From the White House Morning Update email (wherein we Myrmidons of the Right get our marching instructions and Story of the Day so that we Speak With One Voice - and I'm sure Rove still edits it, with Dick Cheney looking over his shoulder with the whip - well, I think so, that's what the Kossacks say, anyway) I find my very own locale a subject of one of the tidbits:
President Bush Signs Defense Appropriations Bill And Vetoes Labor-HHS Spending Bill, Saying "Congress Owes The Taxpayers Much Better Than This Effort." "President Bush, escalating his budget battle with Congress, on Tuesday vetoed a spending measure for health and education programs prized by congressional Democrats. He also signed a big increase in the Pentagon's non-war budget although the White House complained it contained 'some unnecessary spending.' … The White House said the $606 billion education and health was loaded with 2,000 earmarks – lawmaker – sponsored projects that critics call pork-barrel spending – which Bush wants stripped from the bill. 'Some of its wasteful projects include a prison museum, a sailing school taught aboard a catamaran and a Portugese-as-a-second-language program,' the president said. 'Congress owes the taxpayers much better than this effort.' … 'The Congress now sitting in Washington holds this philosophy,' Bush told an audience of business and community leaders. 'The majority was elected on a pledge of fiscal responsibility, but so far it's acting like a teenager with a new credit card.' 'This year alone, the leadership in Congress has proposed to spend $22 billion more than my budget provides,' the president said. 'Now, some of them claim that's not really much of a difference. The scary part is, they seem to mean it.'" (Jennifer Loven, "Bush Vetoes Health And Education Bill," The Associated Press, 11/13/07)
That prison museum is going to be right here in Lansing, Kansas. Hey, around here we have the Big House, the federal pen, the Little House, the federal prison camp, the Disciplinary Barracks, the miltary pen, a rent-a-prison, the Big State Pen (and we used to have a state women's prison, but they moved the ladies away to expand the capacity of the men's prison), and finally, the County Jail. So, the locals asked Nancy Boyda, our federal representative for a little federal help. CBS News picked on her about it.
She recently "earmarked" $100,000 for the prison museum.An earmark is a grant of money without the normal public review. And in Washington, earmarks flow like water from a fountain. Congress funds thousands per year worth $20 billion.
Boyda sees the museum as a way to honor prison guards. But why should a penny of federal tax money be going to this prison museum in Kansas?
“I think the majority of Americans are going to say $100,000 to honor, to preserve the culture and memorialize the people that have given their lives. It's fine,” Boyda said.
Ironically, Boyda had just complained publicly that real prisons are so poorly funded and staffed, they're dangerous. But she didn't earmark any money for them -- just the fake prison.
Ms. Boyda's campaign Congressional office [My bad, it was her office, *not* her campaign, the error is mine. -the Armorer] responds:
As a nation, we treasure our heritage and work to preserve our history for generations to come. That's why the federal government invests in museums in the first place.There's no argument that Leavenworth is an important piece of our American heritage, and there's no argument that this project is receiving the vast majority of its funding from state and local sources. It is supported by the community, by Republicans and Democrats, and by
local and state officials.Since the federal government plays a role in preserving American history, the question is who decides where those museum dollars are spent -- the communities who fund the government, or bureaucrats in Washington? I believe the community should have a voice, and that's my role as a representative of Kansans in Washington.
As Congress continues to honor the long history of Kansas prisons, we must also provide for the prisons' future. That's why I have urged the House Appropriations Committee to fund the Board of Prisons and levels sufficient to address staffing shortages and prison overcrowding.
I do know that Ms. Boyda and Mr. Moore have both visited the Federal Prison here recently, which has some on-going issues with it's conversion from a maximum security facility to a medium-security facility and some guard force safety issues that have surfaced from that. There are also plans floated that would expand the capacity of the Federal facility.
But it's not an issue I've been tracking - so anyone who has, feel free to jump in. As for the museum, it's going to be built with a mx of taxpayer and private dollars, from local, state, and federal sources. Now that it's been picked up like this, I guess it's time to mosey over to my buddy Lansing Mayor Ken Bernard's place and see what's up with the museum.
