Re: Fw: Mark Tucker feeding on the pork barrel

[aburke5054@aol.com]

The members of Congress came up with the pork provisions in the first 
place.  They do not in general have a great track record in policing 
themselves. Contacting your Congressperson about particular earmarks 
you don't like is I think not an effective strategy.  If Congressperson 
A pushes against earmarks proposed by Congressperson B, Congressperson 
B will push bacik against earmarks proposed by Congressperson A.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: GERALD BRACEY <gbracey1@verizon.net>
To: arn-l@interversity.org; LiteracyForAll@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 6:35 am
Subject: [arn-l] Fw: Mark Tucker feeding on the pork barrel


MessageYou might want to contact your congressman.


----- Original Message -----
From: Samuel Halperin
To: gbaliles ; gspangenberg@caalusa.org ; GERALD BRACEY ; Fritz 
Edelstein ;
HFDOTORG@aol.com ; Harry Holzer ; huprice@yahoo.com ; john_comings ; 
karen
pittman ; ltredway@uclink4.berkeley.edu ; Mary Sykes ; musickma ; Nancy 
Martin ;
Mala Thakur ; Peter Kleinbard ; Barton, Paul ; RAMendel@aol.com ;
rhalpin@americanyouthworks.org ; Cindy Sadler ; 
ssagawa@sagawajospin.com ; Sally
Prouty ; Kelly James ; tonsawyerfmc@aol.com ; Tirozzi, Gerald ; 
tom@ihep.org ;
usdanm@iel.org ; Vinny Spera ; EFSOFER@aol.com ; Emerson@ncate.org ;
benhoak@caalusa.org ; cherylking@caalusa.org ; Alan Brown ; 
a.sum@neu.edu ;
Anita and Noel Epstein ; dmathis@communityactionpartnership.com ;
dhornbeck1@comcast.net ; Dorothy Stoneman
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2007 10:32 PM
Subject: Mark Tucker feeding on the pork barrel


ANY ONE KNOW WHICH CONGRESSMAN AUTHORED THIS EARMARK?


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From: Jeffrey Strohl [mailto:JeffreyStrohl@westat.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2007 9:32 AM
Subject: Mark Tucker feeding on the pork barrel







     Editorial

     Congress oinks its way to a spending bill

     The Washington DC Examiner Newspaper
     2007-12-18 08:00:00.0
     Current rank: # 5 of 10,447

     WASHINGTON -

     If character is what we do when we think nobody is looking, then
congressional leaders responsible for the 3,500-plus-page Consolidated
Appropriations Act of 2008 have a lot of explaining to do. They should 
start by
telling us why they posted their "omnibus spending bill" on the 
Internet only
hours before voting on it and in a format that made searching the text
laborious, at best. The bill combines 11 regular appropriations bills 
funding
government's day-to-day operations that should have been passed in 
October,
along with money for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The rush to 
passage is
because the government has been operating on a temporary continuing 
resolution
for nearly two months, the Pentagon says it will soon have to furlough 
thousands
of civil servants and Congress wants to go home before Christmas.

      Congressional leaders should explain why they included nearly 700 
pages of
earmarks in a bill nobody was able to read too closely before passage 
since it's
so big. They shouldn't be surprised by suspicions they smelled a chance 
for a
Christmas feast at the pork barrel trough without having to worry about
uninvited guests - taxpayers, bloggers and journalists - showing up to 
spoil the
party. What they failed to consider is that the Internet empowered 
people like
the Porkbusters, who are eager to shine the light of public 
accountability on
Congress. Within hours of the bill's posting, eagle-eyed readers were 
uncovering
gems like the $2.6 million noncompetitive award for unstated purposes 
to the
National Center on Education and the Economy, with the money required 
to be
delivered within 30 days. A couple of quick Internet searches revealed 
that NCEE
is a 501 C(3) tax-exempt educational foundation devoted to providing 
"strategic
assistance" to local, state and federal policy-makers on work force 
development
programs in education.

      Marc Tucker is NCEE's most highly compensated officer, receiving 
more than
$800,000 in salary and benefits, according to the organization's most 
recent 990
tax return. Tucker is a long-time donor to Sen. Hillary Clinton, 
D-N.Y.,
including giving the maximum individual contribution of $4,600 to her
presidential campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org. Over the years, he 
has
contributed to other major Democratic leaders like 2004 presidential 
nominee
John Kerry, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and former Senate Majority 
Leader Tom
Daschle, D-S.D. Tucker is free to support the candidates of his choice, 
of
course. But NCEE's tax return showed more than $30 million on hand at 
the end of
the 2006 tax period and the group claims to receive support from many 
of the
nation's richest private foundations, so why does Tucker's group need a
sweetheart deal paid by the taxpayers for $2.6 million and why the 
rush? Since
the NCEE award is just one paragraph taken from nearly 700 pages of 
pork barrel
in the omnibus spending measure, President Bush should get that veto 
pen ready.

     Examiner



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