NCB

http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?...ts_pigbook2005

The annual pig book came out.

No matter what side of the aisle you're on, our politicainas are screwing us by serving up all this pork. Makes me sick

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jorgelito

It make me sick too. Only, I'm not really sure how "to go about changing/fixing" it.

I also appreciate your non-partisan angle on posting this.

I wonder how accurate or reliable the info they provide is. I browsed around the site, it seems to be from various independent sources.

samcol

Hmm... Never heard of that site before. Very interesting.

KMA-628

As I have said before: spending caps (see: TABOR)

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Before you criticize someone, you need to walk a mile in their shoes. That way, if they get angry at you.......you're a mile away.......and they're barefoot.

Supple Cow

I checked out the chart with pork per capita by state so that I could see where my home state (California) and adopted state (New York) were on the list. I was proud to find them both very near the bottom of it. And then I realized that nearly all the densely populated states were toward the bottom because the list was ranking pork per capita (duh, Supple Cow). But then I looked at the raw numbers for total pork dollars spent and realized that Alaska's porkage was still pretty outrageous considering New York and California's figures were loosely 2/3 and 1/3, respectively, of Alaska's.

...and then I got over my stupid state pride and realized that too much pork is too much pork, any way you slice it.

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"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
(Michael Jordan)

Kadath

Like setting a semi-precious stone in a pile of dog crap.

I disagree with some of these; I'm for funding the YMCA, there's two million for IT training and economic development in Norristown that I think might help get that town out of its slump, and there are several small (quarter million) grants to local police offices that I'm not going to begrudge; they're going to poor areas like York that are, not coincidentally, high in crime. But by and large, screw you, politicians.

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it's quiet in here

JBX

This crap has to stop. What a load of pig shit.

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"Youth and Strength is no match for Age and Treachery"

stevo

I figure the only way for it to stop is if nobody votes for anyone that has ever held public office before. Good luck with that one. Really, we're stuck with it unless voters decide to hold politicians accountable. I don't think we'll ever see a change.

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"If I am such a genius why am I drunk, lost in the desert, with a bullet in my ass?" -Otto Mannkusser

dksuddeth

those that can't see themselves voting for a third party because it doesn't seem 'viable' help this systemic abuse right along.

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"no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."

Superbelt

I think if you need a representative example of high crime/poor area, better localized examples would be Lancaster or Reading (the poster child really)

samcol

Exactly. If people keep voting for the lesser of two evils we will just continue to get evil.

nofnway

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the Public Treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the Public Treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship.
- Alexander Fraser Tyler,'The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic'.


I've heard this sentiment attributed to others over the years but this just about sums it up

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"Iron rusts with disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold water freezes. Even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind"
Leonardo Da Vinci

MSD

I'm glad to see $10,000,000 going to the International Fund for Ireland, especially knowing that a portion of it will go toward "a national water sports center used for coaching top-level athletes, golf videos, and exporting sweaters"

"$3,000,000 added by the House for a House staff fitness facility. Staffers will be able to work off all that pork at taxpayers’ expense, despite the close proximity of two private gyms."

"$200,000 for streetscape improvements in Berkeley Springs. Berkeley Springs, a cozy little mountain town just two hours from Washington, D.C., offers visitors "state-of-the-art spas, unique shops and local arts, all surrounded by West Virginia's splendid outdoors.""

" $191,000 for pedestrian and bicycle trails in Whitefish, a 'local playground for water sports enthusiasts.'" (note: I think it may be a bad sign if the first though I had when I saw "watersports" did not in any way involve pools or oceans)

"$20,000,000 for the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Program of the Office of National Drug Control Policy." (We all know that I firmly believe in legalizingm taxing, and regulating everything.)

"$72,750 for the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation for construction of a stadium in Aberdeen. When the stadium is completed, it will be a replica of Camden Yards in Baltimore in order to give kids a feel for playing in the major leagues. The foundation boasts that for $60, each donor can have bricks engraved with their name placed in the stadium.

Appropriate recognition of the largest contribution would be to have 1,212 bricks engraved with 'A Gift from the American Taxpayer.'"

"$100,000 for the Dream Foundation, Inc. in Louisville for playground construction." (we built one hell of a quarter-acre playground here in my town entirely with volunteer labor and private contributions, and it cost about a tenth of that.)

"$775,000 for the Biltmore Hotel in the district of Rep. Ileana Ros- Lehtinen (R-Fla.). The hotel’s owners recently completed a $40 million, 10-year renovation and rooms are $350 per night. The Biltmore’s website boasts, "Coming Spring of 2005, The Biltmore will introduce a brand new, 12,000 sq. ft. destination Spa on the seventh floor of the hotel. Featuring spectacular views of surrounding Coral Gables, the Biltmore Spa will offer a luxurious and sophisticated setting for state-of-the-art treatments and services. Treatments will also be available in the hotel’s soon-tobe refurbished, private poolside cabanas." This earmark was part of a program that was supposed to fund projects to provide economic opportunity in areas of the country with populations with low or moderate incomes. There is nothing low or moderate about Coral Gables’ per capita income of $46,000, which is 19.6 percent greater than the national average of $37,000."

"$250,000 added by the Senate for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tenn."

"$400,000 for educational outreach for the Washington Opera."

"$1,000,000 for the National Trust for Historic Preservation for capital development for the Lincoln Cottage. With National Trust revenues exceeding $62 million and assets of more than $180 million, there is plenty of money to proceed with this project rather than taking it from the taxpayers."

"$1,500,000 added by the House for the Allen Telescope Array at the University of California, Berkley. This telescope is part of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI). SETI’s website boasts about the telescope’s potential to help uncover extraterrestrial life and its strength as a radio telescope. The website fails to mention any defense-related mission, unless the telescope will alert us to an alien attack. It is no wonder that we have to look for intelligent life elsewhere after seeing how Congress spends our money." (This was under defense spending. I threw it in mainly for the quip at the end.)