"After a flurry of stimulus spending, questionable projects pile up"

[Obamanaut]

Some of these projects are listed here, many more at the link. I really don't care if someone jumps off a bridge, or whether or not rabbit shit is radioactive. It just seems, imho, that there is a lot of waste and abuse of taxpayer money here - not unlike the pork projects (earmarks) that get stuck on most bills coming out of congress.

- $11 million for Microsoft to build a bridge connecting its two headquarter campuses in Redmond, Wash., which are separated by a highway.

- $300,000 for a GPS-equipped helicopter to hunt for radioactive rabbit droppings at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.

$300 apiece for thousands of signs at road construction sites across the country announcing that the projects are funded by stimulus money.

$1.5 million for a fence to block would-be jumpers from leaping off the All-American Bridge in Akron, Ohio.


<many more here> http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/After-a-flurry-of-stimulus-spending_-questionable-projects-pile-up-8474249-68709732.html

[Newsjock]

1. White House has debunked this

http://thegovmonitor.com/world_news/united_states/white-house-review-process-underscores-10-recovery-act-myths-13682.html

The Washington Examiner is an ultra-right-wing screed funded by ultra-conservative billionaire Philip Anschutz.

[YOY]

5. It's handed out at every Metro station every morning and dropped off in front of my house monthly.

Usually they just sort of rot into nothingness or someone takes the coupons and throws it away. Even the crossword is shite.

[Obamanaut]

8. Ah yes. Debunked by the administration that is spending the money.

No self interest there.

Perhaps this source is more acceptable.

<snip>There are currently just under 22,000 contracts for stimulus projects. They range from just a few pennies for nuts and bolts at a local hardware store to billions of dollars for nuclear waste cleanup.

But dig a little deeper, and you'll find stimulus has also funded an electric oyster shell dispersal cart, ice machines, $25 million of pork and ham, a reach-in freezer, $3 million worth of auto lawyers, office furniture and nine water safety mascot costumes. <more at link>

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/news/0908/gallery.unusual_stimulus_projects/index.html


I'm thinking of putting a winding drive of oyster shells in - the sound of shells crunching is quite pleasant, almost genteel as I sit on the veranda sipping a sweet tea. Wonder how one gets one of those shell apreaders.

[gatorboy]

2. FINALLY! Someone standing up for the rights of radioactive poop!

[YOY]

3. Ah the Examiner..."Washington Times junior". The RWs little free rag in DC.

Because the WAshington Post makes the Metro paper...you have to have a "conservative opposite"...even when Metro isn't that flipping left wing at all...

Some of those items are worth it but worded strangely or sound strange to the uninformed. Someof them are tiny drops in the bucket that will push things along. And some of them are money in the pocket for contractors and not to Government Agencies.

[YOY]

4. dupe

n/t

[niceypoo]

6. Republicans were on the news whining about some of these projects

...a few months back.

[gatorboy]

7. If the rabbit shit radoactive in your yard, you might care.

Just sayin'....

[Obamanaut]

9. It ain't my yard, and I ain't in Washington state. just sayin;,,

"...Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state..."

[adamuu]

10. Yeah, take that, you Federalists! n/t