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. ...Read more!

A Cheesehead for Pork

There are plenty of reasons not to like Rep. David Obey (D-WI). However an article in the recent U.S. News and World Report by Silla Burth, shows the galling level of contempt that Obey has for those of us particularly concerned about pork-barrel spending and taxpayers in general. "His homestate newspaper said he had gone from hero to villain in six months.
"Earding to the article marking is hardly new, but over the past few years, the practice of Washington lawmakers quietly tucking billions of dollars for their pet projects into spending bills has become a political cause célèbre. Democrat Rep. David Obey, a longtime reformer, tried for years to cut the influence of earmarks. But after the Dems took the House last fall, Obey took over the House Appropriations Committee, and he's now the one feeling the heat."

Rep. Obey has been in the House for 38 years and since regaining control, the Democrats have forgotten about their pledges of good governance and listening to the American people. Well certainly Obey has. "He dismisses earmark stories as little league and his opponents' tactics as silly young politics." He further opines that "Earmarking is a tiny little aspect of what happens." Of the $20 billion in additional spending, Obey describes it as "this little difference we have in discretionary spending."

$29 Billion in earmarks is LITTLE LEAGUE??? A $20 billion difference in discretionary spending is LITTLE? I am sorry Rep. Obey but they are not. While I am grateful to be part of a league, even a little one, and practicing "silly young politics" (Oh, to be young again) your obvious contempt for me and millions of taxpayers shows that in fact that it is you who are playing out of your league.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson's Website, Right Truth, Shadowscope, Stuck On Stupid, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Pursuing Holiness, third world county, Right Celebrity, Woman Honor Thyself, Wake Up America, Pirate's Cove, Nuke's news and views, The Pink Flamingo, CommonSenseAmerica, Church and State, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, guerrilla radio, DeMediacratic Nation, 123beta, Adam's Blog, Webloggin, Phastidio.net, Cao's Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, , Conservative Cat, Faultline USA, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, CORSARI D'ITALIA, Public Eye, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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PORK TAKES WING...

...or should I say 'WHEN PIGS FLY." When Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-IL) was asked about his earmark request for a $231,000 SBA grant he said that he "would not request any Federal funding for the airport." Perhaps he should have just said "Oh you mean THAT Abraham Lincoln Airport." You see there is Abraham Lincoln Capitol Airport in Springfield, Illinois, which is served by United and American Airlines among others. But Jackson's earmark was for Abraham Lincoln National Airport in University Park which is served by, well nobody. Because it doesn't actually exist. Not only does it not exist but there are currently no plans to build it. Maybe that is why Jackson is only requesting $231,000 "to promote minority hiring and contracting" or as his spokeman said "to study how best transition this rural area into an airport economy." I am guessing the first step in the transition would be to move the cows and build an airport. Maybe Jackson realized that earmarking nearly a quarter million dollars for "bovine relocation assistance" wouldn't have made much sense in a Financial Services Committee Appropriations conference report. But I don't think building the airport was ever really the point. You see the Lincoln Airport Commission's Executive Director is a friend of Jackson's. Well more than a friend. Actually Richard Bryant is a full-time paid staffer in Jackson's regional office. So as taxpayers we get to pay for Bryant's Airport Commission as well as his staff salary. One has to wonder how he possibly has time to devote to these two vital jobs. Okay, maybe being the Executive Director of an Airport that doesn't exist doesn't take up all that much time. But his job as a waiter in the airport lounge must keep him hopping.

As an additional note, I found the $231,000 amount of the grant iteresting. The first time I ran into that number was reading the analysis of the Financial Services Committee Approriations Bill over at www.taxpayer.net and I was struck by how many SBA grants were for exactly $231,000. Initially I thought maybe there was a program with that dollar amount limit for individual grants. Researching further I found out that it was the maximum dollar amount that Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) the sub-committee chairman allocated to all the members of the Approriations Committee for their pet pork projects. ...Read more!

WELCOME TO - AZAMATTEROPRINCIPLE

Welcome to Azamatteroprinciple. It is a new site in collaboration with AZAMATTEROFACT but is solely dedicated to eliminating congressional earmarks and wasteful spending by providing information and resources to the public to help them keep informed about "Earmarks", "Government Spending", "Related Legislation" and "News Reports and Blogs/Web Resources". There are already great sites and organizations such as PORKBUSTERS, OMB WATCH, CITIZENS AGAINST GOVERNMENT WASTE, THE SUNLIGHT FOUNDATION and others which are accessible from the right sidebar who have long been LEADERS IN THE FIGHT.

WELCOME TO AZAMATTEROPRINCIPLE CONTINUED...

The aim of AZAMATTEROPRINCIPLE is to be a site that combines and hopefully strengthens these efforts by bringing information together, private and government research resources, as well as relevant research and news sources. (See STATEMENT OF PURPOSE.)

"Spending on the troops at a time of war, no problem. But $1.5 million to a liquor store in Los Angeles? Or $1.4 million to a car wash in Anaheim, Calif.? How about $1.1 million to a pizza shop, $1.5 million to a wine institute, and $227,000 to a strawberry commission?"

No. They don’t make sense to me either.

First I suggest that visitors go to Porkbusters.org and sign up for their effort to help Rep. David Obey (D-WI) Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee get through the 30,000+ existing earmark requests.

I would also encourage visitors to go to LLRX.com “Law and Technology Resources for Legal Professionals” which, in spite of the name contains a treasure trove of information and explanations regarding “The Government Domain: Tracking Federal Dollars.”

One of the key elements of Azametteroprinciple is that it provides numerous SEARCHABLE DATABASES so users can gain information on specific areas of interest to them. For information on other resource links please click on “USING THIS SITE” in the top right corner of the sidebar.

The site will be updated with current news articles and papers related to earmarks and Federal Spending so please check back frequently.

Finally, as the point of this site is to be a comprehensive source of information and resources, please feel free to e-mail me with links to other blogs, relevant articles, research papers and on-line resources that you would like to see included to make the site better.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson's Website, Big Dog's Weblog, The Pet Haven Blog, Leaning Straight Up, Pursuing Holiness, third world county, The Uncooperative Blogger, stikNstein... has no mercy, Nuke's news and views, The Right Nation, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Church and State, Right Pundits, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Random Yak, DeMediacratic Nation, 123beta, Adam's Blog, On the Horizon, Webloggin, The Bullwinkle Blog, Cao's Blog, The Florida Masochist, , Colloquium, Conservative Cat, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Blue Star Chronicles, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
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