Good thing we have an extra half billion dollars lying around

The president of Colombia is in D.C. today. He is speaking with U.S. officials about the amount of his country's annual handout.

The Democrats in congress recently cut Colombia's little stipend by about 10%, to $530 million. They also seek to reduce the percentage of this amount that will be allocated to the War on Drugs and to increase the amount allocated to poverty relief and social programs.

According the the SF Chronicle, "Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., who chairs the Appropriations Committee's State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, which produced the draft bill, said the idea is to put less emphasis on spraying coca fields and more emphasis on bringing drug traffickers and other criminals to justice."

So... I just want to make sure I get this right. We want to spend less money spraying herbicides throughout the Colombian countryside (i.e., destroying crops), and spend more money bringing "drug traffickers" (i.e., farmers) to justice. Sounds good to me.

In other news, China, the EU, and other importers of American tobacco products, today announced plans to put less emphasis on spraying American tobacco fields, and more emphasis on bringing tobacco farmers and cigarette company executives to justice.