Hands Off Those Corporate Farm Subsidies

President Bush (to his credit) had requested large cuts in the subsidies that go to large agribusiness operations. Congress, however, remembering who some of their wealthiest contributors are, has decided instead to take most of the money from nutrition and land conservation programs that are run by the Agriculture Department.

Senate Agriculture Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) is especially gung ho about making cuts in the Food Stamp program. If you aren’t familiar with Saxby Chambliss, well, where to begin…

Saxby Chambliss is a high-ranking member of the 101st Fighting Chicken Hawks Brigade (I stole that phrase from Unfair Witness). In his 2002 campaign for the Senate, he waged one of the filthiest, lowest campaigns in history against the incumbent, Max Cleland. Cleland lost both legs and one arm during his combat service in Viet Nam, and Saxby Chambliss campaigned against him by comparing him to Osama bin Laden and calling him soft on terrorism.

Chambliss was old enough to be drafted during the Viet Nam war, but he had higher priorities and was able to get a draft deferment. And 35 years later, here's this Chicken Hawk campaigning against a triple amputee from the same war that Chambliss himself had weaseled out of, by comparing him to bin Laden.

And the most disgraceful part of this is, it worked. He got elected.

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All right, you rabid environmentalists, look at what you’ve done. Poooor poor Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is “depressed” because of his longtime inability to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. He told a news conference that he was optimistic about this year’s chances for oil drilling in the ANWR, and then went on to describe his “clinical depression” to reporters.

Now, aren’t you treehuggers ashamed of yourselves?