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Priorities (via The Agitator)

We're spending $1 billion per week to rebuild Iraq, an effort, I guess to rid the country of terrorists (or, if you buy the latest, incredulous "flypaper" strategy, to draw all the terrorists in the region into Iraq -- more on that later).

We're also spending $15 billion to fight AIDS in Africa, in part to help offset the damage we're doing to the continent by subsidizing American farmers to the tune of $246 billion.

I bring these figures up, because MSNBC is reporting this morning that despite recent intelligence hinting at an increased possilbilty of 9/11-style suicide attacks on airliners, the Transportation Security Administration is pulling federal air marshalls off all cross- country flights because -- are you ready for this? -- it's too expensive to put them up in hotel rooms when they fly across the country. All the planes used on September 11, by the way, were on cross-country routes....