John McCain And The Politics Of Pork

Senator A Vocal Critic Of Earmarks; Some Say He Doesn't Differentiate Between Good And Bad

(AP)  Earmarks are only pork when someone else is feasting on them. On your plate, they're veggies.

They are the train that takes you to visit Aunt Betty, or the health clinic down the street, or the waste treatment plant that makes your water safer to drink. They're not all bridges to nowhere. They're also bicycle trails to somewhere.

If John McCain is true to his rhetoric in the Republican presidential campaign, he would take a broad ax to spending that voters, upon closer examination, might wish were cut in a more discerning way. The two dozen states voting in presidential primaries Tuesday are home to thousands of projects financed by earmarks, the pet pork that members of Congress carve out of the federal budget.

The Arizona senator's criticism of pork pleases crowds, for no one likes to see tax dollars thrown at silly things. "No earmarks," he says. "Not 10,000. Not one. Zero."

And he got an unintentional assist from President Bush, a convert to the anti-pork cause after he signed a spending law that legislators had stuffed with 10,000 local projects costing more than $10 billion.

A small taste of the earmarked spending sought in 2007 by lawmakers from Super Tuesday states:

In California, $438,000 to Monterey County for gang prevention and intervention.

In Illinois, $5 million for the Red Cross to buy backup generators, cots, shelter trailers, emergency vehicles and more.

In New Haven, Conn., $487,000 to help families and children exposed to violence and trauma.

In Oneonta, N.Y., $243,000 for hospital equipment and facilities.

In St. James, Mo., $412,000 to expand services to abused and neglected children.

In North Dakota, $390,000 to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe for a methamphetamine prevention program.

Earmarks are the refuge of lawmakers who for whatever reason don't like the normal method of setting government spending priorities. Either their pet projects don't make the grade on their merits or they see them as too urgent to wait their turn. And they insist they know their district's priorities better than Washington could.

In any event, earmarks are an end run around the process that is supposed to make sure money is spent based on well-considered value judgments.

Pork haters like McCain say an agency with its eye on the national interest and an objective way of looking at a region's needs should decide on such spending, not members of Congress currying local - sometimes very local - favor.

But McCain's spending plan does not make such distinctions between waste and worthy. In his accounting, if it's an earmark, it's bad and it's gone. He counts on saving all the money now spent on earmarks to help pay for his tax cuts.

McCain has been celebrated for years by watchdog groups cheering his fight against waste, and there's always plenty in the budget to raise eyebrows if not hackles. A $50-million indoor rain forest for Iowa, anyone?

In a Republican campaign debate, McCain ribbed Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who also wants to be president, for helping to secure $1 million for a museum commemorating the 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair, a seminal event in hippiedom and the counterculture.

"I'm sure it was a cultural and pharmaceutical event," he said dryly. "I was tied up at the time." McCain, who was captive in a Vietnam prison when Woodstock happened, turned that line into a campaign ad. The money has been stripped from a spending bill.

Now he talks at every opportunity about the "bridge to nowhere."

He means an Alaska bridge that would have connected the town of Ketchikan to its airport, which is accessible only by ferry, at a cost of close to $400 million by state estimates.

Critics noted the now-shelved project involved building a structure higher than the Brooklyn Bridge and nearly as long as the Golden Gate to an island where 50 people live. Proponents noted the airport on the island serves 200,000 people a year and air traffic plays a vital role in Alaska, where roads are scarce and often unusable because of the weather and terrain.

Earmarks in a literal sense refer to the marks cut on the ears of livestock for centuries to claim ownership. Now, it's more specifically about pigs.

Congress has taken steps to make earmarks more accountable, so members can't secretly slip a pet project into a bill or associated documents.

Clinton has had much company in seeking earmarks. Presidential rival Barack Obama lists dozens on his Senate Web site, among them $3 million to replace 40-year-old projection equipment at a planetarium, $3 million for a Chicago underpass, $750,000 for two water towers and $5 million for the Illinois Red Cross.

Now Bush vows to veto any spending bill that does not cut the number and cost of pet projects by half.

He's having agencies disregard earmarks that members of Congress insert into documents that accompany legislation. But earmarks can continue to go into legislation itself, and surely will.

Evidence that pork can be filling at times was under McCain's nose recently, although he apparently did not know it.

