[New York Times]
Budgets of Mass Destruction
February 1, 2004
  By Thomas L. Friedman

It should be clear to all by now that what we have in the Bush team is a faith-based administration. It launched a faith-based war in Iraq, on the basis of faith-based intelligence, with a faith-based plan for Iraqi reconstruction, supported by faith-based tax cuts to generate faith-based revenues. This group believes that what matters in politics and economics are conviction and will — not facts, social science or history. ...

The Bush team's real vulnerability is its B.M.D. — Budgets of Mass Destruction, which have recklessly imperiled the nation's future, with crazy tax-cutting and out-of-control spending. The latest report from the Congressional Budget Office says the deficit is expected to total some $2.4 trillion over the next decade — almost $1 trillion more than the prediction of just five months ago. That is a failure of intelligence and common sense that threatens to make us all insecure — and people also feel that in their guts. ...

[Maryland's Online Community]
Bush budget aids defense, home security
February 3, 2004
  By David L. Greene and Julie Hirschfeld Davis

$2.4 trillion spending plan forecasts record deficit, alarms conservatives; Democrats seize on issue; Proposal cuts education, environment, agriculture ...

[Maryland's Online Community]
Americans deserve Bush's profound apology
February 1, 2004
  By G. Jefferson Price III

Imagine that you are the parent, or the brother or sister, or the wife, husband or child of a young man or woman killed in Iraq - one of the 138 who died in the march on Baghdad, or one of the 384 who have died there since May 1, when major combat was pronounced over. ...