McCain has done it again...this time he's pissed off the science/tech community!
In the debate, McCain portrayed Barack Obama as an excessive spender, and he punctuated his attack (twice) with this example:
"[Obama] voted for nearly a billion dollars in pork barrel earmark projects, including, by the way, $3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Illinois. My friends, do we need to spend that kind of money?"
Turns out, a lot of people think we do. This is no ordinary overhead projector from your 5th grade classroom. The blog Cosmic Variance sums it up:
"If you've ever had the pleasure of visiting the Adler Planetarium, you'd probably guess that the 'overhead projector' he's talking about is the spectacular 'Sky Theater' -- one of the most engrossing, gorgeous venues for displaying visuals about space."
See, what Senator McCain fails to understand is that SOME earmarks are necessary. Some earmarks are actually useful. Some even help enhance education programs (like, um, the earmark for the Adler Planetarium). And while I'm no major advocate for congress sneaking earmarks for pet projects into bills, I will acknowledge that earmarks provide a means to get needed funding for important projects. But all projects may not be worthwhile (like certain bridges that lead to nowhere).
McCain, while pretending to be this big tough guy against earmarks...needs to actually READ the fine print and understand what the earmark is for before yelling "Get that pork barrel spending off my lawn".
I'm literally laughing my --- off because this man is absolutely ridiculous! (And I thought G.W Bush was bad!! Of all the examples of "Pork Barrel Spending" he could choose, he chose the Adler Planetarium! I mean, what happened to the one about the Bear and the DNA? Geez McCain, can't you get anything right?
