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July 28, 2006BELTWAY BLOGROLL
A Call To Porkbusting Arms
The Club For Growth is recruiting an army of Internet militiamen to do battle with the almighty Uncle Sam over how much pork the federal government should have in its diet.
Club blogger Andy Roth is the general of that army, and the blog is his weapon of choice. Earlier this week, Roth published a chart that indicates the votes of all 435 voting members of the House on special-interest earmarks in spending bills, a practice commonly known as pork-barrel spending. The chart scores the lawmakers based on their votes for or against 19 different earmarks. The data can be viewed by state, rank or last name.
Roth is using the chart to incite bloggers against pork. "If you are a blogger, find your local congressman and blog about him," Roth said. "We have the votes; we have the members on record. Now we just need to put some sunlight on the situation. ... Let's fill this list up by blogging about every House member from Honolulu to Maine and from North Dakota down to Texas!"
He is well on his way to doing just that. By last count, 43 blogs were on board covering 86 House members. One person in Ohio even created a blog specifically to watch pork-barrel spending close to home.
The club's effort began at about the same time that Roll Call ran an article on the group's Internet innovations. Matt Lewis of The Ballot Box praised the club and Roth in particular for their technological prowess.
"The club is the perfect example of what can happen when you marry traditional politics with modern technology," Lewis wrote, adding that Roth "is the template for what other organizations should seek out (if they want to get serious about changing America.)"
Posted by Danny | 12:10 PM
Comments
It would be more effective to have the information in a file other than PDF. I started to write my CONGMN and realized I could not transfer the information to the email. I could be technically illiterate here, but it would help to be able to cite a reference.
jj | 07.28.06 11:27 PM
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Year after year the CAGW lists "The International Fund for Ireland" [IFI] among its most egregious pork items, yet I've never heard of a single follow-up. My own attempts to uncover details about the IFI always end in frustration (e.g. my congressman is uncooperative).
Does anyone have any ideas as to why this annual gift to Europe's second wealthiest nation (per capita) routinely escapes our further scrutiny? Is it pork or isn't it?
Further direction would be appreciated.
Timothy O'Connor | 07.29.06 08:35 AM
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