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« Centripetal Force | Main | Wong Again »

February 28, 2006

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Getting Porked

By Greyhawk

You'll hear a lot in the upcoming political campaigns about the Defense Department Appropriations Act of 2006. Probably several claims about how all that money is going to Iraq, Afghanistan, Halliburton, etc. etc.

Hopefully there will also be some outrage about this. According to the New York Daily News, congress also found room in the bill to fund the following:

- $25 million to a "multispecies fish hatchery" in Montana to increase stocks of pike and walleye for warm water fishing.

- $1.8 million for Los Angeles sixth-graders who are "disrespectful, have poor grades and don't obey rules."

- $500,000 for curling, dog mushing, snowboarding and a snowshoe biathlon at Alaska's Arctic Winter Games.

- $242,000 for South Carolina's National Wild Turkey Federation to show American hunters how to conserve the wildlife habitat of the turkey.

- $200,000 to a group called Weed-It-Now Taconic to rid upstate New York of the Japanese knotweed.

- $850,000 for an educational initiative at the Fort Des Moines Museum in Iowa. "The museum says that Ronald Reagan learned to ride horses at an old cavalry post on the site in 1937. The funds will create "substantive programming.""

The bill is stuffed with more pork than Mike Moore at a Biergarten Buffet. In fact, according to the Daily News, the total score for congress on this one is "a record-breaking 2,966 pork-barrel projects for their home districts at a cost of $11.1 billion".

The bill also budgets $1.7B to armor for the troops.

Porkbusters. 'Nuff said.


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Posted by Greyhawk / February 28, 2006 8:57 PM | Permalink

4 Comments

Wasn't this stuff supposed to end with the new leadership in the House?
Well I guess it could have been put there before, but it does need to be taken out now.


Wow! A whole $1.7B for the troops? Guess congress had to throw them a bone. What morons we have in congress! $11.1B for themselves while our troops get the bare necessities. Sheesh

There can never be enough outrage for this sort of garbage. Congress should be prohibited from putting anything into a bill that isn't being spent on Constitutionally authorized items. Which is most of it.

Being a Michigander I was outraged that one of my Representatives (Vern Ehlers) was part of this shamefull practice. I promptly got on the phone to voice my anger to Rep. Ehlers. I spoke with some one named Ben and he informed me that this was a "competetive grant". In fact our Military currently trucks in thousands of gallons of water at a cost of millions to flush urinals. If a waterless urinal can be developed and produced it will save our military millions of dollars.

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March 19, 2010


Dawn Patrol 03/19/2003
[Greyhawk]
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"Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various sources around the world."

Mudville was founded in March, 2003. Our efforts to bring the thoughts, words, and deeds of milbloggers to a wider world evolved to become The Dawn Patrol in March, 2005. With today's entry we're going to reset the clock - but not re-write the history - and recreate the world as it was - on a day the world changed...

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(More front pages here.)

Updating... more to follow....

MILBOGS

Andrew Olmsted, 19 Mar 2003, Stateside: It would appear that the liberation of Iraq has begun.

Greyhawk, 18 Mar 2003, Germany: A united world could have, just maybe, brought down Saddam without firing a shot. We will never know. 19 Mar: We'll never know what a united world could have achieved... the UN could not agree on anything, the situation degenerated, and here we are. Status quo was not working. The French were too desperate for oil and trade at any cost. Well-intentioned Americans were led into the streets by Communists (and others) with an agenda. The media distorted the split. Many in America and abroad thought they could manipulate the situation to their personal gain. They miscalculated. The fire is lit.

Pontifx ex Machina, 18 Mar, undisclosed location: Rolling out the gate, the guard gets a quick "hook-em, horns" sign as we weave through the barricades. Then we're off, cruising through the desert in a battered-up SUV. On the eve of war, only one thing passes through our minds: is there going to be any appropriate music on the radio?

Lt Smash, 19 Mar, undisclosed location: Read the President's speech today. The clock is ticking.

Chief Wiggles, 22 Mar, Kuwait: The war started Wednesday morning for us right after the president gave a speech to the American people that lasted about 4 minutes. We were all very anxious for this whole thing to be either over or get it on its way.

