[antimedia] antimedia: Here's a great way....

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Posted by antimedia:
Here's a great way....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1155686141.shtml


   ....for you to [1]exercise democracy. The Washington Examiner has
   published [2]a call for assistance from all Americans. Go to [3]this
   website and locate your state. Click on the link for your state, and
   you can see all the "earmarks" your state representatives have
   inserted into the Labor-Health and Human Services appropriation bill.
   (Texas congresspersons inserted [4]$26,300,000.. The total is over
   $500,000,000.00.)

     These earmarks average more than $268,000 each. To our knowledge,
     The Examiner is the first-ever daily newspaper to join with
     readers, citizen activists from across the political spectrum and
     bloggers in this manner to uncover the facts behind government
     spending.
     The Examiner â in cooperation with the Sunlight Foundation,
     Porkbusters.org and Citizens Against Government Waste â is making
     the Labor-HHS earmarks database public. You can see all of the
     Labor-HHS earmarks at www.examiner.com/earmarks.
     Organizations like The Heritage Foundation, National Taxpayers
     Union and Club for Growth blog are linking to the database. The
     database was obtained from a congressional source and has been
     checked and double-checked. Congress may still modify the bill,
     approve it as is or reject it.

   I don't know if the earmarks are needed or not. Captain Ed [5]found
   one that looks highly suspicious. Some of them look like worthy
   projects, but the point is, earmarks are a way for congresspersons to
   hide how much money they're spending on pet projects. At a minimum,
   their names should be attached to the earmarks so we, the voters, can
   see who is up to what.
   As the Examiner points out, earmarks can often be wasteful or
   deceiptful.

     The politicians create earmarks behind closed doors as House and
     Senate committees draft the 13 separate annual spending bills that
     fund the federal government. The secrecy lets members insert
     earmarks that may help favored campaign donors, other political
     friends and associates or even themselves without until now having
     to justify the earmark in public to the taxpayers.
     No wonder disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoffâ called Congress the
     âfavor factory.â Congress is out of control with earmarks, as the
     number has skyrocketed from 4,126 worth $29.6 billion in 1999 to
     15,887 worth nearly $50 billion last year, according to the
     Congressional Research Service.

   This is your chance to work for sunlight on the dark recesses of our
   politicians' secrets and put a stop to the shenanigans our Congress
   takes for granted.

References

   1. http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/002727.html
   2. http://www.examiner.com/a-220449%7EEditorial__Spending_money_behind_closed_doors_.html
   3. http://www.examiner.com/earmarks
   4. http://www.examiner.com/earmarks/texas.html
   5. http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/007810.php