On being left in the dark ...

We can waste $1.4 billion on sex change operations (among other things) for Hurricane Katrina victims, spend a quarter-billion on a bridge to freakin' nowhere in Alaska, but we can't pay the electric bill at Fort Sam Houston in Texas?

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Fort Sam Houston has received 1,300 utility service termination notices for delinquent bill payments, which officials blamed on a major budget shortfall.

CPS Energy warned commanders at the post to pay $4.2 million by Wednesday or risk losing power. The post is three months behind on its bills, but both Army and utility officials said the two parties were talking and no cutoff was imminent.

"Who would imagine us not paying our bill?" said Col. Wendy Martinson, Fort Sam Houston's garrison commander. "I worry about it. I can't sleep at night."

The post, which trains medics, faces a $26 million budget shortfall this year - a problem that officials said is symptomatic of the financial woes facing posts worldwide.

Someone please phone Donald Rumsfeld and let him know about this. If Dubya finds out a Texas military base is now operating with 19th Century efficiency, he might not be happy.

The official explanation is that the money needed by the base is part of a supplemental appropriations bill waiting action by the U.S. Senate (already passed by the House). Since it contains money for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is the ubiquitous liberal foot-dragging taking place. This is repulsive and unnecessary. We seem to have the money - or the willingness to print it - for everything. Why is an Army base left unfunded? The explanation might educate us in some way, or it might just be enough to scare Congress into tightening the rein on other spending.

Somebody, other than the medics in training at Fort Sam Hood, ought to be paying attention.