Larry Geller (www.DisappearedNews.com) has been doing some excellent analysis of the DOE furloughs and potential blow back, including whether the shortened school year might threaten accreditation and, as a result, college admissions.

There’s also a huge question of priorities in the background of struggles to balance state and municipal budgets here in Hawaii and across the country, and that’s the sucking sound of money being drained from the economy to pursue the endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We’ve already spent enough in Iraq in eight years to have covered the entire cost of health care reform for the next decade and costs going forward will continue to be staggering.

For a better idea of how the priority given to war is impacting communities here at home, check out resources gathered by “Our Nation’s Checkbook“, an educational campaign taking on federal budget priorities.