We get it, McCain hates earmarks. And he's cranky.

mccain hates spending our money on crap. as do i.

Good for McCain! Both sides need to be called out for these stupid pet projects they seem intent on funding with our money.

I hope McCain, Baye; et al can gain some traction. Maybe a bipartisan attack on earmarks could curtail, if not eliminate them all together. Maybe those who are outraged at the pork in the bill can and should write to both their Senators and their representative on the topic.

Ok, very unPC comment here, and Grandpa might hate me after this, but old people need to get off Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and all the rest of these sites!

It is just not cool when my dad wants to add me on Facebook!

A very off-topic comment to boot

McCain lists all earmarks as if they are equal - some are valuable to their communities and to the economy. He rants about the cost of everything, he understands the value of nothing.

yes the value in blowing nearly 100 grand on finding a location for a dental school is IMMEASURABLE.

as is the near million to map the catfish genome!

get with it people!

do you want to live in a world where dental schools are placed haphazardly and your kids don't know specifics of the DNA of catfish??

CUZ I DON'T!!!

"Study concludes that Sarah Palin failed because she's hot."

...a very worthwhile study indeed.

haha Carrie, ya I guess so, although that comment stemmed from my irritation with all of Congress twittering.

On topic though, McCain is right, but I am sick of the complaining. I would like to see some solutions offered for a change.

Science is such a waste of money.
If the Intelligent Designer had wanted us to understand the planet, it would have programmed that in - and if they're mapping catfish dna, it's gotta just be idle curiosity.

zeze and I counter your ageist views by saying that all the "too young" people (under 16) need to stay off those sites also.

It's ok to be curious. It's not going to help the ecconomy, therefore it's pork. Get it out of the spending bill, and let's get something in it's place that IS going to help the ecconomy.

Solution- tell you congress people no to put pork in their bills. If there are no earmarks, then there isn't anything to twitter about, right?
If you want a dental school, write a bill and ask for the money, don't pollute otherwise decent bills with pork barrel spending. It's all so very frustrating, federal government should not be spending money on frisbee golf and and dental schools when we have so many other things to be worrying about right now, like balancing the budget, reducing the deficit etc.

I think people need to know the crap their congressmen are fluffing bills with... This is awesome.

Shoot, I'd be loving life if I lived in Singapore. I'm pale as a ghost... would never tan or use self tanner in a million years though. I am happy with what God gave me. I also don't think that ad is sexist... it's just a play on words. People get offended waaaay to easily.

zeze "Ok, very unPC comment here, and Grandpa might hate me after this, but old people need to get off Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and all the rest of these sites!"

I only heard about Twitter less then a week ago, never been on facebook, and my youngest daughter set me up with facebook. It has been so long since I have been on the site, I am not sure how to do it, and have no idea what my P/W is anymore. Our generation will never be as accomplished in fully utilizing our own PC, let alone all the things you can do on the WWW. Thank Gawd, for “google” is all I can say. My guess those of my age that are doing all those things facebook, myspace, etc., are like those old guys, tooling around in an “in” little red sports cars, dressed in the latest trend. Though you have to admit the WWW is a lot cheaper. So, I am with you there. Finding myself on Sugar I find weird in many ways, but I was invited to sugar, and stayed because of the number of friends I have made. I still will not put any lady on my friends list, unless and until I am put on their list first. I made one exception, a female member who consistently, used cogent arguments, and never used ad homonym attacks in any of our discussions. I did ask her permission first. I miss her comments, she appears to be rarely on anymore.

I guess i didn't see anyone complaining when Obama used the internet/technology/networking sites.

Think Zeze likes Obama better than her dad, Hainan?

I am not going to comment on the validity of any of the projects in McCain's list, because as we all know things can be oversimplified to the point of misrepresentation (i.e. the "overhead projector" for a museum which was actually a planetarium projector instead of something we all remember from our school days.)

