SO THE EARLIER PORK POST — in which various bloggers posted and emailed about pork in their states — looked kind of promising, and N.Z. Bear and I got together to figure out a way to take it up a notch.

How are we going to mobilize the blogosphere in support of cuts in wasteful spending to support Katrina relief? Here’s the plan.

Identify some wasteful spending in your state or (even better) Congressional District. Put up a blog post on it. Go to N.Z. Bear’s new PorkBusters page and list the pork, and add a link to your post.

Then call your Senators and Representative and ask them if they’re willing to support having that program cut or — failing that — what else they’re willing to cut in order to fund Katrina relief. (Be polite, identify yourself as a local blogger and let them know you’re going to post the response on your blog). Post the results. Then go back to NZ Bear’s page and post a link to your followup blog post.

The result should be a pretty good resource of dubious spending, and Congressional comments thereon, for review by blogs, members of the media, etc. And maybe even members of Congress looking for wasteful spending . . . .

Feel free to copy the cool logo by Stacy Tabb (or this larger version) and use it on your own posts.

Technorati tag: porkbusters.

BLOGS: “Technology that took on a hurricane.”

SURRENDERING TEXTUAL CONTROL to fundamentalists.

I DISCUSS SOME LAMENESS FROM AARON BROWN over at GlennReynolds.com.

COMPLAINTS ABOUT YAHOO!’S COMPLICITY WITH CHINESE REPRESSION have been swirling around the blogosphere for quite a while — but today they’re grist for an editorial in the Washington Post.

LOOKS LIKE A LOSS FOR SCHROEDER IN GERMANY:

Germany’s Christian Democrats, led by Angela Merkel, have narrowly won Sunday’s election, exit polls suggest. After voting ended Ms Merkel – who wants to introduce far-reaching reforms to revive a flagging economy – said her party had a “clear mandate” to govern.

However it is unclear whether her party has won enough support to form a government with the Free Democrats.

David Kaspar is predicting gridlock, while Bruce Kesler thinks its the end of the Franco-German axis and notes a connection with the Afghan elections.

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit notes that crapulent anti-Americanism didn’t work for Schroeder this time.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Chris Christner: Bush 7, Axis of Weasels 1.

MORE: Schroeder is refusing to concede. More here.

WestHawk’s advice: “Look after Afghanistan, ignore Germany.”

STILL MORE: Peaktalk looks at the later numbers and says no mandate for Merkel. Well, dang.

On the other hand, everyone — and I mean everyone — can be glad that Schroeder won’t be running naked through the streets as New Zealand Green MP Keith Locke will have to do in light of election results there.

PORK UPDATE: Rhode Island blogger Carroll Andrew Morse points out some highway pork in his home state that could be cut. I hope other bloggers will follow his lead. [LATER: Followup on Rhode Island here.]

UPDATE: More pork found in Iowa. And not the yummy, soon-to-be-bacon kind.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s some Utah fat!

(Sounds like Utah could do without it: “Surplus stack of state cash keeps growing.”)

MORE: Some Massachusetts pork.

The obvious next step is for local bloggers to call their Senators/Representative on Monday and ask if they’ll vote to cut this (or, failing that, can identify other cuts they will support) — then to post the response on their blog. I suspect that members of Congress will pay at least some attention to requests from local bloggers.

MORE STILL: Here’s the 2006 budget page from OMB. If you know of some other good resources, email ’em to me.

And — how could I have forgotten it — Nathan Lanier points out the Pig Book.

STILL MORE: Here’s some North Carolina pork — though at least it hasn’t been soaked in that vinegary stuff they call barbecue sauce.

And reader Jay Stannard emails:

Here’s some easy pork that we could cut:

$1.2 B to refurbish the UN building.

Trump says it can be done for $600M, so that’s $600M to the UN kleptocrats.

Sorry Kofi, the rest of the world will have to pony up the cash, we have better things to do with it.

Here’s an article on the U.N. Headquarters boondoggle, which is being financed (via a 30-year low interest loan of $1.2 billion) from the U.S. government.

Arizona pork, from Edward Boyd!

How easy is it? This easy!

EVEN MORE: A reader who requests anonymity because of his current position emails:

Every September, Federal bureaucrats go on a spending spree with “year-end funds” — the money left over from the fiscal year that ends September 30.

Perhaps Congress should use this opportune moment to requisition the unspent money in padded program budgets and redirect it to Katrina rebuilding.

It could pay for the whole thing — that’s how much we’re talking about here.

Go for it, Congress.

AND YET MORE: In My home county in Tennessee, here’s $28 million in mostly-local road money. Is it pork? My congressman pretty much admits that:

Duncan and Alexander secured federal funding for Foothills Parkway, a civic arts center at Maryville College, Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center at Townsend, and a greenway pedestrian bridge across the U.S. 129 By-pass in Alcoa.

In federal funding, there have always been bills which the members of Congress use for what are commonly referred to as “pork barrel” projects by those not receiving the benefits. Currently, the transportation bill has provided funds for many local projects across the nation that meet the proper definitions within the bill.

In the days of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, such projects were financed through numerous other types of aid or work programs. Resentment locally was so high to that type of funding at the time that some local governments in Blount County refused to apply for the funds.

Whether we like the method used or not, it is the only way we have of getting back our fair share of the federal taxes we pay.

Couldn’t we just, you know, keep the money without laundering it through Congress?

Some of the National Park road money may not count as “pork,” but the Civic Arts Center and pedestrian bridge definitely do.

MATT DUFFY: Spending cuts, or new taxes? Guess the media frame!

A “STAGNANT CESSPOOL” at Turtle Bay.

AT HIS BLOG, MISERABLE DONUTS, Major John Tammes is photoblogging from New Orleans. Lots of interesting stuff.

