For Political Junkies

[SteveOFD 176]

I saw an episode of Bill Moyers Journal on PBS tonight that was about the political process of "earmarks". Earmarks are attachments to Bills that dedicate funding for specified projects with little or, most often, no debate on the neccessity of the project. These projects are inserted by Members of Congress usually at the last moment before a Bill is voted on. This way most voting Representatives will not even know they are voting on the specific project.

This episode of Bill Moyers Journal followed two reporters for The Seattle Times who traced earmarks for represenatives in the Washington State area. They showed one earmark that was for a $4 million boat for the US Coast Guard. The USCG did not request this boat, and when they received it, they stated it did not fit their mission and they could not use it. The "earmark" for this boat was for a Washington State Representative for a Washington State boat builder. Long story made short, eventually the boat (less than five years old) ended up in San Francisco being bought by the Sheriff for ONE DOLLAR.

The link above for The Seattle Times will bring you to their website, where you can view all "earmarks" for all Representatives, along with Corporations that received funding from these "earmarks".

Interesting stuff!