And another thing: When one minute = $3.7 billion

Even as the House majority claimed the mantle of democracy-building in Iraq, it was doing its best to stifle democratic debate in the United States. Congressman Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, recently promised that a record $447 billion for military spending would demonstrate that fiscal 2005 would be "the year of the soldier." The tightly controlled, brief, and uninspiring House debate on military spending proved that Congress today has only one deliberative body: the Senate. Although the House's lack of free and fair debate on this issue is truly remarkable, it is consistent with the majority's other manifold hypocrisies. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]