Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens gives us a little historical perspective on the much maligned practice of “earmarking”:
[audio:http://horsesass.org/wp-content/uploads/stevensearmarks.mp3]Again, you can listen to the whole interview, unedited and in context, here.
Normy Dicks & Patty Murray were dinged pretty good in the News Tribune this morning over pork projects. It’s not just Republicans that go after pork.
Number One in the Pork Busters list for 2007
John I love Haditha I Hate Marines Murtha. But correctnotright will disagree as always.
# 1. It’s always a problem, for both parties. A Congressman is expected to hold back the spending generally, but bring home the bacon to his/her home district. That’s why the party leadership, on both sides, and the President need to exercise discipline and fairness in those matters.
But really, Ted Stevens takes the cake. That “bridge to nowhere”, which seemed to benefit only his own family’s real estate projects?
Here are all the senators who voted against the Pork Moratorium Bill in 2009.
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bennett (R-UT)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Bond (R-MO)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
Dodd (D-CT)
Domenici (R-NM)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Stevens (R-AK)
Tester (D-MT)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wicker (R-MS)
Wyden (D-OR)
BOLD means the party in power. Notice our two pork loving senators voted NO!
Ahhh yes Ted Stevens Bridge to nowhere but good old Robert Byrd gets a pass
Robert C. Byrd Drive, from Beckley to Sophia (Byrd’s hometown)
Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center at Wheeling Jesuit University
Robert C. Byrd Highway
Robert C. Byrd Federal Correctional Institution
Robert C. Byrd High School
Robert C. Byrd Freeway
Robert C. Byrd Center for Hospitality and Tourism
Robert C. Byrd Science Center
Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia
Robert C. Byrd Cancer Research Center
Robert C. Byrd Technology Center at Alderson-Broaddus College
Robert C. Byrd Hardwood Technologies Center, near Princeton
Robert C. Byrd Bridge between Huntington and Chesapeake, Ohio
Robert C. Byrd addition to the lodge at Oglebay Park, Wheeling
Robert C. Byrd Community Center, Pine Grove
Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarships
Robert C. Byrd Expressway, U.S. 52 near Weirton
Robert C. Byrd Institute in Charleston
Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing
Robert C. Byrd Visitor Center at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park
Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse
Robert C. Byrd Academic and Technology Center
Robert C. Byrd United Technical Center
Robert C. Byrd Federal Building (there are two)
Robert C. Byrd Hilltop Office Complex
Robert C. Byrd Library and Robert C. Byrd Learning Resource Center
Robert C. Byrd Rural Health Center
Robert C. Byrd Clinical Addition to the veteran’s hospital in Huntington
Robert C. Byrd Industrial Park, Hardy County
Robert C. Byrd Scholastic Recognition Award
Robert C. Byrd Community Center in the naval station, Sugar Grove
Robert C. Byrd Clinic at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Center at Marshall University
“West Virginia has always had four friends,” Byrd said, “God Almighty, Sears Roebuck, Carter’s Liver Pills, and Robert C. Byrd.”
“When I was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates 51 years ago, West Virginia had four miles of divided highway,” he said. “Four miles.” Today the state has about 37,000 miles of highway.
Puddy-cat at 4: Funny, Congress wouldn’t have had any trouble passing a bill against earmarks between the years 2001 and 2006. They had a majority in both houses, and the President was from their party. But they chose not to do so. Why? Because it wasn’t important to them. In the meantime they racked up billions in budget deficits, trillions in additional national debt, and Bush didn’t veto a single bill.
So why is it so important, now, that they suddenly have this collective anguish over fiscal responsiblity and earmarks? Did they go to a revival meeting and suddenly get hit with a bolt of conscious, and are now repenting at the alter over the sin of excessive government spending?
Unlikely. The reason is simple: they are now out of power, and have only limited ability to attach earmarks. Heaven forbid that the Democrats now have the opportunity to do what they have been doing with impunity for the past six years! Time for them to suddenly switch back to the old rhetoric and claim to be the party of fiscal responsiblity, and pray that the voters have a VERY short memory!
rhp6033: Again, you missed the point BIG TIME
Pelosi and Reid in 2006 ran for the Donkey Controlled Congress on the no-earmarks pledge.
Do you need to read their words for the ninth time on this blog?
Huh? Huh?
@7
As someone who has had to drive through West Virginia before, that’s a good thing. I didn’t even mind that the toll both operator near Charleston wouldn’t take my Canadian dime for the $.10 toll.
I can’t even tell if you’re arguing for or against pork.
Those words from Reid and Pelosi are gonna be played over and over after labor day.
Lee read #9. Hold your party leaders to their word for a change!
Lee: Did you drive down the Robert Byrd highway, drive or freeway? Maybe you crossed the Robert Byrd Bridge?
Oh I forgot Lee, the Robert Byrd Expressway maybe…?
Hey, if there is ever a state which need’s more than the average share of government support, it’s West Virginia. An economy made up of coal & timber, not much else. But they are trying to get a few tourist dollars, too – but the Smokey Mountains a little bit south of them at the Tennessee/North Carolina border get more.
