Troops Abroad Will Lose a Taste of Home

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Don't Have it Your Way

As the war in Afghanistan heats up, top military brass want troops to focus on the mission and not the meals. They plan on cutting back on what they call non-essentials. That means closing Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Dairy Queen on military bases in-country.

Some soldiers have complained that fast food luxuries were a taste of home while deployed. But top General Stanley McChrystal says to Stars and Stripes the concessions are not available to troops in remote areas and are taking away from limited resources: "If you ask soldiers would you rather have Burger King or your mail — or would you rather have Burger King or enough ammunition — then it would be a more complete discussion."

In the Hot Seat

New York State failed to win federal education funds from the Race to the Top program, in part because of requests for designer furniture.

The New York Post reports the equipment requests totaled $200,000 and included $13,000 for two dozen executive chairs, and more than $61,000 for 24 desks. Three of the five judges who reviewed the application blasted the requests: "These inclusions compromise the state's narrative as a careful steward of public funds."

New York's application, however, also suffered from a lack of union support, a charter-school cap, and slow implementation of a data system.

Hustle and Flow

Hustler magazine publisher and liberal activist Larry Flynt wants to raise money for the Democratic challenger to South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson.

On his Web site, Flynt rails against Wilson, who shouted "you lie!" during President Obama's joint address to Congress last year. Flynt encourages people to donate to challenger Rob Miller.

But it's not yet clear if Flynt's endorsement will help or hurt Miller's campaign, since he's running in a conservative GOP-leaning district. And so far, Miller's office has refused to comment on the endorsement.

Cause and Effect

And finally, a bracelet meant to promote breast cancer awareness has created a controversy at a middle school in Plant City, Florida.

Fourteen-year-old Frankie Rodriguez got in trouble for wearing a bracelet that read "I love boobies...keep a breast".

It was sold by a non-profit cancer awareness group. The student says he wore it to support family members who dealt with breast cancer and he even turned it around so the words weren't showing, but the school found the bracelet disruptive and a violation of its dress code.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Frankie Rodriguez: They just took it as sexual and it wasn't anything like that at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

When Rodriguez refused to hand over the bracelet to administrators he was suspended for what the school saw as inappropriate behavior and being disrespectful. Rodriguez decided the cause wasn't worth the trouble, and won't be wearing the bracelet to school anymore.

— Fox News Channel's Lanna Britt contributed to this report.