WTF Is It Now?!?

HONOR, INTEGRITUDE, FREE PARKING
At a time when the Pentagon is starving for money, retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-Decomposing) has quietly secured a hefty $8 million for the construction of a new parking garage at an Army medical center.

But there's a new twist to the traditional game of pork-barrel politics: rather than steer the cash to South Carolina, Thurmond has dished the dough out to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in D.C., where the 99-year-old Senator lives because of ill health.

Thurmond's amendment, which was slipped into the Defense authorization bill last month, has rankled Hill staffers who say it's extremely difficult these days to secure military projects in their home states because the limited resources are supposed to be going to help the nation fight the war on terrorism. The amendment to the bill, which is awaiting conference committee action, decrees that the money for the parking garage be offset "with a reduction in operation and maintenance for the Army in amounts available for Base Operations Support (Servicewide Support)." - From Roll Call.