Free Republic

We have recently read discussion in the mainstream media revolving around possibly creating a second stimulus package because, it seems, the first stimulus package — which has currently only expended around 20 billion dollars of its 787 billion dollar appropriation — either isn’t “comprehensive enough” or isn’t working, the opinion of which depends upon the political affiliation of the media person doing the analyzing of this new second stimulus idea. Such talk of yet another allocation of dollars the United States does not have nor has a hope of raising — without offering sky-high interest rates on its bonds and...

Is this what Time magazine meant with their July 6th cover, What Barack Obama Can Learn From FDR? Not one to let "a serious crisis to go to waste," Franklin Delano Roosevelt used the onset of the Great Depression as an excuse to immediately begin delivering New Deal dollars in unprecedented amounts - with laser-like political precision to electorally important parts of the country. He sailed to landslide reelection in 1936 on a federally-funded tailwind. The New Deal is now an old one - as direct mail guru Richard Viguerie describes it, "We've got money, you've got votes, let's talk."...

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: For those concerned about stimulus spending, the General Services Administration sends word tonight that $18 million in additional funds are being spent to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site. The new Web site promises to give taxpayers more information about where their money is going than the current version of the site. “Recovery.gov 2.0 will use innovative and interactive technologies to help taxpayers see where their dollars are being spent,” James A. Williams, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, says in a press release announcing the contract awarded to Maryland-based Smartronix Inc. “Armed with easy access...

Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington -- The Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center, a job-training facility in one of Los Angeles' poorest neighborhoods, is threatened with receiving no federal money at a time of high unemployment -- simply because of its name. The center has become a victim of a move on Capitol Hill to block funding for projects that bear the monikers of sitting lawmakers. "It doesn't seem fair that rich private entities can get funded and this poor school cannot," said Rep. Waters (D-Los Angeles), who had a heated confrontation with Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.)...

THERE'S an old joke about a fantastic three- legged pig and a farmer. It comes in many versions. In some tellings, the pig saves the farmer's life. In another, it can talk. The punch line always comes after a visitor asks, "So how come he only has three legs?" "Because," the farmer explains, "you don't want to eat a pig like that all at once." More and more, it seems the Obama administration has just that attitude toward the economic crisis: doling out pork for as long as possible. Recall the White House mantra of "never let a crisis go...

MYSORE: Three people were killed on Thursday in clashes over the desecration of a mosque in this Karnataka city. The three - Zubaiullah (15), Yasir (35) and Tirupati (40) - died of stab wounds following the clash in the Udayagiri suburb of Mysore, about 140 km from the state capital Bangalore. Tensions erupted over the desecration of the Alima mosque in Kyathamaranahalli locality when worshippers found the carcass of a swine, according to police. "The situation is tense but under control," Udayagiri sub-inspector M. Srikanth told IANS by phone. "To avert further clashes and maintain peace, we have banned the...

Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth - normally solid allies of the Speaker from San Francisco – called out the House Democrats’ special-interest handouts last month, stating that Pelosi’s energy tax is “the triumph of industry influence over the public interest.” And Clive Crook, writing in the Financial Times this week, noted that Speaker Pelosi’s national energy tax “creates a vastly complicated apparatus, a playground for special interests and rent-seekers, a minefield of unintended consequences – and the bottom line for all that is business as usual.”

During the third and final presidential debate of the 2008 campaign, candidate Obama said, “Earmarks account for 0.5 percent of the total federal budget.” Earmark reform alone would not result in a significant decrease in federal spending, he noted. The President may be right, but using this statistic to refrain from seriously addressing the issue of pork barrel spending is simply dishonest. Pork barrel spending is nothing more than institutionalized corruption and the fact that the practice still exists is a serious blight on our democratic system. Earmarks funnel money into Members’ districts, helping them win reelection bids by ostensibly...

Companies don't stay in business long if they make a habit of borrowing $500,000 for capital equipment of dubious utility from which they expect a $30,000 annual return. But Phoenix Press in New Haven will do just that, and thanks to Uncle Sam and Aunt Jodi, can expect to clean up on its investment even as taxpayers and ratepayers are forced to take a bath. As reported in Forbes magazine, Phoenix will buy a 121-foot wind turbine it doesn't need and wouldn't otherwise purchase because it can get it an 83 percent discount. "A windmill doesn't make economic sense," even...

