 1932?
by John Gizzi "Democratic congressional candidates...won more seats than anyone had dared predict...Democrats added 97 seats in the House, expanding their margin to 313 to 117 during Roosevelt's first two years in office. The large class of incoming freshmen was filled with liberals who would faithfully support Roosevelt's New Deal legislation...Democratic congressional candidates swept the South, much of the Midwest, the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Coast...Republicans lost their tenuous grip on the Senate's majority and with it their majority leader and most powerful committee chairmen. The election put legislative state houses and governor's mansions across the nation largely under Democratic control." That, of course, is a synopsis of the storied elections of 1932 in which Franklin D. Roosevelt won the Presidency in a landslide and led Democrats to their greatest triumph at the polls. In his most insightful book Electing FDR, Donald A. Ritchie, associate historian of the U.S. Senate historical office, breathes fresh life and insight into the dramatic election of 76 years ago.
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