-By Warner Todd Huston
Alan Gerry is far out, baby. He just got a cool $1 million for his Woodstock Concert hippie museum in Bethel Woods, New York. That’s hip, man.
Well, it might be cool except that the $1 mil came from our taxes courtesy of Senator Chuckie Schumer of New York.
So, what did Chuckie get out of it? A free pass to the exhibits of joints, flowers and torn blue jeans? Maybe some free parking? Perhaps just the warm knowledge that he helped memorialize for posterity the dirty kids who attended the Woodstock Concert?
Nope.
He got nearly $30,000 in campaign donations from the hippie museum’s foundation head.
Imagine that, eh?
Senator Tom Coburn doesn’t think it is so cool, though.
“Politicians skim off the federal government for their own insurance,” said a spokesman for Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican. “It’s institutional corruption. Especially during a time of war, why are we giving money to a performing arts center to fund some hippie flashback?”
Coburn wants to shift the grant to health care for pregnant women and homeless children.
Coburn, a longtime crusader against wasteful government spending such as the “Bridges to Nowhere” in Alaska, isn’t buying the coincidence — even though Bethel Woods has become an economic engine for the struggling Sullivan County economy. “This may or may not be a good project,” said Coburn’s spokesman, “but it should be up to the local government to decide, not the federal government, especially when it’s for a local billionaire.”
Come on. What’s it worth being a big stuff Senator like Chuckie Schumer if’n ya can’t dole out a little milk from the government teat and get a little scratch in return, eh?
Just one more example of the graft and corruption of the earmark process serving our citizens.
**Update**
Well, we won this battle:
Sens. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz, and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., moved Thursday to strip the Woodstock earmark from the health and education bill.
They won a key 52-42 vote and the earmark was dropped.
-By Warner Todd Huston
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, men’snewsdaily.com and americandaily.com among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a guest on several radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
I love a happy ending. What do the hippies need with a building for a museum. They would be happier playing their bongos in the dirt.
Signed, an ex-hippy – Paul –