Archive for March 12, 2009

Republicans Sputter About Pork, Real World Yawns

One of my favorite websites is the Office of Management and Budget [OMB] earmarks database. Whenever Republicans in Congress or on the ground squawk about pork and Democrats’ out-of-control spending, I cruise the database and regularly find all sorts of goodies indicating Republicans are in the pot all the way up to their elbows.

This week, Republican senators and representatives are self-righteously sniffing at $8 billion in earmark spending that is part of the just-signed $410 billion omnibus spending bill. Earmarks account for two percent of the bill’s spending, and Rebublican earmarks account for $3.2 billion (40%) of these monies. Considering Republicans make up 41% of Congress, they are well represented in the pork barrel.

For your viewing pleasure, here are 50 Republican earmarks, totalling $312 million. I could have listed more, but — believe it or not — I have a life. Pay special attention to how well Alabama and Mississippi are doing. Alabama is home to Richard Shelby, who railed against stimulus and assistance to automakers and stabilizing the financial market, blah, blah, blah. Thad Cochran is the senior senator for Mississippi. He is also the ranking Republican member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and, boy, does it show. Cochran’s name is on oodles of stuff. Incidentally, in FY 2008, Mississippi received $113 per capita in earmark spending! I wonder how much of 2009′s earmark spending Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour is going to refuse. I also found a $40 million earmark for South Carolina, to build a federal law enforcement training dormitory in Charleston. This earmark does not have a designated sponsor, but it is a big ol’ chunk of change going to a state with yet another Republican governor, Mark Sanford, who is contorting himself as a leading voice for fiscal responsibility. One of the 50 earmarks is actually sponsored by the two Democratic senators from Virginia, a $30 million appropriation for the Dulles Corridor rail project. I would love to see Minority Twerp Eric Cantor blast this spending. Mitch McConnell, of course, is well represented, and I even found a couple of Ted Stevens’ and Larry Craig’s earmark requests! (I listed one for each honorable senator.)

Enjoy!

Chuck Norris is No Patriot

Don’t for a minute think otherwise.

It is just under two months since President Barack Obama took office – sixty days. In this short time, he has successfully pushed through an emergency economic recovery package legitimately criticized only for its moderation, empowered scientists to do the research necessary to save American lives, responsibly balanced security against civil liberties, and, yes, kicked a few culture war footballs.

Sixty days. A handful of light culture war issues resolved. And Chuck Norris – the man who calls “liberals” unpatriotic – is calling for secession.

Yet we’ve bastardized the First Amendment, reinterpreted America’s religious history and secularized our society until we ooze skepticism and circumvent religion on every level of public and private life. How much more will Americans take? When will enough be enough? And, when that time comes, will our leaders finally listen or will history need to record a second American Revolution? We the people have the authority according to America’s Declaration of Independence

Comparatively, over eight years, American Democrats suffered through objectively irresponsible economic policy, dangerously uninformed warmaking, the sabotage of the federal courts and federal law, a litany of other abuses, and a discourse that stigmatized anyone who dared question this agenda. Yet we never once imagined that our recourse was anything but electoral victory. But after being out of power a mere sixty days, Norris is already dropping the S-bomb.

Let’s be clear. Secession is a word that should neither cross the lips, nor the keyboard, nor even the mind of any patriotic American, save as a reminder of that awful time so long ago when a band of dissatisfied rebels put politics above our mutual national purpose. If I took Chuck Norris seriously, I’d be furious; because I don’t, I’m just mad at the ridiculous level of hypocrisy.

The point is this: contrary to “Chuck Norris Facts,” America is not a Chucktatorship, and the only reason he can say such crazy things is because, for the past 233 ½ years, the men and women who lead America have put their country ahead of their ideology, something Chuck just can’t seem to do.