Campaigning in South Carolina, he visited a factory and praised the armored, mine-resistant military vehicles made there to be used in the war.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a McCain ally, noted to an Associated Press reporter that the plant, on a shuttered U.S. naval base, had received money from an earmark.

[kandereck]

In Wednesday''s debate, McCain''s fix for the economy was a joke!

"Because I know how to lead,%u201D he said. %u201CI led the largest squadron in the United States Navy. And I can hire lots of managers, but leadership is a quality that people look for."

How big is a Navy squadron? 10? 100? 1,000? I don%u2019t know the size of the "Navy%u2019s largest squadron,%u201D but I suspect it is pretty small. Not the kind of %u201CD-Day%u201D command McCain is trying to place in the minds of the voters.

Contrast that with Mitt Romney%u2019s leadership. In business, in the Olympics and in government, Mitt has led thousands and tens of thousands. More importantly, Romney%u2019s world is filled with bright people who have minds of their own. Big egos and entrepreneurs know they won%u2019t get %u201Cthrown in the brig%u201D if they disagree or express contrary thoughts and wishes.

True leadership comes from winning over the minds and actions of followers, not barking orders to underlings who can%u2019t object!

How does barking orders to a few duty-bound followers compare to the business world, filled with entrepreneurs and egos that are not obligated to %u201Cshoot and salute?%u201D

I am a Vietnam veteran, myself. And I respect McCain%u2019s military record. Regretfully, John, you are no Eisenhower. And on the subject of fixing the economy, your experience is zero.

[news4all]

McCain has sold out to lobbyists and promised who knows what for his endorsements. Some people still seem to believe everything he says.

[wardoglrs]

The thing is to worry about here are the Neo conservitive using the white house to start the wars. When will you ever realize this?. We are the ones who start all the wars thats why the world hates us. Our power''''s have been hijacked by the The FederalReserve/CFR/Nafta/Cafta. All these wonderfull programe''''s you know nothing about Stole our money and our freedoms since 1913 for only them not you. Goole the info on anything you want and you will find it all on the net. Just look at the chart below it will tell you who is who.

2008 Presidential Candidate Spending Analyses

http://www.ntu.org/main/page
.php?PageID=141

[marcodele]

McCain is so totally befuddled he forgets his own lies. Either Obama or Clinton are going to pulverize this clown in the presidential debates.

[sgtrds]

All 6 of the examples of earmarks they list are all excellent causes and should be funded. It''s the idiotic ones like the bridge to nowhere in Alaska that pis*s people off.

[dmgenet]

Gosh, gee whiz there is good and bad in Congressional Pork? How about NO pork on the hill? KISS.

[enoughya]

McCain now potends to be against pork spending? Unbelievable! McCain plyed a big role in trying to cover for the crooks in the savings and loan scandal, which cost the taxpayers more than a trillion dollars to bail these crooks out (Keating 5). With that kind of corruption, going after pork spending looks petty. McCain craves, usurps and abuses power just as bad as does Bush, and would be a total disaster for our nation (as if Bush was not bad enough).

[fettkonserv]

If John McCain had any integrity he''d be a Democrat.
Retire Senator John McCain, while you still get a little respect. Take Elizabeth Dole with you please and give a little pork to the Vets you claim to be a friend of.
War is not a future its a death sentence.

[nyckate]

"If the Republicans are looking around for an icon to worship, they might consider Bill Clinton. He cut spending from 21.4 percent of GDP to 18.5 percent. That''s three times as much as Reagan. True, he raised taxes from 17.6 percent to 19.8 percent, but that''s still a smaller chunk than the government was claiming when Reagan left office. And, of course, he left us with an annual surplus that threatened to eliminate the national debt. "

[sophielhu]

All 6 of the examples of earmarks they list are all excellent causes and should be funded. It''''s the idiotic ones like the bridge to nowhere in Alaska that pis*s people off.
----------------------------------------
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[ontheleft]

Fox news came out with a poll o Republican voters that showed McCain ahead nationally at 48%, Romney at 20%, Huckabee at 19% and wacko Ron Paul at 5%. Looks like McCain has it wrapped up easily.

[spinster2]

McCain has been saying for a couple of years that he wanted to make the authors famous and I couldn''t help but think at the time, they probably hope you do make them famous. The only one they have to worry about are the voters in their home state who I have a feeling will be very forgiving. Most of them probably didn''t know their represenative was doing so much for them.

