Posted on 12/31/2007 3:56:33 PM PST by fightinJAG
[snip]
New York congresswoman Nita Lowey secured $10 million for the ongoing rehab of Fort Slocum, a defunct military garrison that, according to a Voice review of an atlas, is a long way from the combat zone. [snip]
Other Congress members snagged more dreamy projects. Fellow Democrat Eliot Engel got $4 million for Verdant Power, which uses "underwater windmills" to generate electricity. Who at the DOD is going to say no to Engel's shoehorning of this vital project into the Defense bill? He's the vice chair of the Democratic Task Force on Homeland Security. Meanwhile, Democrat José Serrano got $2 million for Hostos Community College and Columbia University to "facilitate the preparation of minority students for public service careers." At least they won't be shipped directly to Iraq.
In all, the government doled out $165 million to New York–based entities in so-called earmarks as part of the Defense spending bill. Last week, when the House passed the subsequent $70 billion Iraq War appropriations bill, there were nine thousand so-called earmarks, totaling more than $7 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, the D.C.-based group that compiled a list of the projects.
Looking at this list, you have to wonder which war the government is preparing for and where exactly it thinks this is going to happen. After all, the Iraq War is being fought—in Iraq—with low-tech explosives and small arms on roads and in buildings. But few of the locally based projects funded by Congress seemed to directly address the deadly details of that war.
Instead, it appears that we are preparing for a massive biological-weapons attack in upstate New York or the unleashing of a deadly chemical cloud or a crippling assault by computer hackers somewhere in the tri-state area.
(Excerpt) Read more at villagevoice.com ...
These clowns in DC don’t get it, do they?
This has got to stop, and right now.
I read a couple of years ago about someone who repeatedly filed mechanics liens against the government to prevent them from spending money. Does anyone remember that and what is the value of doing this in every state?
Short of that, we are left with besieging the IRS for the same breaks these lobbysists are getting.
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