The Stimulus Package Unleashed

[we vs us]

quote:Originally posted by Gaspar

More of my favorites from the Porkulus.  People are going to be picking this thing apart for comedy value for the next couple of years.

Raul Alverez Disk Golf Course, Austin TX - $886,000
Education for Prostitutes, Dayton OH - $1,500,000
Solar Panels for LA Buildings - $2,160,000,000
Solar Water Heaters for Puerto Rico - $500,000,000
Downtown Quiet Zone, San Diego CA - $20,000,000
Las Vegas Performing Arts Center - $375,000,000 (because there is obviously not enough convention and performance space in Las Vegas).

According to the current tally, Tulsa gets 5,348 new jobs from the bill.  Primarily road work and/or construction.

I guess that quiet zone thing is kinda funny.

[Gaspar]

I wonder if you can hunt wabbit in the quiet zone?

[Gaspar]

quote:Originally posted by we vs us

quote:Originally posted by Gaspar

More of my favorites from the Porkulus.  People are going to be picking this thing apart for comedy value for the next couple of years.

Raul Alverez Disk Golf Course, Austin TX - $886,000
Education for Prostitutes, Dayton OH - $1,500,000
Solar Panels for LA Buildings - $2,160,000,000
Solar Water Heaters for Puerto Rico - $500,000,000
Downtown Quiet Zone, San Diego CA - $20,000,000
Las Vegas Performing Arts Center - $375,000,000 (because there is obviously not enough convention and performance space in Las Vegas).

According to the current tally, Tulsa gets 5,348 new jobs from the bill.  Primarily road work and/or construction.

I guess that quiet zone thing is kinda funny.

The actual description of the project is even funnier when associated with the cost.

Contrary to popular belief, this is not a project to hire out-of-work librarians and have them walk around downtown saying "SHHH", but is, instead, a proposal to reduce the number of intersections where trains have to blow their horns by reconfiguring those crossings. Its impact would range from Laurel Street to Park Boulevard along the main railroad route.

I'm sure it will be just lovely for the few thousand residents who live around there.

[Conan71]

$375mm for a convention center in Vegas.  That's one hell of an expensive tax-payer-funded blow job.

[we vs us]

Actually, I take it back.  I now like the quiet zone thing.  Yay for projects that improve the quality of life while putting American back to work!

Also, I like the solar panels for buildings in LA thing.  That's a no brainer.  And heck, while you're at it, solarize some water heaters down in Puerto Rico. Anything that gets appliances off the grid is good thing.

I also like the idea of educating prostitutes.  Might be a good thing if we want them to stop being prostitutes some day.  

Even the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas might be worth it.  LV is a metro area of almost 2 million people.  You have to figure that the citizens might want/deserve/apply matching funds to federal grant money for the arts. I mean, seriously.  You can only see the topless version of Cirque du Soleil so many times before you crave something more.  

Like the bottomless version.

Zing!

[RecycleMichael]

quote:Originally posted by Gaspar
Education for Prostitutes, Dayton OH - $1,500,000...

...must resist making sex teacher joke...don't mentioned OH spelled backwards is HO...

[guido911]

quote:Originally posted by Conan71

$375mm for a convention center in Vegas.  That's one hell of an expensive tax-payer-funded blow job.

Now that's a stimulus I can believe in.

[USRufnex]

quote:Originally posted by RecycleMichael

quote:Originally posted by Gaspar
Education for Prostitutes, Dayton OH - $1,500,000...

...must resist making sex teacher joke...don't mentioned OH spelled backwards is HO...

                                             I dunno if we wanna go there, since Tulsa spelled backwards is ...

[Gaspar]

Well the Frisbee golf course, even though it was approved is now dis-approved, as is the 3 million to heat swimming pools in Hawaii.  Also the billions of dollars for upgrades to numerous zoos across the country.

One of the thousand caviots at the end of the document states:

"Sec. 1604. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available in this Act may be used by any State or local government, or any private entity, for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, or swimming pool."

[Conan71]

quote:Originally posted by Gaspar

Well the Frisbee golf course, even though it was approved is now dis-approved, as is the 3 million to heat swimming pools in Hawaii.  Also the billions of dollars for upgrades to numerous zoos across the country.

One of the thousand caviots at the end of the document states:

"Sec. 1604. None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available in this Act may be used by any State or local government, or any private entity, for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, or swimming pool."

Somewhere in Honolulu right now, there is one pissed off pool heater salesman.

