A Nation obsessed with voting

Today's the last day you can vote for your favorite Star Wars stamp. The winner will be released as a separate sheet of stamps.

Last night was your last chance to vote for the latest American Idol, either Jordin, or the Beat-boxin Blake.

America just selected Apolo Anton Ohno as the latest Dancing with the Stars champion.

Not too long ago we helped select the latest member of the Pussycat Dolls.

We are a nation obsessed with competitiveness, voting for the best, kicking the losers to the curb. Too bad we can't get this riled up when it comes to voting for the important things, like who's running our country.

Pick Hillary's theme song

Hillary needs our help! You bet she wants to know what America thinks about the important stuff: the war in Iraq, health care and ... her campaign theme song! On her official website, you can listen to 9 songs, then make your choice, or suggest one of your own.

Titles in the running include:"Suddenly I See" by K.T. Tunstall, "I'm a Believer" from the first Shrek movie, "Get Ready" by the Temptations, "Right Here Right Now" by Jesus Jones, "Beautiful Day" and "City of Blinding Lights" by U2, and the Bush-hating Dixie Chicks with "Ready to Run."

I'm all for a little fun on the campaign trail, and I've always been a fan of music promoting a product, like a jingle or theme song, but this is the leader of the free world we're talking about, and I'd rather tell her what I think about Iraq, Global Warming, Health Care, and Crime, than what song I want her to enter a speaking engagement to.

When all the other stuff the Bush administration has screwed up is fixed, I'll be ready for a little fun. Ask me then.

We have baby Robins!

Mommy and Daddy Robin (Wow! a two parent family) are flying in and out non-stop to the nest on top of the back patio light with mouthfulls of regurgitated worms and things to feed at least two little balls of fluff.


Here's a shot of Dad, worm in beak, waiting for Mom to finish feeding her mouthful. I'm sure Dad is already thinking about opening up college funds for the kids, along with Health Care Reimbursement funds, and finding a good Day-care.

past Robin posts:
Rockin Robin update
Crazed Robins won't take 'No' for an answer

Well, mow me down

I think everyone in our neighborhood mowed their lawn this evening. It was really getting long after the inch of rain the other night. It'll probably need mowing again this weekend with the heat coming in.

Paul Wolfowitz got mowed down today, too, resigning as head of the World Bank. Wolfie, who failed as an architect of the Iraq War, "It'll pay for itself with oil revenues!" and appointed by the Bush Administration, got tangled up in ethics problems over getting his girlfriend a great gig at the State Department.

As another one bites the dust, can Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez be far behind?

And how's that "Impeach Cheney" thing coming along?

Green Thursday: Favre didn't 'really' want to be traded

The statement from Brett Favre posted to the Green Bay Packers Web site was meant to clarify reports which surfaced on FoxSports.com this weekend that say the future hall of famer told Packer General Manager Ted Thompson that he wanted to be traded after the Packers failed to acquire Randy Moss during the NFL draft.

"I was frustrated a couple weeks back when Randy Moss was traded to New England. I never wanted to be traded and I don't want to be traded. I want to be in Green Bay," Favre said in his statement.

He also added that he wants to finish is career as a Packer. "Sometimes when I get frustrated I let my emotions get the better of me," he said. Favre added that he is excited about the young talent on the team and about the improvements they are making. "I look forward to playing with this team and seeing what we can do. I think we can be pretty good."

He concluded that he is continuing his rehab in Mississippi following surgery on his ankles and that he plans to show up to camp in the best shape of his life.

Wow! Even for a sports-challenged guy like me, this is quite the 180. Whomever got to good ol' number 4 should be given a raise!

Usually every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment, but as we all know watching the local news, anytime 'the Favre' says anything, it's "BREAKING NEWS." Global warming can wait, this is da Packers , for criminy!

Goodbye friends

October 4th, I will have worked at 94.5 WKTI for 25 years. In all that time, Gene Mueller has always been on the morning show. He's now leaving to join Wisconsin's Morning News on AM620 WTMJ. Gene's my favorite radio news guy. His writing and delivery are unparalleled. He's also the consumate sports fanatic. I'm elated for him having made the jump to his nirvana.

