TODAY'S VILLAGE IDIOT: SENATOR JIM BUNNING

So Senator Jim Bunning (R-Kentucky) is suddenly concerned about the budget deficit because of a proposed extension on unemployment benefits. What an idiot. Here's why.

Senator Bunning supported President Bush's unfunded boondoggle in Iraq. The Congressional Research Service says we've committed over $683 billion to Iraq through 2009, with total costs of expected to reach $3 billion. Why isn't Senator Bunning saying anything about funding the war in Iraq?

Senator Bunning supported President Bush's unfunded tax cuts for the rich in 2001 and 2003. Most of these tax cuts went to the richest Americans, and have cost America almost $2.5 trillion through 2010. Where was Senator Bunning's concern for funding this handout then?

Where was our budget-concious senator when he requested well over $69.5 million in unfunded earmarks for his district? Suddenly catching Jesus is not good or principled politics.

Look, it would be one thing if Senator Bunning had a history of speaking out against unfunded projects. But he hasn't done so in the past. Indeed, our suddenly budget-conscious senator (the cost for the benefits extension is about $10 billion) has never gone to the extremes that we're now seeing. When will he start complaining that President Bush's Captain Ahab-like war in Iraq, and his tax cuts for the rich, were both deficit financed? What about his own unfunded earmarks?

Jim Bunning ... America's village idiot for the day. Want more proof? Check out this Jon Stewart clip.

- Mark

EARMARK FACTS, FOR DUMMIES

EARMARK: Portions of a piece of legislation (usually an appropriations bill) that benefit a specific state, region, project, or individual.

After passing a $410 billion spending bill, republicans in Congress are still up in arms about earmarks. What they're especially mad about is that President Obama isn't putting a stop to a problem that they turned into an art form after they came to power in Congress in 1994.



Worse, their complaints are really misdirected because - apart from doing nothing to stem spending when they were in power - at the end of the day earmarks amount to little more than 2% of the total federal budget.



Finally, of the 8,500 + earmarks in the spending bill, at least 40% of them belong to republicans. Put another way, republicans have a heavy hand in the cookie jar.

- Mark

PIRATE ECONOMICS

The pirates off the coast of Somalia got it wrong. They should have gone to Wall Street. It's much easier to board and loot treasure when you trash an economy, threaten meltdown and depression, and then lobby Congress for your loot. No wonder Congress put in earmarks for Rum ... they needed the pirate vote.
The House caved in and approved the bailout measure on the second try. Incredible.


Look, at the end of the day, this vote was a pathetic cave-in to Wall Street and their threats of insolvency. And it did little to nothing to punish the culprits behind this bailout mess.

Tonight I'm going to go spend money and drink until I find an eye patch to put on. Then I'll put my daughter's parakeet on my shoulder for effect. Arrrghhhh ...

- Mark

THE McCAIN-PALIN LYING MACHINE ...

If you're a republican and the Wall Street Journal is calling you on your lies, you know you've stepped in it. Here's what the WSJ is saying about Sarah Palin's declaration that she's a fiscal conservative who opposed the mega-pork Bridge to Nowhere project ...

... Gov. Palin's claim comes with a serious caveat. She endorsed the multimillion dollar project during her gubernatorial race in 2006.

"Caveat"? Let's call it what it is, a LIE. And for those of you inclined to claim, "Palin's still a fiscal conservative because she eventually opposed the bridge project ..." the WSJ tells us that while ...

... [Palin] did take part in stopping the project after it became a national scandal, she did not return the federal money. She just allocated it elsewhere.

This doesn't sound like someone who wants to save the American taxpayer money. Worse, it wasn't Palin who pulled the plug on the project, it was Congress. And what does the WSJ have to say about John McCain's lying claim that Sarah Palin's earmarked-pork addiction is not as bad as Barack Obama's (once again trying to taint others with their cesspool of lies)? You're going to like this one ...

At a rally today, Sen. McCain again asserted that Sen. Obama has requested nearly a billion in earmarks. In fact, the Illinois senator requested $311 million last year, according to the Associated Press, and none this year. In comparison, Gov. Palin has requested $750 million in her two years as governor -- which the AP says is the largest per-capita request in the nation.

At what point does the press begin calling McCain and Palin "liars"? And where are the Christians who claim to know a thing or two about bearing false witness?

Just asking.

- Mark