[patric]

Stimulus Money Flushed Down "War on Drugs" Toilet

The new stimulus package includes $3 billion to fund the "War on Drugs" by funding ineffective and often corrupt programs like the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant.


'The Byrne grant program, and especially its funding of the scandal-ridden multi-jurisdictional anti-drug task forces, also came in for harsh criticism from drug reform, civil rights and criminal justice groups. For these critics, the program was in dire need of reform because of incidents like the Tulia, Texas, scandal, where a Byrne-funded task force police officer managed to get 10% of the black population of the town locked up on bogus cocaine distribution charges. Scandals like Tulia showed the Byrne grant program "did more harm than good," the critics wrote in a 2006 letter demanding reform.'

'Of course, Tulia wasn't the only Byrne-related scandal. A 2002 report from the ACLU of Texas found 16 more scandals involving Byrne grant-funded task forces in Texas, including cases of witness tampering, falsifying of government records, fabricating evidence, false imprisonment, racial profiling, and sexual harassment. Byrne-related scandals have also occurred in other states, including the misuse of millions of dollars of grant money in Kentucky and Massachusetts, false convictions because of police perjury in Missouri, and making deals with drug offenders to drop or lower charges in exchange for cash or vehicles in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin.'

Locally, the funding goes to the Tulsa County Drug Task Force, which produces high-profile yet ineffective operations:

'there's reason to believe Tulsa may actually be better off working on their own than with a task force. In Lubbock, when they abolished their task force for fear of civil liability by rogue officers, they discovered that drug arrests in Lubbock actually increased, because enforcers weren't spread as thin working low-yield cases in rural areas.'
http://www.uslaw.com/library/Criminal_Law/Hyping_Harm_Media_welcome_decry_cuts_federal_Byrne_grant_program.php?item=101320

[Gaspar]

quote:Originally posted by patric

Stimulus Money Flushed Down "War on Drugs" Toilet

The new stimulus package includes $3 billion to fund the "War on Drugs" by funding ineffective and often corrupt programs like the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant.


'The Byrne grant program, and especially its funding of the scandal-ridden multi-jurisdictional anti-drug task forces, also came in for harsh criticism from drug reform, civil rights and criminal justice groups. For these critics, the program was in dire need of reform because of incidents like the Tulia, Texas, scandal, where a Byrne-funded task force police officer managed to get 10% of the black population of the town locked up on bogus cocaine distribution charges. Scandals like Tulia showed the Byrne grant program "did more harm than good," the critics wrote in a 2006 letter demanding reform.'

'Of course, Tulia wasn't the only Byrne-related scandal. A 2002 report from the ACLU of Texas found 16 more scandals involving Byrne grant-funded task forces in Texas, including cases of witness tampering, falsifying of government records, fabricating evidence, false imprisonment, racial profiling, and sexual harassment. Byrne-related scandals have also occurred in other states, including the misuse of millions of dollars of grant money in Kentucky and Massachusetts, false convictions because of police perjury in Missouri, and making deals with drug offenders to drop or lower charges in exchange for cash or vehicles in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin.'

Locally, the funding goes to the Tulsa County Drug Task Force, which produces high-profile yet ineffective operations:

'there's reason to believe Tulsa may actually be better off working on their own than with a task force. In Lubbock, when they abolished their task force for fear of civil liability by rogue officers, they discovered that drug arrests in Lubbock actually increased, because enforcers weren't spread as thin working low-yield cases in rural areas.'
http://www.uslaw.com/library/Criminal_Law/Hyping_Harm_Media_welcome_decry_cuts_federal_Byrne_grant_program.php?item=101320

They have 106 private jets and jet fuel expenses of 76 million every year.  Most of this money goes to L-3 Communications, a private company and the DEA's largest contractor, also one of the federal government's largest contractors.

How difficult do you think it will be to follow the money?  

(Answer: Imposible)

[Gaspar]

Still looking over this thing finding jewels.  

2% of the total stimulus package goes to Cedra, Puerto Rico for "100 acres of energy efficient industrial zones"  $17.5 billion dollars.

What the #ell is that for.  Says it will create 1,600 jobs. That's 1 million dollars a job.

I'm moving!

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by Gaspar

They have 106 private jets and jet fuel expenses of 76 million every year.  Most of this money goes to L-3 Communications, a private company and the DEA's largest contractor, also one of the federal government's largest contractors.
How difficult do you think it will be to follow the money?

Im shocked that somehow a defense contractor got written into the spending package

Shocked, I tell you.
...tell me they are doing it for the children...

[HazMatCFO]

The "Free" Government money scammer on TV, Lesko, should have a field day with this.