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Here are Jim Bunning’s earmarks

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December 17, 2010
By Joe Sonka

All 110 and $657 million that he requested:

  1. Air-Supported TEMPER Tents for Force Provider Deployable Medical Systems $8,000,000
  2. Army Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement Research Initiative $2,000,000
  3. AT4-Confined Space Tandem Warhead YJ05 $4,250,000
  4. Composite Tissue Allotransplantation Research $1,750,000
  5. De-Weighting Military Vehicles through Advanced Composites Manufacturing Technology $3,200,000
  6. Enabling Optimization of Reactive Armor $5,000,000
  7. Fleet Readiness Improvement and Corrosion Mitigation $5,000,000
  8. Freedom Fuels/Coal Fuel Alliance $5,000,000
  9. General George Patton Museum $3,500,000
  10. Kentucky Army National Guard Laser Shot Tactical Weapons Simulator $1,480,000
  11. Laser Phalanx $12,000,000
  12. MILVAN Container Gantry Crane $5,500,000
  13. New Specialty Resins for Advanced Composite Armor $2,000,000
  14. North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN) $4,800,000
  15. NSWC FIRST Kit Platform Technology Program $2,500,000
  16. Radio Frequency Identification Technologies $1,000,000
  17. Surgical Safety Initiative for Military $4,000,000
  18. Tactical Mobility Consortium (TMC) $8,000,000
  19. UH-60 Leak Proof Transmission Drip Pans $8,000,000
  20. Central Kentucky Public Safety Operations Center $2,900,000
  21. Daviess County Detention Center Security Upgrades $34,500
  22. Eastern Kentucky PRIDE $400,000
  23. Hopkins County Voice Radio Infrastructure Project $388,000
  24. Kentucky Data Interoperability Project $1,000,000
  25. Northern Kentucky University Astronomical Observatory – STEM Outreach Initiative $485,000
  26. Operation UNITE $1,000,000
  27. Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force $750,000
  28. Public Safety Radio System Upgrade $2,000,000
  29. Advanced Clean-Diesel Buses $2,100,000
  30. Asphalt Pavement Density Research to Improve Highway Pavement Performance $1,500,000
  31. Ballard County Library $250,000
  32. Buckhorn City Municipal Building $250,000
  33. City of Hyden Center for Wellness and Recreation $1,000,000
  34. Coach Bus for Commuter Campus $690,000
  35. Corbin Center Drive Extension Project $915,000
  36. Construction and Rehabilitation Project of Operations Facilities at the Transit Authority $1,000,000
  37. Dream Riders Dream Facility $300,000
  38. Expansion of Critical Home Repair Program $460,000
  39. Fort Knox Access Road $1,000,000
  40. Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing $500,000
  41. Heartland Parkway $1,000,000
  42. Hospice of the Bluegrass – Mountain Community Free Standing Inpatient Facility $1,000,000
  43. I-71 Interchange $1,000,000
  44. Kentucky Transpark Master Plan Update $1,000,000
  45. KY-16 Underground Utilities $356,960
  46. KY Route 247 Relocation Project $1,000,000
  47. Louie B. Nunn Parkway Interchange $1,000,000
  48. Newtown Pike Bridge Project $1,000,000
  49. Noise Mitigation at Louisville International Airport $1,000,000
  50. Owensboro Community Technical College — Hancock County Extension Campus $554,000
  51. Replacement Buses at Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) $1,584,000
  52. Vision Motors, Inc. Williamsburg Electric Truck Manufacturing Facility $1,500,000
  53. Widening of KY Highway 911 and Cole Road $1,000,000
