Primarily

Well, that should just about be the end of Howard "Terrorists are Soldiers" Dean. Good riddance. I'd bet that John Edwards faces George W. Bush in November.

In more important news, Kerry Wood and Derrek Lee signed 1 year deals with hopes high for long termers to come soon. Decent news. I wouldn't break the bank for either of these guys, but anything under $10 million per year for Wood and $8 million per year for Lee would be fine.

But the REAL news is that the Cubs budget right now is $84 million. That's a WHOPPING $1 MILLION INCREASE FROM 2003!

Horse hockey!

This team stands to get $2 million extra per year from the rooftop owners, ALONE!!!! Season tix sales are up to about 25,000 packages sold. Ratings were up last year for TV and radio! And they spend THE GRAND SPANKING TOTAL OF $1 MILLION MORE THAN LAST YEAR?!?!?!?! WHAT HAPPENED TO A HIGHER BUDGET IN 2004?!?!?!?!?!

What a load of crap. I'm very glad that I did not buy season tix as I had contemplated.

No Maddux. No Pudge. Just more in the Trib's pocket.