You Gotta Laugh To Keep From Cryin'

Azamatteroprinciple Update. As the Appropriations bills come hot and heavy there are more and more stories about Pork Barrel Spending. Honestly, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I have said before my hope for this site is to be a clearing house of sorts for resources on the Internet for educating people about government spending, waste, corruption and abuse. This is a far from comprehensive update of recent news, sites and events from the web focusing on the problem. I would ask anyone with suggestions and/or other website/blog recommendations to e-mail me at azamatteroprinciple@gmail.com

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) wants $1 million for a Woodstock Museum. Sen. Daniel Inuoye (D-HI) wants $34 million for "Education of Native Hawaiians. Not to be out done, Sen. Kay Hutchinson (R-TX) has earmarks totaling roughly $500 million and Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) is not far behind with $400 million. Click to read more about the best I have found recently on the web. Brit Hume on Special Report with Brit Hume had the story of Rep. Charles Rangell, Chairman, Ways and Means Committee (D-NY) requesting $2 million for the Charles B. Rangell Center for Public Service at City College of New York. Perhaps if he wanted to name it The Fat, Ignorant, Contemptuous of the Taxpayer, Bastard Center I might not be so upset. According to Hume on "The Political Grapevine" the list of earmarks runs hundreds of pages and would take hours to download even on a high speed internet connection. Luckily there is AZAMATTEROPRINCIPLE so all the information is only a few quick clicks away.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is driving Senators to adopt Sen. DeMint's (R-SC) tough earmark reforms. The C.A.G.W. also details pork barrel spending in the Senate appropriations for Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.

There are plenty of stories at Taxpayers for Common Sense regarding earmarks contained in all the appropriatins bills.

Americans for Prosperity questions the need for a Regional Prisons Museum in Kansas. Personally I think we should ALL question that one.

OMB Watch reports that stalled lobby reform bills will be resolved before August Recess.

There is a great blog about pork and corruption at Americans for Prosperity that I commend to your reading. They also have The Prodigal Sons of Pork(Is that like Son of a Pig?) which is a list of legilators who seem to have seen the light on pork.

Last and certainly not least, there is Porkbusters.org that has this...

Lots of Washington politicians talk a good case about eliminating wasteful federal spending but how many of them actually vote for needed reforms? The Examiner Newspapers/Porkbusters.org Earmark Reform Index shows who in the U.S. Senate is walking the talk and who's blowing smoke hoping voters don't look too closely.

I don't know why I get so upset. Oh. That's right. IT'S MY MONEY! and yours and yours and yours.

It’s not really a blog post unless I send it to my friends at Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson's Website, Committees of Correspondence, Mark My Words, DeMediacratic Nation, Jeanette's Celebrity Corner, DragonLady's World, Webloggin, Cao's Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Conservative Thoughts, Right Celebrity, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Pirate's Cove, Nuke's news and views, The Pink Flamingo, and High Desert Wanderer, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.