Reply #6: I added up the numbers

[gratuitous]

Out of an $818 billion package, they claim that just a little more than $19 billion is "wasteful." For the math-challenged out there, that's a smidgen over 2%. Ignoring the merits of any of the individual programs objected to (which include upgrading and greening the government vehicle fleet, seemingly a damn good idea for both government and the carmakers it would purchase from), this seems pretty goddam picayune.

Will the Fourth Estate bulldogs at CNN laugh this off the air: Republican nit-picking over 2% of a heueueuege package after they've squandered four or five times that amount for Bush's little wars of aggression? Don't count on it for a second.

It's up to us, folks. If anything resembling the truth is going to leak out, e-mail CNN early, often, and above all, politely.