Earmarks in the news

Posted by LegiStorm on Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Earmarks are getting some renewed attention, and reporters are finding fresh examples of Washington's addiction to pork.

Roll Call has a story today about millions of dollars in earmarks requested by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) for his alma mater Tougaloo College. Problem is, the college doesn't know what the earmarks are for and it's not apparent it could provide the engineering services Thompson wants to fund since it has no discernible engineering program.

The story comes on the heels of the Washington Post's look this weekend at earmarks requested by Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.). The Post highlighted the John Murtha Airport in Murtha's hometown of Johnstown, Pa., a lightly-used airport which has been kept afloat largely due to earmarks requested by Murtha.

The airport hired a subsidiary of Mountaintop Technologies, a recipient of millions of dollars in earmarks sponsored by Murtha in the past decade, to manage the airport. This despite members of the airport board's complaints that the company had no prior experience in airport management. The company, meanwhile, hired a lobbying firm featuring one of Murtha's former staffers and that had once included Murtha's brother.

Finding such curious earmarks is easier with LegiStorm's easily searchable database of earmarks, which was generously compiled and provided by Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS). Currently, our earmarks database is a year old but TCS is finalizing its work on earmark requests for the 2009 fiscal year, and LegiStorm will add the data to our site as soon as next week.

posted in earmarks, Washington Post, Roll Call, Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.), Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.)
Flag comment as inappropriate

3 comments so far

Posted by silus dogood on 05/23/2009 01:32 PM EDT
if the people in this country do not get rid of crooks like barney franks,chriss dodd,nancy pelosi,and obama, there will not be a country in five years,havent we learned anything by watching california,and new york? the acorn,aclu,general elect,uaw,and murtha airport types will drag us down to nothing.
Posted by silus dogood on 05/18/2009 11:24 AM EDT
if barack hussein had gone over line by line the pork filled bills,he still would have passed them.the money that murtha,and a lot of other crooks have taken were spent on homeless children,america would have no hungry kids. it is not only democrats,but some of the repubs also who need to be thrown out of office,and never be allowed to hold political office again.then,and onyy then,we will be a great nation again.
Posted by DTEEL on 05/06/2009 06:30 PM EDT
NOTICIBLY ABSENT IN THE NEWS IS FRANK LUCAS'S EARMARK REQUEST FOR FUNDING OF WIRELESS SENSOR RESEARCH AND ACTIVE DENIAL SYSTEM RESEARCH. THE NEWS MEDIA IS SATISFIED WITH THEMSELVES IN METAPHORICALLY REFERENCING THE NEW WEAPON SYSTEMS AS TORTURE, BUT THEY WILL NOT COME RIGHT OUT AND SAY YOUR GOVERNMENT/POLICE/EMPLOYER? WANTS TO TORTURE YOU FOR MISBEHAVING. THEY WANT WIRELESS WEAPONS TO USE ON YOU! I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT I DON'T DESERVE BEING TORTURED WITH MICROWAVE OR ULTRAVIOLET LASER BEAMS. THE ULTRAVIOLET LASER BEAM WEAPONS ARE DEFINITELY CAPABLE OF KILLING WITH HEART ATTACKS AND ELECTRIC SHOCK. N. TESLA DISCOVERED WIRELESS ELECTRICAL ENERGY AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY. THERE IS PROBABLY GOOD REASON THAT IT HAS NOT BEEN USED PREVIOUSLY.

Leave a reply

Registered users can receive email notification of comments placed on this page. Sign in to an existing account or register for a new account.

» LegiStorm Blog

Facebook_s
Twitter_s