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You may recall last week I told you about Barack Obama's controversial Illinois State Senate earmark for the "Garden to Nowhere." By way of reminder, Obama secured a $100,000 grant for a former campaign volunteer to build a garden project called the Englewood Botanical Garden. The project never happened and Obama's campaign volunteer, Kenny Smith, distributed $65,000 of the funds directly to his wife and another $20,000 to a construction company set up by his wife that is now no longer in business. Well, this week we uncovered more evidence of suspicious Illinois State Senate earmarks by Obama, including one...

No matter who wins, the next president promises to take back Washington from powerful interests and lobbyists. It is the same stirring promise Congress made last year when — rocked by scandal and under new leadership — lawmakers passed what they trumpeted as some of the most significant ethics reforms in years. Key among those reforms: rules requiring lawmakers, for the first time, to disclose their earmarks — federal dollars they were quietly doling out as favors. But time after time, Congress exploited loopholes or violated those rules, a Seattle Times investigation has found. An in-depth examination of the 2008...

<p>Jack Murtha is undoubtedly not only the most corrupt member of congress, but the most arrogant.</p> <p>Last year, Congress promised to shed light on the secretive process. But the lists of earmarks are still buried in obscure documents that are difficult to find and search. Until Congress put them online a couple of weeks ago, the House disclosure letters, linking lawmakers to companies, were thick volumes of paper kept in a cabinet in the offices of the House Appropriations Committee.</p>

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents detailing earmarks submitted by Barack Obama on behalf of his family and political supporters during his time in the Illinois State Senate. The documents were obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. Among the projects detailed in the documents uncovered by Judicial Watch: · Blue Gargoyle: Barack Obama helped secure a $25,000 grant for the Blue Gargoyle in August 2000, an organization that was headed by Capers C. Funnye, Jr., Michelle Obama’s first cousin once removed. · Garden to Nowhere:...

ASA responds to the Tax Foundation’s Gerald Prante blog, “Is Any Ol’ Tax Cut a Good Tax Cut? No.”

Barack Obama's supporters often try to sidestep questions about his character and judgment by saying that we should stick to what they arbitrarily define as "the real issues." But Senator Obama's record on specific issues is as bad as his record of repeatedly allying himself over the years with people who make no attempt to hide their hatred of America. Among the so-called "real issues" are earmarks for Senators' pet projects, like the "bridge to nowhere." These are among the most indefensible parts of the inbred Washington political culture, which Obama has so often claimed to be against, as part...

“The opaque earmarking process paired with a series of examples of corruption and self-aggrandizement has left taxpayers frustrated.”

Washington - While crafting a bill intended to rescue the U.S. economy this week, lawmakers couldn't stop themselves from adding billions of dollars in tax breaks that have little to do with restoring confidence in financial markets. Senators quietly tucked a number of earmarks into the tax package of the 451-page bill that was passed Wednesday night and is expected to be put to a vote in the House today: a $2 million tax benefit for makers of wooden arrows for children; a $100 million tax break to benefit auto racetrack owners; $192 million in rebates on excise taxes for...

TAX CUTS ARE NOT EARMARKS To Rich Lowry of the National Review, Get it Straight! Pertaining to the Senate Bailout Package - “Tax Cuts are NOT Earmarks. Earmarks are SPENDING”

Here are some of the special-interest provisions that are now part of the Wall Street bailout legislation. The bill started at 3 pages, grew to 106 pages, and is now 451 pages. Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502) Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503) 6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504) Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308) American Samoa (Sec. 309) Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310) Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311) Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312) Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315) Railroads (Sec....

What does this have to do with the Financial Crisis at hand

I’ve been listening to his economic speech in Independence, Missouri. He has basically echoed Nancy Pelosi’s line that opposing the bailout is unpatriotic. Here’s what he said: We are square in the greatest financial crisis of our lifetimes. And I am pleased to report that today, I will be returning to the floor of the Senate to vote on a bill that marks a decisive step in the right direction. The original proposal was flawed. I urged additions of taxpayer protections, stronger oversight, limitations on executive compensation and more protections for people’s bank accounts. I am pleased that these are...

