Tom DeLay and the Republicans, shamed by DeLay’s comments that the federal budget was "pared down pretty good," have come forward with “Operation Offset” to propose a number of cuts to help pay for hurricane relief. The New York Times’ Carl Hulse covers it this morning, listing the following items as ones on the chopping block:

James Berge of Kensett, Iowa writes to the Globe-Gazette that his representative in Congress, Tom Latham, has chosen to vote for the good of Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay and his state of Texas, rather than for the good of the people he serves in Iowa.

DeLay slipped in a provision into the energy bill that could direct $1.5 billion to an energy consortium in his district, including big oil companies like Halliburton. We're urging people to contact their Senators to do whatever it takes to get the provision removed from the bill.

We've come up with a few ways to measure just exactly how much $1.5 billion really is...

1.5 billion dollar bills would cover more than 58 square miles, or 3397 football fields.

UPDATE, 1:41 p.m.: Bill passed the House a little while ago. I've changed the target on the campaign to the Senate. They'll vote tomorrow. Let's raise a stink.

We gotta stop this one.