Army Effort to Enlist Hispanics Draws Recruits, and Criticism

Lizette Alvarez
NY Times

As Sgt. First Class Gavino Barron, dressed in a crisp Army uniform, trawls the Wal-Mart here for recruits, past stacks of pillows and towers of detergent, he is zeroing-in on one of the Army's "special missions": to increase the number of Hispanic enlisted soldiers.

He approaches a couple of sheepish looking teenage boys in the automotive aisle and seamlessly slides into Spanish, letting loose his pitch: "Have you ever thought about joining the Army?" "Did you know you can get up to $40,000 in bonuses?" "I'm from Mexico, too. Michoacán."

In Denver and other cities where the Hispanic population is growing, recruiting Latinos has become one of the Army's top priorities. From 2001 to 2005, the number of Latino enlistments in the Army rose 26 percent, and in the military as a whole, the increase was 18 percent.

The increase comes at a time when the Army is struggling to recruit new soldiers and when the enlistment of African-Americans, a group particularly disillusioned with the war in Iraq, has dropped off sharply, to 14.5 percent from 22.3 percent over the past four years.

Here is the rest of the story.

FOX News: Bush Reinforces State of the Union Ideals in the Heartland

Here is a different perspective on President Bush's State of the Union. FOX News' point of view is certainly different from that of Ms. Sheehan. Just trying to be "Fair and Balanced."

Cindy Sheehan in Her Own Words

Cindy Sheehan in her own words.

State of the Union: Bush Scaling Down his Agenda

George W. Bush will give his fifth annual State of the Union message tonight. Independent voters have been leaving the president and this will probably his most important audience. Many Americans including these independents feel the nation was heading in the right direction with poll numbers well below 50 percent

Recently the White House has telegraphed the major elements of this year's speech: an initiative to make healthcare more affordable, ideas to reduce US dependence on foreign energy, a call to extend tax cuts. The defining issues of Mr. Bush's presidency - the Iraq war and larger war on terror - will also occupy center stage.

With the presiden'ts support waning, he is forced to scale down his agenda. The Christian Science Monitor has the story.

State of The Union Speech 2006 Seen as Crucial for Bush

tomorrow's State of the Union Speech by president George Bush is critical, experts say, as Bush tries to bolster his own popularity as poll numbers continue to drop. The president will try to boost the fortunes of a Republican Party tainted by scandal, grappling with soaring budget deficits and consumed by the war in Iraq.

A preview of the importance of the speech here.

Iraq Veterans Return Home And Run For Office As Democrats

The Atlantic Monthly runs the story of the number of Iraq veterans who have returned home only to run for office as Democrats.

Analysis: GOP Troubles Do Not End With DeLay

Republicans worried about their party's future have succeeded in pushing embattled former Majority Leader Tom DeLay off the stage. Even so, the Republicans' election-year troubles are far from over.

President Bush, the titular head of the GOP, is waging an unpopular war in Iraq and presiding over a nation with lingering economic anxieties. He suffers from approval ratings around 40 percent — near record lows for his presidency. Questionable stock transactions by the top Republican in the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, are under investigation. A special prosecutor's probe continues into whether Bush administration officials outed a CIA operative in retribution for her husband's Iraq war criticism. A secret anti-terror program that Bush approved to eavesdrop on people inside the United States without warrants is raising concerns about overly broad presidential powers.

The rest of the AP story here.