I hate the smell of soy and pollies

Originally posted on my 360 page on Saturday June 10, 2006 at 0747 CDT.

I canNOT believe Yahoo lost my photo albums. I know that I am not the only one who has had problems with Yahoo the last two weeks. I hope they get their act together. There is no way I can remember the titles, descriptions, and captions within all of the (five!) albums I had. Two of them I just put up, like 72 hours ago. I'm quite irritated.

Speaking of being vexed, it would please me to refer you to the following article: http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/06/09/congress.iraq.katrina.ap/index.html. I sincerely hope that no one on this entire planet can keep a straight face and say they can't understand how the United States could be so much in debt. May I make comments on a few particular snippets? Thanks.

I. “Lawmakers added funding to upgrade Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles for National Guard troops and nearly doubled the Pentagon request for new, better-armored Humvees.”

.....Now do you suppose that anyone has done a study to determine whether the military and human value of possible injuries reduced and lives saved as a result of having the better-armored Hummers will be equivocal to an amount greater than their cost to build and deliver?

II. “The bill also contains funding for controversial, accident-prone V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft for deployment to Iraq, as well as more popular C-130 cargo planes.”

.....That’s right folks, in America, a toy company can be sued an arm and a leg for one human injury as a result of, say, a sharp part being exposed during the handling of a toy - which the toy company knew nothing about prior to distribution. But it’s perfectly okay to PAY an arm and a leg (out of the taxpayers’ money) for something that is KNOWN to have problems and would quite obviously harm MORE THAN ONE individual with its malfunctions. “Truth, justice and the American Way,” right?

III. “The bill contains $19.8 billion in new money for hurricane relief along the Gulf Coast, including housing aid and flood control projects for Louisiana, small-business disaster loans, rebuilding federal facilities and replenishing Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief coffers."

.....A) Okay wait, housing aid? So, absolutely none of the $60 BILLION given to Katrina victims a month after it happened went toward finding them a new place to live? That's an awful lot of soap and peanut butter.

..........1. “Early in September, Congress authorized a total of $62.3 billion in aid for victims.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina#Government_response)

..........2. “Additionally, President Bush enlisted the help of former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush to raise additional voluntary contributions.” (same link as above)

..........3. “Since September, the Presidents have raised approximately $115 million; awarded 42 grants, and disbursed more than $53 million through April 30, 2006.” (http://www.bushclintonkatrinafund.org)

.....B) Yes, I’m sure all federal agencies are completely broke now, since they never get money from Uncle Sam any other time - as evidenced by things like the spectacular job benefits most government employees receive as well as the as-modernized-as-possible facilities they work in.

IV. “The agreement caps weeks of mostly behind-the-scenes talks on Capitol Hill over how to balance lawmakers' hopes for additional hurricane relief…”

.....And why, you ask, would the lawmakers be hoping for additional hurricane relief? I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer.

V. “The Senate-passed version of the bill had exceeded Bush's request by more than $14 billion…”

.....Oh, really? What interest would the Senate have in how much money… Oh, wait. I think we need to look at section IV again.

VI. “GOP Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Mike DeWine of Ohio sided with Democrats on a House-Senate negotiating committee to insist on $7 billion in additional money on top of Bush's $873 billion cap for the upcoming annual spending bills…. They wanted to dedicate the $7 billion to health and education programs; the White House and House GOP leaders were dead set against the idea. ‘Period,’ said House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. ‘These are things I care very much about, education and children's health issues,’ DeWine said. But DeWine and Specter were overruled when Inoue (Sen., D - HI) and Landrieu (Sen., D - LA) signed on to the agreement.”

.....Yes, let’s NOT spend money on giving our children and young people healthier childhoods and better educations - that way we can feel more at ease putting them in the cockpits of accident-prone combat planes.