McCain says he probably would have supported government funding bill even with earmarks Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Sunday he probably would have voted for legislation to keep the federal government running after midweek, even though it was packed with the kind of "outrageous pork-barrel spending" he has long opposed. "That's the way they always do," the Arizona senator said dismissively of fellow lawmakers. "You put in the, you put in the good deals, and then you put in the pork, as well." He said separate votes should be allowed on the bill's different provisions. McCain did not vote...

While congressional leaders wrangled over the details of a federal bailout for Wall Street that could cost taxpayers an extraordinary $700 billion, the U.S House quietly passed an omnibus-spending bill for nearly the same amount Wednesday. The Senate is expected to pass the $630 billion measure by week’s end. Senate leaders wringing their hands over where to find $700 billion for the Wall Street bailout might start with the fine print of the omnibus bill: The measure includes more than $6.6 billion in pork-barrel spending. The 2,000-plus earmarks fill 752 pages attached to the 357-page spending bill. Sen. Ted Stevens,...

Oh, say it ain't so, Joe Biden must have missed a memo from the Messiah. USA Today is reporting that Biden has requested $51 million in earmarks for Delaware in a spending bill. A $630 billion spending bill nearing final approval in Congress includes $6.6 billion for thousands of lawmakers' pet projects, including $51.5 million requested by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden when both presidential candidates have sworn off seeking any money.

WASHINGTON – As Congress tried to cobble together a plan to spend huge sums on a financial bailout, lawmakers also moved yesterday toward final approval of an omnibus spending bill with more than 2,300 pet projects, including a $2 million study of animal hibernation. Many lawmakers had promised to go on a diet, but their appetite for the pet projects, known as earmarks, has returned as Congress finishes its work for the year and Election Day looms less than six weeks away. Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group, calculates that earmarks account for $6.6 billion of the omnibus...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Even for a party whose president suffers dismal approval ratings, whose legislative wing lost control of Congress and whose presidential nominee trails in the polls, it was a remarkably bad day for Republicans. ... snip ... "This is the president's own party," said Rep. Barney Frank, a top Democratic negotiator who attended both meetings. "I don't think a president has been repudiated so strongly by the congressional wing of his own party in a long time." ... snip ... At one point in the White House meeting, according to two officials, McCain voiced support for Ryan's criticisms...

Out-of-touch Earmarks & Elites by: Lance Nation, September 25, 2008 Those congressmen who defend earmarks as necessary may be grateful that few in the Washington press corps look too carefully at them. “I realized that there was no merit in this system,” U. S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., said at the weekly meeting of Washington, D. C. area bloggers at the Heritage Foundation. “Jim Oberstar who represents the 8th District in Minnesota got as much money for transportation earmarked for that district as the other seven of us combined.” “Was that because the 8th district was growing faster and had...

Joe Biden has blasted Palin on the Bridge to Nowhere. But what he fails to mention is that he actually voted to let Alaska have it. We'll explain that ahead. "Keeping Them Honest" tonight, we examine Joe Biden's record on earmarks and some bridges of his own. Biden has some other bridges of his own that he has to account for, however. Special investigations unit correspondent Drew Griffin is also Keeping Them Honest. GRIFFIN: But hold on, Senator Biden. Keeping him honest, we decided to check on 116 reasons in Delaware that one Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska may not...

Despite the anxiety roiling AmericaÂ’s markets, lawmakers on Capitol Hill refuse to curb their insatiable appetite for pork barrel spending. With the federal government set to run out of money on October 1 (the beginning of the new fiscal year), they just keep larding pork on to the continuing resolution, which is the temporary spending legislation that would keep government doors open. AP reports that The legislation is coming together in a remarkably secretive process in which decisions are concentrated in the hands of just a few lawmakers such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and...

This study was conducted by Citizens against Government Waste. Here's the video:

Journalists race to 'check' Palin claims, ignore Democrats' billion dollars in earmarks. When Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin claimed she defeated the infamous Alaskan “Bridge to Nowhere” earmark, the Democratic nominees and network, cable and print journalists rushed to “fact check” her statement. Journalists across the media spectrum carried Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s argument portraying Palin as an exaggerator at best, a liar at worst. Reports often failed to fully explain Palin’s handling of the “Bridge to Nowhere” earmark and mostly ignored budget watchdogs that still defended her record of reform. Obama’s nearly $1 billion in earmark...

