Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Is John McCain really this stupid?

John McCain tweets. He tweets about meeting this or that official, or being interviewed by KTVK 3TV News in Phoenix AZ etc etc

But what he is seemingly tweeting most about is his favourite subject: Earmarks. Just look at his recent earmark tweetings listed below (all taken from the Fiscal Stimulus bill, I imagine). The man's obsessed. He ran a substantial part of his Presidential campaign against earmarks and now he continues it day in, day out.

Just one small point, however. Let's just take one example which he ridicules - $900,000 for fish management. It is his Number Two Porkiest project for today. He comments: "How does one manage a fish?" As Indavisable says: "Is he really this stupid?" Perhaps McCain, from land-locked Arizona, doesn't know much about fish. But you don't need to know much about fish to know what "fish management" is - roughly. The grant is for Mobile, Alabama, which is a very significant water area:

The Mobile Delta consists of approximately 20,323 acres of water just north of Mobile Bay. Second only to the Mississippi River Delta in size, the Mobile Delta is an environmental showplace that is 30 miles long and 12 miles wide. It covers more than 200,000 acres of swamps, river bottomlands and marshes. Congress named the Mobile Delta a National Natural Landmark in 1974; fewer than 600 sites have received that honor. It is formed by the confluence of the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers. The Mobile Delta is a complex network of tidally influenced rivers, creeks, bays, lakes, wetlands, and bayous.

John McCain just doesn't get it, does he? He seems to see all "earmarks" or "pork barrel projects" as evil wastes of taxpayers' money. But the money isn't wasted is it? In this case, the $900,000 will buy goods and services which will employ people who will then spend money to employ other people who will then spend....see Maynard Keynes' Accelerator effect.

The other thing, of course, is that if you live in Mobile, Alabama, you'll be delighted by this news. And the other earmarks which McCain tweets are sprayed all over the States, resulting in a lot of grateful communities which will get an economic shot in the arm. That's hardly evil is it?

#8. $118,750 for a building to house an aircraft display in Rantoul, IL from web

#9. $380,000 for a recreation and fairground area in Kotzebue, AK from web

10. $190,000 to build a Living Science Museum in New Orleans, LA from web

#1. $951,500 for the Oregon Solar Highway from web

#2. $900,000 for fish management - how does one manage a fish... from web

#3. $380,000 to revitalize downtown Aliceville, AL from web

4. $380,000 for lighthouses in Maine from web

#5. $819, 000 for catfish genetics research in Alabama from web

#6. $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, WY from web

#7. $400,000 for copper wire theft prevention efforts from web

#8. $47,500 to remodel and expand a playground in Ottawa, IL from web

#9. $209,000 to improve blueberry production and efficiency in GA from web

#10. $285,000 for the Discovery Center of Idaho in Boise, ID from web

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