NPR News Today 2/14/05

I am just going to plow ahead here, pretending that this is a day no different from any other. Listened to Morning Edition as I usually do.

Well, it looks like Dean will be head of the DNC -- natch, some democrats are unhappy. They can never agree, can they? Why are they unhappy, you might ask? Dean is seen as able to energize the base, but unable to reach out to more middle of the road types. The upshot of this report was to say that democrats will have to get more flexible on messages like abortion and a few others if they are ever to win big again.

So, what about this suplimental appropriation (SA) for $80 billion? What is that all about? Well, it is SUPPOSED to be about emergency spending, but it seems like Bush is using it more as a screen to keep necessary spending off the "balance sheet" that is used when toting up the deficit. Rummy says, to justify using an SA, that you cannot properly plan the cost of war, but the guy NPR interviewed (Steve Kosniar?) says the war is not an emergency, and better/more planning should've been done. Because SAs keep money out of the budget as published, they also keep money out of the published deficit. Also, because SAs don't require the same amount of paperwork/justification, they are easier to get through congress. Steve pointed out that there are a number of things in the SA that should not be there, including a reorganization of the army. Sigh.

The next report (I guess they put it here just in case you were about to slit your own wrists on account of the news today) was about a study of what makes people happy. Study participants were given Palm Pilots to keep track of their moods all day. Group A was a group of healthy individuals and Group B was a group of kidney patients who were quite ill. Surprisingly Group B members were pretty happy overall. Conclusion: People have a basic balance and no matter what happens, you eventually come back to this basic place. Cool.