McCain is en fuego at this rally in Blaine, Minnesota on Friday. He sounds strong and confident and the crowd digs it. He slaps Obama around pretty good. Right out of the box, he says Obama doesn’t get to vote present as President, like he did in Illinois. Then Biden gets beaten about the face and neck with the “It’s patriotic to raise taxes” comment. 2:00 Earmarkers will be taken out back and shot (Maybe I’m paraphrasing, but the crowd goes crazy as if that is what he said) More.

About a third of the ignored amendments would have improved military quality of life or the management of service personnel programs.

Republican appropriators in the House of Representatives signaled they have no intention of going along with John McCain's crusade against congressional earmarking should he become president.The Politico reportsOut on the stump, John McCain gets wild applause each time he promises as president to veto every spending bill that contains an earmark.But McCain will find it almost impossible to live up to his vow, and gridlock would result if Congress refused to go along with such an executive branch power grab.And that's what members of McCain's own party are saying."I don't think it's the right approach," said Rep. Ralph Regula, an...

House Republicans on Tuesday accused Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel of “flouting” new earmark rules, a charge the New York Democrat’s office rejected. House Republicans argue that Rangel did not follow procedures regarding an earmark added to the Democrats’ new energy legislation. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters that the inclusion of the New York Liberty Zone Tax credits added “insult to injury.” Republicans said the tax credits would add $2 billion to the budget and would be used to build a rail from downtown Manhattan to John F. Kennedy International Airport. The provision, included on page...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac survived scrutiny by manipulating, cajoling, and lobbying politicians and hiring board members who were politicos (e.g. Jamie Gorelick) rather than mortgage gurus. They hired lobbyists, gave massive donations, obtained nice tax breaks, and sailed below the regulatory radar screen. Of the 354 lawmakers who received money from Freddie and Fannie between 1989 and 2008, Sen. Chris Dodd received the most. But next was . . . drumroll . . . Barack Obama. Yup. And he was only there for three years. Not too much went to John McCain, about a sixth of what Obama received...

This is the pot calling the kettle for sure. Earlier this week, Obama made an early attempt to attack Governor Sarah Palin on the earmark issue. He claimed that Palin is responsible for taking many earmarked funds for her state as she sat in the Governor's office in Juneau and that her attack on him for earmarks is, therefore, illegitimate. "I know the governor of Alaska has been, you know, saying she is change and that is great. She is a skillful politician. But when you been taking all these earmarks when it is convenient and then suddenly you are...

I hope this doesn't turn into Bush redux, where the obvious and decisive responses to liberal attacks are not utilized. Case in point: Earmarks. Today I saw Palin questioned in a confronational manner by "Charlie" and Senator Brownback on Fox by Colmes. Both were challenged on Palin's earmark record. Seems to me that ANY time a republican is challenged regarding Palin's earmark history the following the points should be made (at a minium): 1) Palin does have a record of dramatically reducing earmark requests since she bacame governor. Whoever is being interviewed needs to lay out the numbers. What were...

Here's a listing of Biden's Earmarks: PDF File: PDF HERE Obama/Biden's Son Linked by EarmarksHere

John McCain continued to laud his running mate, Sarah Palin, as a budget cutter on Friday, this time erroneously asserting that as governor of Alaska she had not sought congressional earmarks for her state. In fact, while Palin has significantly reduced the state's earmark requests, she asked for nearly $200 million in targeted spending for the 2009 fiscal year. And in an interview with ABC News aired Friday, she defended her earmark requests, emphasizing that she opposed "earmark abuse."

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama tried to direct more than $3 million in taxpayer funds to a Chicago museum whose chairman is one of the Illinois senator's largest campaign fundraisers. Mr. Obama has twice since fiscal 2006 sought to have taxpayers foot the bill for a new theater projector and other equipment at the Adler Planetarium on the Lake Michigan waterfront. Neither of the requests, which totaled $3.3 million, was approved by Congress, the museum said. The planetarium's chairman, then and still, is Frank Clark, chief executive of ComEd, a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Energy. He has pledged to...

The candidate that claims to be the only presidential contender who doesn't take money from lobbyists is in fact the biggest recipient of lobby-related contributions. Barack Obama rakes in millions from law firms serving the interests of Wall Street, including the financial institutions that gave us the subprime lending crisis. Lawyers that work for firms that earn hundreds of millions of dollars for lobbying may technically not be lobbyists, but they share in their colleagues' earnings as influencers of Congress - a legal loophole that allows Obama to claim his hands are clean of lobby loot. The top contributors to...

