Something fishy in the pork barrel...

President Bush vowed on taking office to cut pet projects from the federal budget... the nation waits for him to veto his first spending bill.. so I now take an interest in the things that he doesn’t veto.

Since meeting Stacey Fritz of Fairbanks based No Nukes North I have taken a special interest in things Alaskan, so have been puzzled by the latest Pacific culinary delight .......

…Salmon and pork ?

If it takes a week to paint your standard 737, how come it takes Mark Boyle 1 year to plan and 30 painters (including three Hollywood set-design specialists), 24 days to paint Alaskan Airlines 120-foot-long Boeing 737 ?

Well, federally funded Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board ($29 million in 2 years of taxpayers money) added $225,000 to the normal $75,000 repaint budget. The rest of the $500,000 budget goes on bookmarks that will be passed out to passengers as part of an educational campaign about the state of Alaska's fishing industry. Of course don't forget that senator Ted Stevens son, state Sen. Ben Stevens, is chairman of the agency’s board of directors…. (go here at the Anchorage Daily News for the court cases, secret deals with Ben, Adak fisheries and Aleut fishing profits etc., etc., .. but that's another juicy fishy story)

The Alaska Airlines salmon jet is to make its local debut… today at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

There is also the federally funded Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, they $5 million a year from taxpayers and the same from fishing companies. Alaska Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens both claim credit for grabbing federal money for the state's salmon industry, including the money to research use of salmon as a base for baby food.The Alaska Airlines salmon jet made it's local debut… at .... Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

The one-of-a-kind "Salmon-Thirty-Salmon," is Alaska Airlines’ name for the flying billboard, which remains a passenger plane to …er …give it maximum exposure to potential seafood consumers. After that, the plane will fly West Coast passenger routes as far south as Mexico. It will also fly to Denver, Chicago and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“You can catch a salmon in Alaska waters, and within 24 hours you'll have it on a plate in New York City. We're pretty much the only airline that can do that kind of business," said Matt Yerbic, managing director for the airline's cargo operations.

"Is there something wrong with these fish that warrants such an expensive program to convince us to eat them?" wondered Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in 2004.


Surely a case of a federal budget which could be “given back” and re-directed to Katrina .. for more see

Citizens Against Government Waste, say Congress spent more tax dollars on pork spending in 2005 than in any other year in history with 31% more projects = 13,997 (40.5% increase) projects for $27.3 billion. (2004 $22.9). (yes folks - that's an eye -popping $27,300,000,000!)

"Despite a record $427 billion deficit predicted for fiscal 2005, members of Congress are engaging in the worst form of blatant self-interest – larding the budget with pork for home districts and states," claims CAGW President Tom Schatz.

Recent blogs on same topic here