Friends, Countryman ! Give MeYour Earmark!

Earmarks are often viewed by most of us as Pork barrel politics, also known as wasteful irrelevant spending. In 2008 Congress earmarked over 17.2 billion dollars for earmarks. (If you think about it 535 representatives so about 32 million per person. That's way too much power and influence in the hands of so few people. Et Tu Brutus?)I'm trying to force myself to except that this practice is just business as usual. That this is "the way politics are done."It is in fact the preservation of earmarks seems to be the one thing that seems to bring about party unity. I have been trying to following up on the results of some of the earmarked projects approved for Texas last year. I found one Project that I am actually am glad they funded. It is was 300,000 for Texas height Modernization. The link is a rather boring update on the way the money was actually spent on this project. Interestingly enough it was used by McCain to make a point about useless earmark spending.(I like McCain) He was wrong in this instance. It just sounds stupid to most of us who aren't geology nerds. This Funding helps to up date topographical information that is crucial to disaster planning,construction, and conservation efforts. So I guess it's all a matter of perspective. I'm not for earmarks but it is a little more encouraging to see some worthwhile projects thrown in there with all the waste. This is just Brutus's attempt to be a little more open minded. Something I've been working on .....