Slashing $40 billion in spending should be an easy thing for the U.S. given that all it needs to do is cut back on defense spending and special military projects (like the unimpressive laz0r cannon).

But that would make too much sense, so what the government did instead was cut $500 million from a program feeding poor children while increasing the Pentagon budget by $5 billion.

Some of the other cuts:

Almost $3 billion for high-speed rail funds, along with roughly $3 billion for highway construction, $6.2 billion in Department of Defense construction projects, and $1 billion from programs that help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Grants to states that help pay for drinking water infrastructure projects are cut by $1 billion.

The bill would cut $377 million from the U.S. contribution to the United Nations. USAID will get $39 million less for operating expenses. Almost $1 billion is cut from a community development fund run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Pentagon would end up with a boost of about $5 billion above last year’s level.

I guess this makes sense too. If the poor need food and money, they join the army and keep the war machine going. Everybody wins (except the ones that aren’t super rich).

money.cnn

While his colleagues were busy debating plans to build a new parliament building, a member of the Indonesian parliament was watching sweet, sweet porn on a tablet. That is despite the fact that he helped pass a tough anti-pornography law which even outlawed kissing in public.

Doing research about the erection of a new building.

The law calls for prison terms of up to 15 years and fines for everything from kissing in public and exposure of a woman’s “sensual” body parts to displaying “erotic” artworks. Broadcasting, possessing and storing pornographic material also is prohibited. – belfasttelegraph

This guy must be really smart to porn illegal and then watch it in a place crawling with photographers.

A good business to be in.

Protecting Libyan civilians from their insane dictator isn’t cheap. A report on Operation Odyssey Dawn by the Congressional Research Service puts the price tag of only the first six days of operations at $400 million.

This study estimates that initial operations could run between $500 million and $1 billion, based on attacks on some 250 to 500 targets, and that the ongoing cost of a no-fly zone could range from $15 million to $300 million a week depending on the area of Libya that would be covered.

Using operational details provided by DOD and DOD cost factors, a “bottoms-up” estimate of the cost of initial operations suggests that in the first six days of operations, DOD has spent roughly $400 million. The bulk of these costs reflect potential replacement costs for the Tomahawk missiles launched from Navy ships and the Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) dropped by B-2 bombers at the beginning of the operation to suppress Libyan air defenses (about $260 million), and for the loss of a F-15E strike fighter aircraft over Libya because of mechanical failures ($75 million replacement cost).

Even though I have no connection to Florida whatsoever I had to post this because it’s funny in a WTF kind of way.

Thanks to a law passed last week, Florida-based interest groups, corporations and lobbyists can now legally deposit unlimited amounts of money into “leadership” funds operated by lawmakers – in order to gain favors with them. It’s sort of like legalized prostitution, except the needs it satisfies aren’t sexual in nature (but could be!).

Gotta love corruption.

tampabay

Hours after the United Nations Security Council authorised a no-fly zone over Libya, Gaddafi’s government announced an immediate ceasefire.

“We decided on an immediate ceasefire and on an immediate stop to all military operations. [Libya] takes great interest in protecting civilians.” – Moussa Koussa,  Libya’s foreign minister

In reality, though, what Gaddafi did was intensify his efforts to eliminate those who oppose him. A freedom fighter in Misurata reported that the town has been under heavy fire from Gaddafi’s forces all morning and that at least 25 people have been killed.

Of course, the Libyan government denies the bombing ever happened.

What all of this means is that Gaddafi removed the UN justification for an attack against his forces (because he announced a ceasefire) while retaining everything he managed to seize from the rebels in the last few days (by continuing to bomb them). Cunning bastard.

Sort of representative of China.

Earlier today, the world’s second largest economy asked for extra compensation from New Zealand due to the deaths of its citizens in the recent Christchurch earthquake. The reason cited by China for its request was the “loss of future breadwinners” (as a result of China’s one-child policy) for the affected families.

“You can expect how ronery lonely, how desperate they are, not only from losing loved ones, but losing almost entirely the major source of economic assistance after retirement” (Cheng Lee, counsellor at Beijing’s embassy in Wellington).

I don’t understand why China can’t cut a small disaster-struck country some slack. I mean, it wasn’t the New Zealand government who created the one-child policy for China and they haven’t had any benefits from it either, so why should they give China special treatment?

Let’s hope they don’t pull this with Japan or things could get ugly.

www.stuff.co.nz