Tracking the Pork, Blocking Trump's View

Wanna see a list of all the earmarks in the highway bill? Or search for some in particular?

Taxpayers for Common Sense has an online database up with all 6,000 pet projects searchable by state.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post uses TCS data for a graphic in today's edition linking specific members of Congress to some of the flashier pork projects they're bringing home. The list totals up the 7,200 earmarks in the highway, energy, and water projects bills. Unfortunately, there appears to be no link to the list on the Post's website.

Just a taste of the pork the Post's reporting:

• Rep Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) $36 million for sugar cane ethenol
• Rep Jose Serrano (D-NY) $2.4 million for a new subway at Yankee Stadium
• Rep Sue Kelly (R-NY)? $2.5 million to bury part of Manhattan's West Side Highway (right) -- Donald Trump has sought this for a long time because the road blocks some Hudson River Views from his Trump Place

I left a question mark by Rep Kelly's name. It's unclear if she's responsible for that earmark this time. But she has supported the plan in the past. (WashPost, TCS)

Different Rules: Ballplayers & Diplomats

Congress is considering a perjury charge against Rafael Palmeiro. The baseball player testified before Congress that he never used steroids. A test proved that to be a lie -- he had used them.

Maybe Mr Palmeiro could use the "I forgot" defense. Seems to have worked for UN Ambassador John Bolton (right).

When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asked him if he'd been questioned in any federal investigations in the last five years, he wrote them saying he had not.

Then it turns out he "forgot" about an Inspector General grilling him about some intelligence foul ups leading up to the Iraq War.

Those sorts of things are easy to forget.

Mr Palmeiro could get a perjury charge, Mr Bolton got a recess appointment.

It's good to be forgetful. (FoxSports)

Private Pork

A private marina is making off with a boatload of your tax dollars thanks to the highway bill. Berg Holdings employs eight people. The highway bill hands the company $20 million to start up ferry service between San Francisco and Oakland.

Mind you, the area has a two-year old local agency -- the Bay Area Water Transit Authority --charged with developing a ferry system for the region. But they were never consulted about the end run to run cash to Berg Holdings. In fact, they looked at the plan Congress bought -- and decided it was unworkable. It's the route from Port Sonoma in the upper left corner of the map here. Click the map and it'll take you to their site.

The company's owners lobbied Rep Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and Sen Barbara Boxer (D-CA) -- even contributed $5,000 and $2,000 to their campaigns respectively.

In the end, Rep Woolsey says she carried the water for Berg Holdings. But she wasn't aware the money was ever included in the bill until it came out. (SF Chronicle)

Feel Safer Yet? Part 8.

Rich Lowry -- editor of the National Review -- has a short shopping list of more pork barrel spending in homeland security. He's particularly ticked off about big bucks going to small places that terrorists have never heard of:

• $500,000 for communications equipment in North Pole, Alaska
• $98,000 for training courses no one bothered to attend in Lenawee County, Michigan (Laurel Outlook)

What's in a Name

The official name of the highway bill in "The Transportation Equity Act -- a Legacy for Users." That's shortened to TEA-LU.

Kind of a convuluted name, huh? But remember the Alaska Congressman who heads up the Transportation Committee -- Rep Don Young (R-AK). He's the fellow who included language in the TEA-LU bill to rename a massive bridge in his home state "Don Young's Way."

That's him in the picture.

Rep Young also handed out a guaranteed $14 million in special projects to every member of Congress. Those who voted against the bill turned down the pork, too.

But $14 million can buy a lot of friends. So Rep Young got a bridge named after himself, and the House gave the bill the name of TEA-LU -- Lu is the name of Rep Young's wife. (Boston Globe)

Road Kill

There is road kill in the road bill. Seriously.

Included in the 6,371 special projects highway money must be spent on is a study on road kill. The federally funded study would seek to answer the question, "Why did the possum cross the road?" I seeks to find all the reasons road kill happens and find ways to prevent it. (Longview News-Journal)

The War on Terror will be Televised -- on a $12,000 TV Your Tax Dollars Bought

North Andover, Massachusetts -- population 27,000 -- got $1.5 million from Washington to fight terrorism.

They spent $12,350 of that on a plasma screen TV.

Citizens Against Government Waste figures there has been $1.72 billion in pork barrel spending mixed in to homeland security spending since 9/11. Some examples:

• $208,100 to Premier Yachts, Inc -- runs dinner cruises in Boston, Chicago, and DC. It had revenues of $40 million last year, without the 200-grand from taxpayers
• Greyhound bus lines got $1.6 million in security grants -- but the Boston Herald found that no baggage inspections were being done at any of the Greyhound stations they checked
• $460,000 for a project linking computers in three suburban Massachusetts police departments with fiber optic lines

Maybe those fiber optic lines could improve reception on that plasma screen TV. (Boston Herald)

Who You Know

Kern County, California has a low "human to black bear" ratio -- as the Daily News editorial puts it. But the relatively unpopulated county got around $100 million more in projects than Los Angeles in the highway bill.

