"I'll just say this about the so-called porkbusters. I'm getting damn tired of hearing from them. They have been nothing but trouble ever since Katrina. We in Mississippi have not asked for more than we deserve. We've been very reasonable."Trent "Spends A" Lott wants to tear down a recent federally subsidized railroad, only to replace it with a federally subsidized highway. If that's not pork barrel spending, I don't know what is. So what if your state got hit by Katrina? Where is it written that every other state in the Union has some magical obligation to give you what you want, when you want it without any griping?
But hey, we need a solid Republican majority because the Democrats are so much worse than the Republicans at wasteful spending. We'd look like Sweden if the Democrats were in office, rather than a mere crack addicted stripper with a stack of stolen credit cards!
But wait, Reason makes a valid case for why Duke Cunningham was really no worse than Lott:
Craig and Simpson clearly think defying the Constitution to buy votes with taxpayers' money is better than taking bribes to steer military contracts toward certain companies, the offense for which Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) got an eight-year prison term. I'm not so sure. After all, Cunningham's favoritism did help create jobs in his district, and at least national defense is a legitimate function of the federal government.
Cunningham was sent to the pokey for funneling money to those who had paid him off, that's true, but the difference is that no one can actually deny that the U.S. Constitution actually technically allows pork barrel spending on defense projects, unlike intrastate transportation. I'm not going to apologize for Cunningham, but he really is no worse than Trent Lott. The fact that he accepted a bribe is a minor issue when compared to the fact that he was engaged in pork barrel spending. I'll take a regular scumbag who knows the Constitution and legislates accordingly over an honest politician who doesn't give a damn about what it says is his or her legitimate power to legislate and allocate funds.
The deck of cards is increasingly in danger of collapse. It's really starting to suck to be a conservative stuck in the unfortunate position of having to defend the Republicans, isn't it? People are now starting to see the truth that the Republicans have grown rotten to their very core, just like the Democrats, and that there is no real choice anymore. Keep telling yourselves that the Republicans are better than the Democrats. In another four to six years, that'll be like trying to convince someone that ecstasy is bad for you, but it sure beats the hell out of crack.
Others:
I just want to reiterate the Mayan thing. I think they knew something...
:)
Isn't there some saying about batteries corroding?
Oh yeah, "Power corrupts"
Trent Lott, by the way, recently killed a bi-partisan amendment to the Congressional Ethics bill to make public all line items of the budget in a database so the public could gather specific information on pork-barrel spending...the reason? it wasn't sufficiently related to the bill...yes, that is the reason...
http://tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com/2006/03/senate-to-consider-coburnobama-show-us.html
Yep, Tviper, I linked to that blog post near the top of mine. It's sad to see the lengths that these evil men will go to, in the public eye, to escape scrutiny. This coming from the Senator who famously said on TV about one of our security programs "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." Well, if they have nothing to hide, then what damage could exposure to the light possibly do to the things that they earmark in private?
traitors, all of them...should be hung publicly...save Tancredo and Paul, of course...
Buuuutt buttttt if we do that tviper, they might not be able to do their jobs because they'd be worried that the imperial Presidency would arrest them for spending money on the pooooor crack babies who need subsidized milk. At least that's what half of the "political scientists" out there would say about that...
I'm in favor of adding death by suffocation (by stuffing them full of their own greenbacks) and falling quarter (drop a bag of quarters off of a very large building while they stand on the street next to it) to the list of possible punishments.