YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK — OBAMA STYLE

From the AP

"The U.S. government hired a New Orleans man for $18,000 to assess whether news stories about its actions in the Gulf oil spill were positive or negative for the Obama administration, which was keenly sensitive to comparisons between its response and former President George W. Bush's much-maligned reaction to Hurricane Katrina.

"The government also spent $10,000 for three minutes of video showing a routine offshore rig inspection for news organizations but couldn't say whether any ran the footage. And it awarded a $216,625 no-bid contract for a survey of seabirds to an environmental group that has criticized what it calls the "extreme anti-conservation record" of Sarah Palin, a possible 2012 rival to President Barack Obama."

The full story HERE

You may as well read it in LRRP's World 'cause you ain't gonna read it anywhere else.

Thanks to the folks at Workboat.com for the heads up.

AIN'T BEEN SLAPPED AROUND ENOUGH YET?

From an AP report:

American taxpayers will pay the imam behind plans for a mosque near GZ, $3,000 in fees for a three-nation outreach trip to the Middle East that will cost roughly $16,000, the State Department said Wednesday.

The department said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf will get a daily $200 honorarium for the 15-day tour to Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which is intended to promote religious tolerance.

Airfare is included, as well as the standard federal government per diem for expenses and lodging in each of the cities he will visit, spokesman P.J. Crowley said. Those per diem rates range from nearly $400 to nearly $500, according to official documents.

No, there's no fucking collusion going on!