However, I think we need a citizens' movement for a constitutional amendment that prohibits tacking on unrelated measures to bills before Congress, which is how most of this pork gets through. Then representatives and senators could actually vote on something without having to say, "Well, there are a few things in this bill I don't like, but the main thing is something I support so I am going to go ahead and vote yes."

LOL! Wow...sorry to completely change the tone of the thread...

That said, CG, totally with you there, I would be happy if those sites were kept from 18-30...until I'm 31 of course

Grandpa, you are so right about the old guys in sports cars being on facebook. I have to mention this observation to my dad.

Hainan/Steph: No, Obama is not cooler than my dad! At least my dad stopped putting his phone in a holder on his belt years ago....thank god!

Uh-oh, is that uncool?

The approach to any new spending by the government should be based on an ability to pay for the program, not the efficacy of the program. We are spending our children and grandchildren into assured ruin. They will never be able to dig themselves out without a ruinous drop in their standard of living.

Steph...that is not even a legitimate question!

http://media.onsugar.com/files/upl1/1/15111/01_2008/e889924af25e17a3_oba...

(Really, I don't carry a phone at all - I like being unreachable!)

If we're not balanced and intelligent in our approach, we won't be passing on much of a living standard to our grandchildren anyway.

Ok, so who is lying now?

I thought McCain said his physical limitations are part of what is keeping him from using computers. McCain supporters even defended him during the election campaign, mentioning that his severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.

And now he's on Twitter?

I have a distinct feeling that McCain isn't actually on twitter. I would HOPE that he is too busy doing actual legislation to play on a computer. My guess is that some intern set up accounts for him.

Now having endured earmarkgate I can say that my opinion is that there is nothing wrong with earmarks it's the types of earmark that is the problem. Some projects are simply not appropriate right now and some are very much needed and very appropriate right now. This is why I think the President should be given line item veto power.

Manoukia, last i checked you dont have to twitter with a device (blackberry, laptop) above your chest? so he isnt a liar.

That's what I was thinking, CG...

Steph, I think you said it very well when you said this:

"McCain lists all earmarks as if they are equal - some are valuable to their communities and to the economy. He rants about the cost of everything, he understands the value of nothing."

There is certainly some legitimate value to some of these earmarks. If I recall, there was a so called "pork barrel project" that funded research tracking various endangered species in the midwest. As a result of that study, they found that the populations of those species were not as limited as they initially believed and thus, were able to rollback some of the environmental restrictions in those regions that were costing businesses lots of money. So sometimes, the ends really do justify the means.

That said, one of the things that boggles my mind is why so many of these earmarks fund what should be legitimate scientific pursuits. Why aren't these studies being funded by actual scientific organizations like NSF, NIH, etc? Perhaps if those budgets were actually appropriately sized to the amount of work that needs to be done, there wouldn't be so many earmarks in the first place. Although I guess you could also argue that if these studies didn't make the cut for agency funding, maybe they weren't good studies in the first place?

I don't know, I'm going around in circles. As a scientist, I'm just always interested in where scientific funding comes from.

Right now with the bad economy, all earmarks that will not help out the economy should be stripped from all bills.

And which god would define exactly what would and would not help the economy?

I must be the only person in the world who doesn't like Twitter

Actually, genesisrocks, no you aren't. I'm really not a huge fan of twitter.

I wouldn't know a twitter if i fell over one.

How do you decide what gets funded and what does not? Take the money you have to spend, then prioritize your needs/wants, and then make your decision as to what you fund, and to what extent based on your budget. I know it is a radical thought when you own a printing press and can print dollars, but dollars today do not have an intrinsic value. The total dollars in circulation represent the total value of the goods and services in circulation in our economy. Print $100, and each dollar represents 1/100 of those goods and services. Print $1,000,000 and you do not have a million dollars in goods and services as opposed to $100 worth. What actually happens is each dollar is now worth 1/1,000,000 of those goods and services. That is what is called inflation.