CNN Biased Reporting: GOP senators list what they say are the 100 worst stimulus projects

Some of the projects that this CNN reporter chose to highlight like monkeys on cocaine should have the animal rights people up in arms for starters. Since when is it the federal government's responsibility to fund this type of research? Found their reasoning hard to swallow. Research dollars going to cocaine research instead of toward diseases that could become curable with more research dollars is wrong.

If you are not going to use the facility like the one at Mount St. Helen's, buy plywood and board up the windows. A lot cheaper than getting new windows for something not used.

How many dollars went to fund projects in the public sector to keep public employees or add new employees to the public rolls? We assume quite a few. Instead of congratulating, Senators Coburn and McCain, CNN chose to nitpick some of their choices instead of giving them credit. Dr. Coburn is right about the lack of 'Common Sense' on these stimulus items.

The amount of money going to universities to fund some projects make us wonder like the one on dance that is spread out over three years but even then, why can't they find donors to fund these items instead of taxpayers. That is why so many people are up in arms because the stimulus uses taxpayer dollars that are spent on projects that most taxpayers will see little to no benefits in the long term. If public universities are going to do research, then find the dollars for the funding.

Once again CNN has shown why they are losing viewership when they write an article like this that is slanted in favor of Obama and the stimulus. Doesn't take a genius to see the bias slant of this article. The reporter finds a few items they try to debunk out of 100 to show why the list is flawed. Funny thing when discrepancies are pointed out, the Senators change the analysis to fit the facts something that CNN doesn't seem to grasp.

GOP senators list what they say are the 100 worst stimulus projects
By Tom Cohen, CNN
August 3, 2010 2:15 p.m. EDT



Washington (CNN) -- Monkeys on cocaine. New windows for a closed visitor's center. Modern dance as a tool for software development.

A report released Tuesday by conservative Sens. Tom Coburn and John McCain cited these and 97 other projects as leading examples of misguided or wasteful spending under the Obama administration's $862 billion economic stimulus bill.

Titled "Summertime Blues," the report is the third by the two senators targeting projects that they say fail to meet the job-creation goal of spending under the Recovery Act of 2009.

The report highlights the extraordinary "waste and mismanagement" of taxpayer dollars, said McCain, R-Arizona. The stimulus plan "was supposed to create jobs. It does not."

The "American people have awakened to the incompetency of Washington," declared Coburn, R-Oklahoma. "The rest of the federal government is filled with stuff just like this."

Both senators conceded that the stimulus plan has had some positive effect on the economy, but insisted any benefit was due solely to the sheer size of the package, and that its effectiveness had been blunted due its poor design and spending choices.

Coburn complained the measure was full of projects that are "stupid or inappropriate," and fail to meet "the common sense test."

The plan failed to give "us the biggest bang for our buck," he asserted.

The Recovery Act, which was passed a few weeks after President Barack Obama took office, was a government-funded effort to kick-start economic activity in response to the ongoing recession.

It called for "shovel-ready" jobs -- from road and bridge repair and construction to scientific research and expanded broadband and wireless service -- through federal contracts, grants and loans, as well as helping state and local governments avoid layoffs and funding tax cuts.

The senators' report challenged the viability or effectiveness of specific projects across the country. However, the report's use of selected information from hundreds of footnoted sources left it unclear if the brief summaries of each project told the whole story.

In a previous report last January, the senators included the Napa Valley Wine Train as an example of wasteful stimulus spending without mentioning that the money was for a flood control project along the train's route, rather than the train itself.

The latest edition covered a broad range of projects including construction, research, development and conservation.

Topping the list was $554,763 spent for new windows at the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center at Mount St. Helens in Washington state. The U.S. Forest Service facility opened in 1993 at a cost of $11.5 million to provide visitors with panoramic views of the scenic volcano.

However, it closed in 2007 due to staffing shortages, and now is getting the stimulus funds to replace its trademark windows in preparation for use for another purpose, according to information provided by the Forest Service.

"One government official likened it to 'keeping a vacant house in good repair,' while another official noted that there is hope to find some purpose for the building in the future, whether as a hotel, science camp or restaurant," the report said, attributing the information to a July 2009 article on tdn.com, a local news website.

"Despite those efforts, there are no plans to use the empty space."

Read More of Slanted CNN News at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/08/03/senators.stimulus.spending/index.html?hpt=T2

Economic Stimulus Funds Went to Climategate Scientist

Wish someone from this Administration would explain how awarding a grant to a lone scientist is going to add jobs. In this case it is is even worse as Professor Mann is one of the researchers involved up to his neck in Climategate which used flawed data on purpose to get the political outcome they wanted. This, like so many other instances of the stimulus package, is nothing more then propping up a crony who supports the Obama/Gore agenda of Global Warming. To give a grant to a professor who is under investigation for the climate fraud is nothing short of mind boggling.