In November, Charmaine and I will be married 18 years. In all that time, Gino Salomone has been a part of the KTI morning show, either on the air, or behind the scenes. Gino was my best man. He's now leaving, with all his options open. Gino knows more celebrities than I can name. He's a fixture in Hollywood at all the movie press junkets. Many consider him a personal friend. The stars love Gino, because there's something about the way he treats them. They find a safe haven in him. Like all his friends do.

A new morning show, headed by Matthew Blades, will begin on WKTI the Tuesday after Memorial Day. I'm very excited about the players just hearing about them, and their eagerness to climb on the air, do a show, and take this station to new heights. I hope you'll like them, too.

Change is fun and exciting, it's also nerve-wracking and can induce insecurity and doubt, and a horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach, and it sucks when the people you've grown up with, worked side by side with, laughed and cried with, take change in a different direction than your own. To my friends; "In bocca al lupo!"

Time to change your password

In this world of identity theft, password protection on all things computer is a must, but really, can't someone come up with a better system? Is that post-it note under your mouse pad, or under the keyboard, or maybe just blatently stuck to your monitor the best we can do in 2007?

Where are the gadgets from the James Bond movies that scan your retina, or test for your DNA, or fingerprints?

At work, I'm prompted every 90 days to change my system login, and it can't be any of the last 6 I've used before.

I went to pay my MasterCard online today, and it prompted me to change my password.

Online Banking now uses a graphic, a catchphrase, my user name, AND a password. If it doesn't recognize my computer, then I get 2 extra questions.

My 401k is password protected, along with my payroll, paycheck, investments, credit cards, frequent flyer account, 3 rental car accounts, This blog, the WKTI website access, the Members-Only section on the Barbershopers website, and on and on and on.

Microsoft's Kim Komando (I'm guessing it's not her real name,) has these tips for Password creation.

I have so many passwords, that I can't keep them all straight, so I have them all in a document, 8 pages long single spaced, cleverly titled "********" (like I was going to tell you.) In case of a computer failure, I also have a hard copy hidden in the house. I just hope I remember where it is if I ever need it!

New Postal Rates still a bargain

New postal rates go into effect today. Mailing a standard 1-ounce letter will now cost $.41. For that same price, you can buy the "Forever" stamp, which will always be valid to send a first class letter. I think this is a bargain. Is there anyone else who can deliver a letter anywhere in the United States for $.41 in a couple days time? Certainly not Mexico. It took them 3 months to get a post card back here from my vacation, for 3 times the money.

There's a much bigger change in postal rates for businesses. The Postal Service is instituting a new pricing system that focuses on the shape of an item rather than just its weight. While mailing a standard 1-ounce letter will cost an additional 2 cents, sending an odd-shaped postcard or a package could cost as much as 20 percent more. Catalogs' postal rates are going up as much as 40 percent.

The reason behind the change is large or oddly shaped packages must be handled by a person, increasing the costs.

The direct mail business is crying foul, but why should the USPS, and taxpayers, subsidize the stuffing of our mailboxes with junk? Be ready for an influx of on-line and e-mail ads, because they're a lot cheaper now.

Rockin' Robin update

A few posts back we told you about a tenacious Robin (Turdus migratorius) trying to build on our front door mailbox and porch light. We thwarted those attempts to keep mail delivery coming to the house. Mrs. Robin didn't give up, though, finding a nice site on the back patio light.

She's now on the nest constantly, and anytime we get near the back patio, she's squaking up a storm at us. Here's her view of the flowering crab apple (Malus floribunda) from the nest.

Happy Mother's Day Mrs. Robin.

Green Thursday: Turn your car into a Homemade Hybrid

Can't afford to trade in your gas guzzler for a fuel-effecient hybrid? Transform whatever you're driving right now into a homemade hybrid. All you need to do is turn the engine off when you're not using it to go.

Stoplights, drive-up banking, waiting for food at Culvers. A hybrid car automatically turns off the engine whenever the car is not moving. Your homemake hybrid just needs your brain to do the same thing.

The conservative squakers counter that you'll use more gas to start it back up than you save, plus ruin the starter motor. Truth is, years ago, when cars were built with carburetors, this was a valid point, but now cars are all powered by fuel injection engines, which start up very easy. So how much gas does it really take to start your car? 10 seconds worth. If you're going to be idling for more than ten seconds, you'll save gas by turning off the ignition.

