Two pieces of good news

Gas prices are dropping (something I’ve already noticed at my local pumps):

Gasoline prices are falling fast and could keep dropping for months.

“The only place they have to go is down,” says Fred Rozell, gasoline analyst at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). “We’ll be closer to $2 than $3 come Thanksgiving.”

Travel organization AAA foresees prices 10 cents a gallon lower by the end of next week. It reported a nationwide average of $2.84 Tuesday, the lowest since April 20.

It’s nice to see the MSM report this story, by the way.

And the Army’s doing just fine, thank you, despite the MSM’s and Democrats’ relentless efforts to show it as a failed organization that can’t hold on to people. (And what’s really funny is that same relentless effort shows up in the AP story reporting the Army’s successes.):

While the Army struggled last year to meet recruitment goals, it has been able to keep soldiers in the service by using a growing list of incentives and escalating bonuses to shower troops with money, schooling and career advancements.

So far this year, the Army has doled out an average bonus of $14,000, to eligible soldiers, for a total of $610 million in extra payments.

The re-enlistments come despite the escalating casualties on the Iraq battlefield – where more than 2,600 troops have lost their lives since March 2003. And they have enabled the Army to meet its retention goal every year since 1998.

“The bonuses have a lot to do with it, along with a feeling of accomplishment that comes with doing their mission,” said Army spokesman Henry Minitrez. He also said that retention rates have even gone up for some of the military’s high-profile units – such as the 82nd Airborne or 101st Airborne divisions – when they return home from Iraq or Afghanistan.

Both the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve expect to meet their re-enlistment goals for this fiscal year, which are 34,875 and 17,712, respectively. Both totals are slightly higher than last year’s goals.

The number of expected and confirmed re-enlistments dipped in 2003, the year the war began, but has increased since then.

By the way, I think it’s great the Army is offering such incentives.  These men and women are putting their lives on the line to protect me.  It’s appropriate that they should have something to look forward to on their return from service.