Rob Port, our top Oink blogger, is with the misses and should have a new baby by the weekend (CONGRATULATIONS ROB!!!). So I’m filling in for him while he takes care of family business.

Which gives me a perfect chance to plug some of the web’s newest pork watchers. As mentioned earlier, Citizens Against Government Waste recently launched The Swine Line, a site dedicated to blogging the pork out of Washington. Then, there is PorkBusters, a blog we all know and love.

And now we have the Pork Report, a project of Americans for Prosperity.

This morning I had a chance to exchange e-mails with Collin Hitt, Sangamon County Chapter Leader for the Illinois branch of Americans for Prosperity. He pointed me to a great post that provides insight on what the Illinois Chapter of AFP is up to with regard to pork reporting, and he provided some info on what they plan on doing.

When I asked what the objective was, I got a straightforward and quite encouraging response.

-keep people informed of AFP’s work to root out waste, fraud and abuse in the state. In particular, we will be trying to uncover earmarked projects and member initiatives.

- to give taxpayer activists a(n edited) platform to report for themselves pork in their area; there is a tab that will have guest posts
from activists across the state.

- to expose pork projects, through the work of its editors (the AFP-Illinois team).

I also asked about future plans, and was pleased to read this.

Over time, we will be uploading webtools and data tools that will allow people to root through government grants and such, and perhaps find suspicious projects for themselves. We are also courting a couple of lawmakers to guest post on pork.

Sounds like a pork fighting heavyweight in the making! Check them out and grab their RSS feeds while you’re there.

Americans for Prosperity have some pictures and updates posted regarding the Murtha Bash Crash.

I’m happy to report that last night’s “Murtha Bash - Pork Crash” was a resounding success. A solid crowd of taxpayer advocates braved brutal winter winds to help expose the connections between Congressman John Murtha’s campaign contributors and the taxpayer-funded pork-barrel earmarks he secures for them.

Read the rest at AFP…

Citizens Against Government Waste of given us something new to oink about. Meet the Swine Line.

And while you’re checking out the new blog, be sure you keep an eye on tonight’s rally outside of a John Murtha Porkfest.

2007 Porker of the Year Rep. John Murtha is holding at major campaign fundraiser tonight at the Ritz-Carlton at Pentagon City (Arlington, VA).

Apparently, the major portion of the crowd in attendance at Murtha’s oink orgy will be lobbyists and special interest fat providers.

Tonight, CAGW will be holding a rally with Americans for Prosperity and the National Taxpayers Union outside the defense lobbyist gala to protest the Congressional favor factory (aka earmarks).

Looking forward to seeing the pics!

We here at the Oink Report are never surprised when the government lacks common sense. From $200 toilet seats to $750 hammers, the capacity for government bureaucrats to make stupid decisions is never surprising.

So imagine our shock when we noticed that a politician was demanding that government bureaucrats apply some common sense when it comes to expending money on sending representatives to the traditionally lavish International AIDS Conference. That politician is Senator Tom Coburn, and he’s demanding in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (full version after the jump) that they not repeat some of their more questionable decisions made during last year’s conference.

Decisions such as spending $3.6 million tax dollars to send 236 bureaucrats a conference where former Health Secretary Tommy Thompson was booed off the stage. Or spending $500,000 tax dollars on a conference that featured dresses made of condoms and a drag show. Or even spending $315,000 tax dollars on a conference that featured half-naked sex workers demanding health care benefits and paid vacation.

And here you thought the point of these conferences was to help stop the spread of AIDS, not promote sexual promiscuity.

We Oinkers applaud Senator Coburn taking DHS to task over this conference. Because if there’s anything the proponents of fiscally responsible government hate more its spending tax dollars on sending bureaucrats off to oggle semi-dressed prostitutes in the name of stopping a sexually transmitted (for the most part) disease. (more…)

Yesterday we heard Governor of Alaska (and potential McCain VP pick) Sarah Palin tell us that she wanted her state to be less dependent on federal money. Today we hear from a group of governors, led by Arnold Schwarzenegger of Cal-ee-fornia, saying that they want more money for roads and bridges in their state.

They’re not sure where the money is going to come from, but they know they want it.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a bipartisan group of governors called Sunday on President Bush, Congress and the presidential candidates to back a major spending program to repair the nation’s roads, bridges, rail lines and water systems.