How much gas? How does 30 miles per tank sound? I get around 25 mpg on my ride, so that's over $3 a fill-up in savings. By turning off the engine, you'll also reduce harmful emmisions, slowing down the global warming thing. Even if you're still in the "I don't believe in Global Warming" camp (and your numbers are shrinking faster than the glaciers,) the money saved should still entice you.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.

Dinner by Design

For all you right-wing neo-cons who like your women trapped at home in the kitchen like June Cleaver, you don't have to read any further. For the rest of the free world, there's Dinner by Design. Full disclosure, they've hired me for a series of 'Cooking with Lips' nights at their area stores, but this blog is not part of that contract. I just found this to be the coolest experience.

This is the Brookfield, WI storefront, where 16 of my listeners gathered for a Tuesday night of meal preparation.
We didn't know what we were in for, but found a really organized space with workstations for each different entree that we had signed up and paid for. As I made my way around the room, each person had a different story about how their job made meal preparation really difficult, and how much of a hero this would make them at home.

This rag-tag bunch of overworked women (and one brave man,) with the help of a little host-provided wine, (boy did their eyes light up when I walked in with the hootch,) were seeking a stress-free way to provide reasonably priced home-cooked meals for their families (self included.)
The Dinner by Design concept is great: They shop, cut, portion, and provide the recipes. We walk in, assemble the meals, have a glass of wine or two, help each other, make new friends, and leave an hour or two later, armed with food for the family. They even do the dishes!

Here's just one of the finished products, stuffed flounder roll-ups. To make things complete for the kitchen-impaired, they even have stick on cooking directions for the packages. Our next DBD outing is June 5 in Racine. Keep an eye on the events page at wkti.com for details.

I'll buy gas on May 15th, you can, too.

Enough already with the forwarded mass e-mails telling me not to buy gas on May 15th. The thinking is participating in a one day boycott will bring the oil companies "to their knees" and make them lower the price at the pump.

The premise behind all these messages is flawed from the get-go, because consumers' not buying gasoline on one particular day doesn't affect oil companies at all. The "gas out" scheme doesn't call upon people to use less gasoline, but simply to shift their date of purchase and buy gas a day earlier or later than we usually would The very same amount of gasoline is sold either way, so oil companies don't lose any money. If you want to do something about high gas prices, USE LESS GAS.

Whenever I get a mass forwarded e-mail, I check the title line at a site called Snopes first. Virtually every e-mail I check turns out to be an internet hoax, just like the "Don't buy gas on May 15th" one. It's been going around in one form or another since 1999. If you want to see all the past versions of this, click here.

I gently reply to the sender to check with Snopes before filling my in-box with any more trash. Then I get to my real pet peeve. They send these around with a zillion addresses in the To: line, which gives my e-mail address to people I don't know. Stop it! at the least, use the Bcc: line, which stands for blind carbon copy. Putting all your mass mailing friends' addresses there keeps them private from the reader.

Do they have to whip the horse?

I'm not a big horse racing fan, or any racing for that matter, but Saturday's Kentucky Derby was a fun one to watch. Street Sense came from 19th (out of 20!) to win. It was a perfect sporting event for me; lots of pomp, tradition, and it's over in 2 minutes. Heck, the queen even came over to see it. If NBA and NFL games would be that short, I could be a fan of those, too.

Back to the Derby, there's no way to watch the video without bobbing up and down to the clomp clomp clomp of the hooves, as the track announcer gets more and more excited.

I then asked the question, "Do they have to whip the horse?"

Going to Google, I found a lot of disturbing sites about the mistreatment of race horses, from how they are bred and raised, broken, trained, and raced. The general consensus was that whipping has little or no effect on the speed of the horse, and may actually slow them down.

I was so excited by the race, then disappointed in what I found out when I dug a little deeper.

Look what else they had at the Derby: Barbershop Singing!

What are YOU doing this weekend?

Weekends are time for music and merry-making. Saturday night Charmaine and I play newlyweds for the Waukesha Choral Union's show; "Weddings, Wine, Weapons and War!" Your favorite opera arias and choruses come to life at Shattuck Auditorium at Carroll College.

Come out and support the local arts.

Green Thursday: Paper or Plastic? Neither!

Next time you get asked that question at the grocery story, do what we do at the LipsYard home: "I've brought my own canvas bags."

