Hannity gets embarrassed

Just as predicted - Repubes are melting down because Democrats in the House did the courageous thing last week by voting for the funding of the troops in Iraq that President Bush wants, but also adding a deadline for when the troops must withdraw.

College drop-out Hannity picked the wrong witness to lead in this clip, and it's awesome. Just a couple of quick points, because thinking about how utterly absurd Hannity is exhausts me.

How funny is it for Hannity to bring up money? We're what, $500 billion into the Iraq War now? If you're going to be outraged, and you should be, direct your outrage to the appropriate people, and that would be the Bush Administration and all of the people who sold us this war because Saddam was an "immediate threat" and a "clear and present danger to the United States." Liars.

Half a trillion dollars, and all we got was this lousy civil war. Hmm. There's a t-shirt in there somewhere.

It's also asinine for Hannity to be talking about Democrats doing some arm twisting and deal making to get the votes on the war funding bill. Repubes did that in the House for years (12, to be exact) to get things passed. I have many memories of Tom DeLay keeping votes open for hours while he went around the floor, intimidating people to vote with the Republicans. But, should we be surprised that someone like Hannity has selective memory? We should not.

Pork barrel spending is a valid criticism, but criticize both parties. Judas John McCain, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and President Bush crying foul about pork now is hypocrisy's finest hour.

One has to dig about as deep as a mud puddle to find examples of Republican excess.

Since I live in Pennsylvania, I'm very familiar with pork. If you've never heard of former Representative Bud Shuster, click on his link and read about all of the b.s. money he brought to Pennsylvania, specifically millions brought to his home district for highways. (Too bad he couldn't deliver for all of Pennsylvania, because we still have horrifically bad roads.)

My all-time favorite is Alaska Senator Ted Stevens of "Internet Tubes" fame, who once threatened to resign from the Senate (could we ever get THAT lucky?) if funding was stripped away from a proposed $315 million Gravina Island Bridge, a.k.a. The Bridge to Nowhere. You've got to read about it to believe it. Also check out the Knik Arm Bridge, which may run as high as $1.5 billion. The one good thing about global warming? Maybe it will thaw out some of the frozen, idiotic brains in our northern most state.

Pork barrel spending must end if we are ever going to get our budgets under control, but to blame Democrats for the problem is absurd.

Oh, and those bridges? They still might be built. Repubes took the very, very courageous step of stripping out the funding for both bridges, but not lowering the amount of money going to Alaska in general. Ooooh! Former Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski vowed full funding for both bridges. It remains to be seen if new Alaska Governor Sarah Heath Palin will keep the bridges funded.

Your tax pork at work.