Drat: "In a primary faceoff between two veteran Democratic incumbents, voters in Ohio delivered a victory to Representative Marcy Kaptur, a progressive from Toledo, over Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, leaving him without a seat in Congress for the first time in 16 years"
"As part of the drive to cut spending, the Obama administration and Congress have trimmed the energy-assistance program that helps the poor — 65,000 households in Maine alone — to pay their heating bills. Eligibility is harder now, and the average amount given here is $483, down from $804 last year, all at a time when the price of oil has risen more than 40 cents in a year, to $3.71 a gallon...
Two days later, Mr. Hartford drove up to Hometown Energy’s small office in his weathered gray Lincoln, walked inside, and made his desperate offer: The title to his car for some oil."
Sure glad the government has its priorities in order.
A new definition of ending the war in Iraq. I have to wonder what an embassy staff of 11,000 does, not to mention why we are paying 5,000 mercenaries. Well, Hillary must love this new feature of the State Department, she always wanted to be warlord in chief:
"The drones are the latest example of the State Department’s efforts to take over functions in Iraq that the military used to perform. Some 5,000 private security contractors now protect the embassy’s 11,000-person staff, for example, and typically drive around in heavily armored military vehicles."
"Doctors Without Borders is halting work in detention centers in the Libyan city of Misrata because detainees are "tortured and denied urgent medical care," the international aid agency said Thursday.
Some of the patients treated were tortured again after they were returned to detention centers, according to the agency.
"Patients were brought to us for medical care between interrogation sessions, so that they would be fit for further interrogation. This is unacceptable. Our role is to provide medical care to war casualties and sick detainees, not to repeatedly treat the same patients between torture sessions."
U.S. taxpayers fund Israeli version of Sesame Street to the tune of $750,000. Cause Israel is such a poor country, ya know, there's nothing we could do with $750,000 here, like support a homeless shelter for awhile:
Once again Obama and the Democrats give away the store. The pipeline is back, Obama gives way on threat(sic) to veto it, Social Security gets damaged by SS tax reduced, etc.
The only thing that is more pitifully farcical than the Republicans pretending they don't want to undermine Social Security with the tax cut is how both parties ignore the effects of offshoring jobs.
Right now I feel exactly how I used to feel when Bush was President.
A couple of notes. I really would have liked to see it include a brief mention of why there is a significant change for a category, and note this caveat, which is very important, I think:
"Chart shows funds authorized to be spent each fiscal year. It does not show "off-setting receipts" — items like postage stamp sales, park fees, Medicare prescription drug premiums and federal agency contributions to employee retirement plans — that are counted as negative budget authority. "
Cause we all know those are the ones with easy access to doctors, right? And they aren't going to have any problem asking their parents to let them get a prescription.
