Prez Bush to Don Young - "Bite Me!"

I suppose W is flipping off St. Ted Stevens too, but isn't the Dom supposed to take this stuff seriously? I only listened to about 35 minutes of the Shrub's final State of the Union speech, and haven't watched it, so I have no idea how Young reacted to Bush's statement, "the people's trust in their government is undermined by congressional earmarks, special-interest projects that are often snuck in at the last minute, without discussion or debate."

If that statement doesn't fit Young's unconstitutional Coconut Road earmark change from 2005, during Young's and the GOP's heyday of earmark mania, I don't know how Bush might have put it better.

Last time somebody attempted to tread on Young's - and his 2008 campaign's - sole current campaign plank, Young threatened to kill him. Maybe Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is relieved that the heat is off the Senator. Coburn had this to say about Bush's earmark statements last night:

"The American people want to see the Washington earmark favor factory shut down, not downsized or placed under new management. How many more earmark-related investigations, search warrants and indictments have to be issued before Congress gets the message that it's time to end this practice?"

I have to agree with Sen. Coburn, seen here at the opening of the Ten Commandments monument in Coalgate, OK, where - according to Sen. Coburn, "Lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom."

But with earmarks being shut down, what does that leave Rep. Young and Sen. Stevens to run with in their campaigns? Their incorruptibility?

Bush also flipped off America's poor, a sentiment, unlike his gesture to Stevens and Young, I can't identify with. His Pell Grant for Kids proposal, funded miserably at the $300,000,000 level, would give each poor child in the USA $20. But by making his tax cuts for the wealthy permanent, he would give every American millionaire $287,000. So, while America's poor don't even get enough to buy, as muckraker Greg Palast put it so well this morning, the newest Harry Potter book, America's millionaires get enough to send eight kids to the Andover Academy, W's alma mater, for a year.

Palast was interviewed yesterday morning by KUDO's Shannyn Moore. Some very good radio, touching upon the upcoming Supreme Court review of the Exxon Valdez oil spill class action suit, which, Palast predicts, will be Bong Hits 4 Exxon...