What's wrong with plastic bags? Lots. They often wind up as litter, or in trees. They drift into oceans and rivers and kill fish. They can take 1,000 years to decompose. 1,000 years! Plus every time we use a plastic bag, we drive up the demand for oil - which is used to make plastics.
According to EPA, the U.S. consumes about 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps a year. Fewer than 5 percent are recycled. Find out more at their website HERE.

There is, of course, no mystery about why America is awash in plastic bags: They are thin, lightweight, strong and cheap to make. Plastic bags, which were introduced about 30 years ago, now account for four out of every five bags given out by stores.

In a book about packaging called "Paper or Plastic? Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World" (Sierra Club Books, 2005), Daniel Imhoff expresses the "paper or plastic" question this way:

"Do we clearcut forests, grind them to chips, and pulp and bleach them with chlorine-based compounds (generally carcinogenic byproducts) to make boxes, bags and to-go cups primarily for one-time use? Or do we make a pact with demon hydrocarbon, refining ancient sunlight into light, easily compactible bottles, wraps and foams?"

Not a surprise is the fact that other nations around the world are leading the way in the fight against pollution. Ireland placed a "PlasTax" of 20 cents on each bag, reducing plastic bag use by about 90 percent. South Africa also taxes plastic bags, and they were banned entirely in Mumbai, India. The battle is coming to our shores, over the objections of big-business supermarkets (there's a surprise. Guess who's side the Bush administration will take?)

Cloth bags are the simple solution. Buy some and keep them in your trunk.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.

The Price of War

In our last posting, we listed the human cost of the Iraq war. Today, it's time to look at the financial toll this is taking on the American economy.

The price tag for the war is approaching $500 billion, almost 10 times what we were led to belive that this elimination of WMD's would cost.

Larry Lindsay, President Bush's first economic policy adviser was fired after he reported the war in Iraq could cost more than $100 billion. At that time, the official White House line was this war would be a bargain at $50 billion.

Paul Wolfowitz, now in a whole different scandal at the World Bank, actually said that the war would pay for itself.

So what could we do in peaceful efforts with the half-trillion we've already spent on installing democracy in the Middle East?

We could have fixed Social Security for the next 75 years.

We could have doubled the entire world's foreign aid to developing countries.

Think of what infrastructure in good old America could look like with that big of cash infusion, or the kind of graduates our education system could be turning out.

Mission Accomplished: 4th Anniversary and counting

3,351 US forces killed in Iraq

24,314 US forces wounded in Iraq

271 Other coalition forces killed in Iraq

65,000 Iraqi casualty estimate

131 Journalists killed in Iraq

394 Contractors killed in Iraq

What, exactly, is the mission?

Hail

What's that tap tap tapping on the roof? It's hail. Thank goodness the car's in the garage. The storm didn't last very long, and the ice balls were only the size of peas.

Hail is formed through a sort-of roller coaster ride through intense thunderstorms. Strong air currents lift small ice pellets high into the middle and upper portions of a cumulonimbus cloud. This is where super-cooled water droplets collide and the ice pellet grows through a process called accretion. Once the pellet is too heavy for the updrafts to keep it airborne, it begins to fall, and if it does not melt completely before reaching ground level, it comes out as hail. A little internet research enlightened me that hail can be classified into three stages of development, Grauple, Small Hail, and Hailstones.

Grauple are soft snowflake-like stuctures that bounce off hard surfaces. We usually call it snow pellets.
Small hail: Has a higher density than grauple, and are usually semitransparent and rounded, with diameters up to 1/5 inch. They consist partly of liquid water and sometimes have a frozen outer shell. Graupel transforms into small hail by the liquid water taken in through air capillaries in the ice framework.
Hailstones: Round stones of ice, with layers that look like an onion. Layers are formed during the stones and rise and fall within the storm cloud. During the a decent, the outer layer of ice melts slightly, and then re-freezes when updrafts carry the hail back up into freezing temperatures. The more clear the hailstone is, the slower the freezing process. The more opaque (milky) the hailstone is, the faster the freezing process.

Our little pea-sized pellets are pikers compared to the Largest Hailstone Ever Reported:
September 3rd, 1970 Coffeyville, KS 1.67 lbs, 17.5 in in circumference, 5.5in in diameter
(about the size of a softball.)

