Once again, politicians are going on little, petty crusades to help the government economize, and as usual, they go for cheap shots that do nothing, other than to reveal their screwed up priorities. Here’s Joe Biden, letting us know where the real problems lie.

Did you know that the government spends millions to maintain buildings that have sat vacant for years? Or that your tax dollars pay to needlessly ship copies of the Federal Register to thousands of government offices across the country even though the same information is available online?

And I bet you didn’t know that your tax dollars pay for a website dedicated to the Desert Tortoise. I’m sure it’s a wonderful species, but we can’t afford to have a standalone site devoted to every member of the animal kingdom. It’s just one of hundreds of government websites that should be consolidated or eliminated.

Hey, Joe! Did you know that the cost of maintaining that website dedicated to an entire species is about $125/year?

And the cost of the war in Afghanistan is currently at $423+ billion?

I would like our representatives to take a rational, cost/benefit analysis of major government programs and actually make changes that make a difference, instead of this penny-ante grandstanding.

The Democrats should know that if there is any liberal, ecologically minded candidate running in the primaries for the presidency, I’ll vote for them without a qualm. I’m probably going to be stuck voting for Obama/Biden again in the national election, but I’ll be holding my nose and only pushing that lever under protest, because the Republican candidates will be even worse.