The effort could come with a steep price tag: Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania said the group will urge Congress to approve a new economic stimulus package that could include $25 billion to $30 billion for infrastructure projects.

It would appear as though “economic stimulus” is going to be the buzz word for all new government spending.

Now we here at the Oink Report have no problem with keeping roads and bridges in good repair. In fact, we think it is one of government’s most basic and necessary functions. One that all too often gets ignored in favor of millions spent on things like these decidedly non-infrastructure-related projects political leaders in Iowa were able to secure federal funding for:

—-$2 million to repair and replace river crossing bridges on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail

—-$3 million for a downtown Waterloo “river walk” trail loop on the Cedar, envisioned as part of the downtown Riverfront Renaissance project.

—-Nearly $2 million for development of a children’s book illustration gallery at the Hearst Center for the Arts in Cedar Falls.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with hiking trails and art galleries.  We Oinkers enjoy a good hike and a children’s book as much as the next person, but should these projects really be on the federal government’s priority list when we apparently need tens of millions of dollars of extra funding for infrastructure maintenance?

Perhaps if the federal government wasn’t so distracted with funding all these local pet projects there would be enough funding to properly maintain infrastructure.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been discussed as a VP choice for John McCain for a while now, and just this Sunday the two had a rather interesting meeting. Not so much interesting because McCain and Palin are at odds over drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (Palin is for it, McCain is against it), but because Palin says that she’d like to make her state less dependent on federal money.

Palin said she spoke with McCain about his plans to reform the federal budget process by curbing the use of congressional earmarks to fund pet projects; an issue he’s made central to his campaign for president.

The writing is on the wall, change is coming, Palin said. “Alaska is not going to be able to request that the rest of the United States pay for projects that are going to be perceived as solely benefiting Alaskans anymore,” she said. “They are going to have to have national implications.

“I know that I get criticized from some for saying things like that because they say, ‘but we are a young state and we’re lacking in the infrastructure that other states have benefited from for many, many more decades then Alaska has.’

“Maybe so. So be it. But the reality is from Congress to the White House on down, Alaskans are being told wake up, you have to be less reliant on the federal government. So I’m saying, ‘OK then let us be less reliant on you. Allow us to develop our resources. Let us prove to you that we can responsibly and safely do this.’” Palin has told her staff to limit the number of requests for earmarks to the congressional delegation.

That’s a very principled stand for a Republican to take these days, and Palin should be commended for it. Not only is she promoting fiscal responsibility (most politicians seem willing to try and convince voters that federal tax dollars aren’t really their tax dollars), she’s also protecting the spirit of state sovereignty and local autonomy.

There is a string attached to every single dollar sent by the federal government to states and localities, and the folks in Washington DC use those strings to control policy. Look at family law in the various states, for instance. Particularly law as it applies to child support. States don’t have a lot of leeway to change child support laws because a lot of them are mandated by the federal government, and that mandate is tied to health and human services funding.

If a state tries to change the law, they loose funding. Which means that citizens can’t change their own state-level laws without the permission of politicians in DC who aren’t even from their states.

Fair? Not even a little bit, which is why we need to stop letting politicians congratulate themselves on bringing home lots and lots of federal money. In the long run, it’s better for a state to be independent of that money.

We all know Chicago government has no shortage of corruption and wasteful spending, but Showergate takes things to a whole new level.

If you don’t know about City Hall’s latest scandal — ShowerGate — then you probably haven’t seen my new, hot video quest to take a steamy, lathered-up shower one floor above Mayor Richard Daley’s office.

Just think of me at City Hall on Wednesday, towel over my arm and a couple of bars of Irish Spring soap, begging to shower in the new, luxury spa built secretly for the mayor’s tax-happy budget director, Bennett Johnson III.

Yep, you read that right. The budget director allegedly has a sparkling new shower at Chicago City Hall. The shower, paid for by taxpayer dollars, is rumored to have multiple shower heads with pulsating jets, towel warmers, and all the works needed for a luxury wash room.

How much does this “necessity” cost the taxpayers?

Now Bennett Johnson is being forced to say he’s paying for the shower, some $5,400 or so, a cheap shower beneath the dignity of a budget boss. They’re probably dropping the Greek marble, the hot-stone warmers and the fancy scented candles as you read this.

Taxpayers hard at work, eh?