here piggy piggy...

just some pork projects I was reading about... why are these guys in charge?

The Congressional Pig Book is CAGW's annual compilation of the pork-barrel projects in the federal budget. The 2006 Pig Book identified 9,963 projects in the 11 appropriations bills that constitute the discretionary portion of the federal budget for fiscal 2006, costing taxpayers $29 billion. A "pork" project is a line-item in an appropriations bill that designates tax dollars for a specific purpose in circumvention of established budgetary procedures. To qualify as pork, a project must meet one of seven criteria that were developed in 1991 by CAGW and the Congressional Porkbusters Coalition.

$83,500,000 for projects at the Yazoo Basin in the state of Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), including: $25,000,000 for miscellaneous water sources in the Yazoo Basin; $22,000,000 for the Delta Headwaters Project; and $20,000,000 for the backwater pumping plants. Yazoo Basin projects are receiving 63.3 percent more than the state of Mississippi received from the entire Energy and Water bill in fiscal year 2005 and have exceeded the Presidentâ??s fiscal 2006 budget request of $28,920,00 by 188 percent.

$53,730,000 for projects in the state of Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), including: $11,000,000 for the Mind Institute; $9,076,000 for the Middle Rio Grande Project; $5,000,000 for New Mexico environmental infrastructure; $4,000,000 for the Rio Grande Bosque rehabilitation;
:dance: $3,500,000 for the nuclear energy materials test station at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center; :dance: and $1,000,000 for the Navajo electrification process.

$78,631,000 added for general provisions for the 100 foot Island Class Patrol Boat. These boats are currently being used by the U.S. Coast Guard to enforce immigration and drug laws. According to the 2006 Homeland Security Appropriations Act House report and an article published by Sea Power, the effectiveness of these boats has been in decline since 2001. As maintenance costs for emergency repairs continue to rise, so do the contributions from taxpayers.

$40,000,000 added by the Senate for the Real ID Grant Program. Passed in May 2005, the Real ID Act for the first time set federal standards for authenticating and securing state-issued driverâ??s licenses. DHS has two options: allow states to use inexpensive, protected technology,:dance: or force them to embed costly, personally intrusive brittle computer chips. :dance: Whichever alternative is used, the new system will place a heavy burden on state and local governments, especially departments of motor vehicles, as well as on taxpayers and drivers.

here's all of them I got sick of reading about this shit... this is horrible...
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?...ts_pigbook2006