  54. Williamsburg-Whitley County Airport $540,000
  55. Advancement Research of Invasive Cancer Cells $375,000
  56. American Printing House for the Blind, Inc. $24,600,000
  57. Best Buddies Empowerment for People with Intellectual Disabilities $27,000,000
  58. Big Bore Computer Tomography Scan Unit $552,000
  59. Career Training Center $969,000
  60. Career Training for Disabled Veterans $350,000
  61. Challenger Learning Center of Kentucky $175,000
  62. Chrysalis House Family Program $245,000
  63. Community Healthcare Access and Improvement Initiative $1,900,000
  64. East Kentucky Health Initiative $450,000
  65. Expansion of Lighthouse Promise, Inc. $1,185,000
  66. Hosparus Medical System $425,000
  67. Hospital Facility Support Systems and Equipment Projects $1,800,000
  68. Lindsey Wilson College School of Professional Counseling Institute for Advanced Study $435,000
  69. Midway College Adult Nursing and Health Science Center $1,000,000
  70. The Nest – Center for Women, Children, and Families $550,000
  71. New Horizons MRI System Initiative $850,000
  72. Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission Head Start $700,000
  73. Northern Kentucky University Center for Regional Stewardship: A National Center for Excellence $4,955,000
  74. Residential Hospice House of Murray $925,000
  75. Save the Children’s Rural Literacy Program $500,000
  76. Scientific Research Equipment for the College of Science, Engineering and Technology $1,500,000
  77. Visiting Nurse Association Employment Program $402,500
  78. Barren River Lake Water Supply $400,000
  79. Big Rivers Corridor Land Acquisition $3,250,000
  80. Big Sandy Watershed Reevaluation $200,000
  81. Calhoun Sewer Plant Digester Wall Replacement $100,000
  82. Chickamagua Lock Construction $28,000,000
  83. City of Hartford Wastewater Rehabilitation Project $1,400,000
  84. City of McKee Wastewater Treatment Plant $1,500,000
  85. City of Whitesburg Water Treatment Plant $1,500,000
  86. Clean-up Activities at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant $144,729,000
  87. Consolidated Shipping Center at Blue Grass Army Depot $12,400,000
  88. Cumberland Falls Highway Water District Waterline Extension $1,921,000
  89. Elvis Stahr Harbor Dredging $764,000
  90. Fort Campbell Physical Fitness Center $19,000,000
  91. Greenup Locks and Dam $19,000,000
  92. Hydropower Modernization Program, Cumberland River $1,000,000
  93. John T. Meyers Locks and Dam $6,000,000
  94. Kentucky Lock and Dam Addition Project $48,700,000
  95. Kentucky Soil Erosion Control $2,500,000
  96. Lake Cumberland Operations and Maintenance $1,000,000
  97. Local Agriculture and Family Nutrition Program $500,000
  98. Markland Locks and Dam $5,400,000
  99. Memorial Park Acquisition $380,000
  100. Metropolitan Louisville Pumping Station Reconstruction Study $100,000
  101. Mill Springs Battlefield Incorporation into the Cumberland Gap National Park $1,000,000
  102. Northern Kentucky Riverfront Commons $142,000
  103. Ohio River Basin Study $4,000,000
  104. Olmsted Lock and Dam Expansion $143,200,000
  105. Panther Creek Flood Mitigation Project $1,100,000
  106. Silver Grove Pump Station Improvements $2,500,000
  107. Strategic Liquid Transportation Fuels Derived from Coal $10,000,000
  108. Technical Assistance Grants to Kentucky Soil Conservation Districts $1,750,000
  109. Thomas More College Science Renovation and Education Program $1,500,000
  110. The Media Technology Center $993,000