It illustrates how the position you hold in Washington dictates how much money you send home. Kern County is represented by Rep Bill Thomas (R-CA). He's chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee -- which determines where money comes from and where it goes. (Los Angeles Daily News)

Where to Find Your Congressman

Congress has let out for summer recess and your Hired Hands on the Hill will be telling you what a great job they did.

Want to know where to find them? Take a look at the tip sheet the RNC fired off to House Republicans on their way home:

• Drop by a military reserve center to highlight increased benefits
• Visit a bridge or highway that will receive additional funding
• Talk up the new prescription drug benefit for seniors

These are three of the 12 "Ideas for August Recess Events" handed out by GOP leaders. (WashPost)

My How Time Flies

Jokes about long waits at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (or whatever your state calls it) probably predate the "Tin Lizzie."

Indiana bureaucrats had a brilliant idea about all those complaints -- they banned clocks in their bureaus. The logic is that if you can't see a clock, you won't notice how long you've been waiting.

No word on when they'll order you to surrender your watch at the door.

Mind you, it's hard enough to tell the time in Indiana as it is. There are 77 counties using EST, 10 counties on CDT, and 5 more on EDT.

But as a public service to all my readers waiting in line at the BMV, here's a clock showing the time for most of Indiana:




(IndyStar)

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Rep Katherine Harris (R-FL) (at left riding "Turbo") is again claiming newspapers doctored her photos during the 2000 Florida election recount.

Rep Harris is running for the Senate. She oversaw the 2000 recount that led to President Bush's election. She became famous for her liberal use of makeup and became the butt of late night comedians' jokes.

The picture at right is an Associated Press photograph taken during the 2000 recount.

She has claimed in the past that newspapers doctored her photos to make the makeup look bad. Now she's made the same claim on Sean Hannity's radio show. But she's never identified which newspapers she suspects of altering her image.

And she's never explained how television showed live what the newspapers did the next day. (USAToday)

Raiding the Congressman's Home

Federal agents searched vehicles and houses belonging to Rep William Jefferson (D-LA) Wednesday. They won't say what their criminal investigation is about. Rep Jefferson's district includes the heart of New Orleans. Federal documents link him to a case involving his brother in law -- a former state judge recently convicted of mail fraud. (USAToday)

It Didn't Work for "New Coke" Either

The "War on Terror" is back on.

In what appears to be a political "New Coke" moment, the President ditched the rebranded name for the "Classic" version.

White House advisors had been pushing a new name for the war, and senior administration officials right up to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had switched to the rebranded name: "The global struggle against violent extremism."

The rebranding happened quietly, but reporters picked up on it. The changed name was getting more attention than the policy speeches containing it.

So in a speech Wednesday, President Bush went back to the old name, using "War on Terror" five times in a single speech -- and never saying "the global struggle against violent extremism." (NYT) [Photo Credit: The White House]

In the Red Zone

Steven Vincent, a free-lance writer who's work has recently appeared in the Christian Science Monitor and the New York Times has been murdered in Iraq.

Mr Vincent kept a blog of behind the scenes war reporting called In the Red Zone.

Throwing Your Money Down a Hole in the Ground

Rep Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) got $100 million for the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey to build a new freight tunnel.

Thing is, the Port Authority didn't ask for the money and doesn't really want the tunnel.

The $100 million is part of the Highway Bill that Congress passed before recessing for the summer.

Unlike most pork in the bill, this project actually has a lot of praise: It would cut traffic congestion and reduce air pollution. But no one has decided who should build the tunnel -- expected to cost as much as $7.4 billion. So the Port Authority isn't quite sure what to do with the money yet. (NYT)

Rove Aide Questioned

An aide to White House advisor Karl Rove has testified in to the grand jury investigating the leaked identity of a CIA agent. The prosecutor spearheading the criminal investigation called Mr Rove's executive assistant Susan Ralston before the grand jury. It's still not clear what interest Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had in questioning her.

Mr Rove has testified before the grand jury -- the prosecutor has questioned him at least three times. The probe is looking for the person in the White House who identified Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. (LAT)

Click on the Karl Rove icon to see all Watching Washington posts on the Plame Name Blame Game Scandal

Plame Name Blame Game Timeline -- Say it Four Times Fast!

Trying to get a grip on who knew what when in the ongoing CIA leak investigation?

MSNBC offers up a timeline of key events in the Plame Name Blame Game scandal. (MSNBC)

Click on the Karl Rove icon to see all Watching Washington posts on the Plame Name Blame Game Scandal