IN WHICH THE FEDERAL BUDGET, MINIMUM WAGE, IRAQ AND THE SPARTANS APPEAR

Caption: Art imitating life. This picture of a picture of a painting (holy post-modernism, Batman!) is titled "Goat Contemplating Her Universal Purpose" by Barbara Marsh Wilson (no relation) and was sent by an amiga in the faith.


BUDGET CALL IN DAYS. The federal budget proposal President Bush submitted to Congress is...everything you might expect. It includes cuts in programs for working people, children and the elderly to pay for more tax cuts for the rich and the mess in Iraq. The House and Senate budget committees are now considering funding options.

The American Friends Service Committe, Coalition on Human Needs and many allied groups are urging people to call Congress toll-free 1-800-459-1887 and urge adequate funding for human needs such as health care, housing, education, nutrition, and other services. Click the link for more.

MINIMUM WAGE UPDATE. The federal minimum wage increase is still in congressional limbo. The latest twist was an attempt to include the increase in supplemental spending for the war in Iraq. The Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign opposes linking the wage increase to war spending and is urging Congress to instead deal with it in conference.

SPEAKING OF IRAQ AND SCREWED UP FEDERAL BUDGET PRIORITIES, Jim Hightower reports that:

L. Paul Bremmer III, the guy Bush first installed as overseer of the Iraq occupation, now concedes that he okayed the shipment of $12 billion from the U.S. treasury to the Iraqi interim government. In cash! Shrink-wrapped stacks of $100 bills were loaded on wooden pallets and flown to Baghdad. It was 363 tons of cash.

I guess that's fiscal neo-conservatism.

Here's a good op-ed on Iraq by WV AFL-CIO secretary treasurer Larry Matheney.

On Saturday, WV Patriots for Peace will be holding an anti-Iraq war rally in the state capitol rotunda at 2:00 p.m. The purpose is "to remember 4 years of US occupation of Iraq, to mourn the tragic losses and to demand an end to this failed Bush policy."

AND PICKING UP THE LOW WAGE THEME...The Center for Economic and Policy Research just released a report on low wage work in the U.S.:

Over 40 million jobs in the United States — about 1 in 3 — pay low wages ($11.11 per hour or less) and often do not offer employment benefits like health insurance, retirement savings accounts, paid sick days or family leave. These low-wage jobs are replacing jobs that have historically supported a broad middle class.

GO TELL THE SPARTANS...It is no secret that El Cabrero is an ancient Greek dork. Or maybe dork about ancient Greece would be a better way to say it. Here's an interview I did about the factual basis of the movie 300 from the online Gazette arts amd entertainment section The Gazz. Moulon labe!


GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED