we have a President who wants to spend untold billions helping those in a foreign country

  His point is well-taken because we see an example of "Bush threatened to veto it, so I must support it despite not knowing who it will help and who it will hurt."

 Is it limited to to grants to "family farmers" to offset catastrophic losses? Will it provide subsidies to major corporations? Is there a lnkage between the allocations and political support for certain influential legislators? will certain provisions continue to encourage the continued unsustainable diversion of limited water supplies? Are environmental issues being considered so as not to continue to make "healthier" meat, produce and dairy less competive in the marketplace because the "unhealthy" producers are more insulated from market forces?

  I agree that food,  along with energy, steel, and few other things are so vital that we must always endeavor to maintain domestic production capability but these are COMPLEX issues without easy answers and solutions that produce all good or all bad.

  To answer Obey, I don't have a problem with it because that is a large part of the reason you are there and why we have a lowe house representing relatively small districts. The theory is that a whole lot of people competing for limited resources will compete and cmpromise and that the individual pursuit od individual district interests will diffuse resources in a "fair" (though not necessarily "rational") manner.

  What I have a problem with is pretending it's something that it's not-- black and white game of good guys v. bad guys, with "my guys" being altruistic common good advocates and the other guys being evil people out to enslave and impoverish.

When confronted with truthful statements about your identity, location, or purpose use divisive tactics. Try to make your opponent seem crazy or out of touch with reality. Question their motives and establish a negatively constructed adjective to their nature (see appendix A: Catch Phrases Used to Bring Discredit Upon Individuals). These negatively constructed phrases have been thoroughly tested by our K Street market research teams and are highly effective in turning any conversation you may be engaged in to your advantage. If you are engaged in a hot button topic on a news media show, don't answer your opponent's questions, simply attack their motives and character. This will ensure that we can accuse the media for being biased when they don't follow up on our allegations of the opponent's motivation or character. When the media outlet is diverted into looking at our opponent the hot button topic public interest drops and the public is redirected to learn more about our opponent instead of the actual topic at hand. This is how we control the media's agenda.

Golden Rule #2:

Attack everything your opponents stand for. Even though you might agree with some of their issues do not for once let your guard down. We have thoroughly mapped out our plans for World dominance. Whenever you divert from the "Message" and "Go off script" you open yourself and our message for attacks. We know better than you! You must Trust us and stay focused! Attack your opponents and every stance they take.

Golden Rule #3:

Do Not Watch any news other than Fox News. We have invested extreme amounts of money into the media so as to control the messages being delivered. We are close to completely destroying PBS and running any opposing voices away from the public being able to hear their messages. Listen to A.M radio talk shows, this is how we expect you to learn daily how to counter the Moonbat positions. In the evening watch our Flag Station Fox to see how the message of the day has been working for our cause.

Let me take a page out of your Counter-Propaganda manual (pg.22):

"Always answer a question with a question. If your opponent doesn't answer your answer, it only diverts the debate and allows you to achieve the higher ground of the debate by proclaiming "You didn't answer my question". Research has proven it doesn't matter what questions you ask as your answer, only that you ask a question, period. We need for our agents to respond quickly and not look as if they are "uncertain" or "without an answer". Just ask a question and put your opponent on the defensive. Once they are on the defensive, Attack, thus controlling the conversation. We can then proclaim a bias if the media doesn't hold your opponent to answering the question you posed."

And in fact, that is what they will wind up doing because holding farm aid hostage to a political fight is politically stupid.

BTW - Two things:

1. Don't tell me it is the Pres fault because, as you havetold us time and again, all spending bills originate in the house. So there is no excise to not do the funding.

2. Most of this money is for large farmers. The Left has screamed for years about this very thing. Where, I ask, is your consistency??

but i am grateful for the information. . .

[Dick] Morris: It's `Convenient' To Keep U.S. Troops In Iraq So Terrorists Can Kill Them `Around The Corner'

President Bush has repeatedly argued that the United States needs to "eliminate terrorist threats abroad, so we do not have to face them here at home."

[Monday] night on Hannity and Colmes, right-wing pundit Dick Morris also claimed that we need to keep U.S. troops in Iraq so that terrorists don't come to the United States. But he argued that we need to put "Americans right within their [terrorists'] arms' reach" so that they have the opportunity to "kill Americans" there. He added that therefore, "they don't have to come to Wall Street to kill Americans. They don't have to knock down the Trade Center. They can do it around the corner, and convenience is a big factor when you're a terrorist."

fear jim for being a "secret agent" (albeit with the least important assignment of all-time)?

be funny?

question your sanity?

WASHINGTON -- Three months after promising to curtail spending on pet legislative projects, House Democrats have salted the Iraq emergency spending bill with $3.7 billion for farm interests that make significant donations to Democrats.