Washington State, on the other hand, really does get a good dose of federal money, regardless of who is in power. Military money to Boeing (which appears to be in jeapordy), sub-base on the Hood Canal, Bremerton naval station, Whidbey Island naval air station, Fort Lewis & McChord Air Force Base, etc. In addition, we have the natural advantages of international trade through our ports, from which we manage to take several cuts each time it passes through our hands.
Certainly, Alaska probably needs more money for infrastructure than the average state, considering its size and the complexity of transportation in it’s harsh winter climate. But certainly that money could have been spent better, even on other projects in Alaska, than the “bridge to nowhere”.
By the way – did you ever see Byrd getting any personal or family benefit from the federal appropriations, as the Stevens family did?
Puddybladder and republican crook Senator Stevens are fine examples of the best the GOP has to offer – which explains why they lost the Congress and are about to looooose the White House.
By the way, McCain’s temper seems to have gotten him in poor stead with his fellow Republican Senators. Only five of them endorsed him in his 2000 run, and quite a few have expressed concern over having him anywhere near the nuclear “football”.
Did he REALLY “….have a “scuffle” with 92-year-old Republican Senator Strom Thurmond”????
http://wonkette.com/375248/meet-president-mcnasty
@15 – “Virginia needs more than the average share of government support”?
Hell they have Philip Morris headquarted there! They have to be taxing the hell out of the largest tobacco company!
@15 never mind I missed the “West” Virginia and was thinking of Virginia for some stupid reason…my mistake.
Here’s an edifying source for comparing your favorite state pairings: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51000.html
It may be that I’m completely mis-reading this, but it appears that the 2006 federal spending for Virginia was twice that of Washington State. It also seems that West Virginia received about 1/5 of its neighboring namesake’s spending in federal funds. That ratio would seem about right if population were the sole qualifying factor. But other measurements intrigued me, and I felt prompted to share. Here. Smell these socks.
Who the fuck really cares about Puddybud or what he has to say? I sure don’t.
For some reason, my earlier post seems to have gone the way of the lone sock in the dryer.
I noted this site as an edifying source for comparing states’ received federal funding, and per capita data.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/
“Pork” is less than 1% of the budget. More Republican misdirection. Where’s the real “PorK”? Ask Halliburton and ‘Dick’ Cheney.
Hmmm…when a troll or two shows up in a thread tossing turds all over the place, it must mean that the original post hit a nerve.
Hmmm…when a troll or two shows up in a thread tossing turds all over the place, it must mean that the original post hit a nerve.
It’s also a pretty good bet they haven’t kept up with the news.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/.....-earmarks/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/.....RVVATR.DTL
Perhaps Johnboy McCain will try to get some more money for HIS special interests – and then there’s all the stories surrounding his wife and her ties to big money. Hmmmm.
Headless Lucy @ 21 said: Where’s the real “PorK”? Ask Halliburton and ‘Dick’ Cheney.
Actually, it’s even worse than that, considering that Bush has insisted on prosecuting the Iraq & Afganistan wars, along with anything related to the War on Terror that they deem to lump into those catagories, as an off-budget item. We really don’t have the foggiest idea how much money is being wasted. That won’t become apparant until we finally get a Democrat into the White House, and they discover the pile of unpaid bills left unopened, stuffed on the back of a shelf in the closet in the oval office.
I feel a bit like a parent who comes home to find his teenager using the house for a drunken party, which has gotten way out of hand. After evicting all the guests, I’m still left with a hell of a mess to clean up.
But in this case, the Republicans aren’t going to be cowed by their disobedience. Instead, they are going to pointing their finger at the Democrats, saying “Gee, everybody was having a great time until you showed up! And look at the mess you made! Why haven’t you cleaned it up right away! You should put us back in charge!”
Wait a minute… leftist pinhead web sites are now using CAGW and PorkBusters?
Correctnotbright didn’t trust them. Remember the mudslinging from two weeks ago. Oh… my bad you are all lefties, and with 24 hour memory power it was forgotten.
EKIM – I realize facts hurt your single celled organism called a brain. Take two aspirin and have Clueless Idiot explain it to you…
BTW EKIM – If you decide to search this blog (you may elist the help of Goldy’s helpers) – Puddy has been using pork busters for years, as the lone wolf in the sea of liberal morASS!
Butt being the ignoramus you are stay ignorant.
ATJ: Here is the link: www. cagw. org /site/DocServer/Senate_-_dollar.pdf?docID=3024
Add up the top donk vs. the top Repubs and you’ll see it is even for the top 10. Then you’ll see the donk take off real fast after that.
Amazingly this is skipped by the Stink Progressives…
Also skipped was the Clinton and Obama pork. McCain true to his word had zero.
The phrase McCain and true to his word is an oxymoron.
He he: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com.....tpwww.html
So easy…
ATJ: So what? They nailed both sides.
Did it stop them from identifying Republicans?
Non-issue.
He he he so easy… to refute!
Whoosh!!!
Sweet. I win another thread.