It’s all in the details
Twitter is becoming a kinda’ cool thing. You see one person I am following on Twitter is Senator John McCain from Arizona. He has been tweeting some of the details of the so-called Stimulus Package that Comrade the Messiah and the demoncrats pushed through our congress. You remember! The one that Comrade the Messiah said contained NO earmarks or as they use to be called, Pork!!!
UPDATE: These pork projects are NOT from the Stimulus Bill but in fact are from the Omnibus Spending Bill (Thanks Julie!)
Below you will find some of the details of this over spending stimulus bill. They are the actual tweets directly from Senator McCain.
$1.7M “for a honey bee factory” in Weslaco, TX
$475,000 to build a parking garage in Provo City, Utah
$200,000 “tattoo removal violence outreach program to could help gang members or others shed visible signs of their past” REALLY?
$300,000 for the Montana World Trade Center – enough said
$1 million for mormon cricket control in Utah – is that the species of cricket or a game played by the brits?
$650,000 for beaver management in North Carolina and Mississippi
$2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York – quick peel me a grape.
$332,000 for the design and construction of a school sidewalk in Franklin, Texas – not enough $ for schools in the stimulus?
$2 million “for the promotion of astronomy” in Hawaii – because nothing says new jobs for average Americans like investing in astronomy
$1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa
$250,000 to enhance research on Ice Seal populations
$100,000 for the Central Nebraska World Trade Center
$143,000 to teach art energy – Art can produce energy? If so, then investing in the arts may lead to energy independence.
$167,000 for the Autry National Center for the American West in Los Angeles, CA
$1,427,250 for genetic improvements of switchgrass – I thought switchgrass genes were pretty good already, guess I was wrong.
$100,000 for the regional robotics training center in Union, SC – Does R2D2 or C3P0 know about this?
$238,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society in Hawaii – During these tough economic times with Americans out of work.
$143,000 for Nevada Humanities to develop and expand an online encyclopedia – Anyone heard of Wikipedia?
$150,000 for a rodeo museum in South Dakota
$951,500 for Sustainable Las Vegas
$285,000 for the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise, ID
$209,000 to improve blueberry production and efficiency in GA
$47,500 to remodel and expand a playground in Ottawa, IL
$400,000 for copper wire theft prevention efforts
$190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, WY
$819, 000 for catfish genetics research in Alabama
$380,000 for lighthouses in Maine
$380,000 to revitalize downtown Aliceville, AL
$900,000 for fish management – how does one manage a fish…
$951,500 for the Oregon Solar Highway
$190,000 to build a Living Science Museum in New Orleans, LA
$380,000 for a recreation and fairground area in Kotzebue, AK
$118,750 for a building to house an aircraft display in Rantoul, IL
$7,100,000 for the conservation and recovery of endangered Hawaiian sea turtle populations
$950,000 for a Convention Center in Myrtle Beach, SC
$150,000 for lobster research – similar to lobster managment?
All 13 earmarks for PMA group, which has been raided by the FBI for corruption, totaling over $10 million -THE BEST GOVERNMENT $ CAN BUY
$3,806,000 for a Sun Grant Initiative in SD
$190,000 for the Guam Public Library in Hagatna, Guam
$143,000 for the Historic Jazz Foundation in Kansas City, MO
$95,000 for the state of New Mexico to find a dental school location
$632,000 for the Hungry Horse Project
$59,000 for Dismal Swamp and Dismal Swamp Canal in Virginia
$95,000 for Hawaii Public Radio
$143,000 for the Dayton Society of Natural History in Dayton, OH
$1.9 million for the Pleasure Beach Water Taxi Service Project, CT
$190,000 to rebuild a dock in Gold Beach, OR
$237,500 for a new museum in San Jose, CA
$228,000 for “streetscaping” in Bridgeville, PA
$385,000 for the Utah World Trade Center – Utah too?
$2,128,000 for a Ferry Boat, San Juan, PR
$190,000 for the Berkshire Theatre in Stockbridge, MA
$122,821 for the Greater Toledo Arts Commission
$1,284,525 for Rolls Royce – does that include a car?
$75,000 for the “Totally Teen Zone” in Albany, GA
All I can add to this is… OBAMA = One Big Ass Mistake America
I will agree that some of these items don’t seem very important, and could very well be referred to as “pork”, especially the PMA group items, but you have a couple of facts wrong here.