Before Team Obama continues its attacks on Sarah Palin for at one point voicing some general support for the Bridge to Nowhere, the presidential hopeful has some explaining to do. Let the record show that Barack Obama himself voted for the bridge at least twice, as did his running mate Joe Biden. If Team Obama is to continue to point out that Palin was for the bridge before she was against it, they either must explain why Obama and Biden never denounced the project or, on the other hand, describe why they were in error for supporting it. At the...

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama tried to direct more than $3 million in taxpayer funds to a Chicago museum whose chairman is one of the Illinois senator's largest campaign fundraisers. Mr. Obama has twice since fiscal 2006 sought to have taxpayers foot the bill for a new theater projector and other equipment at the Adler Planetarium on the Lake Michigan waterfront. Neither of the requests, which totaled $3.3 million, was approved by Congress, the museum said. The planetarium's chairman, then and still, is Frank Clark, chief executive of ComEd, a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Energy. He has pledged to...

Barack Obama has a long and expensive history of earmarking. He has used them to benefit political allies in Chicago (Pastor Wright, Father Pfleger, Reverend Meeks). He has also used them to benefit financial donors (the slumlords and newly minted felon Tony Rezko). Now a new one comes to light-courtesy of the Washington Times. Senator Obama tried to direct a 3 million dollar earmark to a museum that has as its chairman one of Obama's largest fundraisers. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama tried to direct more than $3 million in taxpayer funds to a Chicago museum whose chairman is...

Barack Obama and Joe Biden made me do this: I wasn't going to write about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin today. My last three columns focused on John McCain's running mate, and I was getting tired of writing about Palin. I mean, she's a vice presidential candidate. But Obama and Biden don't seem to agree. They seem to think they're running against Palin. It's a strange way to run a presidential campaign. You don't see McCain and Palin zeroing in on Biden. It's especially strange since the Palin pick has proved popular, especially among women. Obama and Biden seem preoccupied with...

....While running for chief executive, Palin backed the bridge, although with little evident enthusiasm. “The money that’s been appropriated for the project,” she told Ketchikan voters in September 2006, “it should remain available for a link, an access process as we continue to evaluate the scope and just how best to just get this done.” Palin could have fought for the bridge as governor, as did her spendthrift GOP predecessor, Frank Murkowski (whom she jettisoned in a primary). Murkowski recommended dedicating $195 million in the state budget for the bridge. Instead, Palin gave it $0. “Palin’s budget doesn’t include money...

There's an interesting detail in September 4th's ABC News poll that speaks directly to the effectiveness of the current skirmish over earmarks. Here’s the question: For each item I name, please tell me if it makes you think more favorably toward Palin, less favorably, or if it doesn't change your opinion of her one way or another...As mayor she obtained 27 million dollars in federal funding for projects in her town of about 7,000 people The responses are more than a little surprising. 32% of respondents thought it made her more favorable, 19% thought it made her less favorable, and...

"But, you know, when you've been taking all these earmarks when it's convenient, and then suddenly you're the champion anti-earmark person, that's not change. Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can't just make stuff up." -- Barack Obama, Sept. 6, 2008In politics, words are cheap. What really counts are actions. Democrats and Republicans have talked about fiscal responsibility for years. In reality, both parties have a shameful record of wasting hundreds of billions of tax dollars on pork-barrel projects. My Senate colleague Barack Obama is now attacking Gov. Sarah Palin over earmarks. Having worked with both John McCain...

If Barack Obama wants to rail against Sarah Palin's record on earmarks he'd better be prepared to defend why he allocated hundreds of millions of tax dollars for his own pet-projects. Yes, Palin did indicate some support for a Ketchikan "link" (which could be a bridge or a ferry) while campaigning to become Governor. Her exact quote the Obama campaign is using against her is from a 2006 article in the Ketchikan Daily News. Palin is quoted saying: "The money that's been appropriated for the project, it should remain available for a link, an access process as we continue to...

