See the sonogram images

Indeed it is. Mexico's unprecedented offer of aid -- and the U.S.'s equally unprecedented acceptance of disaster relief -- has struck a deep chord in Mexico as well as in this Texas city. Scores of Texans lined the entrance to the city last week waving Mexican flags to welcome the nearly 200 soldiers and doctors. With the exception of a squad of pilots that trained in Texas during World War II, this is the first time Mexican troops have been sent north of the Rio Grande since the U.S.-Mexican War of 1846-48, which cost Mexico half of its territory.

By JOSÉ DE CÓRDOBA
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 13, 2005; Page A15

Flickr - Louisville and Squire Boone Caves

Tucked inside the House version of a bill that authorizes spending on foreign aid is the language of what is known as the ADVANCE Democracy Act. The act instructs American ambassadors and embassy staffs to draw up democracy transition plans for unfree regimes, with input from nonviolent opposition movements in the various countries. While Congress has passed laws that require America to work with democratic opposition groups for specific countries - such as the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act - never before has it considered a law that would, as ADVANCE proposes, "commit United States foreign policy to the challenge of achieving universal democracy."

'Universal Democracy' Is the Goal As Congress Eyes New Legislation
Eli Lake
New York Sun
July 27, 2005

At the heart of this problem is a genuine dilemma of democratic government: As governments hire employees to perform public services, the employees inevitably have their own distinctive interests. They have interests in job security and material benefits, in higher levels of public spending and taxing, and in work rules that restrict the prerogatives of management. They also have interests in preventing governmental reforms that might threaten their jobs. To the extent public employees have political power, therefore, they will use it to promote their own job-related interests -- which are not the same as, and may easily conflict with, what is good for the public as a whole.

Packing a Punch
By TERRY M. MOE
Wall Street Journal
August 25, 2005; Page A8

ID4 2005 - Flickr Photoset

With the advent of carbon-nanotube composites and the conclusions of recent studies, the space elevator concept is moving toward mainstream acceptance.

A Hoist to the Heavens

Pope Urges Muslims to Confront Terrorism

NASA has already spent $1 billion improving the shuttles over the previous two year delay without resolving the primary flaw of foam debris that blasted the fatal hole in Columbia's wing.

Colossal waste of money and time. Either accept the current risks and launch the shuttle or retire the orbiters now.

Energia - All about the HLLV