[harp1963]

You can "pork" all you want to in the United States boys. We just don''t want the entire budget going to an oil war in the Middle East that had nothing to do with 9/11.

We would also appreciate it if you m o r o n i c Republicans who want to condone torturing enemy combatants would stop. You can''t take the high moral ground and then torture. You can''t be a "Praise the Lord convulsing neurotic pro-life Republican" in the American media and give the abortion capital of the world, China, free trade with America and not require one human rights requirement about abortion or anything to continue the free trade either. Sounds like the war in Iraq and the China free trade deal were all about greed to me, oh well, Praise the Lord.

The reason we don''t want P.O.W.s tortured John is because we don''t want our own sons and daughters tortured. See, we can''t ask or hope our enemy won''t torture our soldiers if we are in the business of torturing P.O.W.s, enemy combatants, or what ever politically correct term you would like to use.

[nottellin1]

Not that anyone cares, but I''ve decided:

Clinton vs Romney - Romney
Obama vs Romney - Romney
Obama vs McCain - Obama

and as much as I don''t want a McCain presidency, if it comes to:

Clinton vs McCain - god help us McCain

[shingles1]

All this article tells me is that the Associated Press hearts McCain. "Pork haters like McCain" should be rewritten as "Self-proclaimed pork haters like McCain", for example.

Instead of writing a piece that praises McCain just like Pravda used to praise the glorious leaders of the Soviet Union, how ''bout asking the simple question:

Does McCain live up to his rhetoric on pork?

1. McCain has more lobbyists raising funds for his campaign (32) than any other campaign. His campaign manager is a lobbyist...part of the "iron grip of the special interests" that McCain loves to blabber on and on about.

2. McCain has earmarked tens of millions of dollars for projects in Arizona - most of which are probably worthy, but this is still technically considered "pork".

3. Shady dealings with McCain''s Reform Institute in which companies with business before McCain''s Senate Commerce Committee donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Reform Institute and then miraculously, McCain voted in these companies favor.

When it comes to the media''s coverage of John McCain, don''t expect anything more than puff pieces.

[piercetheval]

...this is John McCains brain--- "O"...this is his brain on politics--- "." any ?s''

[brianbwb-2009]

"Pork" is a minor concern, just a small part of the corruption that is DC. The "clear and present danger" that McCain represents to the US is clearly illustrated by his "bomb Iran" song, sung before the truth came out that Iran had halted their Nuclear program four years ago, and that the Bush admin was again caught lying.

Had McCain been president, we would have bombed Iran because of a lie, the price of oil would have crushed the US dollar into worthless confetti, and there would already be anarchy in American streets, all over what was once the country.

Then he would have probably gone down with the ship, unapologetically blaming the Democrats until his last breath.

[spinster2]

OBAMA''S RACIST PASTOR DISSES NATALEE HOLLOWAY

http://www.theodoresworld.net/archives/2008/01/post_25.html



BARRACK OBAMA''S CHURCH HONERS RACIST NATION OF ISLAM LEADER,
LOUIS FARRAKHAN WITH LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD.

http://www.newsmax.com/kessler/farrakhan_support/2008/01/17/65177.html

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by TheGateway1

Your position reminds of the old west, when Europeans would go in and wipe out a village of the original inhabitants to steal the land, then when the friends and brethren objected and made reprisals the victims were branded as "savages" and all effort was made to kill them all, but in the ensuing mess the original injustice is intentionally forgotten.

As for the Daniel Perls, and the others who were victims of mad people with saws and knives, why is that no one ever asks what they were doing in a known hostile area? They were obviously not welcome there, and, as cold as it sounds, had they not been there, they wouldn''t have become victims.

If one of your friends gets mugged in a dangerous part of the city, shouldn''t one of your questions be "*** were you doing there in the first place"?

I find dark humor in people like yourself, who consider yourselves to have the right to go anywhere and do anything you wish, while ignoring the wishes of the people in the places you go. I am sure that if any of those people who took their inhumane actions against the victims you cite were to come to your neighborhood, you would be one of the first calling for their death.

Apply your intolerance both ways, because if you take upon yourself the right to be so, then to deny the right of others to do the same is hypocrisy.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by Spinster2

Your false aspersions cast aside for a moment, (actually forever) I am moved to ask, So what? Minister Farrakhan has done more for poor "Blacks" than any "White" person you can name, so if he is honored, then obviously enough people felt that he earned the honor.

