On the Job

In case anyone was wondering what on earth I'm doing at the moment, here it is. I'm tearing apart Title IV of the Defense Appropriations Bill recently cleared by the House. The closest version I could find online, closest to the one I'm working with that is, is linked below. I'm going through and cataloging all the earmarks, all the items legislators get to slip in anonymously, those items that hold, as far as I can tell, enormous opportunities for corruption. If you've been following the case of "Duke" Cunningham, a Republican representative from the San Diego area, you'll have some familiarity with the potential for abuse. If not, Google him (particularly Google News, that is) and you'll have some fun catching up to do.

Here's the link to the big fat bill.

Some of the most curious finds thus far:

- $3 million for Reactive Atom Plasma Processing
- $2 million for a Soldier Wearable Acoustic Targeting System
- $10 million for Proton Beam Therapy
- $3.6 million for a neuroproteomics center

The next step in the process, after the simple cataloging I'm doing, is to research every one of the several thousand earmarks to try to determine who the money goes to and in what state. It's a mammoth task that can take months, but it's rather important, given that otherwise, this money would sail off into the open uncontested.

Right then, back to the grindstone.