Two Democrats got into a verbal altercation — and according to one a physical one — on the floor of the House on Thursday night over an appropriations earmark one was seeking. After the House floor had largely cleared following a series of votes, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) split apart from a heated conversation and began yelling at one another. “You’re out of line,” Waters shot while walking down toward the well. “You’re out of line,” Obey shot back before turning and walking away. But then Obey stopped, turned back toward Waters, and shouted:...

Congressman Jim McDermott has now explained what he was thinking when he sought to use taxpayer dollars to polish up The Rainier Club's windowsills. He was thinking: Why aren't you making a grab for cash, too? "This is not a ridiculous request," McDermott said. "Everybody in the 7th District has the right to make a request — the University of Washington, The Rainier Club, everybody." Set aside for now the tone-deafness of comparing our largest public university, reeling from budget cuts, with a private social club (where choice subcommittee assignments include the likes of "Greeting and Hospitality" and "Single Malt...

WASHINGTON — The emergency war funding bill that President Barack Obama is expected to sign soon has mushroomed into a catch-all for many lawmakers' favorite projects. Obama originally sought $83.5 billion in April, mostly to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. By the time Congress rewrote the bill and passed it last week, the price had jumped to $105.9 billion. That included money for a new $1 billion "cash for clunkers" auto trade-in program, $2.1 billion for eight C-17 Globemaster aircraft, $5 billion to help the International Monetary Fund and $500 million in earmarks, mostly for Mississippi. "It's politics...

Seattle Congressman Jim McDermott doubts his own request for a $250,000 earmark of federal funds to pay for renovations at the exclusive Rainier Club will win approval in Congress.While descending a tiled staircase into The Rainier Club lobby, U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott said Monday he doubts his request for a $250,000 earmark to cover renovations at the exclusive downtown Seattle club will win approval from federal lawmakers. "Given what's going on in the country these days, it seems unlikely to me," the Seattle Democrat said, amid a backdrop of fine artwork and antique furniture. "I'm not going to say definitively...

Among more than 100 local projects for which U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott recently sought funding earmarks in the coming federal budget are a new cancer-research program, municipal road projects and a law-enforcement initiative to combat gang violence. Also included on the Seattle Democrat's 2010 appropriations wish list is a relatively modest — but curious — appeal: A $250,000 request to fund a "window repair and limestone sill replacement" at The Rainier Club — one of Seattle's premier private clubs, whose members include some of the city's most well-heeled and politically connected residents. McDermott's request on behalf of The Rainier Club...

I downloaded the Obama administration's "Recovery Report: 100 Days, 100 Projects." It was an utterly laughable experience. I copied the "100 projects" into a Word file and then conducted a search with the word "employees." Here were the results of EVERY single occurrence: 9) A company in Maine "that had been struggling to pay its 19 employees" now being "back to work" thanks to a $2 million stimulus handout. 14) A New York construction company was able to rehire laid-off seasonal employees. Slate Hill had previously laid off 40 seasonal employees, possibly at the END OF THE SEASON. There is...

WASHINGTON – Repairs for rural bridges, an under-highway safe crossing for turtles and efforts to protect the sage grouse population are among 100 projects a Republican senator pointed to Monday as questionable federal stimulus spending. The list by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., includes projects others would identify as ideal for creating jobs and benefiting generations of Americans: skateboard parks, streetscapes, upgrades of park facilities, bike trails and parking garages. ... Coburn also criticized a $3.4 million Florida Department of Transportation project for an "eco-passage" — an underground wildlife road crossing for turtles and other wildlife in Lake Jackson, Fla., along...

Picture a freight train roaring down the tracks. Picture House Speaker Nancy Pelosi positioning her party on the rails. Picture a growing stream of nervous souls diving for the weeds. Picture all this, and you've got a sense of the Democrats' earmark-corruption problem. This particular choo-choo has the name John Murtha emblazoned on the side, and with each chug is proving that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Republicans got tossed in 2006 in part for failing to police the earmarks at the center of the Jack Abramoff and other corruption scandals. Mrs. Pelosi is today leaving...

Check out this video. Your tax dollars at work wasted folks.

