Why don’t you head down to the Big Pig Jig in Dooly County during the first weekend in October and demand a free plate of BBQ since your tax dollars went to “improve” the site that hosts the event.

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I got an e-mail from the Sunlight Foundation today. They have, in collusion with Taxpayers for Common Sense, launched a new site called EarmarkWatch.org:

You don’t have to be an expert on earmarks — EarmarkWatch.org gives you the power to easily research, evaluate and comment on the pet projects favored and funded by members of Congress.

Right now, you can investigate earmarks from the House Defense Appropriations Bill and the House and Senate versions of the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bills. EarmarkWatch.org will guide you through a series of steps that an investigative reporter would follow, associating different kinds of political information with each earmark, and will also show you how to use online resources to find out whether recipients of earmarks hired lobbyists, made campaign contributions to members of Congress, or won federal contracts and grants. You can also add information to earmarks others have researched, or comment on what others have found.

The site is neat. Make sure you check it out.

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Our latest inductee in to the Georgia Porkbusters Hall of Shame none other than Georgia media personality Bill Shipp. In his latest column he chastises Rep. Jack Kingston for not being apologetic, not about the amount of pork he is bring home but that he isn’t bringing home enough pork.

Shipp writes:

Rep. Jack Kingston of Savannah says he will not apologize for asking for $83 million in the current federal budget for local projects for Georgia and his district.

Cox Newspapers tell us Kingston is the king of special “earmark” requests in the Georgia delegation. No one else among the Georgia lawmakers even comes close.

“I think when you become a member of the Georgia delegation, you’re supposed to perform, as opposed to grandstand,” he told Cox reporter Julia Malone.
[…]
Alas, despite what Jack says, he owes us Georgians a big fat apology. So do the rest of that sorry lot we have elected to Congress.

He also chastises Rep. Nathan Deal for not bring enough pork back to Georgia…and even has the stones to say that Rep. David Scott isn’t bring home enough, despite his securing more than $11 million in federal pork.

Shipp wants these Congressman to bring taxpayer dollars back home to Georgia…and they should, but by letting them keep their hard earned money in the first place. Georgians are overtaxed. We should be encouraging our elected representatives to fight for tax cuts across the board and urging them to cut wasteful spending.

Mr. Shipp, that is the best way to “give us back our money and restore our economic health.” Not by our Congressman bringing home wasteful pork projects.

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Last year, I made some waves over Rep. Jack Kingston not joining the rest of the Georgia GOP delegation in voting to strip pork spending from appropriations bills.

Yesterday, while pursuing the AJC I saw this…Kingston defending the tradition of pork spending:

Rep. Jack Kingston is making no apologies for being the House champion for Georgia when it comes to snagging federal dollars for his home state and his home district around Savannah.

In the current spending bills working their way through Congress for the new fiscal year, which begins next month, Kingston is sponsoring or co-sponsoring earmarks estimated at $83 million, more than any other Georgian in the House.

Despite being a conservative Republican, Kingston argues that snagging programs and projects is a time-honored tradition for Georgia lawmakers.

Some of the stuff the AJC lists are things that you can make an argument for, but there are earmarks in the past that Kingston has sponsored that are more than questionable.

An editorial in today’s Athens Banner-Herald scolds Kingston:

So where’s Kingston today, 14 years after signing the Contract With America? Touting his ability to get things done for his district the same way they’d been done by the Democratic congressional delegations in Georgia’s past, that’s where.

That may be good for Georgia, but there’s a real question about whether it’s good for the rest of this country.
[…]
Until those kinds of needs are met, it’s more than a little unseemly for Kingston - or any other congressman who might be similarly inclined - to grandstand about their performance in manipulating a flawed system for allocating taxpayer dollars.

I find Kingston’s grandstanding comment to be a shot at a couple of his fellow Congressman from Georgia, namely Westmoreland and Deal, who routinely vote for the Flake Amendments, which are aimed at pork projects in appropriations bills. Kingston has a poor record with these amendments when compared to his colleagues, and that simply has to change.

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Chambliss and Isakson voted to strip appropriations for the International Peace Garden in North Dakota, a baseball park in Montana and a wetlands center in Louisana. The amendment, which failed 32-63, was sponsored by Senator Tom Coburn.

H/T: Club for Growth

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US Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is sponsoring several anti-pork amendments today. The Club for Growth has the list:

1) Earmark moratorium until all deficient bridges are repaired (#2810)
2) Prohibits funding of bike paths (#2811)
3) International Peace Garden in Dunseith, North Dakota (#2812)
4) America’s Wetland Center in Lake Charles, Louisiana (#2813)
5) New baseball stadium in Billings, Montana (#2814)
6) Lakeview Museum in Peoria, Illinois (#2815)

We’ll keeping a close eye on Chambliss and Isakson to see if they support the taxpayers or special interests.

[UPDATE] The earmark moratorium failed 14-82. Chambliss and Iskason voted in favor of the moratorium (and in favor of the taxpayers).

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