West Virginia anti-coal activist Maria Gunnoe appeared before a congressional committee last week to discuss the damage that coal mining does to the environment, only to have wingnut Congressman Doug Lamborn ask that she be detained because part of her testimony threatened to give him a get him excited.

Over a lifetime of watching the political dances and games, there are a few things that can always be counted upon. The deficit hawks invariably claim that they are really, really, really only interested in “cutting out the fat honest.” Except that public sector budgets have been slashed so many times over these last few years, the politicians are not only slicing meat and bone, they are carving up the gourmet cuts, all in the name of some nebulous “greater good” and “sacrifices must be made by the courageous.”