Links and Minifeatures 11 19 Monday

Carnival of Personal Finance

Q and O on news media selectively editing what they want you to hear.

Pentagon is left scrambling to pay for war

The congressional inaction may trigger Secretary Robert Gates to carry out his threat last week to furlough as many as 200,000 civil servants and defense contractors this winter, raising the stakes for Democratic lawmakers determined to tie war funding to a drawdown of US troops from Iraq.

Gee, I wonder what districts are most likely to get their workers furloughed?

Before lawmakers left town Friday for their Thanksgiving recess, they did approve the Pentagon's $470 billion base budget, but not a supplemental funding request to pay for war operations. Democrats don't want to fund that $189 billion defense request from President Bush unless the money is tied to deadlines, or at least goals, to bring the bulk of troops home from Iraq by the end of 2008.

This is what I call poetic justice for those speaking out of both sides of their mouth.

Not to mention a wake-up call for those who are determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

Me? I don't like it. But it's rather disingenuous to play these games and expect the other side not to follow suit. I can hardly fault the current President from playing the games of politics as they are played. If the other side is going to play these sorts of games, he can give in completely, or he can play the same sort of hardball back. Since his current policy is in the best interest of the country, the hard-ball response is the correct one.

Mark Steyn on something to be thankful for.