The 100 worst stimulus projects

[k-os]

Sorry if this has been posted already, and if it hasn't, get ready for a good laugh.

I mean, you just have to laugh when you read this, otherwise you might cry.

Click here if so inclined (it's a PDF) (http://coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=e1e0624e-d02a-42d4-9dbb-f5b9f21b3572)




1. Forest Service to Replace Windows in Visitor Center Closed in 2007 (Amboy, WA) - $554,763
2. “Dance Draw” - Interactive Dance Software Development (Charlotte, NC) - $762,372
3. North Shore Connector to Professional Sports Stadiums, Casino (Pittsburgh, PA) - $62 million
4. FEMA Stalls Two Texas Fire Stations More Than a Year, Increases Costs (San Antonio, TX) - $7.3 million
5. Abandoned Train Station Converted Into Museum (Glassboro, NJ) - $1.2
6. Ants Talk. Taxpayers Listen (San Francisco, CA) - $1.9 million
7. Stimulus Project Threatens Pastor’s House (Newark, OH) - $1.8 million
8. Old Abandoned Iron Furnace Gets Facelift after Money Squandered on Same Project Years Before (Fitchburg, KY) – $357,710
9. Power Plant Construction Won’t Start for at Least Two Years (Kern County, CA) - $308 million
10. Town Replaces New Sidewalks With Newer Sidewalks That Lead to Ditch (Boynton, OK) - $89,298


Those aren't even the worst ones, just the first ten of a hundred.

[Grand Master Melon]

Good post.

I've only seen a few projects in my area one of which made my commute pretty crappy for two months all so that new curbing and a couple of bus pullouts could be put in. I've seen new signs pop up but I've yet to see projects started. We could have lived without the new curbing at the intersection or the businesses could have paid for it but I guess it was more important that we do.

[k-os]

Here's one I found to be particularly funny:


65. DTV “Experts” Plug Boxes Into a Wall (Buffalo, NY) - $350,000
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) spent $350,000 to hire “experts” to help people hook up digital converter boxes made necessary by the federal government’s recent digital switch.416 Most of those jobs were short-term jobs, lasting only during the DTV transition.417 Most DTV converter boxes are no more difficult to hook up than connecting the “antenna-in” cable, the “TV-out” cable, and the power cord into an outlet,418 raising questions about the need for “experts.” The installation guide provided by the FCC is only four easy steps, including instructions to plug the power cords “into a power outlet.”

We are so doomed.

[1970 silver art]

:ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL:





6. Ants Talk. Taxpayers Listen (San Francisco, CA) - $1.9
million
The California Academy of Sciences is receiving nearly $2 million to
send researchers to the Southwest Indian Ocean Islands and east
Africa, to capture, photograph, and analyze thousands of exotic ants.52
The photographs of the ants – over 3,000 species’ worth, according to
the grant proposal – will be posted on AntWeb, a website devoted to
organizing and displaying pictures and information on the world’s
thousands of ant species.53
The project’s goals are, to the lay person, both laudable and arcane: In
addition to “foster[ing]…a large pool of ant taxonomists,” it also strives
to document “the vast majority of ant species known from [Africa].”54
“[Ants] give us back the most data on the environment than any other
group. Their life cycle is shorter, they change very quickly,” says the
project’s Principal Investigator in a promotional article on the
Academy’s website. “Everyone has run into ants . . . now we need to
listen to them.”55


Yep. 1.9 million reasons to listen to the ants. The Ants know best. If we would have listened to the ants, them maybe we could have gotten out of the Great Recession. 3,000 different ants. The "Ant Congress" might have been able to pass much better legislation than crap legislation that the Congress whores have passed so far.

[1970 silver art]

21. Quit Smoking, Get a New Phone (Washington, D.C.) - $497,893
Whether they use the patch, the gum, or go cold turkey, millions of Americans try to quit smoking every
year for their own health. Now, Uncle Sam will give them an additional reason to quit: a taxpayerfunded
smartphone. The American Legacy Foundation is slated to receive almost half a million dollars to
provide quitting smokers with a smartphone so they can contact their quitting support groups by text
message or phone call to prevent relapses.188 The project bills itself as an ideal use of Recovery Act funds
because “it represents an extraordinary opportunity to jump-start a collaborative effort that spearheads
the use of web-enabled mobile devices to enhance the efficiency, fidelity, and impact of an established
tobacco quit-line program that benefits underserved communities in Washington, D.C.”189



Hmmmm...........Maybe I should just start smoking and then quit and get a free IPhone4 phone. I hope that antenna bar strength is working properly on the IPhone4. :D

[ShortJohnSilver]

:ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL:


Yep. 1.9 million reasons to listen to the ants. The Ants know best. If we would have listened to the ants, them maybe we could have gotten out of the Great Recession. 3,000 different ants. The "Ant Congress" might have been able to pass much better legislation than crap legislation that the Congress whores have passed so far.



