Free Republic

The British government said on Tuesday it would commit its largest-ever tranche of military aid to Ukraine as part of a package worth £500 million ($622 million). The assistance will include further deliveries of Storm Shadow air-launched, precision-guided missiles, as well as vessels and vehicles. The Paveway IV—the latest in the Paveway series of bombs—converts unguided munitions, also known as "dumb bombs," into precision-guided weapons. They can use laser guidance or satellites to find their way to a target. "The Paveway IV will enable Ukraine to strike back" at Russian forces and target high-value assets such as command centers and...

Though the Bush administration announced last week that it would limit the 2003 federal civilian pay raise to 3.1 percent, union leaders said Monday they will continue to fight for a 4.1 percent raise. [They're still rather impossible to fire, by the way]. In a statement released Monday, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. said he plans to push for a 4.1 percent pay increase in the 2003 Treasury-Postal Service Appropriations bill or to try and add one to an omnibus bill. However, President Bush says that granting a pay raise larger than 3.1 percent would jeopardize homeland security efforts. Nevertheless, Hoyer...

"[President] Bush is demanding -- and the House has approved -- powers to rearrange the federal bureaucracy in ways not seen since Congress passed the Pendleton Act in 1883...If Senate Democrats go along, Bush could get rid of the 15-grade structure of the federal personnel system, in which promotions are based more on seniority than performance. Light suspects Bush would use a merit-based system. Once that was implemented at the Homeland Security Department, a domino effect that could release all 1.8 million federal workers from [the cumbersome and self-perpetuating bureaucracy of] government personnel rules."