Congresscritter Marion Berry is a Blue Dog Democrat representing the First District of Arkansas and is a rice farmer with a net worth between one and a half and six million dollars. His annual Congressional paycheck is $165K and he is getting farm subsidies. This is wrong.

CBS News covers him and other well off people that the taxpayers give money to in the Farm Bill. There is no means testing, so the bulk of the money is being handed out to huge factory farm operations. That’s not what the program is for, and we can’t afford to do that anymore, if we ever could.

The Associated Press was a little weak on the headline, Senate votes to block Iraq war funds, but they nailed it on the subhead, Republicans halt Iraq withdrawal plan and block bill to pay for Iraq:

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Friday blocked a Democratic proposal to pay for the Iraq war but require that troops start coming home.

The 53-45 vote was seven votes short of the 60 needed to advance. It came minutes after the Senate rejected a Republican proposal to pay for the Iraq war without strings attached.

The Republican measure failed 45-53, 15 short of the number of votes needed to go forward.

The Repubs blocked the funding, and that’s the story. The troops aren’t going to get the money because the GOP Senators voted against it.

I would write about the Democratic debate but this is more important than Wolf Blitzer parodying himself in Vegas: Religious scholars mull Flying Spaghetti Monster

(AP) — When some of the world’s leading religious scholars gather in San Diego this weekend, pasta will be on the intellectual menu. They’ll be talking about a satirical pseudo-deity called the Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose growing pop culture fame gets laughs but also raises serious questions about the essence of religion.

The appearance of the Flying Spaghetti Monster on the agenda of the American Academy of Religion’s annual meeting gives a kind of scholarly imprimatur to a phenomenon that first emerged in 2005, during the debate in Kansas over whether intelligent design should be taught in public school sciences classes.

It is actually a serious discussion of the function and formation of religion, and not simply an excuse for grad students to display their comedy talents.

WSMV, channel 4 in Nashville, is reporting: Vintage Whiskey May Be Poured Out

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Here’s a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.

Officials seized 2,400 bottles late last month during warehouse raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, the southern Tennessee town where the whiskey is distilled.

[Read more →]

The MSNBC reporting: Hundreds killed, missing in Bangladesh storm

DHAKA, Bangladesh – A cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh’s coast with winds up to 155 mph has killed at least 425 people with hundreds more unaccounted for, including 1,000 fishermen, officials and news reports said Friday.

The disaster triggered an international relief effort to help the army-backed interim government cope with helping victims.

[Read more →]

Mikey

Bugger off!

[Editor: Mikey hates everyone, but me especially. I give him food and he hisses and spits the entire time. He goes to the feeding area and takes his customary spot, but when I’m putting down the food in front of him, as always, he hisses at me.]

Friday Ark