ALBANY — Nancy Calhoun has been in the state Assembly six years longer than Kevin Cahill, but seniority only gets you so far in Albany when it comes to dividing up pork-barrel money. Calhoun, a Republican, has $133,000 to distribute in her parts of Orange and Rockland counties while Cahill, who belongs to the Democratic majority, will spend nearly four times that amount — $525,000 — in his mostly Ulster County district. All told, the three Democrats and three Republicans whose Assembly districts cross Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties are handing out roughly $1.4 million in so-called member-item grants this...

Before the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (also known as the "stimulus bill"), President Obama and his chief economic advisor, Larry Summers, stressed that the government's response to the economic crisis needed to be "timely, targeted, and temporary." As predicted by a Heritage Foundation analyst,[1] the bill is neither timely nor targeted. Only time will tell if it is temporary. Not TimelyGovernment agencies have spent only a tiny fraction of money planned to be spent in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. Moreover, agencies have not allocated most of the money that has been directed toward...

Louisiana Senator David Vitter (R-LA) announced this afternoon that he will release his hold on the nomination of FEMA head Craig Fugate. Vitter said his reason for initially holding up the Senate's vote was to ensure infrastructure funds were directed to Louisiana, though critics questioned his motives. "Louisianans have gotten way too many easy spoken assurances from FEMA over the last four years that didn't mean anything. Now that I've secured a specific written commitment from them on the V-Zone issue, we can move forward," Vitter said a press release Tuesday. Vitter, angered over a dispute with FEMA on its...

Muslim chef 'refused to cook sausages and bacon for police officers' breakfasts' By NEIL SEARS 12th May 2009 Muslim chef Hasanali Khoja at the employment tribunal in Watford A Muslim working as a catering manager for the police 'flatly refused' to cook sausages and bacon for officers' breakfasts, a tribunal has heard. Hasanali Khoja, 60, would not have any direct or indirect contact with pork products, even if using gloves and tongs, claiming that 'splashback' from frying would breach the requirements of his faith. After meetings to discuss the issue, Mr Khoja complained that a Metropolitan Police human resources manager...

WASHINGTON – The billions in transportation stimulus dollars that President Barack Obama promoted as a way to create jobs shortchange counties that need the work the most, an Associated Press analysis has found. The AP's review of more than 5,500 planned transportation projects nationwide is the most complete picture available of where states plan to spend the first wave of highway money. It reveals that states are planning to spend 50 percent more per person in areas with the lowest unemployment than in communities with the highest. The Transportation Department said it will attempt to replicate the AP's analysis as...

John Murtha's Pork Laden Airport!

OTTAWA — The Canadian Press has learned federal officials are set to announce the swine flu virus is believed to have infected pigs in Alberta. A government source says the animals were thought to be infected by a farm worker who had recently been to Mexico and fell ill upon his return. This may be the first time this particular swine flu virus has been found in pigs. The H1N1 virus, which is made up of swine flu genes, is believed to have jumped to humans some time back and has been passing person to person. The World Health Organization...

It’s easy to throw around big numbers when talking about the federal tax dollars that fly into John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. But calling it waste because commercial ridership has dipped misses the bigger picture, local airport and business leaders say. Economic development, job creation and military programs rely on the airport’s success. A Washington Post article published April 19 called it a “testament to (U.S. Rep. John) Murtha’s ability to tap streams of federal money.” The story brought a parade of other reporters to the local tarmac chasing the same story on Johnstown’s “little-used” airport. “What the (national) media...

An empty airport gets $150 mil

Public health authorities stress that you can't catch swine flu from eating pork. But they keep citing cooked pork. What about the raw meat? Handling raw pork is safe from swine flu too, experts say. "There's no evidence that any influenza virus, and in particular this one, has ever been transmitted by the foodborne route or by handling food products," said flu expert Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University. After all, he said, flu infects a pig's respiratory system, and "food products have nothing to do with that." [Snip] So why do public health authorities talk about eating cooked pork?...

More news about the Pork King's Swine filled airport. If you remember John Murtha who has turned congressional earmarks into an art-form directed two-hundred million of your tax dollars to the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport. Actually ghost town is a better description than Airport, Murtha Airport gets a total of THREE commercial flights a day. This tribute to the Living Pork King John Murtha is literally the airport to nowhere. But there's more. Today the WAPO announced that Murtha Airport Got Military Upgrades. The Pentagon spent millions on Murtha Airport for projects that have never been used for their...