Will, 22 Mar, en route: I am going to Baghdad to personally shoot that paper hanging son of a bitch!

Lt Smash 20 Mar, undisclosed location:
From: Public Works Department
To: Saddam Hussein
Subj: BLASTING OPERATIONS IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

Sgt Stryker, 20 Mar, Stateside: Iraq to File U.N. Complaint About Attack

Primary Main Objective, 30 Mar, undisclosed location I Dare Kofi to Come Get Me.

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BruceR, Flit, 19 Mar, Canada: AND SO IT BEGINS. Godspeed, Yanks. Come home safe and soon.

Andrew Olmsted, 20 Mar 2003, Stateside: The most important thing to remember over the next few days is this: the first reports are almost always inaccurate. First reports are generally submitted in the heat of battle before any real analysis can take place. Therefore, they're highly subjective, based on limited information, and rarely hit the mark. So as the first reports of 'surgical strikes' on Iraqi forces come in, it's best to take those reports with a grain of salt...

Iraqi Blogs

Salam Pax, Baghdad: The bombing aould come and go in waves, nothing too heavy and not yet comparable to what was going on in 91. all radio and TV stations are still on and while the air raid began the Iraqi TV was showing patriotic songs and didn't even bother to inform viewers that we are under attack. at the moment they are re-airing yesterday's interview with the minister of interior affairs. THe sounds of the anti-aircarft artillery is still louder than the booms and bangs which means that they are still far from where we live, but the images we saw on Al Arabia news channel showed a building burning near one of my aunts house...

Other Blogs

Andrew Sullivan, The Daily Dish: How much more morally indefensible is appeasement when we also have complete international authority to do what must be done? I think we will look back in the future and not ask, as so many now are, how it was that diplomacy didn't get unanimity on this matter. We will look back and see the moral obtuseness of Chirac and Putin and Schroder and Carter and feel nothing but contempt for them, and their preference for state terror over the responsibilities of the free world. That's why I felt enormous pride tonight in the stand being taken by Blair and Bush. The president's speech was measured, firm, just. Blair's political risks - in order to do what he believes is plainly right - will confirm him in history as a great prime minister, the conscience of his party, and the leader of his country. I say that before this war begins, because the cause is just whatever vicissitudes of conflict await us...

Glenn Reynolds has a ton of links.

Other Opinions

Mark LeVine, Alternet - 'Bush Wins': The Left's Nightmare Scenario: ...With war seemingly imminent, the movement is being forced to fall back on a second scenario, "Everyone Loses," in which the warnings of a protracted and bloody war that destabilizes the Middle East and increases terrorism bear their bitter fruit.

However unpalatable in terms of destroyed lives and infrastructure, this latter scenario would at least quash the Administration's imperial dreams and force the kind of soul searching of United States' policies that is a major goal of the movement. But this outcome is less likely than many assume, and the antiwar movement would be well advised to plan for a third scenario: "Bush Wins."

In this third scenario, the war is over quickly with relatively low U.S. casualties, some sort of mechanism for transitional rule is put in place and President Bush and his policies gain unprecedented power and prestige. From my recent conversations with organizers and their latest pronouncements, it is clear that this possibility has yet to be addressed. Waiting much longer could spell disaster for the antiwar movement...

The social and political forces unleashed by the end of decades of Hussein's murderous rule will not easily be penned in by a US-sponsored show-democracy; but whether these forces use a reopened public sphere or turn to violence to respond to the likely betrayal depends in good measure on how adroitly the world progressive community can lay fast but deep roots in Iraq.

Newpapers

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Updating... more to follow....


(The Dawn Patrol's Archives are here.)



Posted 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)


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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
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  • Tutati: Being a Michigander I was outraged that one of my read more
  • Trevor: There can never be enough outrage for this sort of read more
  • Pothus: Wow! A whole $1.7B for the troops? Guess congress had read more
  • jimmytheleg: Wasn't this stuff supposed to end with the new leadership read more

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The Mudville Gazette is written and produced by Greyhawk. Unless otherwise credited, the opinions expressed are those of the author, and nothing here is to be taken as representing the official position of or endorsement by the United States Department of Defense or any of its subordinate components. Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house.

I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email.

Original content copyright © 2003 - 2009 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed.

Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com

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