The Sunlight Foundation has a new program, Exposing Earmarks, that will appeal to those wishing to cut government spending. The Examiner announces the launch of the program in today's edition and requests help from an army of citizen journalists.
Congress is considering a bill -- the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations measure -- that presently contains 1,867 earmarks worth more than a half-billion tax dollars and averaging nearly $268,000 each. Many are for things that sound like worthy causes such as "hospital facilities and equipment," yet none of the sponsoring congressmen put their names on their earmarks.The Examiner has a link for those who do not know who their congressman is and they have links to the earmarks by state.That's why The Examiner newspapers have joined with the Sunlight Foundation, Porkbusters.org, and Citizens Against Government Waste in posting the database of earmarks in the Labor-HHS appropriations and inviting readers to help identify the congressmen behind each earmark. Organizations like The Heritage Foundation, National Taxpayers Union and Club for Growth blog are linking to the database. The database was obtained from a congressional source and has been checked and double-checked. Congress may still modify the bill, approve it as is or reject it.
Check out the earmarks for your state and then call your congressman and ask if he or she sponsored any of your state's earmarks. If the answer is yes, ask why the congressman's name isn't on the earmark. If you recognize the institution designated to receive the earmarked tax dollars, call them and ask them what they intend to do with your money.
Then email us at info@examiner.com with the subject line "Earmarks" and tell us what you found out. The Examiner will be asking more questions about who got the earmarks and why, so your information could be very important. You will be part of an army of citizen journalists determined to shine some much-needed light on spending decisions made behind closed doors by powerful Members of Congress.
Ed Morrisey has more at Captain's Quarters.
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Comments (17)
Where? Columbus, MS<p... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:32 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Where? Columbus, MS
How much? $ 500,000
To whom? Mississippi University for Women, for strengthening partnerships between K-12 parents and their children's teachers, principals, superintendents, and other school personnel
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HUH?
What the f#(& is that?
A half a million to "strengthen partnerships" That's what we call pork.
1. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:32 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 17:32
2. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:35 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Where? Tupelo, MS
How much? $ 500,000
To whom? CREATE Foundation to help schools and communities combat childhood obesity in North Miss.
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The people of south Miss. got wiped off the map by Katrina. Wole towns gone and they are spending a half a million of making sure kids don't eat junk food.
2. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:35 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 17:35
3. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:39 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Ok somebody translate this:
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Where? Tupelo, MS
How much? $ 200,000
To whom? CREATE Foundation, to conduct College for ALL, a four-year pilot project in school-based college and career counseling in two school districts in MS
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200 grand and they can't even tell us what it's for.
3. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:39 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 17:39
4. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:41 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Where? Montgomery, AL
How much? $ 100,000
To whom? Alabama State University for the Health Careers Awareness program
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What ever happened to career day?
4. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:41 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 17:41
5. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:45 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Where? Montevallo, AL
How much? $ 420,000
To whom? University of Montevallo for the Teacher Leadership Initiative for School Improvement
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Hey teachers, take some initiative. But don't take $420,000.
5. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:45 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 17:45
6. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:49 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
$1.8 million in about 15 minutes only looking at part of 2 states.
ANd I only highlighted the most obnoxious. Anything that said "elderly" or "medical" I left alone.
No wonder $1.5 billion is being pissed away.
6. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:49 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 17:49
7. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:53 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
More double speak:
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Where? Tallahassee, FL
How much? $ 350,000
To whom? Florida Campus Compact for a project to enhance service learning on college campuses throughout Florida
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"Enhance service learning on college campuses"
Are they converting them to trade schools?
It disturbs me that people want $350 large and they can;'t even write a decent sentence.
7. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:53 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 17:53
8. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:54 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Where? Lake City, FL
How much? $ 175,000
To whom? Lake City Community College for the 21st century mathematics initiative
========
This "new math" ain't cheap.
8. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:54 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 17:54
9. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:58 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Where? Orlando, FL
How much? $ 250,000
To whom? University of Central Florida for the Lou Frey Institute of Politics
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Do we need to spend tax dollars on an "Institute of Politics?"
I'm just asking the question.
9. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 5:58 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 17:58
10. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 6:00 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
heh-
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Where? West Palm Beach, FL
How much? $ 100,000
To whom? Palm Beach Education Commission to initiate a Quality Economic Development, Education, and Employment (QE?) demonstration project
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Not even the person who wrote this knew what the money was for.
10. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 6:00 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 18:00
11. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 6:04 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN... I've found my favorite:
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Where? Weston, FLORIDA
How much? $ 150,000
To whom? Convergent Knowledge Solutions, LLC, for rural healthcare delivery in Alaska
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Your tax dollars at work.
11. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 6:04 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 18:04
12. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 6:07 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Where? Sarasota, FL
How much? $ 100,000
To whom? Sarasota county Technical Institute for a training program in captioning and CART (Communications Access Realtime Translation) services
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Learn English punk.
12. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 6:07 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 18:07
13. Posted by Lee | August 15, 2006 6:13 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Captioning is for the deaf. It also makes video content keyword searchable. There is a nationwide shortage of captioners following recent FCC changes requiring closed-captioning on most television programming. It's also a good place to start a career if you're keyboard-friendly and willing to build up your speed.
Sorry for the interruption.
13. Posted by Lee | August 15, 2006 6:13 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 18:13
14. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 6:22 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Where? San Bernardino, CA
How much? $ 500,000
San Bernardino City Unified School District, for the English Learners Program
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OK... $100,000 to translate or $500,000 to learn english.
OK speak spanish. Punk.
14. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 6:22 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 18:22
15. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 6:24 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Lee still can't read:
Realtime Translation services
Learn English. Punk.
15. Posted by Earmark Eater | August 15, 2006 6:24 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 15, 2006 18:24
16. Posted by Lee | August 16, 2006 12:05 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
I can read, not only that - I can think too - something that is apparently missing from Earmark's bag of tricks.
Oh, and I've got something for you to eat you dumbass conservative republican Earmark'ed PUNK. Stop by anytime...
16. Posted by Lee | August 16, 2006 12:05 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 16, 2006 12:05
17. Posted by John Irving | August 16, 2006 2:39 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Wow, Lee's like a stopped clock, for an entire lifetime. Right exactly two times.
Just now, and when he was supporting Israel recently.
17. Posted by John Irving | August 16, 2006 2:39 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on August 16, 2006 14:39