The BBC movie "Quatermass and the Pit" could have told you all that back in the late 50s ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatermass_and_the_Pit

[palani]

I got an email a couple of days ago that said Michelle's brother (a coach at some western college) was scheduled to lose his job until the feds gave a cash transfusion of $18 millions.

[Apparition]

Crony capitalism and waste we can believe in.

Whenever the government grants money we can all expect it to be wasted or abused simply because there is no incentive to use the money wisely or efficiently when political bureaucrats are responsible for redistributing taxpayers' income.

No surprises here.

[1970 silver art]

25. Weather Predictions for Other Planets (San Antonio, TX) - $298,543
Want to know if it’s going to rain this week . . . on Venus? According to scientists at the Southwest
Research Institute (SWRI) in Texas, you absolutely do. So the government has given them nearly
$300,000 in stimulus funds to satisfy the American taxpayer’s profound need for interplanetary weather
info.212 “The atmospheric forecasting of weather and climate on other planets has great public appeal,”
insist the SWRI researchers in their grant summary. Therefore, they will boldly go where few
meteorologists have gone before: the lower atmosphere of Venus. (They’re just the folks to do it, too: they
boast of their expertise in “the atmospheres and exospheres of Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Io, Titan,
comets, Chiron, Triton, Pluto, and the Jovian planets.”213) How will you, the U.S. taxpayer, learn of the
results? SWRI’s findings will find a home in “popular publications, museum presentations, and radio
shows,” the researchers wrote.214



:ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: LMAO!!!!!!!!!!

Hmmmmm.........Let me see here..................Why do we want to predict the weather on different planets? Are the female taxpayers planning on going to go to Venus? Do they have soap operas on Venus? I guess the male taxpayers are going to Mars? As long as I can drink my orange juice and eat my pepperoni pizza, then I do not care if the TPTB moves me to Mars. Can we play football on Mars?

:ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL:

Ok. That's it!!!!! That does it for me!!!!!!! I need to stop looking at this list of worst stimulus project spending before I die of laughter. ;D

Oh BTW.......+1 Karma for K-os for making me laugh even though this is very sad that the taxpayers' money was wasted. :) Then again this is gov't for you. Gov't is doing what gov't does best...............Waste other people's money.

[Joe King]

86. Preserve and Rehabilitate FDR’s Home (Hyde Park, NY) - $4.6 million ::)

"The National Park Service has awarded $4,572,000 for repairs on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Hyde Park,
New York residence and carriage house.516 According to the National Park Service, repairs will include
painting the shutters the home’s original shade of hunter green and removing trees to be “replaced with
historic varieties.”517 FDR’s home, however, has in recent years received over $19 million in additional
funding for renovations,518 surely making it one of the most expensive home projects in history."

It would've been a more appropriate tribute to FDR's time in Office if they'd just burned it to the ground instead.

[1970 silver art]

:ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL:


Yep. 1.9 million reasons to listen to the ants. The Ants know best. If we would have listened to the ants, them maybe we could have gotten out of the Great Recession. 3,000 different ants. The "Ant Congress" might have been able to pass much better legislation than crap legislation that the Congress whores have passed so far.



The BBC movie "Quatermass and the Pit" could have told you all that back in the late 50s ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatermass_and_the_Pit


............and for probably less than the 1958-59 equivalent of $1.9 million.

[the riot act]

Here's one I found to be particularly funny:


65. DTV “Experts” Plug Boxes Into a Wall (Buffalo, NY) - $350,000
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) spent $350,000 to hire “experts” to help people hook up digital converter boxes made necessary by the federal government’s recent digital switch.416 Most of those jobs were short-term jobs, lasting only during the DTV transition.417 Most DTV converter boxes are no more difficult to hook up than connecting the “antenna-in” cable, the “TV-out” cable, and the power cord into an outlet,418 raising questions about the need for “experts.” The installation guide provided by the FCC is only four easy steps, including instructions to plug the power cords “into a power outlet.”

We are so doomed.


Just think these are the people who will be running the country soon...

Just think these are the people who will be unn

[mightymanx]

Listing the 100 worst stimulus projects is kind of like listing the 100 worst fatal child gang rapes.

They are all morally wrong, a horrific crime, and a really F(*&^%g pathetic situation, every last one of them.

[mightymanx]

oops a double tap :-[

[keehah]

WTF?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7t9t7HzZR8

[k-os]

Listing the 100 worst stimulus projects is kind of like listing the 100 worst fatal child gang rapes.

They are all morally wrong, a horrific crime, and a really F(*&^%g pathetic situation, every last one of them.



I know what you're saying, but I don't agree with your intensity. All fatal child gang rapes are bad, obviously. On the other hand, a small percentage of money intended for "stimulus" went toward something even slightly beneficial. Some of the stimulus money went toward fortifying old and well-traveled roads and bridges. This Top 10 list contains the worst, like photographing ants, programming interpretive dance, new, hardly used sidewalks to replace nearly new, hardly used sidewalks, 25 million to a scandalous PR firm, a set of $4K a piece palm trees planted on a back road rarely traveled, etc.

