House cleaning and links

I've added some link sections. Hopefully I'll build on them. Scan down the side of my blog and you'll get a section of Links for Raza, stuff that I think is important to La Causa. I've also added a couple of blogs, took down some blawgs, and added another MP3 blog.
I want to refer people to a couple of stories that I think are important. First, this is about the No Child Left Behind act and Military recruiters. I don't know how I feel about this. At 11% of the military I don't think Latinos are serving disproportionately, but I think the poor are. What I don't like is that the recruiters do lie to these kids. They promise them they won't go to Iraq, that they'll provide training, there will be money for school and that they've got a valid contract that protects their rights. When Bush announced his stop loss orders we saw how valid those contracts are. Iraq is too under manned so if you enlist and can carry a rifle you're probably going to Iraq. I've hired a crap load of bussers, valets, and parking lot attendants who have been honorably discharged so I know what military training is worth. You do get some money for school, but school costs so much now that unless you've already gone to school the military won't pay you enough to make it worth while. You can get more money for school by barbacking 20 hours a week at a good club than the military is going to give you. That's just simple math. $800 a month for four years is $38400, the military at the lower ranks only gives you about $17,000.
Second, why wasn't there a terror alert from the Bin Laden tape? We've raised the terror level for worse information, like the two year old threat on financial buildings. Maybe it was because Bush hadn't done anything particularly embarrassing/illegal that week or there wasn't a commission releasing a report that indicated the Bush administration had made several failures prosecuting the war on terror.
Third if everyone could call or write Arlen Specter's office and thank him for looking out for the rights of America he would probably appreciate it.
Fourth here's a cool article, by way of Jeremy's Blog, about what can happen when interests cooperate instead of just suing and threatening each other. It's about a cease and desist letter that the U.S. Post Office sent to the band Postal Service, who are awesome, and then a compromise that protected the USPS's property interest and encouraged the band's creativity.