A news article in the national section of today's New York Times begins, "WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 -- In his first visit to Capitol Hill since his rancorous confirmation, Attorney General John Ashcroft met today with black lawmakers and tried to ease their concerns about how he would handle the job." It's just false to call that "his first visit to Capitol Hill since his rancorous confirmation." Mr. Ashcroft was on Capitol Hill on February 27 to watch President Bush give his speech about the budget. He was clearly visible in television broadcasts of the speech, which took place on Capitol Hill.
Epicenter and Hypocenter: A graphic in the national section of today's New York Times explains, "The epicenter is the surface location directly above the hypocenter, the focus point of an earthquake." The graphic shows the hypocenter of the Seattle quake as "33 miles" below the epicenter. How, then, to explain the following sentence in the news article that accompanies the graphic: "Today's epicenter was some 35 miles deep, whereas the other two quakes occurred just a few miles from the surface"? If the epicenter is "the surface location," how can it be "some 35 miles deep"?
A Conservative's Dream: A news analysis in the national section of today's New York Times asserts, "In fact, the budget Mr. Bush published today is a conservative's dream: it slows the pace of spending, cuts a few of the programs championed by the previous administration and returns $1.6 trillion to taxpayers over the next decade." This is another example of the narrowness of the Times' conception of conservatism. A slew of conservatives have been grumbling that the Bush tax cut is too small, that it doesn't include a capital gains tax cut and that it would reduce the top marginal income tax rate to a rate that is still higher than the ones that applied at the end of the Reagan administration and even at the end of the first Bush administration. Conservatives are also complaining that the 4% spending increase is too much; they argue that the president should have the ambition not merely to slow the pace of spending but to reduce the size of government. And there are still other conservatives who complain there isn't enough additional defense spending in the budget. So, far from being "a conservative's dream," the Bush budget has plenty of conservatives restless.