Fiscal conservatives like Jim Bunning are taking their country back!

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Here are Mitch McConnell’s earmarks

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December 17, 2010
By Joe Sonka

All 58 and $276 million of them that he requested:

  1. Conservation Technical Assistance Grants $750,000
  2. Kentucky Soil Erosion Control and Soil Survey Program $1,000,000
  3. UK/Advanced Genetic Technologies Project $650,000
  4. UK/Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Forage-Animal Production Research Unit $4,000,000
  5. UK/Animal Health, Forages for Advancing Livestock Production Project $750,000
  6. UK/Bioresource Land Use Planning Project $750,000
  7. UK/Crop Diversification and Biofuel Research and Education $1,000,000
  8. UK/Health Education through Extension Leadership Project $300,000
  9. WKU/Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Laboratory $9,751,800
  10. WKU/Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Waste Management Research Unit $3,607,500
  11. City of Benton Public Safety Communication Equipment $35,000
  12. Hart County Sheriff’s Department Technology $40,000
  13. Kentucky Data Interoperability System $100,000
  14. Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force Equipment and Training $250,000
  15. UK/Firefighter Gear Safety Research $500,000
  16. UofL/Diagnosing and Mitigating Human Exposure to Radiation Project $2,500,000
  17. Warren County Emergency Management $100,000
  18. Kentucky National Guard Marijuana Eradication Program $4,000,000
  19. Laser Phalanx $12,000,000
  20. Lighter Body Armor Inserts for the U.S. Soldier $2,000,000
  21. Mk 38 Mod 2 Minor Caliber Gun System $5,000,000
  22. Mk 110 57mm Naval Gun System $6,000,000
  23. Reactive Armor Ballistics Technology $5,000,000
  24. UK Discriminatory Imaging for Missile Defense Program $5,200,000
  25. UofL Biomarkers of Exposure to Toxic Chemicals $2,000,000
  26. UofL Radio Frequency Identification Technologies $1,000,000
  27. WKU National Information Assurance Center $6,000,000
  28. Cleanup Efforts at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant $116,466,000
  29. Medical Monitoring at the Gaseous Diffusion Plants $1,000,000
  30. UK Coal-Derived Low Energy Materials for Sustainable Construction Project $1,000,000
  31. UofL Research for Energy Independence Program $2,000,000
  32. WKU Carbon Sequestration by Chemical Looping Project $1,200,000
  33. Bowling Green Data Center $1,500,000
  34. NKU/College of Informatics $700,000
  35. City of Hartford Sewer Rehabilitation Project $1,500,000
  36. Clarks River National Wildlife Refuge Land Acquisition $2,000,000
  37. Daniel Boone National Forest Counter Drug Operations $900,000
  38. Fern Lake Purchase by Cumberland Gap National Historical Park $1,200,000
  39. Glasgow Waste Water Treatment Plant $900,000
  40. Land Between the Lakes (LBL) Management and Operations $8,300,000
  41. City of Paint Lick Sewer Project $112,000
  42. WKU Small Public Water System Technology Center $500,000
  43. MSU Mobile Health Unit $500,000
  44. NKU College of Informatics $2,000,000
  45. UK Colorectal Cancer Research Program $1,900,000
  46. UK HeartHealth Community Health Management Program $2,000,000
  47. UofL Center for Liver Cancer $900,000
  48. UofL Haymarket Research Park Building Construction $4,000,000
  49. UofL MedCenter3 Equipment $700,000
  50. WKU School of Nursing Expansion $2,500,000
  51. Fort Campbell Infantry Squad Battle Course $3,400,000
  52. Fort Campbell Physical Fitness Center $19,000,000
  53. Fort Campbell Shoot House $3,350,000
  54. Fort Knox Rail Head Upgrade $14,000,000
  55. Fort Campbell 911 Road Widening $5,000,000
  56. Fort Knox Access Road $1,600,000
  57. Kentucky Blood Center Building Construction $1,000,000
  58. Paducah Waterfront Development Project $1,000,000

The Senate Minority Leader is taking your country back!

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Shocker: Mitch McConnell breaks his earmark pledge. Already. OK, it’s not a shocker…

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December 15, 2010
By Joe Sonka

Remember when all of those people were crowing about how the Teabaggers had forced Porky Mitch into pledging to ditch his earmarks that he loves so much in order to not be challenged as minority leader? And people actually believed that this would happen?

Yes, some people are really really really really gullible.

Here’s what McConnell said about the new omnibus spending bill today:

“It’s completely inappropriate; I’m vigorously in opposition to it,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said before vowing that Republicans would oppose the measure without significant changes.

Way to stand strong against all those earmarks, Mitch!

Oh by the way, here’s what’s in the bill:

But the spending plan contains hundreds of millions of dollars worth of earmarks requested by Republicans, including from Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) himself.

Earlier this year, McConnell asked for $4 million for marijuana eradication efforts by the Kentucky National Guard; $1 million for construction of the Kentucky Blood Center Building; and $650,000 for Advanced Genetic Technologies, a DNA research center at the University of Kentucky.

Mmm hmm…

Got an answer for that, Mitch?

When reporters asked about his earmark requests Tuesday, McConnell said he was “actively working to defeat” the massive omnibus bill since the Senate never had a chance to take up individual appropriations bills.

“I think there are many Senate members who have provisions in it for their states who are also actively working to defeat it. This bill should not go forward,” he said.

Taking their country back!!!

(h/t Think Progress)

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Teabaggers usher Pork King into House Appropriations Chairmanship

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December 7, 2010
By Joe Sonka

Taking their country back!

House Republicans have tapped Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) to take the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee, setting up an old bull appropriator with a history of earmarking to deliver on the anti-spending tea party platform that carried the GOP to victory this fall.

The House GOP Steering committee selected him for the powerful position Tuesday. The entire Republican conference is expected to confirm his bid Wednesday.

Rogers has been a member of the appropriations panel since 1983, adept at securing earmarks for his district. In his bid for the position, he promised the GOP he’d overhaul the committee, ending the earmark process. He’s vowed to strip funding for health care.

There was a 10% chance that earmarks would end before this. Now, it’s probably 2%.

Any of you all feeling suckered yet?

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Mitch McConnell says he’ll cut off his right hand (UPDATE)

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November 15, 2010
By Joe Sonka

Well, not literally his right hand. But something just as important to him: his pork diet.