#1: These items aren’t in the “stimulus” bill. From Sen. McCains tweet of 1:08PM 02/26 – “TOP TEN PORKIEST PROJECTS in the Omnibus Spending bill the Congress is about to pass”. This is the BUDGET bill for the next 6 months (not the Stimulus package), created and introduced by Congress, not the White House.
#2: Our President didn’t put these items in the budget, they were all added by the Congresspeople from wherever the $$ is going (i.e., the rep or senator from Albany GA got the “Totally Teen Zone” added to the list, etc., etc.). If you make a good enough pitch (or donate enough support) to one of your Congresspeople, you could get a pet project added yourself! Therefore, blaming Pres. Obama for these items is WRONG.
#3: Not all of these items are bad ideas, for example, I just googled one item and came up with this:
~~~
The Sun Grant Initiative is a national network of land-grant universities and federally funded laboratories working together to further establish a biobased economy.
These institutes are at the forefront of research and innovation involving bioenergy and biofuels production. They have the history, technology and resources available to lead the nation towards a renewable, sustainable, domestic energy industry.
Sun Grant Centers are also charged with reviving America’s farming communities by placing an emphasis on rural economic development through the production of biobased renewable energy feedstocks.
~~~
Now that sounds like something good to put our $$ into. JMHO….peace.
Julie,
Welcome! You are absolutly correct and I stand corrected. I was under the impression that it was the Stimulus Bill. I’ll correct that.
I was fully expecting someone to pick their favorite bit-O-pork and defend it. I’m going to take your accounting of the Sun Grant Initiative as correct and say that I’m not one to put my food into my gas tank! I thought that arguement was settled awhile ago. Food prices have skyrocketed for a number of reasons one being that corn as well as its ‘chaf’ are being used for bio-fuel. What sense does it make to use our basic foodstuffs for fuel? If we want more energy products then we need to be allowed to go get them where they are already! Places like Alaska and off the shores of our land…but NO the demoncrat left-wing in conjunction with the enviro-whackos have nailed that shut. We need to reverse that insanity and go after the natural resources we have. Lets develope solar energy and wind energy. I’m all for that. I would much prefer to have a couple of windmills and not have to pay the electric company their blood money every month. But, by damn it, if I want to burn dinosaur oil or coal to heat my house I should be able to do it without gub’mint intervention in the way of overly intrusive regulation and taxation.
F*ck me! That’s a lot of pork and really just the tip of the iceberg.
Here’s a few more from Heritage.org:
$1,049,000
Mormon Crickets, Utah Bennett
$475,000
Sidewalk Construction in Ashland & Cherryland, CA Lee
$225,000
Everybody Wins! LaHood
$200,000
Tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, CA Berman
$190,000
Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY Cubin
$237,500
Theater renovation, Merced, CA Cardoza
$75,000
Totally Teen Zone, Albany, GA Bishop, Chambliss
$500,000
National History Day Several Lawmakers
$570,000
Ronald Reagan Parkway, Boone County, IN Buyer
$100,000
Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation Allen, Snowe, Collins
$332,500
Build a school sidewalk, Franklin, TX Edwards (TX)
$381,000
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY Slaughter, Schumer
$380,600
Versailles Borough Stray Gas Mitigation Doyle (PA)
$75,000
Wayne Gomes Youth Baseball Diversity Foundation Scott
$381,000
Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York, NY Nadler
$5,813,000
Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the Senate, Boston, MA Kerry, Byrd, Harkin, Durbin, Mikulski, Dodd
$950,000
Bus and Bus Facilities, Lawrence, KS Moore, Roberts
$300,000
Montana World Trade Center Rehberg
$2,673,000
Wood Education and Resource Center President, Byrd
$380,000
Lemon Street Reconstruction and Enhancements, FL Bilirakis
$17,500,000
FDR Presidential Library renovation Gillibrand, Reid, Schumer
$2,000,000
LBJ Presidential Library Hutchison
$22,000,000
JFK Presidential Library Markey, Lynch, Kerry
$300,000
GoGirlGo! Boston, MA Capuano, Kennedy, Kerry
$285,000
Kansas Farm Bureau, Manhattan, KS Brownback
$6,838,000
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts