... just who's getting all those earmarks anyway? Who's giving them and why? Do earmarks meet pressing needs or pay off political favors? And which are pure pork? Check out EarmarkWatch.org, a new tool that makes it easy to look under the rock and take a close look at earmarks, like the $100,000 prize that Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) secured for an organization that promotes creationism in Louisiana schools -- paid for in part by you, of course.

President "Heckuva job, Brownie" Bush has cast himself as the defender of the poor against the greedy working class, which doesn't deserve help with their health insurance bills. I don't see how else you read statements like this.

Biology Lesson: Policy Proliferates Progeny The massive-and-still-growing tax bill gestating in the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures -- now in at least its third trimester -- may include not only AMT, EITC and, appropriately, a child tax credit, is hatching yet another embryonic idea: a corporate tax cut. According to yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Ways and Means chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) "is open to cutting corporate-tax rates if the lost revenue can be made up by eliminating existing provisions and loopholes used by businesses."

A recent study by University of Utah professors found no clear advantage to privatizing prisons, in terms of either cost or benefits. The Desert Morning News has the story (via the AFSCME privatization blog): Privatizing Utah's prison system would have no clear cost advantages, according to an independent study that was presented to lawmakers on Wednesday.