Today, the Washington State House of Spendthrifts (formerly the Washington State House of Representatives) passed their budgets for the State of Washington.  These budgets will spend hundreds of millions on questionable projects and create 3,800 new government employees!  3,800!!  Hey, I'll take one of those jobs (as long as it's non-union)!!!

As Representative Jim Dunn, who voted against both the state operating and capital budgets, said in a press release:

The state operating budget funds K-12 public schools, human services, higher education, debt services, prisons/corrections, natural resources, special appropriations and legislative, judicial and government operations.

“The state operating budget has grown by 8.2 billion dollars, or 33 percent, since Governor Gregoire and the majority party took control of the process in 2005,” said Dunn. “I can tell you family and business incomes have not increased at this level – yet they are paying for this massive growth in state government.”

This is priceless and I. did. not. make. this. up. See, in the hunt for 24 blogs, I found THIS on Dave Barry's (raunchy) blog:

Drones could defend airports  
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY

The Homeland Security Department and the military this summer will test whether drones flying 65,000 feet above the nation's busiest airports could be used to protect planes from being shot down by terrorists with shoulder-fired missiles.

Dubbed "Project Chloe" after a character on Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's favorite TV show, 24, the anti-missile strategy is the latest to be explored by government leaders looking to thwart potential missile threats at commercial airports. Other methods are being considered, but Homeland Security officials say they may be too costly or impractical.

Originally posted to Leaningstraightup.com 

Statistics are notoriously fickle and unreliable.  Some comedian once quipped that 97.3% of all statistics are meaningless.  Indeed.

So of course Global Warming is filled with statistics that both sides make their cases with.

Consider this one brought to us by the LA Times:

LAST YEAR, the National Journal asked a group of Republican senators and House members: "Do you think it's been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the Earth is warming because of man-made problems?" Of the respondents, 23% said yes, 77% said no.

Note that the breakdown by party is not mentioned.  Remember that for later.

In the year since that poll, of course, global warming has seized a massive amount of public attention. The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a study, with input from 2,000 scientists worldwide, finding that the certainty on man-made global warming had risen to 90%.