Research help

Self | 06/03/2015 | Steven Hoffman

[Jack Hammer]

I have no doubt some government agency, somewhere, publishes a list - perhaps a Google search?

[KSCITYBOY]

btt

[shoff]

I think that USASPENDING is a good place to start. I know what you mean about using different groups and organizations to vacuum up tax dollars. What started me on this search was how many left wing groups get grants for “education”. To me that is the ultimate rip off. The Politician gets to claim he is helping the poor or minorities with say “job training”. He sends a grant to friends or family who at worst case gets homeless people to sign off on training. The money is now gone with no measurable outcome.

This is different from a government contract for real work that must be produced. Unless you get a $100.000 grant for $80,000 in work that is subbed out. That would be really hard to track.

[shoff]

I believe the USASPENDING will serve my purposes. I will have to play with the site to get the results I want. I can also contact my representatives but I am sure I’ll get an audit with the questions I would ask. (Schumer.Gillibrand)

Do you know why government workers never stare out their windows in the beginning of the week?

Cause they would have nothing to do the end of the week

[shoff]

I did a google search and every time and way I tried I kept on getting how to apply and what was available. I don’t know why I couldn’t find that USASPENDING site thru my searches. I guess I am not a good as I thought.

[Rockingham]

The multiple levels of administration hide much of the federal grant process from easy public scrutiny, but they also offer numerous ways to gum up the works.

Some years ago, while at U. of Florida in Gainesville, almost by accident, I learned of the award of a federal grant to a local feminist group to hire chronically unemployed people to help run their bookstore, newspaper, and organization. The group was of the hard Left, lesbian sort and I suspected immediately that the grant was improper. I therefore read the applicable federal regulations and got copies of the application and grant documents from the local county agency responsible for the grant.

I then made trouble by filing an administrative complaint with the Federal Department of Labor, getting a conservative newspaper columnist to do a couple of columns about the grant, meeting and recruiting a local Right to Life leader as an ally, and lobbying the county commission. Eventually, the grant was revoked after a series of heated county commission meetings and a direct threat from the Department of Labor to terminate the county from the entire program if the feminist grant was not revoked.

Among other abuses, it was found that instead of hiring hard core unemployed, the feminists had simply hired several of their volunteers, and the head of the county agency supervising the grant was also a member of the feminist organization and had helped spur the grant -- a blatant conflict of interest. After the grant was revoked, the feminist bookstore and newspaper and the organization itself soon folded, with the local county official responsible for the grant shown the door.

Even before that fight was won, the local Planned Parenthood affiliate declined to accept a similar six figure grant that it had sought for a sex education program in the local public school system. The check had been cut and was ready to be picked up but they refused it because they did not want the controversy we threatened.

I get the idea of a wide-ranging research effort into federal grant practices, but you might also find the chance to strike a direct blow for liberty by challenging any irregular grants that you come across. My experience in fighting the feminist grant in Gainesville helped to prepare me for similar and much harder fights over the years. I wish you the best of luck.

[The_Republic_Of_Maine]

Man does and goes to heaven, while walking the golden streets, he sees a huge number of clocks just kind of hanging there. So he ask the angel showing him around what they are, the angel says, “Oh those clocks are mens lives, each time a man lies the clock moves a second.”

The guys says, “Oh, look at that one, it doesn’t appear to have moved at all. And that one is spinning like no tomorrow.”

“Yes” the angel says, “the slow one is the life of the preacher at ACP, the fast one spinning like no tomorrow is his member of congress.”

The man says, “but where is obama’s?”

The angel says, “obama’s clock is being used as a ceiling fan on high.”

[shoff]

Good work there Rockingham. I hope my research leads to at least half of what you accomplished. We are all busy trying to earn a living but if each of us took a little time out to thwart the looting of our tax dollars it would make a big difference. You know the liberals all help each other out to our taxes.