A bi-partisan blogging project

By Libby Captain Ed is looking for recruits from the left to wage war on pork and offers up a tempting target for mutual disgust with a Republican earmark. The development, named the Tawawa/Dave Hobson Plaza at a 1 p.m. ribbon-cutting, is joint project between Speedway SuperAmerica, which has its corporate headquarters in Enon, and the Tawawa Community Business Development Center. In addition to the 2,500 sq. ft., 24-7 gas station and convenience store, the plaza contains 500 sq. ft. of retail space that is expected to be leased to a pizza parlor or other take-out restaurant. Officials at CSU and at Wilberforce University believe that’s something vitally important in a community with hundreds of college students and no pizza delivery or nearby fast food options. As Ed points out, "Washington has no business building gas stations and pizza parlors and using our money to score points with the hometown folks." I often disagree with Ed, but he's on the money here. Surely oil companies and national fast food chains can afford to bankroll their own plazas. And you can be certain that with the tens of thousands of earmarks that lard our legislation that there are many more incumbency protection projects just like this. Ed wants to know if we can "all agree that earmarking should get banned altogether now?" I suppose he's looking to hook bigger fish than me with this post, but for the record Ed, I've been on board since the day they started Porkbusters. I've long believed eliminating earmarks would remove a myriad of roadblocks that impede an efficient and responsive government. I'd love to see something like a co-ordinated listserv that does two posts a week on pointless pork, alternating equally between Democrats and Republicans. Not only would it serve the common good, it would be a way to restore the function of Blogtopia as a citizen watchdog, instead of a battleground for partisan sniping.