http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=b69a6ebd-7ebe-41b7-bb03-c25a5e194365
Great stuff here. I like
More federal funding in the amount of $593,000 went to a primate research center to study where in chimpanzees' brains they get the idea to throw their feces.
A Virginia university received $55,000 to study Jordanian students' water pipe smoking habits.
A new grant of $176,000 joined $350,000 already spent to study how cocaine hurts or helps the sex drive of Japanese quail.
A museum of magic received $147,000 to study the audiences of magic shows.
More than $550,000 of U.S. taxes went to the production of a documentary on how rock bands contributed to the fall of the Soviet empire.
So maybe we will finally crack the dark mystery of monkey poo flinging?
Where's the "but it's only a few million" chorus?
I wish I could trust this. You think Coburn did this research or was just told about it?
I have a feeling some of the stats were put together by the same people that brought you "companies are making things out of dead babies".
Conan, I don't think anyone sane thinks that way about a few million.
Quote from: Townsend on February 07, 2012, 10:12:11 AM
I wish I could trust this. You think Coburn did this research or was just told about it?
I have a feeling some of the stats were put together by the same people that brought you "companies are making things out of dead babies".
Conan, I don't think anyone sane thinks that way about a few million.
Keep believing that and "they" will just keep plundering the treasury.
Quote from: Conan71 on February 07, 2012, 10:12:55 AM
Keep believing that and "they" will just keep plundering the treasury.
Which part? Coburn's folks or the "few million"?
I thought you were referring to posters on TN. I can't imagine anyone on here would like their tax dollars wasted on things.
Quote from: Gaspar on February 07, 2012, 09:48:46 AM
More than $550,000 of U.S. taxes went to the production of a documentary on how rock bands contributed to the fall of the Soviet empire.
It's actually an interesting story, although it is the brainchild of some partisan right-wingers. I happened to catch a talk by one of them on C-SPAN a few years ago.
And the poo-flinging thing is actually an interesting scientific question that could help us learn about impulse control mechanisms in our own brains. I'm sure we can all agree that plenty of our fellow Americans have serious issues with impulse control. ;)
While I admire Coburn's close eye on the budget, it would be nice if his staffers would apply a small amount of critical thinking and not simply say "oh, that looks stupid, let's put it in a press release!"
Here's an extra fun one. This was actually awarded through the porkulus for a measly $200,000.
It is an app from OSHA that tells you when it's hot outside. Download it today if you need it.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.erg.heatindex&feature=search_result
Now, for any of you who have developed apps before, an app that reports the local temperature/heat index and provides alerts can be coded in far less time than $200,000 would cover unless we raised our rates to around $5,000/hr. The app was developed by a Massachusetts company Eastern Research Group.
I smell donor connection. Probably just some piddly donor who gave $10,000 for a plate of chicken 6 seats down from the president, or perhaps it was someone that let him play through on Andrews.
Quote from: Gaspar on February 07, 2012, 10:39:31 AM
I smell donor connection. Probably just some piddly donor who gave $10,000 for a plate of chicken 6 seats down from the president, or perhaps it was someone that let him play through on Andrews.
So these are all set up by the President?
Quote from: Gaspar on February 07, 2012, 09:48:46 AM
http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=b69a6ebd-7ebe-41b7-bb03-c25a5e194365
Great stuff here. I like
More federal funding in the amount of $593,000 went to a primate research center to study where in chimpanzees' brains they get the idea to throw their feces.
Don't know about the rest of those points, but this one is obviously a heavily partisan attempt by the Democrats to find insights into the psyche of Karl Rove.
Quote from: Townsend on February 07, 2012, 10:46:15 AM
So these are all set up by the President?
Thinking the same thing..
His ODS is showing again...
Quote from: Townsend on February 07, 2012, 10:46:15 AM
So these are all set up by the President?
Of course not. I am sure that there are other sources of incompetence available.
Quote from: Gaspar on February 07, 2012, 10:47:58 AM
Of course not. I am sure that there are other sources of incompetence available.
So most of these are set up by the president?
Couple more you forgot....