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, a longtime defender of the Congressional authority over federal spending, said on Monday that he would support a proposed ban on earmarks, the lawmaker-directed spending items, in the next Congress.

*****

“I have thought about these things long and hard over the past few weeks,” Mr. McConnell said. “I’ve talked with my members. I’ve listened to them. Above all, I have listened to my constituents. And what I’ve concluded is that on the issue of Congressional earmarks, as the leader of my party in the Senate, I have to lead first by example.”

Mr. McConnell nonetheless made clear that he still believed that earmarks were not necessarily synonymous with wasteful spending. “Make no mistake,” he said. “I know the good that has come from the projects I have helped support throughout my state.”

“But,” he continued, “there is simply no doubt that the abuse of this practice has caused Americans to view it as a symbol of the waste and out-of-control spending that every Republican in Washington is determined to fight. And unless people like me show the American people that we’re willing to follow through on small or even symbolic things, we risk losing them on our broader efforts to cut spending and rein in government.”

One: I’ll believe it when I see it.

Two: more proof that Mitch McConnell believes in nothing except for his own political power and survival. I guess the 2014 primary isn’t as far away as we think…

UPDATE: Videotape of McConnell’s speech below:

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Rand’s next flip?

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February 9, 2010
By Joe Sonka

When Rand Paul starting facing heat on his Gitmo stance from the far right-wing last year, his backtracking from his previous stances was immediate, continuing with his fancy Super Bowl ad on Sunday.

Rand Paul also decided that it would be politically advantageous to stop ripping Mitch McConnell at every opportunity as an example of what’s wrong with the Republican Party, and start kissing his ass.

Now Rand Paul is facing heat in Eastern Kentucky for his previous attacks on our Pork friendly hypocrite-conservative representatives, particularly Hal Rogers. In fact, this lead to him being “not welcome” to the Pulaski County Republican dinner last week.

The question going forward: will Rand Paul once again make a calculated political “adjustment”, or will he stand true to his principles and keep speaking out about all pork-barrel spending, no matter who is receiving it?

What say you, Paulbots?

Also, why has no one in the media asked Rand Paul if he applauds Obama’s recent call to cut billions in federal subsidies to private companies? Mitch and Rogers and Chandler all denounced it, but I haven’t heard Paul say one peep about these big government handouts being cut. Does Rand Paul favor this?

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What will we tell the Teabaggers?

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January 8, 2010
By Joe Sonka

You know that Jim Bunning dude? The hero of the Teabagger brigade? The guy who fights wasteful federal spending and earmarks and such? The same federal spending and pork that the teabaggers are enraaaaaaged by?

Oh yea, that’s all well and good if you’re just Jim Bunning or Geoff Davis repaying big campaign contributors. John Cheves (who else?) brings the goods:

Campaign donor gets $3.9 million earmark in defense bill

U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning and U.S. Rep. Geoff(erson) Davis earmarked $3.92 million in the defense spending bill signed into law Dec. 19 for American Freedom Fuels, a Lexington company owned by Robert Addington, who is also a major campaign donor.

Addington, who with his brothers founded and ran several large coal companies, has given about $35,000 in combined political donations since 2005 to Bunning and Davis, both Kentucky Republicans.

The earmark is just a small slice of the $636 billion defense spending bill, which included several billion dollars in pet projects added by members of Congress. Bunning alone sponsored or co-sponsored more than $32 million in earmarks, including this one.

Oh noes! What will the Teabaggers say? What will Rand Paul say? Is pork-barrel spending in defense of Coal Sexy Liberty a vice?

My guess as to what they’ll say?

(crickets…)

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Thanks, Mitch, for bringing home the bacon!

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November 3, 2009
By bluecollardoc

The scope of the problem:

As the recession drives more people into the Kentucky AIDS Drug Assistance Program, federal funding has stagnated and state funding has disappeared. Currently, 1,277 people are enrolled in the program. Nearly 100 people are on a waiting list that started in June.

“We have 20 to 30 people coming in every month, and everyone who comes in goes on the waiting list,” said Sigga Jagne, the state’s HIV/AIDS program manager. “Everyone who is on the waiting list now, we don’t know how long they’re going to be there. Nobody is coming off the list at this point.”…

Demand for assistance from the drug program is rocketing during the recession as Kentuckians lose their jobs and insurance, Jagne said.

Mitch’s solution:

…federal funding has dropped from about $4.8 million in 2005 to $4.5 million this year. State funding — about $250,000 a year — ended in 2007

Amazing, but somehow not surprising. Hard to contribute money to a political cause when you are worried about paying for lifesaving medications. Or food. Or shelter.

The short, but important read here.

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