Talk about wasting taxpayer dollars, this Obama Administration is going to be at the head of list. They throw money around like it does 'grow on trees' with little regard to how it is spent.

We agree 100% with Deneen Borelli, a full-time fellow with the National Center's Project 21 black leadership network who stated, "This misuse of stimulus money illustrates why tax cuts are a better way to stimulate the economy than letting the government decide where to spend taxpayer dollars. As is often the case, political considerations corrupt the distribution of government funds."

Economic Stimulus Funds Went to Climategate Scientist
The National Center for Policy Research

In the face of rising unemployment and record-breaking deficits, policy experts at the National Center for Public Policy Research are criticizing the Obama Administration for awarding a half million dollar grant from the economic stimulus package to Penn State Professor Michael Mann, a key figure in the Climategate controversy.

"It's outrageous that economic stimulus money is being used to support research conducted by Michael Mann at the very time he’s under investigation by Penn State and is one of the key figures in the international Climategate scandal. Penn State should immediately return these funds to the US Treasury," said Tom Borelli, PhD, director of the National Center's Free Enterprise Project.

(snip)

"It's no wonder that Obama's stimulus plan is failing to produce jobs. Taxpayer dollars aren't being used in the ways most likely to spur job creation. The stimulus was not sold to the public as a way to reward a loyalist in the climate change debate. Nor was the stimulus sold as a way to promote the Obama Administration's position on the global warming theory. This misuse of stimulus money illustrates why tax cuts are a better way to stimulate the economy than letting the government decide where to spend taxpayer dollars. As is often the case, political considerations corrupt the distribution of government funds," said Deneen Borelli, a full-time fellow with the National Center's Project 21 black leadership network.

Excerpt: Read more at New Media Journal

Obama Doubles Down on Failure

We want to thank Senators Coburn (R-OK) and McCain (R-AZ) for taking the time to look into how that taxpayer-funded stimulus money is being spent. What they discovered is massive amounts of our tax dollars have been misspent. That is not surprising out of anyone coming out of one of the most crooked cities in America -- Chicago which graft is king.

This is what you get when you elect someone from the political machine of Chicago. Voters didn't just elect Obama they elected part that Chicago political machine who are now in the White House with Obama -- Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual, Senior Advisor (Political Consultant) David Axelrod, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, and Social Secretary Desiree Rogers for starters. Most likely you have the four who are behind what comes out of the White House while Obama mouths the words. With all this money going back to Chicago, we would guess it is payback time for support during the election.

Probably another reason why Oklahoma is getting the short straw on stimulus money. Only 34% of Oklahomans voted for Obama. That amount of support has dropped even lower today. Not many paybacks due any Oklahomans since every county went to Senator McCain. Interesting that the two Senators after the mismanagement and most likely fraud of the stimulus are the Senator who won every County in Oklahoma -- John McCain and the Senator from the Great State of Oklahoma Dr. Tom Coburn. Oklahoma may be a small state but Oklahomans had Obama pegged as someone who spouted the rhetoric and didn't mean one word. Shame the rest of the Country didn't catch on Sooner!

Obama Doubles Down on Failure
Human Events
12-11-09
Gary Bauer

It sounds like the lead in to a bad joke: What do a Chicago-based dinner cruise company, a study of libidinous female college students and a former Hillary Clinton advisor have in common?

But the joke is on us, because each of the above has been awarded hefty doses of taxpayer-funded stimulus money since February, according to a new stimulus report card by Senators Tom Coburn and John McCain.

In his “jobs speech” this week, President Obama implicitly acknowledged that last February’s $1.2 trillion stimulus package has failed. Then he demanded another one in order to bolster his plan to “spend our way out of this recession.”
But given the failure of the first stimulus highlighted by wasteful spending unearthed in the new Coburn-McCain report, as well as the stifling deficits the Obama administration is already running, more government spending will mean more debt, more waste and more unemployment.

Titled “Stimulus Checkup,” the Coburn-McCain report exposes 100 projects paid for by February’s stimulus package they claim wasted at least $7 billion.
Some of the most egregious items include $5 million for alternative energy in a mostly empty shopping mall in Tennessee, and $1.6 million for fossil research in Argentina for Penn State University.

A dinner cruise company based in Chicago received nearly $1 million in funds to combat terrorism, and $100,000 was spent for a socially conscious puppet shows in Minnesota.

The State University of New York at Buffalo won $390,000 to study young adults who drink malt liquor and smoke marijuana, and the National Institutes of Health got $219,000 in funds to study whether female college students are more likely to “hook up” after drinking alcohol.

There’s even $30,000 to study how methamphetamines affect the sex drive of female rats.

Excerpt: Read more at humanevents.com