[heartlandjim]

Could it be that Romney will back out after Tuesday and we will have a civil debate between John McCain and Mike Huckabee for the Republican Nominee. Could it be that Mike Huckabee is resurging. Could be!

[johngoodnews]

My guy brings home the bacon. How dare you call it pork!

[cbs_oliver]

All we hear about now on the Republican side is McCain, McCain, McCain.

It is interesting to see how the corporate media herds the American people into choosing their prefered candidate.

[juwboy]

Right on, Spinster2!

I''ve responded to your Comments in the "Bush Presses Senate To Pass stimulus Plan" string.

[plusbbcather]

McCain has sold out to lobbyists and promised who knows what for his endorsements. Some people still seem to believe everything he says.
______________
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[skyk-2009]

Earmarks: Some are bad, some are good. Just cancel the bad, and save the good. Simple? Not by Washington standards. The pigs wont give up their pork, they want
to take home the bacon, so the blind constituants will
think how great he/she is for their State, and re-elect them time after time. THREE BLIND MICE?????????
See how they run!!!!!!! Doug


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by az97202 at 06:31 AM : Feb 02, 2008
+ report abuse

I have LESS trouble with them taking it home to American''s than I do with them taking it and sending it to other country''s. When our government takes OUR money and give''s it to other nations so Corporations can exploit those nations... take away our jobs and things like that, that''s a much bigger problem in my opinion. What NEEDS to be looked at closely is what is "American Interest" and what is CORPORATE WELFARE. When tax dollars go to some slimy CEO to bail him or his Corporation out, building something or starting something that is of no benefit to the People as a whole, then we have a major problem in my view.

[rushlimpdrug]

"He Doesn''t Differentiate Between Good And Bad"

John can''t differentiate between ANYTHING.
The man is old and bitter.
He hates young people.
The man can''t talk about the future and a vision of America because he can''t see that far.
He''s fooling himself and much of the American public.
Too bad.
At 71 he should have accomplished everything good he could have done.
Unfortunately, he has done more harm to America than good.
I will say he did get a smokin'' wife for himself at an old age.

[sleepyric]

Just look at Pork projects as another form of "rebate" for your tax dollars. Like someone said; some are good; some are bad. Just keep the good ones...congressmen - use your brains to figure out which ones are worth keeping, in other words, do you job!

[thecannula]

There are four candidates remaining, and only John McCain ensures that both the white house and congress won''t be run by the Democrats. Every single head to head poll shows McCain ahead or statistically tied with Obama and Clinton, while Romney runs 10-15 points behind! Wake up people, Romney ran Hillarycare in Massachusetts and raised "fees" and denied that he raised taxes. Please, how can he now debate with the democrats? He can''t argue against or change the past. He''s a liberal in a brand new $5000 conservative suit, purchased with "Other People''s Money"

[fuzzybear9]

Hello Other Americans How are you Today ?

you will note I didn`t say Fellow Americans,
I have come to realize that most of us have nothing in common but being on the same planet.
Fuzzy is this going to be a Bear day ? I think so I`m feeling devisive.

How many of you watched was it Dateline, the other night, anyway it showed the problems of a nice middle class family that due to an unexpected illness was losing their home.

come to find out this working class family voted Republican because they had Christian beliefs that oppose abortion. When asked could you support Hillary
they said we could except we don`t like the whole gay rights deal of the Democratic Party.

Which just proves to me there is No party of the
Working Class Christian family.

Fuzzy what about Republicans ? another sham this is the party of the Corporate lobbiest that uses the silly twits of Iowa to maitain their voting base.
Fuzzy what about the Democarats ? even a bigger sham
the party of Ted a disfranchised Mobster that uses the
black twits to do his bidding.

Actually John McCain and Ted are a part of the Eliteist Party which robs from the Working Class
and gives to themselves.

Anyway we need just a good old fashioned Party for working class people with none of the frindge elements.

Sincerely Fuzzy Bear

[tcoleman12]

The "Earmarks" that are mentioned all sound nice and well-intentioned. But, if put out on their own, you would be able to see if this money was going to them due to previous cost overruns, money mismanagement, expansion or any number of things.

Sliding the money these guys want into the back of a bill that is unrelated takes the accountability of our dollars off the radar.

