so they're going to exploit our current, already exhausted, personnel mercilessly and leave the next administration with NOTHING ... but the need for a draft to just-make-ends-meet.

Like attending the funerals of the fallen, apparently Bush-Cheney don't "do" recruitment pitches, leaving recruitment to poorly trained, severely "incentivized" young 'uns whose "creativity" has crossed the line into deliberate deception and even fraud frighteningly often.

and they're already scraping the bottom of the barrel.

IMHO, it's time for Bush/Cheney to make the round and do the stump speeches. There's an article out today about military bonuses and incentives.

More than $16000 was spent per recruit in 2005 on bonuses and other expenses. The Army in particular is paying more

url: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0412/p02s01-usmi.html

and then there are the reinlistment bonuses:

After four years of war in Iraq, the campaign to entice Army soldiers and Marines to stay in the military has passed the $1 billion mark.

An Associated Press review of military budgets finds that's what was spent on re-enlistment payments last year, compared with $174 million in 2003, when the war started.

Bonuses can range from a few thousand dollars, up to $150,000 for very senior special forces soldiers who re-up for six years.

So far, the extra cash appears to be working.

The active Army, the Guard and the Army Reserve are all on track to meet their re-enlistment goals for the fiscal year that will end Sept. 30.

url: http://www.nbcsandiego.com/militaryconnection/11609307/detail.html

more "throwing money" (our money, to fight a war we don't want, can't win and were tricked into)

it rests with MSNBC and CBS's corporate LEADERS ... don't try to shirk responsibility for the decision regardin IMUS's future with your companies onto these young people ... it's simply NOT FAIR ... it's part of your job and why you make the "big bucks"

I am livid.

not unlike all those confederate flag decals you see in the back windows of pickup trucks and SUVs.

Imus is a repeat offender AND a media darling (because he sells their stuff).

This time, as several African-American spokespeople said, he attacked their daughters and in this case the daughters anyone might wish were their own.

Personally, I believe the NBC News Division president when he said the most important pressure came from within, from NBC employees from all tiers, and not exclusively African-Americans... They felt shame to work for a company that was aiding and abetting someone who purveyed racism, sexism, and more...

This time someone actually cared enough to ask and listen ... and act. It's not some "perfect solution" but there are, as others have pointed out, other venues available for Imus.

It's just that MSNBC is no longer one of them.

I might argue a "shock jock" was probably always a bad "match" for a news division, but MSNBC seems to fill an appalling amount of its time on tabloid trash and gossip ... yes, I'm talking about too much of Olbermann and Scarborough too.

I'm appalled that we have to go through the "but African-American rappers/comedians use those words..." discussion over and over and over and over ... if you can't tell the difference, I'm inclined to think you haven't been listening (or reading) and, yes, the issue of "gansta" style has been controversial in the black community for more than the last 10 years. Gangs and blackmarkets arise predictably where there is poverty and unemployment ... like Iraq, like East LA ...

It seems every decade the number of children being raised in a single-female-head of household homes increases ...

A lot of (the little) I have seen wrt gangsta posings have to do with an odd combination of "live-fast-die-young leave a good looking corpse" grabbing a good time while you can -- mixed with -- a very shallow money and conspicious consumption being the be-all-end-all ... yet, I've rarely seen this mentioned.

The one-in-nine numbers of black males involved in the criminal justice system (and the addition of "ex-con" to a lengthy list of undesirable traits when applying to employment, questionable literacy/math skills coming first, of course, but in an environment of chronic unemployment).

And then there are the drugs ... and the compliant "groupies" that dealers can count on ...

I guess I've never taken the "misogyny" as very "deep" or "real" but more the posings of smart-ass young men whose lives will likely be spent, if they're lucky, in "normal" domesticity but equally likely -- due to all the same wannabe and wannahave -- be spent in all-male "correctional facilities" ... while the women-folk carry on "real life"

fwiw, it's largely true in many circles that having a big wad of bills can make any man attractive to certain women.

I'm not "defending" it ... I'm saying I think that taking it at face value may well be "missing it"