Republican National Committee: Obama/Biden Earmark Makeover Republican National Committee WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 -- The following was released today by the Republican National Committee: Since Entering The Senate, Obama Has Requested Nearly $1 Billion In Earmarks: Obama Requested 330 Projects Totaling Almost $1 Billion ($935.7 Million) Since Being Sworn In As A Senator In January 2005: Obama Requested 112 Projects Totaling $399.8 Million For FY 2008. (Sen. Barack Obama, "Obama Announces FY08 Federal Funding Requests," Press Release, obama.senate.gov, 6/21/07) Obama Requested 139 Projects Totaling $334 Million For FY 2007.(Obama For America Website, www.barackobama.com, Accessed 9/8/08) Obama Requested 79 Projects Totaling $201.9Million...

...versus John McCain's actual record of reformby McCainiacRemember when Obama was for public financing before he was against it?Jon Stewart skewered Obama big time on that flip flop...Well, now Obama is bashing Sarah Palin on earmarks, while conveniently omitting some key facts....According to Citizens Against Government Waste:CCAGW’s 2007 Congressional Ratings came out yesterday and you may be wondering how the presidential nominees did. • Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) 2007 rating was 10 percent, making his lifetime score 18 percent. The 2008 Congressional Pig Book contained 53 earmarks worth $97.4 million for Sen. Obama, including $1,648,850 for the Shedd Aquarium.• Sen....

Though Gov. Palin originally supported the earmark spending on the Ketchikan bridge (“to nowhere), SHE eventually KILLED THE PROJECT, choosing to spend Federal money on other infrasturcture programs. However, Sen. Biden and Sen. Obama voted FOR funding the Bridge, EVEN when given a second chance by Sen. Tom Coburn, who proposed shifting earmark funds to Katrina relief. Sen. McCain did not vote on the Coburn Amendment, though he is ON RECORD AS OPPSOING the Ketchikan bridge earmark.

Fighting a Different Alaska Republican, Alaska Dems Credit Palin with Killing Bridge to Nowhere September 08, 2008 4:38 PM Conservative bloggers point out that in their campaign against Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, Alaska Democrats gave credit to Gov. Palin for helping to kill the Bridge to Nowhere. “Gov. Sarah Palin said the $398 million bridge was $329 million short of full funding, and only $36 million in federal funds were set aside for it," the Democrats say. "She said it was clear Congress had little interest in spending any more money for it and that the state had higher priorities."...

EARMARKS AND OTHER PALIN BLEMISHES Having hurled ceaseless and groundless personal insults at Governor Sarah Palin and her family with no concrete results, Obama and his Merry Mob of Mudslingers are now zeroing in on earmarks. Indelicately, it’s like they’re throwing cow chips against a barn wall to see which one sticks. This time, Obama, rather than hiding behind his surrogates who have been leading the attacks, thereby giving the Anointed One the ability to perch above the fray and appear “presidential," is leading the charge on the issue of earmarks. Not one to succumb to introspection nor one to...

Obama made his first direct criticism of Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin on Saturday, saying she pretends to oppose spending earmarks when she actually has embraced them. Speaking to 800 people at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds in Terre Haute, Ind., the Democratic presidential nominee ridiculed McCain and his running mate, the Alaska governor, for describing themselves as agents of change at last week's GOP convention. "Don't be fooled," Obama told the crowd surrounding him in a large barn. "John McCain's party, with the help of John McCain, has been in charge" for nearly eight years. McCain has vowed to wipe...

Senator Barack Obama on Thursday released a list of $740 million in earmarked spending requests that he had made over the last three years, and his campaign challenged Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to do the same. The list included $1 million for a hospital where Mr. Obama’s wife works, money for several projects linked to campaign donors and support for more than 200 towns, civic institutions and universities in Illinois. But as the Senate debated a bill to restrict the controversial method of paying for home-state projects — a measure defeated Thursday evening — Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign also said...

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) Barack Obama is offering his first direct criticism of Sarah Palin (PAY'-lin) and it's on the subject of earmarks.

Joe Biden can beat Sarah Palin by pretending she's a man. And that he's not Joe Biden. You have a problem. In less than a month, you will face off against Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in a vice-presidential debate in St. Louis, and were you anyone but Joe Biden, it would likely be a rout. Last week, Palin proved herself a charming, confident, and gifted reader of speeches. But that doesn't change the fact that two years ago she was the mayor of a town of 6,000, crusading against dirty books at the local library. You are a six-term senator...