Federal funding over a war in Iraq amounting to over $1.5 trillion dollars, continued for over 8 years, that was both unnecessary, but left an imbalance of power that has led to Iran becoming a near threat.
Federal funding to no-bid contracts with Halliburton to over $75 billion resulting in identified price gouging in excess of $400 million so far - still under investigation.
I think the more interesting one he forgot was the one that cost several billion dollars: Lost cash in Iraq. Yes, we shipped billions of dollars worth of pallets of cash to Iraq and promptly "lost" a bunch of it.
Quote from: nathanm on February 07, 2012, 12:12:32 PM
I think the more interesting one he forgot was the one that cost several billion dollars: Lost cash in Iraq. Yes, we shipped billions of dollars worth of pallets of cash to Iraq and promptly "lost" a bunch of it.
It's at the Bush ranch in Crawford.
Quote from: Gaspar on February 07, 2012, 12:14:23 PM
It's at the Bush ranch in Crawford.
Can you please ask for it back rather than bitching about a couple of million worth of government expenditures?
Quote from: nathanm on February 07, 2012, 12:15:15 PM
Can you please ask for it back rather than bitching about a couple of million worth of government expenditures?
Sure, if you will stop living in the Bush years and making that a comparable excuse for everything happening today.
Just because one administration made crappy incompetent decisions does not make it right or okay for the current or the next administration.
Not a good policy.
Quote from: Gaspar on February 07, 2012, 12:31:33 PM
Sure, if you will stop living in the Bush years and making that a comparable excuse for everything happening today.
Just because one administration made crappy incompetent decisions does not make it right or okay for the current or the next administration.
Not a good policy.
I'll quit going on about the many trillions spent for waste and corruption - not to mention the over 4,000 wasted precious lives of our kids - as soon as the RWRE stops whining about the few million spent on BS here and there....
Given a choice between spending a couple hundred thousand on quail versus $1.5 trillion to kill some clown in the desert just because he embarrassed daddy...gee, where is the question there?
Quote from: heironymouspasparagus on February 07, 2012, 12:40:19 PM
I'll quit going on about the many trillions spent for waste and corruption - not to mention the over 4,000 wasted precious lives of our kids - as soon as the RWRE stops whining about the few million spent on BS here and there....
Given a choice between spending a couple hundred thousand on quail versus $1.5 trillion to kill some clown in the desert just because he embarrassed daddy...gee, where is the question there?
but....but.....he was linked to Al Qaeda...or something.
Quote from: heironymouspasparagus on February 07, 2012, 12:40:19 PM
I'll quit going on about the many trillions spent for waste and corruption - not to mention the over 4,000 wasted precious lives of our kids - as soon as the RWRE stops whining about the few million spent on BS here and there....
Given a choice between spending a couple hundred thousand on quail versus $1.5 trillion to kill some clown in the desert just because he embarrassed daddy...gee, where is the question there?
You need a Looney Toons character for an avatar. Some of your posts are like watching a cartoon.
Iraq war= complete waste of time and resources, we get it. Move on, pull the arrow out, Heir.
Quote from: Conan71 on February 07, 2012, 02:00:00 PM
You need a Looney Toons character for an avatar. Some of your posts are like watching a cartoon.
Iraq war= complete waste of time and resources, we get it. Move on, pull the arrow out, Heir.
Absurdity is the only answer to absurdity. Coburn has his little booklet of all the wasted money - and it is held up here as being something actually significant - that mostly should not have been spent. But even as much as I like Coburn, I didn't hear him saying much about the massive splurge that we indulged in for the last decade.
None of these little things mean anything WHEN compared to the big stuff. Is the fascination with rock bands bringing down the Soviet Union so great because it is of a scale that we can get our minds around? And the big thing is just so vast and wide ranging that it is incomprehensible and the facts that accompany it are so bad that we can't countenance the idea that we, the "good guys", would do something so bad?
And so much more than just wasted time and resources.
Don't think I have even mentioned the thousands of tons of depleted uranium we have splattered all over the mid-east in the last decade or so! How do you feel about that compared to something deadly in an instantaneous moment, but fleeting like maybe chemical weapons? We literally have sown the seeds of destruction and carnage for generations. In your opinion, is that something the "good guy" would do?