A few days ago, the GOP-led House passed a military budget with a hefty $642 billion price tag -- $8 billion more than what President Obama and the Pentagon had agreed on with Congress. With the defense budget skyrocketing, cuts are coming from other programs, most notably government-subsidized food stamps.

Chat Allen, a mother of three who works only part-time, offered this insight:

They have so much money that maybe they can tighten their belts and not live as luxuriously as they live. They've earned it, but there are people who are hungry and who dig in the trash every day just to get something to eat.

This certainly isn't polishing the GOP's image. The budget has been met with less-than-enthusiastic responses in the Democrat-led Senate, which likely will try to reallocate those funds back to public works.

[bothsidesofthegun]

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ken), scion of presidential hopeful and idealistic college student darling, Ron Paul, was quoted as saying that he didn't think President Obama's views on same-sex marriage "could get any gayer."

Paul said this during an event sponsored by Iowa's Faith and Freedom Collation to laughs, because nothing says "freedom" in America than to smack talk someone's opinion about gay marriage.

[politicalticker]

Former New Mexico governor, Gary Johnson, is rocking his way to the White House on the Libertarian ticket. Johnson announced his intention to run under the GOP banner last December, but has been crushed under the infighting between Romney, Gingrich, and Rick Perry. This weekend, during the Libertarian National Convention in Las Vegas, Johnson made his debut as the party's nominee. Johnson has yet to comment on whether he'll bring on the world's most famous Libertarian as his running mate, Ron Swanson.

Vice President Joe Biden may be a public grump who bares a resemblance to wrestler Bob Holly, but he certainly isn't afraid to speak his mind. As is the case this morning, while Biden was on Meet the Press, he made some pretty strong comments regarding marriage equality:

I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights.

Biden even further articulated a thought that will hopefully put less-than-gay-friendly bros (see: Rick Perry) to shame

Who do you love? Who do you love and will you be loyal to the person you love? And that's what people are finding out what all marriages at their root are about. Whether they are marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals.

While President Obama has come out in support of civil unions, Biden is the highest ranking official to endorse marriage equality.

[thinkprogress]

In his first two official rallies yesterday, President Obama stopped in Columbus, OH and Richmond, VA to discuss what he hopes to accomplish if he's reelected for a second term, as well as highlighting his accomplishments in revitalizing the American auto industry and ending the war in Iraq. Unlike Romney's comments about "borrowing money from your parents," Obama continued to discuss the realities of a crumbling middle class: "This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and we can't turn back now."

[politicalticker]

Connecticut is now the seventeenth state in the Union to allow medicinal marijuana for its citizens, as the state senate passed a bill today legalizing the drug. There are still questions to answer, particularly when the law will be enacted, but in the meantime, UCONN students with Bob Marley posters in their dorms are looking up new pastries to make with legal weed.

[gawker]

Junior Seau's suicide has sparked an incredible amount of debate about the mental health ramifications of being a long term football player. Gary Plummer, Seau's former teammate, had this to say on the matter:

They said a Grade 3 concussion meant you were knocked out, and a Grade 1 meant you were seeing stars after a hit, which made me burst out in laughter. As a middle linebacker in the NFL, if you don't have five of these [Grade 1 effects] each game, you were inactive the next game. Junior played for 20 years. That's five concussions a game, easily. How many in his career then? That's over 1,500 concussions. I know that's startling, but I know it's true. I had over 1,000 in my 15 years. I felt the effects of it. I felt depression going on throughout my divorce. Junior went through it with his divorce.

As noted the other day, Seau's family has agreed to allow his brain to be studied to a find link between repetitive brain injuries and depression.

[shortformblogr]