Crazed Robins won't take 'No' for an answer

In the past, we've had Robins (turdus migratorius)
((alright, stop snickering about the first name you juveniles!))
build nests on the outdoor lights by the back door, and in the crook of the downspout. Now the birds are trying to build on the mailbox by the front door.

Not a workable situation for the Postal Service, I'm sure, so I removed the materials when I retrieved the newspaper from the driveway. Later this morning, after hearing a big truck down the street (big trucks always gets a guy's attention,) I went out the front door to check on it (yard waste pickup day)
((don't get all over me for not recycling the stuff, it's branches and stuff that won't break down in a year's time in the compost))
(((see yesterday's Green Thursday blog entry)))
((((If our village was a little more progressive, we might have a yard waste recycling center.))))
Where was I? Outside the door checking on the truck, when lo and behold, the Robins had tried to rebuild, only higher up, on the front porch light.

This will not do, either, because when the eggs hatch, Mom gets all protectivy and swoops and hollers at anything coming close. Again, not workable for the Postal Service, so I removed the nest beginnings.

Let's hope the Robins have more sense to try a little more secluded location for their new home. They're almost as stubborn as President Bush on his failed Iraq policy.

Here's a whole website devoted to all things Robin.

Green Thursday: (Yard)waste not, want not

Another season of mowing is upon us. Grass, leaves, and other wastes from lawns and backyard gardens account for an estimated 18% of the annual municipal waste stream. The percentage and composition of yard wastes varies widely from season to season. During the summer, grass can comprise up to 50% of municipal waste. Leaf waste can account for as much as 60-80% in the fall. This massive, seasonal volume of yard wastes can put a strain on municipal garbage collection systems. Collection can require extra equipment that is not needed year-round and can increase personnel expenses.

Yard waste is a strain on disposal facilities. The large volume uses up valuable landfill space. The high moisture content of yard waste retards burning, which reduces the efficiency of waste-to-energy plants. Large incinerators built to handle peak seasonal rates of yard waste, may be oversized and less efficient at burning wastes the rest of the year. Burning yard wastes also puts a strain on pollution control systems. Burning yard wastes at home causes air pollution from carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, is a fire hazard, and is a nuisance to neighbors.

Here's what we do in the LipsYard:

Mulching blade, baby. This one's called the 'gator' because of the teeth on the back of the blade that makes even smaller pieces out of the clippings. Leaving grass clippings on the lawn after mowing ensures that nutrients will be returned to the soil. Grass clippings are 20-30% protein, and usually contain about 4% nitrogen, 2% potassium and 0.5% phosphorus as well as all the necessary trace elements plants need.

When leaving clippings on the lawn, adjust your lawn mower to remove no more than one third (1/3) of the grass leaf surface at any one mowing. We're at the 2" height on grass right now, but as the summer comes on, we'll go up to 3" because it's healthier for the lawn.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.

New York to Paris; soaking wet

My friend, Ralph, clued me in that it's not "All work and No play" at Google. Someone took the time, between buying everything else in the world, to insert a little humor on their Google Maps page.

Go to Google Maps then type "New York to Paris." Things get interesting around step 23.

If you're lazy, just click this link.

These little hidden jokes are called "Easter Eggs."

They're hidden in computer software, movies, music, art, books, or even your watch, by the geeks who write the computer code.

There are thousands of them, and if you go to this site, you'll be busy amusing yourself for a long time.

Spring 2007, planting seeds

After careful inspection of the LipsYard, we found several spots that need re-seeding in the lawn. We had one big hole in the front LipsYard from an underground rotting tree root, and a couple more in the back.

What needed the most work was the area under the Pagoda Dogwood (Cornus alternifolia,) which is very shady and tends to wash away with heavy rains.

First step was to fill in the area with a good garden soil, then apply a shady grass seed, and finally add a light layer of little pellets that expand when they get wet, providing protection, warmth and moisture for the seed. Now all we need to do is keep the ground moist and wait for the seeds to germinate.

Seeds of another kind, discontent, were planted over the weekend; Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) sent a letter to his fellow members of Congress to join him in Articles of Impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney. It's brilliant to go after Mr. Cheney first, because if you impeach President Bush, then Cheney takes over.

Whether these seeds germinate and take root is yet to be seen, but we can always hope.

Peck Peck Peck

Look who's pecking away in the LipsYard! Melanerpes erythrocephalus, the Red Headed Woodpecker. It looks like he's trying to get into the birdhouse through the cellar, but the bottom is open, with suet ready for the eating behind a screen.

