What’s up with that?

By MICHAEL BECKER Chronicle Staff Writer

PORK SPENDING -- A congressional earmark has earned Montana’s senators some notoriety. This past week, the watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste published its annual Pig Book, which lists $17.2 billion worth of what the group calls blatant examples of pork barrel spending.

The report’s summary, available online at www.cagw.org, notes that Montana Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester have earned the organization’s “Pig in Sheep’s Clothing Award” for earmarking $148,950 to the Montana Sheep Institute. Since 2002, the Pig Book has seen $2.8 million go toward sheep industry research nationwide.

Other gems from the report include $3 million in defense appropriations for The First Tee, a South Carolina group that helps young people through golf; $800,000 for a California project to improve the shelf life of fresh vegetables; $212,000 for olive fruit fly research in Paris, France; and $188,000 for Maine’s Lobster Institute.

Alaska led the nation with per capita pork barrel spending at $556 per person. Hawaii and North Dakota were the runners-up.

In all, the Pig Book reports that in FY 2008, Congress added 11,610 projects worth $17.2 billion onto 12 appropriations bills. That number of projects is a 337 percent increase over 2007’s number.

ODD OCCURRENCE -- A reader, Billings realtor Troy Boucher, wrote in to share an odd occurrence that happened recently in Bozeman.

The event happened at a foreclosed property his firm is handling in a subdivision east of town. One of Boucher’s clients, who prefers not to give his name, apparently witnessed the spectacle.

About two weeks ago the client saw a van pull up and watched as about a dozen people emerged. The group circled the house, as if checking out the property.

However, when the group posted several copies of a pseudo-legal document around the property, the client knew something fishy was going on.

The four-page document uses every legal term in the book, from “de-jure” to “pro-tempore” to “de-facto,” and counts its signing date as the year 6010, which aligns with no calendar this reporter could locate.

The gist of the document is that the property does not fall under local, county or federal jurisdiction. Instead, the only court worthy of arbitrating the foreclosure is the court of God - hence, no “de-facto federal-union corporate employees at war for the political state-government” are welcome.

The group has returned to the home several times since, the client said, but the oddness of that first day has stuck with him.

“I thought it was a realtor tour,” the client said Friday. “I had no idea what was going on.”

BELATED BIRTHDAY -- Harry Truman once wrote that if you want a friend in politics, “get a dog.”

This special What’s Up goes out to Jag Schweitzer, constant canine companion and special advisor to Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who accompanied the governor to Saturday’s Democratic fundraising dinner in Bozeman.

On April 2, Jag celebrated his fourth birthday with a bout of squirrel chasing and a T-bone steak dinner. It’s rumored he received a new Frisbee as a gift.

A philanthropist who has raised money for the Ronald McDonald House charity and the author of “First Dog: Unleashed in the Montana Capitol,” Jag joins other famous first-pets in recent years to receive special attention from the world at large.

Other celebrated pets include Calvin Coolidge’s pet raccoon Rebecca (a gift from a voter in Mississippi), the Clintons’ cat Socks and dog Buddy, and President Bush’s dog Barney, who even has his own page on the White House Web site (www.whitehouse.gov/barney).

Next week, What’s Up With That will take a look at a few lingering local projects that you might have noticed while driving by, but that doesn’t mean the door’s closed to new questions. Send them, no postage necessary, to mbecker@dailychronicle.com.

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