From the News Courier:

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., will speak at Athens Senior Center on Pryor Street noon Saturday, Jan. 19.

Shelby will discuss his legislative agenda for the 110th Congress as well as issues facing the nation and state.

Following his remarks, the senator will be open to questions from the floor and comments from the audience.

Tucked within the bloated omnibus spending bill recently passed by Congress and signed by President Bush were over 9,000 earmarks worth more than $7 billion. I took a few minutes to parse the list of earmarks provided by Sen. DeMint for all of the ones specific to Alabama and totaled them for all to see. The waste is profligate. Our tax dollars are being used to study catfish genetics, build a kitchen, and to renovate a theater just to name a few - and that is just in Alabama. The list also includes the recently announced project to tear up a perfectly good road in Huntsville and replace it with a bridge.

Senator Richard Shelby predictably led the pack with $27 million in earmarks. Sen. Jeff Sessions rang up a more svelte $3 million tally. The leading porkers in the house were Mike Rogers, Bud Cramer, and Robert Aderholt. Spencer Bachus, Terry Everett, and Artur Davis showed considerably more restraint with our money.

Remember folks, you just paid for their campaign advertisements!

A looming presidential veto will snag (probably very temporarily) some Alabama pork projects according to AL.com.

President Bush said today that one of the reasons he vetoed legislation to fund labor, health and education programs for next year was because it had too much pork. The White House counts 2,200 earmarks worth almost $1 billion. His statement was nonpartisan on its face but when he blames Congress where the Democrats are in the majority, you can figure it out.

…

For the record, pork in Washington is bipartisan. Alabama’s delegation — 7-2 GOP — corralled its share in the newly vetoed bill. Here is a sample from the Republican members of the delegation:

$9.3 million for a new health services building at the University of Alabama, sponsored by Sen. Richard Shelby and Rep. Jo Bonner

$100,000 for the town of Argo for a senior citizens center, sponsored by Rep. Spencer Bachus and Shelby

$350,000 for Gadsden State Community College for technology upgrades, sponsored by Reps. Robert Aderholt and Mike Rogers.

Just to name a few.

What a shame.  Another multi-million dollar taxpayer funded monument to Shelby’s greatness might be on hold.

Also… What in the wide world of sports is the federal government doing paying for a senior citizens center in Argo friggin’ Alabama?  I don’t see how it could possibly be a national concern.

… but Senator Richard Shelby, not to be outdone, has earned the “Porker of the Month” award from Citizens Against Government Waste.  Shelby was recognized for his penchant for using federal tax dollars to build shrines to his greatness on various universities.  This year Shelby had the largest of 401 earmarks in the HRSA section of the Senate’s 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (LHHS) Appropriations Act - an $11 million check for his alma mater, UAT.

Most people donate their own money to get buildings named after them.  Shelby is a federal legislator who instead confiscates money from private citizens and then doles it out as though it were his own and shamefully gets buildings named after him.

This isn’t Shelby’s first “Porker of the Month” award; he last won in August of 2003.

Alabama’s august senior senator has managed to adorn another structure with his name thanks to his largess: the $60 million Shelby Center for Science and Technology at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.  Shelby arranged for $50 million to be taken from federal coffers to help fund the project.  I’m not quite sure how a science building on the campus of a school in the U of A system is a federal concern.

From the Mobile Press-Register’s Political Skinny:

Last Monday, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby announced via news release that he had reintroduced a constitutional amendment to require a balanced federal budget. On Thursday, in a separate release, he heralded his work to add $1 billion to NASA’s fiscal 2008 budget on top of what the Bush administration has requested.

“Unfortunately, my balanced budget amendment has not yet been added to the Constitution,” Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, said in a statement Friday after the Press-Register inquired about the apparent contradiction. Without such a provision, he said, “I have to work within a budget landscape that calls for tough decisions about spending priorities. I have a responsibility to support and advocate for projects that are good for our nation and Alabama. The people of Alabama elected me to represent their interests in Washington and I will continue to work diligently to do so every day.” 

