Ok... finally got the parts in and i got a shop to install them for $85 bucks.
When the old bushings were taken out, they were mostly still good. I could start to see a little drying on the passenger side one and a few tiny cracks on the central one, but not much else. After the installation of the polyurethane bushings, there was NO movement at all of the steering rack. Not only that, the steering felt a little tighter. The only thing was since i had an alignment done 2 weeks ago, the steering wheel was actually centered at about 3 degrees to the right, since the slop in the bushings caused them to align the front end off center. Anyways... so all was well and i tried to go back to the dealer and tell them my alignment was funny so that i did not have to pay them for another one (since they told me it was normal for all that freeplay). Anyways.. The service advisor then accuses me of getting new tires and coming back for an alignment and that i wasn't supposed to do that. I was like wth????? I didn't get new tires. I didn't even know changing tires could change the alignment if the original alignment was done correctly.

Anyways... all in all, steering feels tighter and truck definately drives straighter on the highway. However, there is still a little bit of freeplay left in the wheel and sometimes if i run over bumps one wheel at a time slowly, i can still feel some metal hitting against metal in the steering wheel. Could it be the tierods?

I have included the link to the writeup installation and part #'s for the polyurethane bushings under the "late model parts" thread at the top.

thanks everyone for ALL your help!