I'm guessing embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez is feeling a bit like the suet these days, after all that pesky oversight pecking that the Democrats in Congress have been doing. Maybe a few more questions will jog his hazy memory a bit.

Six years of "See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil" in the Bush Administration are over and it's time to do some 'splainin'.

Green Thursday: Earth Day Haiku

Trees and all creatures
Dependent on each other
Can’t survive alone

Valerie Belz, 8th grade, Sewickley, PA

(If an 8th grader can understand this, why can't the Bush administration?)

Celebrate Earthday on Sunday April 22, 2007, and all life long.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.

Too lazy to brush

A year ago, at my regular dental checkup, my hygienist suggested that I should look into an electric toothbrush. I've always had good tooth habits, brushing and flossing, but as age creeps up on us, our gums tend to creep away from our teeth.


To asuage this recession, I've been using little wooden (originally) and now plastic Stimudents for several years to massage the gums and keep them virile.





Even this isn't enough any more, and when Charmaine's hygienist told her to look into an electric toothbrush for much the same reason, we bit the bullet. Say hello to our little pal, Oral B.

And check out how "youthful" the couple in the ad are. I hope we become like them.

This baby vibrates away in our mouths, making our teeth shiny and bright, and our gums healthy and pink. It even runs for two minutes, (the recommended brushing time,) then pulses off and on to let you know you can quit. It isn't without problems, though. Who knew that you could create so much toothpaste foam? We're spitting constantly! And at first, we did it with wide-mouthed excitement, a fine minty cavity fighting mist enveloping our head (and mirror and countertop and shirt.) Another shortcoming is where to plug it in? It has to charge constantly, so now it's clutter on the countertop, and we each have our own detachable brush head, that now makes a sloppy puddle in the medicine cabinet.

The thought of an electric toothbrush always seemed to invoke an image of laziness, something the rich and famous would use, (perhaps in, say Kennebunkport,) but if both our professionals wanted us to use one, so be it.

The history of the electric toothbrush (here's the Wikipedia page) goes back to the late 1800s when a "Dr. Scott" claimed to invent an "electric" toothbrush. The bristles didn't move, it just sent a strong electrical current through the brush to whoever was using it at the time. Ouch!

The first actual electric toothbrush was sold in 1939 in Switzerland, and debuted in the States in 1960.

I found many websites that questioned whether an electric toothbrush actually did anything more for you than regular brushing, but I'm buying the theory that we become complacent in our manual brushing, even lazy, and the electric brush adds renewed vigor to this daily task.

The Taxman Cometh (2 days late)

The usual IRS tax deadline of April 15 came and went without the usual wringing of hands over 1040 forms and such. That's because it fell on a Sunday, so we got an extra day for filing. But wait a minute, in the Northeast, Monday, April 16 is a holiday; Patriot Day. We never celebrated that here in Wisconsin. No wonder my conservative friends always call me 'un-Patriotic.' In the District of Columbia, not even a voting member of Congress, they celebrate Emancipation Day on Monday, April 16, in honor of Abraham Lincoln's signing of the act that freed the slaves. IRS headquarters are in DC, so they were off, too. Apparently what's good for the goose, is good for the rest of the nation, so today, April 17, 2007, your tax obligation to Uncle Sam is due by midnight, tonight. (Unless you file for an extension.)

So where do our tax dollars go? MSNBC has a great article that showed how every $1,000 collected in fees and taxes was spent. I've stolen some of it here:

$219.40 Medicare and Medicaid
$206.60 The Social Security fund

$196.50 Military

$132.70 “Income security” which includes things like unemployment insurance, food and nutrition programs, housing assistance, and the cost of retirement for federal workers

$85.30 Interest on the National Debt
$44.60 Education

$26.50 Transportation

$17.40 Disaster relief

$15.40 Justice, including federal law enforcement, federal courts and prisons

$12.40 The Environment

$9.80 Agriculture

$6.90 General government costs

$6.30 International humanitarian assistance

$5.50 NASA
$3.40 General science and research

$3.20 Embassys and ambassadors

$3.20 Community and regional development.

$2.90 Security outside our borders.

To figure out the actual amount spent, just multiply each item by 2,700,000,000. Now yer talkin' real money!