LP's blog

Reflecting the fact that a huge chunk of the State of the Union Address shied away from domestic issues, many domestic agencies saw their budgets cut or frozen in the newest budget.

Meanwhile, the war on terror and war in Iraq (not the same thing, no matter what Bush says) get 'impressive increases'.

Domestic priorities like federal aid to schools and health research are squeezed under President Bush's proposed budget for next year, but funding for the Pentagon, the war in Iraq and anti-terrorism efforts get impressive increases.

Monday's budget tome will have a price tag of more than $2.7 trillion. The departments of Education, Commerce, Interior and Energy will see their budgets, on average, frozen or cut slightly below today's already austere levels.  Read More »

In September (yes, back in September), the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten ran twelve cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed; it is against Muslim law to have a depiction of the prophet. And the firestorm ignited in the past week.

For more background, read this post, or just about any newspaper in America.

Speaking of America, it looks like the US State Department is surprising backing the Muslims against the European newspapers. From Reuters:

The United States backed Muslims on Friday against European newspapers that printed caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in a move that could help America's battered image in the Islamic world.  Read More »

Muslims in Europe are now at odds with newspapers in Europe. I haven't written about this issue yet (there has been so much going on lately, it's hard to keep up with everything), so here's the basics:

A major clash between European press freedom and Islamic religious sensibility escalated Thursday. More European newspapers published cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed, and gunmen surrounded the European Union offices in Gaza demanding apologies.

The dispute began Sept. 30, when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten ran a dozen cartoons to criticize what it saw as self-censorship by artists in response to Islamic pressure. Demonstrations and boycotts against Denmark erupted across the Muslim world after a Norwegian magazine reprinted the cartoons last month.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I feel that calling Mohammad a terrorist is not a good thing to do. On the other hand, I don't think that you need armed gunmen to help voice your displeasure for the offense.  Read More »

Rep John Boehner (R-OH) (no, that's not how you say his name) was elected house Majority leader today, in an upset against DeLay protege Roy Blunt. Boehner ran as a reform candidate.

The vote did not come without it's hitches; apparently, in the first round of voting, more votes were cast than there were Republican Reps in attendence.  They even try to cheat at their own elections.

Boehner was not a friend of DeLay. DeLay ousted Boehner from power in 1998. That doesn't mean that Boehner is necessarily clean.  Read More »

President Bush mentioned New Orleans twice and the word 'Katrina' zero times in his State of the Union address. He mentioned cloning as much as the hurricane. He mentioned human-animal hybrids more times than he said "Katrina."

As you could guess, Katrina victims are very angry.

The president's 55-minute speech drove home hard-hitting points on Iran and the war in Iraq, but his 30 seconds dedicated to the devastated Gulf Coast failed to provide any comforts to those affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  Read More »

Once again, the government has screwed poor people. The latest issue is on health insurance. Josh from Talking Points Memo mentioned Saturday that one Conservative talking point would be that Americans are over-insured. Yes, you read that correctly, they believe that Americans have too much health insurance. This is not just idle BS. From the New York Times:

Millions of low-income people would have to pay more for health care under a bill worked out by Congress, and some of them would forgo care or drop out of Medicaid because of the higher co-payments and premiums, the Congressional Budget Office says in a new report. The Senate has already approved the measure, the first major effort to rein in federal benefit programs in eight years, and the House is expected to vote Wednesday, clearing the bill for President Bush.  Read More »

Once again highlighting the dangers of reporting in a war zone, the co-anchor of ABC World News Tonight was injured in a roadside bomb attack. Also injured in the attack was his cameraman. From the Washington Post:  Read More »