Do as I say, not as I do!

The Decatur Daily has a long list of north Alabama pork projects announced by the august Sen. Richard Shelby.

• The Arc of Madison County Facilities Expansion, $250,000.
• City of Hamilton Fulton Bridge Industrial Park, $1 million.
• Alabama Association of Area Agencies on Aging, $1 million.
• Cummings Research Park Intermodal Center, $1.29 million.
• University of Alabama in Huntsville Intermodal Facility, $1.55 million.
• UAH Transportation, Infrastructure and Logistics Research, $500,000.
• U.S. Space and Rocket Center Tramway Extension, $259,000.
• City of Gadsden Community Buses, $129,000.

I may be crazy, but I don’t see how community buses in Gadsden, AL, for example, should be a federal concern.

The good senator never takes a break from dishing out the lard - especially for his home county.

Money is headed from Washington to support safety at schools across Tuscaloosa County.

U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, who is from Tuscaloosa, has announced that nearly $121,000 for the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. It is from the community oriented policing services “Secure Our Schools” program. The money can be used for things like metal detectors, locks and security training.

Why can’t Tuscaloosa County protect its own students?  Is crime so bad there that they need federal financial assistance?

From The Hill:

Senate Democrats attempted just before recess to fast-track a Darfur divestment bill overwhelmingly approved in the House, but Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) objected on behalf of several anonymous GOP senators, according to advocates supporting the bill.

The House’s Darfur bill would empower states to divest their holdings in companies doing business with the Sudanese government, considered by the Bush administration to be complicit in the Darfur genocide. The bill, approved on a 418-1 vote, would also block federal contracts with companies linked to Sudan.

While the Senate holdup prevents unanimous passage, the Banking Committee, on which Shelby is the ranking Republican, is likely to hold hearings on the Darfur bill in the fall. Neville echoed Senate GOP aides in describing the objections as driven by process more than substance.

“It’s my understanding that there was widespread objection from Republican senators to this bill being hotlined [for passage] because it hasn’t been fully explored,” one GOP aide said. “We don’t know what the implications would be.”

Richard Shelby, Alabama’s senior senator and one of the senate’s most prolific porkers, has really outdone himself this time.

With large swaths of the Gulf Coast still in ruins from Hurricane Katrina, rich federal tax breaks designed to spur rebuilding are flowing hundreds of miles inland to investors who are buying up luxury condos near the University of Alabama’s football stadium.

About 10 condominium projects are going up in and around Tuscaloosa, and builders are asking up to $1 million for units with granite countertops, king-size bathtubs and Bama decor, including crimson couches and Bear Bryant wall art.

While many of the buyers are Crimson Tide alumni or ardent football fans not entitled to any special Katrina-related tax breaks, many others are real estate investors who are purchasing the condos with plans to rent them out.

And they intend to take full advantage of the generous tax benefits available to investors under the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005, or GO Zone, according to Associated Press interviews with buyers and real estate officials.

“The senator believes that the GO Zone program, and others enacted since then to assist with the rebuilding efforts following the devastating 2005 hurricane season, have been extremely successful in accomplishing their goal,” said Shelby spokeswoman Laura Henderson.

I can’t imagine Bear Bryant “wall art” or a crimson couch in a $1 million condo.  Maybe a fancy double wide.

This is what happens when the federal bureaucrats starts handing out free money - our money - like its burning their pockets.  Some of it goes to unintended recipients, who tend to be conveniently located in the home towns of powerful legislators.  Then you also have the intended recipients bellying up to the trough, taking advantage of governmental largesse, and stealing us blind.

The Democrats wrested away control of congress from the Republicans promising, among other things, to reform earmarks.  Well, neither Democrats nor Republicans (for the most part) have done anything to abate the torrent of vote buying disbursements.  At least American taxpayers have people like Arizona’s Jeff Flake doing his best to heap some amount of shame on porkers, although it appears most of them have no shame.