Not Since Reagan

White House threatens water bill veto - 1 Aug 2007 at 2:49pm - WASHINGTON -- President Bush will veto a $20 billion water projects bill unless lawmakers remove the billions added for new plants and new costs shifted onto the federal government, the White House said Wednesday.... Not since President Reagan has an administration threatened to veto a water projects bill, said Stephen Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan watchdog group tracking the bill's pet projects, or "earmarks" that many consider to be pork-barrel spending.

But it's fine to spend hundreds of billions of dollars (and hundreds of lives) per year on a war to separate a dead guy from his non-existent weapons.

Sunni bloc quits Iraq govt - 1 Aug 2007 at 10:54am - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The main Sunni Arab political bloc quit the Iraqi government on Wednesday in a blow to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's shaky coalition as suicide bombers killed more than 70 people in three attacks across Baghdad.

Bush to prevent aides' testimony - 1 Aug 2007 at 12:36pm - WASHINGTON -- President Bush is expected to claim executive privilege to prevent two more White House aides from testifying before Congress about the firings of federal prosecutors.

Cigarette regs OK'd by Senate panel - 1 Aug 2007 at 2:00pm - WASHINGTON -- A Senate committee Wednesday embraced legislation that would for the first time allow federal regulation of cigarettes.

Children's health program sparks strife - 1 Aug 2007 at 2:38pm - WASHINGTON -- Republican efforts to scale back expansion of a popular children's health insurance program failed in the Senate Wednesday, as a bitter partisan battle unfolded in the House over a more generous version that includes broad Medicare changes.

Thought for the day:
"Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped." -Calvin Coolidge (1872 - 1933)