In his first 100 days in office, President Barack Obama favoured us with a visit, said very gracious things about us, made supporting our Afghan mission politically respectable again, If the President’s direct effect on Canada has been minimal, his sideswipe effects have been substantial and his post-100 Days influence offers up new strategic possibilities for us, including repositioning ourselves as North America’s market-friendlier half. You may have been as struck as I was by the graph published here yesterday. It shows government expenditure in Canada and the United States over the last 60 years as a share of the...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina legislators on Wednesday voted to force the governor to take $350 million in federal stimulus cash that he has refused to request unless it is used to pare down state debt. Republican Gov. Mark Sanford has been railing loudly against the $787 billion stimulus package since before President Barack Obama signed it in February. He has been airing ads for weeks paid for by Carolinians for Reform that explain his philosophy of not taking the cash unless it goes toward debt, an idea twice rejected by the White House. South Carolina agencies and programs...

Grist Magazine online has a must-read story by North Carolina-based food editor Tom Philpott examining a possible link between the outbreak of swine flu and Smithfield Foods of Virginia, the world's largest pork producer and processor. Forty cases of the disease have been confirmed so far in the United States, including two cases in Texas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The outbreak of this particular strain of flu, which is caused by virus found in pigs, originated in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where Smithfield subsidiary Granjas Carroll raises about a million hogs a year,...

Don't Do This!

U.S. officials said yesterday that they are renaming the swine flu crisis the "2009 H1N1 virus outbreak" and warned other countries not to "ban or prevent" imports of U.S. pork or other products. "This really isn't swine flu. It's H1N1 virus," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said. "We want to say to consumers here and abroad that there is no risk to you. There is no scientific evidence whatsoever that there is any link between consuming pork, prepared pork products and the H1N1 virus," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk added. Prices of U.S. pork, corn and soybeans dived Monday after Russia,...

WASHINGTON (AP)- American agriculture officials want to change the name for the virus that's broken out in Mexico and the U.S. from "swine flu" to something else. The problem, they say, is that the name "swine flu" suggests a problem with pork products. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack points out that the virus is not food-borne and has nothing to do with consuming pork products.

After taking hits on product safety for everything from tainted toys to tainted milk, China wasted no time banning U.S. pork imports in the wake of the swine flu outbreak. China and a string of other countries have moved to ban pork and other meat products from some U.S. states over the past week. The trend on Tuesday drew a rebuke from U.S. officials, who are warning trading partners that such embargoes could trigger "serious trading disruptions." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health organizations insist that the strain cannot be spread by food and that properly...

China has banned hog and pork product imports from Mexico and parts of the United States with immediate effect, the government said in a statement posted on official websites today. The ban was aimed at preventing the outbreak of swine flu from entering China, the agriculture ministry and the General administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in joint statement. Imports from the US states of Texas, Kansas and California were affected by the move, according to the statement. The disease cannot be transmitted by eating properly cooked pork but the Philippines has already brought in a similar ban....

U.S. pork producers on Sunday, responding to a swine flu outbreak that has escalated into a public health emergency, said their product is safe and that consumers cannot catch the virus by eating properly cooked food. The industry-funded National Pork Board said it "wishes to reassure the public that pork is safe and will continue to be safe to consume." The statement comes as multiple nations increase their screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or are banning them outright as the virus is said to have killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400...

The White House is being briefed on the Swine Flu outbreak. President Obama and dozens of staffers were in Mexico last week prior to the Summit of the Americas. The Swine Flu started in Mexico. Obama has a certain affinity for "pork". Coincidence? Hmmm... I think we all suffer from "Pig Flu" here in America; ask Tea Party Goers who protested against massive government spending. Remember the Porkulus? Have Obama's pigs have come home to roost?

More than nine United States lobbying firms are jostling for the highly paid job of representing the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the country. THISDAY learnt the firms have made their interests known officially by submitting their proposals to the government. Although, the identities of the companies were not revealed, a source who cannot be quoted because he is not authorised to speak to the press, said the matter is before the Federal Executive Council (FEC). FEC is expected to mull over the submissions before them and make an informed decision as to which firm will best represent Nigeria’s interests...

JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- Located outside a small Pennsylvania city, John Murtha airport may not see many passengers. But it's seen plenty of arrivals of tax dollars from Washington, most recently economic stimulus funds.   The airport offers three commercial flights. In between the arrivals and departures, airport officials admit there are few faces around the facility. "When the flights are coming in, there are people. Other than that, it's empty," said Scott Voelker, manager of the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport.But one face is everywhere. Rep. John Murtha, the airport's namesake, is hard to miss.Considered one of "the kings...

Capitol Hill lawmakers still brag about the federal dollars and projects they bring home. But in an age of taxpayer-financed bailouts and massive budget deficits, members are increasingly on the defensive about pork-barrel spending. Pet projects are targets for charges of government waste during tough economic times, and earmarks stuffed into appropriations bills smack of Washington backroom dealing. Republicans, laboring to re-establish the party's reputation for fiscal restraint, are bearing the brunt of the criticism and being hit from all sides. Rep. Mary Fallin, a Republican contender in the 2010 Oklahoma governor's race, was criticized last week by her primary...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- West Virginia is injecting another $293.6 million from its share of federal stimulus funding into the state's economy. Governor Joe Manchin signed legislation Friday that divvies up the amount among several dozen agencies. More than $126 million will help the Medicaid, foster care, child support enforcement, food stamp and independent living programs. The state Department of Education is earmarked for $72 million, with $40 million benefiting its aid for exceptional children program. The Department of Environmental Protection will get $35.6 for its projects. Other recipients include Military Affairs and Public Safety, the Crime Victims Compensation Fund...

The House voted this afternoon to strip almost all of the money out of the budget Gov. Rick Perry uses to pay his staff and operate his office. During debate over the proposed state budget for the next two years, the House voted for an amendment by Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, to move about $4 million from the governor’s office to veterans’ programs. Then the House approved an amendment sponsored by Rep. John Davis, R-Houston, to more than $18 million out of the governor’s office and into mental health crisis services. Davis said the House budget that came out of...

INDONESIAN Muslims have a beef with beef jerky. Authorities have discovered that five companies selling the popular dried meat product have been substituting beef with pork, which Muslims are strictly forbidden from eating. Indonesia's National Food and Drug Monitoring Agency, or BPOM, made the discovery after conducting DNA tests on jerky samples from traditional markets in Java and Sumatra. Some of the pork products were labelled halal - meaning suitable for Muslims - but clearly were not. "I can imagine how furious the public, particularly Muslims, would be once they find out that they have been deceived all this time,''...

... While the number of earmark projects requests decreased by 12 percent last year from 11,610 to 10,160, the amount of money going to the projects increased by more than $2 billion to 19.6 billion for FY 2009. "Despite repeated claims by members of Congress that earmarks have been reduced, the Pig Book belies that claim," said CAGW President Tom Schatz, who noted that this year's spending bill also included 221 anonymous earmarks amounting to $7.8 billion of the spending that no lawmakers took credit for. ...

Congressman John Murtha, the King of Congressional Pork Really knows how to "put it" to the FBI. A few months ago, the FBI raided the offices of the PMA group, founded by a Murtha aide, and one of the Pork King's favorite Lobbying firm. What they found out is that Murtha and his buddies at PMA Group operated their own little Earmark Factory. A recent report, the FBI may be zeroing in on the relationship between Murtha and PMA. Despite the FBI putting the Heat on Murtha and his PMA relationship, the Porkmeister is is still accepting money from PMA...

WASHINGTON - A watchdog group that tracks congressional pork in the nation's capital is once again squealing with disgust. The non-partisan Citizens Against Government Waste today released its annual "Pig Book" -- a list of Washington lawmakers who use the earmarking process to funnel money to projects on their home turf. "In fiscal year 2009, Congress stuffed 10,160 projects into the 12 appropriations bills worth $19.6 billion," the group said in its report. The amount marks a 14 percent increase over last year, according to the group. The "Pig Book" also names dozens of what it considers the most blatant...

Oink.

I hope the citizens of South Carolina stop the General Assembly from the shark-like “feeding frenzy” of federal funds, which are really our seized tax dollars. Find out the facts. Gov. Mark Sanford has tried to reduce the non-necessary spending of our lawmakers. He has vetoed this pork every budget year and the legislature has consistently overridden his efforts to reduce spending. South Carolina would be in a better fiscal situation if spending restraints had been made in the good times. Now we are being threatened by our legislative leaders that if we don’t take the federal funds, prisons will...