PUBLIUS has a big Afghan election roundup.

Gateway Pundit has more, too, and so does Afghan Lord.

UPDATE: Norm Geras highlights 25-year-old candidate Sabrina Sagheb and notes that this is a rather dramatic transformation from the Afghanistan of Taliban days. It’s funny that this isn’t making a bigger splash, though I guess it’s arguable that that’s a good sign.

WORRIES FOR CANADA:

A silent tectonic event, so powerful it has shifted southern Vancouver Island out to sea, but so subtle nobody has felt a thing, is slowly unfolding on the West Coast.

Scientists who are tracking the event with sensitive seismographs and earth orbiting satellites warn it could be a trigger for a massive earthquake — some time, maybe soon.

Let’s hope not.

IT’S AN L.A. TIMES DEATH SPIRAL WATCH at Kausfiles — with suggestions of criminality!

UPDATE: But an income-generating opportunity for Kaus! Heh. Indeed.

PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH isn’t taken with Joe Biden’s latest oped: “The fact that he has failed to give any semblance of reasoning or justification for those proposals should alert us to the possibility that he either (a) hasn’t thought the matter through carefully enough; or (b) is more interested in advancing talking points than genuinely carrying the policy process forward.”

I’M SKEPTICAL OF BUSH’S REBUILDING PLAN, but Donna Brazile is all for it: “I will rebuild with you, Mr. President.” (Via Jeff Goldstein).

THE BBC’S COVERAGE OF KATRINA is facing harsh criticism:

TONY Blair has re-opened the government’s long-standing row about BBC bias by describing the corporation’s coverage of the aftermath of the havoc caused to New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina as being “full of hatred of America”. . . .

Bill Clinton, the former US president, and Sir Howard Stringer, chief executive of Sony Corporation, also criticised the tone of the BBC’s coverage during a seminar on the media at the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York.

The BBC’s growing bias and anti-Americanism has been a disappointment for years, of course, but it’s nice to see more people noticing.

UPDATE: More here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Scotland on Sunday editorializes that the BBC is “bloated and biased.” Meanwhile The Times reports that it’s not even commercial-free anymore:

COMPANIES are paying fees of up to £40,000 to advertise their products covertly on BBC programmes, often in breach of the corporation’s rules.

At least 50 cases have been identified where top brands have bought favourable exposure on BBC television by paying specialist agents.

The practice, known as product placement, is so widespread that some leading BBC dramas and lifestyle programmes depend on free gifts.

If I were paying British TV license fees, I’d be rather unhappy to hear this. And at least paid commercials make clear who is paying the freight.

SOMEBODY TELL TOM DELAY! The Cato Institute has identified $62 billion worth of budgetary fat to cut.

More here, too.

PHOTOSHOP FOLLIES AT C.A.I.R.: Amusing yet pathetic.

FAMED BLOG-COMMENTER and guestblogger Dafydd ab Hugh now has his own blog.

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES REPORTS:

Senior officials in Louisiana’s emergency planning agency already were awaiting trial over allegations stemming from a federal investigation into waste, mismanagement and missing funds when Hurricane Katrina struck.

And federal auditors are still trying to track as much as $60 million in unaccounted for funds that were funneled to the state from the Federal Emergency Management Agency dating back to 1998. . . .

The problems are particularly worrisome, federal officials said, because they involve the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, the agency that will administer much of the billions in federal aid anticipated for victims of Katrina.

Before we shovel any more money in that direction, let’s be sure this won’t happen again.

DRIVING MISS ARIANNA: Heh. Is that miles per gallon, or gallons per mile?

UPDATE: Maybe she was just engaging in disaster preparedness!

READER MICHAEL BUTLER EMAILS:

Regarding your post on the president’s quasi-pledge to cut spending in order to fund post-Katrina relief/reconstruction, and given the awesome job you and other super-bloggers did raising donations and participation for relief efforts, what role can the blogosphere play in pressuring each state delegation to give up some or all of the federal pork currently slated for them? Should bloggers in Alaska start calling for suspended funding on the “Bridge To Nowhere”? Should other bloggers start listing the federal projects and $’s earmarked for their respective states and lead email campaigns aimed at their congressmen and local newspapers? Would this kind of nationwide project benefit from some uber-blogger coordination? Yes, I suspect it would.

Sounds good to me, and the “bridge to nowhere” is certainly a good place to start. Here are some more things to look at. I’ve got a few ideas about what bloggers might do to call attention to this, and I’ll be posting more on that later.

Judging from the poll results, quite a few InstaPundit readers are in favor of cutting spending.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, here’s evidence that the federal relief money is already being wasted. Jeez. Can’t we just cut every evacuee a check and call it a day?

AFGHANISTAN’S ELECTIONS: People seem to be taking them very seriously:

HERDS of mountain donkeys have been helping to bring democracy to some of the remotest areas of Afghanistan.

The democracy donkeys have been co-opted for the task of delivering 40 million ballot papers because they can penetrate mountain passes and muddy valleys beyond the reach of other transport.

More than 400 international observers are in Afghanistan to monitor the elections, and some of them have had to follow the trail of the donkeys to ensure that the precious ballot papers are not lost, stolen or damaged.

Meanwhile, Afghan Lord is photoblogging, and Gateway Pundit has a comprehensive roundup.

OXBLOG NOTES surprisingly favorable coverage from the American press for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “Bush would kill for that kind of coverage . . . . But I think it is profoundly irresponsible to give Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a free pass.”

So do I.

IF HE LIVES UP TO THIS, it’ll be a masterstroke:

President Bush on Friday ruled out raising taxes to pay for Gulf Coast reconstruction, saying other government spending must be cut. “You bet it will cost money, but I’m confident we can handle it,” he said.

The operative word is “if.”

UPDATE: Related post here.