Ward, Don't You Think You Were a Little Hard On the Beaver? "Beaver Management Research" Among 1000s of Earmarks in Senate's Omnibus Spending Bill.

And make no mistake: Senators from both parties have contributed mightily to these earmarks. They total almost 7,000 in number and $8.3 billion in cost -- all buried in the massive, nearly 2000-page spending bill that Senate democrats are trying to jam through before the end of the weekend during the current lameduck session. It's as if these senators paid not an ounce of attention to the November midterm election results.

I don't have a sense yet for their chances of success (i.e. how many republicans may vote for this monstrosity), but regardless: If your senator (regardless of party) votes for this giant piece of pork, then I think you know whom not to vote for come the next election. I know I will.

It is necessary for Congress to pass an appropriations bill by this weekend, but all of these earmarks are absolutely not necessary. Get a load of some of the crazy waste in this piece of crap legislation, which includes huge expenditures on such items as:

-The aforementioned "beaver management research" (whatever that is).
-Blackbird management (we can't discriminate in favor of just beavers, I suppose).
-Harvesting salmon.
-Monitoring aquatic invasive species.
-Building solar parking canopies.
-Using the National Guard in Kentucky to "eradicate marijuana" (they have no police there? -- this one was proposed by GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell).
-Polynesian Voyaging Society in Hawaii.
-Oyster safety (it's a dangerous world for oysters).
-Legume research in Idaho.
-Anthropod damage in Nevada (a Harry Reid special).
-A John Murtha Center in Pittsburgh.
-A Teddy Kennedy Institute in Massachusetts.
-Production of virus-free wine grapes.

With pork like all of that, who needs the swine industry anymore? Maybe studying that question can be the next earmark that these two parties toss into one of these bills.

UPDATE: Late today the news came down that Senate democrats have "abandoned" trying to push their massive omnibus spending bill through to a vote (put another way, I think it became clear to them that they would not be able to get enough GOP votes). While seemingly good news on its face, they still have to come up with (and quickly) some sort of appropriations bill to replace the abandoned bill. Let's just see what that new bill looks like and whether any of those ridiculous earmarks make their way into it.

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/opinion/article_d80be59e-08a3-11e0-927c-001cc4c03286.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1210/46404.html
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40633