One Man's Earmarks Are Another Man's Earwax

Earmarks are a lot like earwax; while some claim they're useful, they are both, in fact:

• repulsive,
  
• can prevent proper functionality,
• can lead to complications,
  
• very difficult to remove.

Sarasota's Vern Buchanan railed against the Obama stimulus package in general and earmarks in particular, but, nontheless, when the bill passed, he made sure he tacked on some good old pork for his constituents back home on the Suncoast, ie, dredging at Port Manatee, equipping Bradenton police cruisers with cameras (oh, that will get the area some air time on "America's Funniest Home Videos"), an emergency-notification system at Manatee Community College to replace the can-and-string system they have been using, almost a half-million taxpayer dollars for closed-circuit video cameras and sensors on area roads (what?? that sure doesn't sound like a red-blooded, individual American right-to-privacy Republican idea, that sounds like more of some Commie, soul-stealing, Big Brother Socialist-Democratic plot) and a full half-million dollars for Mote Marine's ocean fisheries recovery program.

I just don't know about any of these things. I think the whole concept of earmarks reeks of one thing and one thing only: GETTING RE-ELECTED. Because being a Congressman is a pretty cushy gig and, if you're in long enough, when you get out, you can be a lobbyist, which is an even cushier gig, right, Tom Daschle?

And I'm just not sure about giving money to promote the strange goings-on over at Mote. I know we've entered a bold new enlightened era, with stem-cell research and all, but some of the things they do over there on City Island just ain't natural, I tell ya.

Although, I do see some merit in their latest experiment.....



Thanks, Barb.