DNA, Tax Dollars and You

During John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican Convention, the nominee stated the following:

"I’ve fought the big spenders in both parties, who waste your money on things you neither need nor want, and the first big-spending pork-barrel earmark bill that comes across my desk, I will veto it. I will make them famous, and you will know their names. You will know their names."

If you've heard McCain's stump speech during the campaign, you've probably heard him mention bear DNA. The federal government, McCain points out, spent $3 million to study the DNA of bears in Montana. He also had an ad up in November '07 centered on this example, and mentioned it during the forum with Rick Warren at Saddleback Church.

Turns out, in a summary of earmarks requested by Alaska earlier this year, Sarah Palin's government asked for, among other things, $3.2 million in "funds [for] monitoring of ice seal populations in Native villages, research on the species delineation and genetics of harbor seals" (found on the bottom of page 2 of the summary). More succinctly, $3.2 million to study, you guessed it, harbor seal DNA! When will McCain make her name famous as a pork-barreler?

Palin requested an earmark which is practically identical to McCain's prime example of government waste (after, of course, the Bridge to Nowhere, about which Palin's involvement has been discussed enough in the media recently that I'll just let y'all read about it elsewhere). Since the clear plan for the McCain/Palin campaign was the whole "real maverick", anti-earmark thing, isn't it obvious that Palin wasn't at all vetted? Frankly, I'm excited. God knows what could come out about her next.