Considering the balls the GOP has had lately, I'm anxious to see the

Omnibus bill. It will be tough to top the ballsy stuff they've done lately, like changing the rules for the exterminator Tom DeLay, increasing the budget a whopping $800Billion, and of couse warning Ukraine about conducting a fair election. WTF. However, I have a feeling the omnibus bill out do all of those. Here are some of the earmarks added to the last one at the last minute. The current one, I believe, will be passed tomorrow?

Combined total for Hawaii and Alaska over 1 Billion(Worst two of the 50 states)
$16,000 for the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in New York
$90,000 for olive fruit fly research in France
$250,000 for the “Call Me Mister” program at Clemson University
$202,500 for the National Peanut Festival Fairgrounds for construction of the National Peanut Festival Agriculture Arena in Donthan, Alabama
$270,000 Asian Longhorned Beetle Including Emerald Ash Borer in DE
$280,000 for asparagus technology and production in Washington
$319,000.00 for Chandelier Restoration and Crystal Globe Replacement in the Capitol
$500,000 for the gasification of switchgrass in Iowa
$538,286 Shrimp aquaculture
$600,000 for Tri-state joint peanut research in Alabama
$700,000 for the Midwest poultry consortium in Iowa
$400,000 Love, Inc.
$1,500,000 Arctic Winter Games buses and bus facilities, AK
$200,000 City of North Pole
$950,000 North Pole Roads Lighting
$1,000,000 Arctic Winter games Transportation Improvements
$1 million for a DNA bear sampling study in Montana
$1,000,000 Grasshopper and Mormon Cricket Suppression
$1,000,000 for the National Agricultural-Based Industrial Lubricants Center
$1,000,000 USA Center for the Study of Rural Vehicular Trauma IN ALASKA!?
$1,000,000 South Carolina Oyster Recovery
$1.2 billion Amtrak requested(They’ve received over 25 BILLION over the last two decades)
$1,600,000 for enhanced oil spill prevention activities in the waters of Washington State. "the Committee expects the Captain of the Port to use his professional judgment in allocating these funds to measures that he believes will best protect these waters. Such measures could include a cost sharing arrangement with the State of Washington for the hiring of a rescue tug at Neah Bay. However, these funds could be allocated to alternative measures if, in the view of the Captain of the Port, such alternative measures will provide a superior level of protection."
$1,750,000 Chronic Wasting Disease!!
$1,900,000 Wind demonstration project in Texas
$1,500,000 Asian Longhorned Beetle Activities
$2,000,000 South Carolina Seafood Alliance - Sec. 208
$2.2 million grant for North Pole, home of only 1,570 residents
$2,430,000 Center for Grape Genetics
$2,500,000 Lighting systems for Rhode Island Airport Corporatio
$3M for the National Fatherhood Initiative.
$4,000,000 for the International Fertilizer Development Center
$5M for Carter Center's Guinea Worm Eradication Program
$6,000,000 for a Police Athletic League
$9,400,000 South Carolina Judicial Department to continue purchasing equipment
$10 million from the "Promote and Develop Fishery Products and Research Pertaining to American Fisheries"
$35,000,000 is for direct assistance to the state of Alaska, for any person, business, or town that has experienced an economic hardship even remotely related to fishing. This money is in addition to the $20,000,000 they are also getting for developing an Alaskan seafood marketing program.

$50,000,000 out of an eventual $130,000,000 for the rainforest was authorized to build and indoor rain forest will be built in Coralville, Iowa!!??

More omnibus info: http://www.taxpayer.net/budget/fy04omnibus/

after the real one is destroyed.

Has an indoor rainforest...inside a giant pyramid...It's actually pretty cool. Have no idea how they paid for it, it's been there for about 11 years now (my son was in a stroller the first time we went there, shortly after it opened, and he turns 11 in about a month). They also have an IMAX, an old fashioned paddleboat, and, get this - 5 minutes from the real beach - "Palm Beach" with actual white sand and blue water...unlike any beach that exists naturally in Galveston.

10 million from the "Promote and Develop Fishery Products and Research Pertaining to American Fisheries"


I guess they are, they are adding farmed fish in with regular salmon so they can take salmon off the endangered species list.

*wind power demonstrations are good things.
*studying bear genetics is a good thing.
*guinea worm eradication is a good thing.
*chronic wasting disease research is a good thing.
*fighting the asian longhorned beetle is a good thing.
*subsidizing amtrak is a good thing.
*there is no reason rural vehicular trauma can't be studied from a center in alaska.
*suppressing grasshoppers and mormon crickets in threatened agricultural areas is a good thing.
*shrimp aquaculture can be a good thing.
*oil spill prevention is a good thing.
*north pole alaska is likely one of those villages being hit hard by rapid arctic warming, and loss of HUGE areas of permanent ice. alternatively, it may have something to do with the winter games to be held in alaska.
*holding the winter games in alaska is a good thing.


all these things, and more, i can afford to "waste" a few dollars on to pay my share. thank you. almost nothing on that particular list is objectionable to me in any real way. start listing the fucking money being poured in the SDI hole, if you really want to talk about waste.

$250,000 for the “Call Me Mister” program at Clemson University - Can somebody PLEASE tell me what this program is/does? It sounds like it might teach manners to unruly college students, but I doubt it!

$1,000,000 Grasshopper and Mormon Cricket Suppression - At the risk of sounding ignorant, what is a Mormon Cricket, and why do we want to suppress them? Are they polygamists?

$400,000 Love, Inc. - Do I want to know? What is Love, Inc.? I thought the right was anti-love!

$1,900,000 Wind demonstration project in Texas - Really, anyone who has ever been to the panhandle has experienced extreme wind. If you haven't been there, let me tell you that the trees are actually bent permanently from the extreme winds. Why do they need all of this money to demonstrate it?


OK, I realize that I could go on and on here. On the other side of the coin:

$9,400,000 South Carolina Judicial Department to continue purchasing equipment - I lived in SC for three years, and believe me, these people need equipment. I guess even the state income tax doesn't provide enough. Wait, what ARE they doing with their money? One year that I lived there, they announced that no further road improvements could be made for the rest of the year because they had spent all of the money already...in February!

$3M for the National Fatherhood Initiative - Fathers NEED iniative! (No offense to any dads out there already giving 200%, just going on my own experience here)

Thank God my grandchildren are paying and not me.