If it smells like a pig, do we have to make a joke about it being pork?

May 5, 2009 1:35 PM

Now that the swine flu has become an issue, is there a way to see if the "pig odor" part of the stimulus bill and such a joke on the media for a few days might have contained money to study things like containing swine flu outbreaks?

So, I was a little incensed for a few days a couple months back over the whole "Obama's Stimulus Bill contains so much pork it even studies pig odor" stuff that John McCain put out and the media picked up because a while ago I read a whole article about industrial hog farms and the trouble and environmental nightmares they cause for their neighbors and therefore I consider myself an expert on the subject.

Of course, it wasn't funny after a few days and I've had a heck of time finding out if it made it into the bill and now I'd like to know a) did it? and b) what exactly were the funds to be used for? I know some money was to be used to try to handle the problem of the waste run-off which is a big problem and a health hazard.

So what's a good place to search for unbiased info on this topic? I've found a few blog posts but they so clearly had left or right agendas, there's no way I could cite them. I'm looking for someplace I can find just the facts, ma'am and to my complete amazement that seems difficult on the Internet! Who would have thought?

FYI - I'm looking for this so I can use it in my own totally biased blog post.

posted by katyjack to law & government (5 comments total)

There was, as a matter of fact, a $900 million appropriation in the bill for pandemic preparedness, based on the idea that everyone staying home because they're afraid of getting sick if they go out to work or to the store would result in a body blow to any pending recovery.

It was one of the things Republicans raised hell about and got taken out of the bill.
posted by Naberius at 1:44 PM on May 5 [1 favorite]

Well, you can see every version of the bill or run a text search on THOMAS
posted by MrMoonPie at 1:58 PM on May 5

Oh, wait, wrong bill--here's the omnibus.
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:01 PM on May 5

Oh, here's the cite--the committee print. Follow the link, search for "swine odor."
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:07 PM on May 5

Not sure how biased you consider these, but

ABC news
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/03/a-defense-of-pi.html

CNN
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/14/pig-book-calls-out-top-congressional-porkers/

Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=why-study-pig-odor
posted by aught at 2:11 PM on May 5