[mightymanx]

My example is extreme but what they are doing is directly destroying this country and it pisses me off probably more than my example, because we usually kill child rapists either by a jury of their peers or when they get to prison. Either way we sure and the hell do not reelect them to continue their crimes.

I just have a real big problem with extorting money by force from the people that produce, and giving it to the political contributors as payback for bribes.

If we travel down this road why even have a government. (Atlas Shrugged was not written to be the how to manual)

[k-os]

How about this one?


17. Firm Gets No-Bid Environmental Cleanup Contract – for a Mess It Helped Make165 (Simi Valley, CA) - $15.8 million

It’s the “Pottery Barn” rule in reverse: you break it, you get paid for it. Aerospace giant Boeing received a no-bid contract worth nearly $16 million166 in stimulus money to clean up a California site it helped pollute.167 The facility, the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, was built in the 1940s, and has been used for engine testing and nuclear power work; Boeing has owned it since 1996.168 In 2007, local authorities fined Boeing $471,000 for dozens of pollution violations at the site, which poisoned wastewater and storm runoff that ended up in the Los Angeles River.169 The company is currently fighting to overturn a California law that puts strict requirements on cleanup at the site.170 “It’s very upsetting that the government doesn’t do more due diligence before it hands money out,” said the California Inspector General.171 Said a local activist to one reporter: “How can one have federal taxpayer money going to a company that is responsible for the contamination and is resisting the cleanup?”172

For those of you who don't like PDFs, but would like to see the footnotes:



165 & 172 Evans, Will, “Stimulus funds aiding companies fined for pollution, accused of fraud,” Orange County (Calif.) Register, Jan. 8, 2010, linky (http://www.ocregister.com/news/-228265--.html)
166 USASpending.gov, “Contract transactions, complete details,”
linky (http://usaspending.gov/explore?carryfilters=on&overridecook=yes&fromfiscal=yes&tab=By+Recipient&typeofview
=complete&comingfrom=searchresults&frompage=contracts&modnumber=93&transactionnumber=0&idvpiid=&piid=DEAC0399SF21530&fiscal_year=2009&pop_state=CA&maj_contracting_agency=89&mod_agency=8900&contra
ctorid=20712&record_id=42028052)
167-170 Evans, Will, “Stimulus funds aiding companies fined for pollution, accused of fraud,” California Watch, Jan. 10, 2010, linky (http://californiawatch.org/environment/stimulus-funds-aiding-companies-fined-pollution-accused-fraud)
171 Andrews, Alexandra, “Boeing Reaps Stimulus Millions to Clean Up Site It Was Fined for Polluting,” ProPublica, Jan. 11, 2010, linky (http://www.propublica.org/article/boeing-reaps-stimulus-millions-to-clean-up-site-fined-for-polluting-111)


Cleaning up wastewater is great. But hiring at whatever named price declared by the company who made the mess. . . to clean up the mess is completely absurd. It makes no sense whatsoever.

[Silver Rocket Bitches!]

It's no coincidence that many of these questionable stimulus projects are awarded to corrupt contractors who have probably helped many a corrupt politician in this crimeocracy we find ourselves in.

[Mouse]

#10 is hilarious.

Boynton, OK, population is like 200 or so. They have a cop car staged as a speed trap, it hasn't moved in years. The town is dust. There is not a single business left. The town is smoke. It's a visit to the future.

I have been through that town and always fascinated by it. We went through there in January on a trip and we decided to go down some of the streets and check it out. It's a complete down and out poverty town. There are factories that are shuttered, everyone lives in run down older houses or trailers. A lot of the population is black. They are like 90 miles to nowhere. There is no hope for that town. It is very sad and gets you thinking about reality for the rest of us.

That money spent on the sidewalk to nowhere that nobody needs or uses, could have planted a community garden, started some kind of farmer coop or some other something.

It's all graft money.

I really got a kick out of seeing one of the worst sh*holes in Oklahoma wasting public funding on something that benefits nobody. That's just pathetic. If you have ever seen the squalor in that little shit hole, you would be like *wtf? They could have spent that money to put food on tables, get people out of there, any number of things.

Boynton is American third world.

We were scared just driving through some of the back roads there to see how bad it is. And we were armed.

[gunDriller]

This is how the pork money is being spent locally -

http://www.sonomahealthaction.org/

The "Health Action Network" is funded as a department within the County Health Department.

It has about 8 employees. You pay their salaries and you pay for their fancy website. My guess is, that's about $2 Million a year.

Or maybe I should say, the money the government will end up printing to pay for their salaries will be bullish for Gold and Silver ?

Anyway, what American taxpayers and the future victims of dollar devaluation are paying for is:
1. The Health Action group tells people to garden.
2. They tell people to exercise.
3. They assist doctors in Transforming their health care Practice.

If you look at the org chart, you may notice something about the ethnicity of the people in this department.

I already tell people to exercise, but now we have people with degrees in public health telling people to exercise, too.