[radiob-2009]

BombBomb Iran
Won''t you please help us if you can
We gotta BombBomb Iran
Obamba Ran
Or Pakistan
We have to make history
with Hillary
So bombbomb Iran
Obamba Ran

[hungry1968]

ALL earmarks are bad. If they are "good" and justified, then the money could and would be approved through the normal allocation process.

When the money has to be "snuck" into spending bills so that the process is subverted, a big red flag should go up. "Hmmmm, why is this money being hidden from the normal allocation process?"

[jjp735i]

We all know some earmarks go to things that are good.

The problem is that there are too many earmarks that are just wasted tax payer money for some of the dumbest projects ever thought of. Some members in Congress spend tax payer money as if it was their own.

They need reminded that it is not. They are stealing it and getting away with it.

[glossypan]

What a welcome change.
No dittoheads whining about "Liberal Media" in this forum.

[pensacola88]

Getting rid of earmarks is not going to be easy. When a defense contract is awarded or a military base is closed, a community is either gaining money or losing it. Most US Representatives push for earmarks to help offset losses in federal expenditures in their districts.

The ones which irritated me involved individuals, who were wealthy and encountered a tax problem because of profound changes in economy -A.K.A. oil prices. Suddenly, the individual recieved an earmark to "research" other economic applications for "mesquite" wood.

The secret decoder ring told me that Multi- Millionaire Clint Manges, of Freer, Texas, had a tax problem and couldn''t pay all his taxes, when oil dropped to under $25 a barrel. So, he received an earmark to develope a market for mesquite furniture used from wood on his ranch. It seemed kind of shady, but the school districts in Webb, Bruni, and Duval county, needed the money from the back taxes to operate and this earmark was the only way they would get it. The social problem created from this - white English-only families left the region to find better schools to educate their children, leaving only Spanish speakers to inheret the schools, which later became poor performing schools. The quality of education went down and required a Federal Supreme Court ruling to declare Texas education funding as un-constitutional.

Federal earmaks usually give clue that public funding problems exist at the State level.

[grumpas]

The biggest earmarks (pork) for the Republican''s are Iraq and Afghanistan both!!!! They are throwing billions away annually trying to fight terrorism the wrong way! You don''t change people''s ideology at the point of a gun. They have so f..... up both countries it''s going to cost us a trillions to repair them when the fighting is over! Maybe one of these days these frat boys will wake up to what''s wrong with their neocon ideas. When they have brought the troops home they can talk to me about earmarks and not until!!! ''100 years of war'' McCain is bad news for this country! The Republican''s are going to bankrupt us with their perpetual wars! People had better wake up to threat within our country from these sick people!

[cfin5]

In all what is said here about Senator McAin''t the conservative, with his oath breaking of the 1st.,2nd., and 9th. Amendments to the Constitution (probably all of them eventually),......is there any reason why we should trust his campaign words? Do they match up with his public service walk? I see no credulity in a "CONSTITUTIONAL OATH PERJURER" expecting us citizens to suffer him, or anyone else like him, to believe a single word he has to say regarding what our country needs. Folks, what is needed is for us to turn our backs on politicians like this publicly and never quit that stalwart effort. The news media is much to blame also for their reckless "steering" they do to us all the time. Nothing different than what Russia''s TASS media does to their citizens. Senator McCain is indeed an "unconstitutionalist". Don''t vote for what you "feel" the Constitution says. Read it and vote for who our Founding Father''s would vote for,.........RON PAUL, whose campaign talk and public service walk agree!!!

[hungry1968]

Some members in Congress spend tax payer money as if it was their own.

Posted by jjp735i at 08:57 AM : Feb 02, 2008




Oh No!!

They would NEVER waste their own money like that!!

[hadenufff]

grumpas don''t be an idiot. Iraq and Afghanistan are not funded by earmarks. People like you who don''t have a clue should keep their mouths shut. Remember, no one knows just how stupid you really are until you open your mouth. You might want to actually know what you''re talking about before you show everybody your lack of intelligence.

[missingamerica]

"In California, $438,000 to Monterey County for gang prevention and intervention. In Illinois, $5 million for the Red Cross to buy backup generators, cots, shelter trailers, emergency vehicles and more. In New Haven, Conn., $487,000 to help families and children exposed to violence and trauma. In Oneonta, N.Y., $243,000 for hospital equipment and facilities."

What do those projects have in common?

They all help PEOPLE - average Americans, and not wealthy individuals or corporations or businesses.

