Coburn released his "Wastebook" of frivolous government spending. There's more to it.

[Are_grits_groceries]

I will not argue with anybody that there is not wasteful spending. A lot of it comes from Congresspeople and Senators themselves who want money for whatever back in their states.

The part that bothers me are his attacks on research. On the face of it, some studies do sound frivolous. However, before I label them as wasteful spending, I want to know exactly where the results of this research will lead. Many times it is one of the first building blocks of basic research that have to be done to lead to bigger breakthroughs.

People do not understand this or anything related to science and research. They seem to believe that many products and processes are spun out of whole cloth and appear after a short stint in labs by scientists, magicians or whoever. In fact, many of them are the results of years of work some of which would probably end up in his 'Wastebook.'

Please remember this when you hear about these studies. They may be waste, but they could very well be important to us or for those who come later.

[el_bryanto]

1. I totally agree. Plus the cost of such studies may sound like a lot in flat dollars

but when you consider how much of your tax dollar goes to them, compared to say building planes that the military doesn't even necessarily want, it's a pretty small amount.

Bryant

[Hoppy]

2. At the top of the list should be his salary.

[zazen]

3. ++++1 (and let's look for appropriations for projects from his office, btw)

I was involved in university research development for years and more than once had a last minute "xxx elected official wants a whatever request re ____ you can make in by noon for $500k in line item spending." Talk about bullshit proposals.

I suspect Coburn has a history of tucking those in bills too. I hope a motivated journalist can dig those up.

As if academics aren't already struggling enough with 1% funding rates, along comes this idiot to intimidate NSF and NEH from funding anything without an immediate commercial application.

[SamKnause]

4. I am pro science and research.

I am anti-war.

Imagine a world where the budgets are reversed.

[randome]

7. Yeah.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Treat your body like a machine. Your mind like a castle.[/center][/font][hr]

[madokie]

5. Those of us in the know are ready for dr tom

to be gone. He is one of our senators and he is so full of contradictions that it is amazing to me that he hasn't self combusted. putting the spot light on wasteful spending is all the good the man has been to us here in the great state of Oklahoma.
Just go away dr tom and take your self righteous ass with you

[Fla Dem]

8. Agree. Looking forward to him being gone. For some reason he became a media darling.

For someone who only served one term in the HoR and 9 in the senate, he sure was on the TV a lot as a favored "go to guy" for the talking heads.

However, James Lankford, the likely winner of the special senate election, has a pretty rigid RW ideology. So not sure there is a lot to cheer about.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lankford

[Z_I_Peevey]

15. James Lankford will be crazy-creepy like Cruz

He creeps out even his supporters. I shudder to think of 'Ol Crazy Eyes in the same institution with Ted.

[whathehell]

17. I'm glad you mention that, because he seems like one of THE most sour repukes I believe

I've ever seen..Does he ever smile?

Something I heard him complain about was the study

on laughing and I thought, damn -- that sounds like something YOU could use!

[newfie11]

6. HELLO! Want to stop waste, stop bombing innocent countries

Stop the insane funding of our MIC!

[kairos12]

9. Start with this windbag's salary.

[DetlefK]

10. Science has become the new "magic".

Shady, malevolent, arrogant, aloof wizards performing feats that no mere mortal can understand.

Science can explain everything and nothing.
Science is beyond the every-man's control, so it's evil.
In movies, science jibber-jabber can be used to justify everything.

Please note how rare heroic scientists are. Movies depict scientists either as
- witting or unwitting harbingers of destruction (Dr. No in James Bond, Dr. Dyson in Terminator 2...)
- deus ex machina ("Let's program a computer-virus for an alien computer I know nothing about.&quot
- whacky side-kick (Pacific Rim)



Maybe it's too difficult to depict scientists as normal people who happen to be EXTREMELY good in a VERY NARROW AND SPECIFIC profession.

[lonestarnot]

11. It's a pug flapping his lips, there has to be more to it, or it's a lie.

[snooper2]

12. I just want the free money and job to teach a mountain lion to use a treadmill

[Johonny]

13. I'm an active researcher and there is waste in government research

however frankly the "government" waste argument has never worked. Republicans have gotten into office for years and years on the "we can cut the budget because we'll remove the waste" argument. They never find enough waste to make a difference. Particularly on the state level but also on the federal. Look at how that drug testing welfare in Florida went. That's how all those anti-waste programs go. The fact is most government agencies are lean on budget and have been for years. Getting "fat" money out a program is hard and for everything that sounds bad there is usually a good reason someone tried it. Sure there is Pascal wager type research out there but not a hell of a lot. The most wasteful thing to spend money on is/was/always been active fighting of WARS. We have never balanced the budget focusing on "waste", we will never balance the budget focusing on waste, and many people will vote in November because the press won't say what we all know, Republicans are delusional about the economics of the federal government. But we all knew that.

[n2doc]

14. Where was Coburn's report on the missing Billions in Iraq? n/t

[Orsino]

16. Coburn is a tool in the War on Knowing Stuff. n/t