Medicare's Slow Recovery

Ten months into Medicare reform, the fix is slow to take hold. Here's what you got for your $534 billion. (NYT)

The House, the Senate, and Patty & Selma

As if the DMV wasn't bad enough on their own, now Congress is going to help them tell you how to get a drivers license. It's part of the 9/11 Commission reccomendations. Congress is working out a plan to standardize how each state requires documentation and doles out licenses. Critics claim it in effect creates a national ID card. (WashPost)

Sermons to the Converted

Wear the wrong t-shirt and you can end up in jail. Show up with a couple of little boys -- and one has a faded "Kerry/Edwards" sticker on his wallet -- you're suddenly a threat to security. A roundup of how Presidential campaigns make their speeches "sermons to the converted." (NPR -- Audio)

Discussing Politics over Dinner at Doe's Eat Place

Democrats in Bill Clinton's home state refuse to let the Arkansas map go red. Senator Kerry's campaign is ceding the state to the Bush camp and pulling out ads there. But Arkansas Democrats are raising their own money to run ads for Senator Kerry. The $100,000 ad buy will feature former Senator Dale Bumpers, one-time presidential candidate and likely future Arkansas gubenatorial candidate Wes Clark, and former Clinton appointee Rodney Slater. (USNews & World Report)

It's Good to be in DC

The folks who brought us "This Land is Your Land" are back at it. JibJab.com takes another strike at politics with "Good to Be in DC." Beware of Senator John Edwards' thong. (JibJab.com)

Boeing Plan Tanks on Capitol Hill

Sentencing, investigations, and an Air Force General's name removed from consideration for a major command. Those were the results of a plan to spend $23.5 billion of your tax money to lease airborne tankers from Boeing. The scandal plagued idea died yesterday when Congress banned the lease idea. (Reuters)

Making Radio Waves

You're more likely to hear a Bush ad on radio than a Kerry ad. The President's campaign is outspending the Kerry camp 3-to-1 on radio ads. (LAT)

The Rising Price of Violence

Violence in Iraq is driving up the cost of rebuilding the country by as much as 20%. The US laid out more than $18 billion of your tax money last year for reconstruction. (AFP)

Tax Breaks for NASCAR, But Not Your Car

Charities that rely on donated cars are facing a change in the law that could cost them millions. The corporate tax bill I told you about yesterday -- the one that gives big tax breaks to horse tracks and NASCAR -- limits the tax write-off on donating your car to charity. (WashPost)

Today In Congress

Congress is wrapping up business so they can come home and tell you why they should be re-elected. Here's what's going on today. Use the links at the right to write your hired hands on the Hill and tell them what you think. (WashPost)

FDA Silenced Drug Warnings

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, says the FDA tried to cover up dangers with the drug Vioxx. Dr. David J. Graham is associate director for science in the FDA Drug Center's Office of Drug Safety. Weeks before Merck & Co. pulled its drug Vioxx off the market for links to heart attacks and strokes, Dr. Graham raised concerns about it's safety. It was hi job. His superiors told him to shut up. (LAT)

Terror Alerts in the School Zone

The Education Department has warned schools to be on the lookout for people spying on their buildings. It's part of an FBI analysis following the Russian school siege. But it comes out right before the elections here -- and schools are polling places in a lot of places. One town has even asked to move voting from schools to prevent an election day attack that could harm kids. (CBS)

Voting Threatens National Security?

The Department of Homeland Security recently ordered a stop to a voter registration drive. The courts threw out all their reasons. It brings up the memories of the "poll tax" and how it has evolved through the years. (NYT - Opinion)

Ronald Reagan Stamp

Early next year you can lick the man who conservatives claim licked Communism. The US Postal Service unveils the design for the Ronald Reagan stamp at Reagan's Presidential Library on November 9th. The stamp dedication will also take place there in February of next year. (AP via WBOC)

Horse Racing, Package Stores, and the Voters at Home -- Pork Piles Up

Congress' new 10 year, $140 billion corporate tax bill has all kinds of targeted tax cuts. There are tax breaks for horse racing, NASCAR tracks, bow-and-arrow makers and stores that sell booze.

There's also plenty of pork for the folks at home, benefiting the states that had Congressmen hammering out the bill.

Two Senators in tough reelection fights won breaks: Farm-state lawmaker Tom Daschle, the Democratic minority leader from South Dakota, got one for the ethanol industry, while Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) got one to spur building of a trans-Alaska gas pipeline.

There's also some help to a bunch of states with Republican Representatives who elect party leadership. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) might like to be House Speaker some day and will need those votes. He pushed through a measure to allow people in seven states without state income taxes -- Texas, Florida, Washington, Nevada, South Dakota, Wyoming and Tennessee -- to deduct sales taxes from their federal income tax. (LAT)

Registering Speculation

Voter registration is at record levels as the deadlines in almost all states come up this week. Hamilton County, Ohio -- home to Cindinnati -- has seen more than 64,000 new voters sign up this year alone. That's almost twice as many as four years ago. No one's sure what that will mean for the election outcome. (Reuters)

Musical Chairs at the Cabinet Room

The guessing game's in high gear over who stays and who goes and who comes in to the Cabinet if President Bush is re-elected. Republicans think Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell will bolt right away. (Reuters)