Liar Math:

EARMARKS = Controlled by Congress = BAD

NO-BID CONTRACTS = Controlled by Administration = GOOD

That is why the Republicans are sick, sick, sick, sick these days...they can''t even grasp what "by the People, for the People" means anymore.

Their greed has finally annd absolutely overwhelmed their morality.

If they were horses, you''d put them down to save them the misery of their lives.

[sidkeith7]

PROMISES, PROMISES, PROMISES!
All "we, the people, really get from our priests and politicians are promises, a failing economy, and wars without end!
McCain is again making "Promises" that he could not keep if he did manage to get elected....

[taotxzen]

(cont)

%u201CClimate change acts as a threat multiplier for instability in the most volatile regions of the world,%u201D according to the report.

Despite these warnings, the Bush administration, which rejected participation in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol requiring industrialised countries to reduce their emissions on the grounds that it would be too expensive, has generally failed to acknowledge the security threats climate change poses.

From its initial scepticism that climate change was actually taking place and that greenhouse emissions were an important cause, however, the administration has moved to accept the phenomenon as real and that emissions need to be reduced. At the same time, it continues to oppose the imposition of mandatory curbs, such as those required by Kyoto.

Published on Friday, February 1, 2008 by Inter Press Service

[taotxzen]

(cont)

In his acceptance speech in Oslo, Gore called on the nations of the world to mobilise to avert climate disaster %u201Cwith a sense of urgency and shared resolve that has previously been seen only when nations have mobilised for war.%u201D

The martial analogy has been taken up by the Pentagon and the intelligence community, which have produced several reports about the national security consequences of changes in the world%u2019s climate.

Last May, a group of retired generals and admirals issued their own report, %u201CNational Security and the Threat of Climate Change%u201D, which found, among other things, that the consequences of warming were likely to promote inter-state conflict over vital resources, such as fresh water; political turmoil and extremism within nations; food shortages and mass migrations.

(cont)

[cfin5]

Posted by ibsteve2u at 09:38 AM : Feb 02, 2008------"Liar math",.....Thank you for that saying. I like it!

[taotxzen]

(cont)

Indeed, the report comes amid unprecedented global concern that climate change could have devastating consequences for much of the earth. Hardest hit will be the world%u2019s poor countries, which have fewer resources to cope with the threats posed by global warming, including more extreme weather events, prolonged droughts, and sea-level rise, which most scientists believe are inevitable if the world fails to quickly stabilise and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

hat concern was underlined last month when the Nobel Committee awarded its annual peace prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the network of thousands of scientists whose warnings about the reality and impact of global warming have becoming increasingly urgent over the past 15 years, and former Vice President Al Gore, whose 2006 documentary film, %u201CAn Inconvenient Truth%u201D, significantly boosted popular consciousness of the threat, especially in the U.S.

(cont)

[taotxzen]

Wars Dwarf Warming in US Budget

by Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Despite growing recognition in the Pentagon and the intelligence community that global warming poses serious national security threats to the United States, Washington is spending 88 dollars on the military for every dollar it spends this year on climate-related programmes, according to a new study released here Thursday by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).The study, entitled %u201CMilitary vs. Climate Security%u201D, found that the government has budgeted 647.5 billion dollars for the defence budget in 2008 %u2014 more than the defence budgets of the rest of the world%u2019s nations combined %u2014 compared to 7.37 billion dollars for climate-related programes.

Of the latter total, moreover, only 212 million dollars is devoted to helping poor countries obtain clean, renewable energy sources that do not contribute to global warming %u2014 less than what U.S. military forces in Iraq spend each day on operations there.

%u201CWhile we spare no expense to wage war, we seem to have no money to spare on averting climate disaster,%u201D said Miriam Pemberton, the report%u2019s author. %u201CThe increasingly dire warnings from climate scientists make clear that changing these federal spending priorities can%u2019t wait.%u201D

(cont)

[taotxzen]

"In California, $438,000 to Monterey County for gang prevention and intervention."

Ever been to Salinas? Serious gang problem.

[taotxzen]

"In California, $438,000 to Monterey County for gang prevention and intervention."

Ever been to Salinas? Serious gang problem.

[cfin5]

Liar math = Spin,.....Sentences are just like a math equation. Adding them up you come to the sum of their meaning. The clearer the words, the quiker the sum is set. The cloudier the words, the slower the sum is set. Sounds like "politicianeese" to me :)