We had some long discussions in several threads this week. With so much activity, I wanted to highlight some interesting posts that may have gotten lost in the shuffle.
- 3/12 Stop and Shop Workers Agree to Contract
- 3/13 New London Charter Reform Fails
- 3/14 Dodd’s Blog Finally Has a Hit!
- 3/16 2nd District: Two Possible GOP Challengers
- 3/16 More on Lowering the Voting Age
Kentucky beat Villanova 67-58 last night, and I can’t wait to see them take on Kansas tomorrow. What else is going on?
13 responses so far ↓
Ohio State is in trouble against Xavier, and the Heels are going to go all the way!
Darn, the Buckeyes pulled it out. What a great game.
I gotta a shout out to my school, the CCSU Blue Devils for making the Tournament.
I noticed that Congressman Joe Courtney has pledged his unconditional support for the proposed $124.1 Billion Supplemental Spending Bill for operations in Iraq & Afghanistan.
Through a written statement on Thursday, Courtney trumpeted his unconditional endorsement of the spending plan, describing it as one that “honors our troops” and serves as “a balanced compromise.”
The House Appropriations Committee “marked up” the Supplemental on Thursday and the full House will debate it this week.
To be fair, Courtney gets it right when he stands behind giving the resources our armed forces in harms way need to be effective in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Its also admirable for him to have demonstrated his deep compassion for our injured soliders whose health care system has recently come under fire.
What’s disappointing, however, is Courtney’s blind support for a proposal that contains billions of dollars of our tax dollars for items unrelated to helping our troops.
This “emergency” spending proposal represents everything that Democrats promised they would not be when they passed their “100 Hour Agenda”
Courtney promised us that he would be a different kind of public servant. He unfortunately appears he is falling in line with the misguided priorities of Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Democratic Caucus seems so bitterly divided over the Iraq War, they need to resort to putting “pork” in spending bills to hold their fractured caucus together.
Unfortunately, supplemental appropriations bills are exempt from spending caps and other budget controls, which makes them magnets for projects and programs that might not stand up to the scrutiny of the budget process.
Below is a list of spending and policy provisions in the supplemental that Courtney did not list in his press release and are unrelated to military operations.
*$500 million for emergency wildfires suppression; the Forest Service currently has $831 million for this purpose;
*$400 million for rural schools;
*$283 million for the Milk Income Loss Contract program;
*$120 million to compensate for the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the shrimp and menhaden fishing industries;
*$100 million for citrus assistance (2005 Homeland Livestock Indemnity Program) ;
*$74 million for peanut storage costs;
*$60.4 million for salmon fisheries in the Klamath River region in California and Oregon;
*$50 million for asbestos mitigation at the U.S. Capitol Plant;
*$48 million in salaries and expenses for the Farm Service Agency;
*$35 million for NASA risk mitigation projects in Gulf Coast;
*$25 million for Calfornia spinach growers;
*$25 million for livestock (2005 Hurricane Livestock Indemnity Program);
*$20 million for Emergency Conservation Program for farmland damaged by freezing temperatures;
*$16 million for security upgrades to House of Representatives office buildings;
*$10 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission for the Rio Grande Flood Control System Rehabilitation project;
*$6.4 million for House of Representative’s Salaries and Expenses Account for business continuity and disaster recovery expenses;
*$5 million for losses suffered by aquaculture businesses including breeding, rearing, or transporting live fish as a result of viral hemorrhagic septicemia;
*$4 million for the Office of Women’s Health at the Food and Drug Administration; and
*A minimum wage increase, which is the subject of separate legislation.
We definitely need the money for peanut storage … don’t pass the bill without this part of it!
Our National Security depends on Spinach and peanut storage. It will not survive the US Senate.
The folks on My Left Nutmeg are getting hot over the the real facts about the Iraq Supplemental.
http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6189
WeickerLiker–
Please don’t credit your hit piece to MyLeftNutmeg. What you are trying to do is completely dishonest, and unethical.
And of course if Courtney had voted against this bill, you’d be attacking him for that too!
Weicker Liker,
This is completey dishonest and simple-minded. I’m onto your B.S. (and that’s not a good thing).
TrueBlue
>>Please don’t credit your hit piece to MyLeftNutmeg. What you are trying to do is completely dishonest, and unethical.
You’re off base.
You might take a look at the link; WL wrote it.
ACR,
This is the dishonest part of WL’s post
The folks on My Left Nutmeg are getting hot over the the real facts about the Iraq Supplemental.
The so called “folks” on MLN is dishonest since is’t WL who 1). wrote the post, 2). has a past of writing hitpieces on Courtney and crosslinking his post to anti-Courtney sites (i.e. CourtneyWatch), 3.) using MLN for his own political agenda (cur Turfgrrl).
>>The so called “folks” on MLN is dishonest since is’t WL who 1). wrote the post, 2). has a past of writing hitpieces on Courtney and crosslinking his post to anti-Courtney sites (i.e. CourtneyWatch), 3.) using MLN for his own political agenda (cur Turfgrrl).
Nothing surprising there, considering it’s WL were speaking about.
I hope the Democrats LOAD UP THIS BILL with 150 billion in pork and when Bush comes back begging for more money for his stupid Republican war in 6 months the Dems should DOUBLE the pork to 300 billion on that one.
EAT IT OR SIGN IT W!!
I wonder what Ammann has to say about the DEP ruling since this is literally in his backyard. Since it’s Rell’s Gina McCarthy, a social anthropoligist, at DEP saying it’s OK I don’t expect Healy to touch it but he should if he weren’t just trying to stir up the base when he goes after Amann.
http://www.connpost.com/localnews/ci_5466418
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