Frida Berrigan says America is still number one in one thing: arms sales. America, she argues, has created a global attitude of arms consumerism—selling arms to countries that didn’t know they needed them or wanted them.

The Washington Post asks if congress can create a farm bill without too much pork: “The farm bill can be a vehicle for investing heavily in important priorities such as rural conservation or food stamps for low-income Americans, without depleting the federal bank account or violating the Democrats' responsible pay-go budget rules -- but only if Congress is willing to make agriculture spending more rational.”

After two vegan parents in Atlanta were charged for murdering their child, Nina Planck challenges vegans to do what is right for their children: “An adult who was well-nourished in utero and in infancy may choose to get by on a vegan diet, but babies are built from protein, calcium, cholesterol and fish oil. Children fed only plants will not get the precious things they need to live and grow.”

Lawrence Wilkerson comments that to accomplish dreams one must have “a willingness to get your hands dirty in the real world.” “That,” he says, “was always beneath Paul Wolfowitz. And that is what undid him.”

Glenn Hurowitz warns the Democrats that their trade compromise will alienate their base: “the last thing Democrats need is the core of their political coalition out on a holy war against them, rather than providing backing in their fights to increase the minimum wage, end the Iraq war, and tackle the global climate crisis.”

Harry Shearer wonders why twenty months after Katrina, the media is holding onto a bogus news template: “that most people affected by the disaster were African-American.”

David Weigel looks at why Republican insurgent candidates haven’t been able to use the web as effectively as Howard Dean.