Pirate's Cove

For those of us who are from the Northeast, we know what Mischief Night is. Essentially, the night before Halloween is a night to play some practical jokes on people, create a little havoc. Flaming bags of dog doo on the door step. Dog poo or shaving cream under the car door handle. Removing a police car door. Toilet paper that looks like a rope across the street. But, no matter what, it is only one night out of the year. Congress turns every day into Mischief Night

In Ansonia, Conn., $2.3 million in federal stimulus funds is being used for insect research, specifically the “rearing [of] large numbers of anthropoids” which includes the “Asian long-horned beetle, the nun moth and the wooly adelgid,” the New Haven Advocate reported.

Duluth, Minn., rarely known for its high temperatures, received $6 million in economic stimulus funds for a snowmaking facility, even though it is the 15^th snowiest city in America, according to City-Data.com.

As much as $30 million in federal funds will go to spring training facilities for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, two Major League Baseball teams. The full cost of the training complex in Scottsdale, Ariz., is $100 million.

These were just three projects – ranked numbers five, six and 10 respectively – being funded by the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law by President Barack Obama in February. The goal of this economic stimulus bill was to revive the ailing economy.

Isn’t that special? It gets worse

But Senate Republicans Friday released a ranking of “10 Stimulus Projects to Remember.” It cites real projects funded by the stimulus while questioning (and poking fun) at their alleged effectiveness. The projects in the rankings are described with quotations from local newspapers.

In March, both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden pledged that the stimulus funding would be closely watched to ensure it is properly spent.

“And so I’ve said before – I know Joe emphasized this point to you earlier – if we see money being misspent, we’re going to put a stop to it, and we will call it out and we will publicize it,” Obama said.

I guess it depends on your definition of “misspent.” Certainly, $300K to map radioactive rabbit poo can’t be waste, can it? Don’t worry, Sherrif Joe will get right on it.