This weekend, my parents found this cutie off of Boyscout Road in the Hixson/Middle Valley part of Hamilton County. She was sitting in their front yard when they returned from a Fourth of July barbecue.*

She’s black with brown paws and had a red collar with no tags. She wasn’t micro-chipped. She’s about six pounds and appears to be a Chihuahua mix. My parents describe her as older because her muzzle is so gray. She is also gentle but has plenty of energy.

She’s housebroken and very sweet. She was starving and her ribs were showing when she found my parents. She’s mostly slept the past few days and cowers like she was possibly mistreated by someone.

The dog, which my folks refer to as Little Black Dog or Small Emergency Backup Dog after the legendary Dave Barry column, is a digger. She dug a hole in my parents backyard, escaped and then went to the front door to be let back in.

While my parents wouldn’t mind another dog, Sunny, the Irish Setter/Golden Retriever they adopted from a shelter back in November, isn’t too keen on having a sibling. She occasionally growls at the little dog, and my parents are hesitant to leave them alone together.

Please email me at cosmoconblog@gmail.com if you’ve heard about anyone looking for a dog that matches this description in the Chattanooga area. I’d love to see this elderly pup reunited with her family.

*Can animals sense houses belonging to pet lovers? This is the second time my parents were adopted by an animal. When I was in elementary school, a mama cat adopted my family after watching us for a couple of days. At the time we had two cats and a dog. One evening in the pouring down rain, we heard a cat meowing outside. When we investigated, we found a kitten. This happened three more times until the Mom Cat came in the garage and settled down. When the kittens were old enough, we found homes for them, and Mom Cat disappeared. Perhaps my parents have “sucker” written on their house in some code only animals understand.

I’ve been silent on this issue because I’m still undecided. It’s a 8-way race. By all accounts, there are only three or four top contenders, but this is bloody primary. If you like dirty politics, TN-03 is the race to follow.

District three encompasses a slice of East Tennessee, and the Democrats can barely get people to turn out for a pancake breakfast. The winner of the Republican primary will likely win the general.  This makes the August 1 primary even more tense.

And tense may be the best word to describe the race.

Swirling rumors, national TV appearances, fights over endorsements, presidential contender visits, and mud-slinging press releases. Folks, this is the stuff of political satire. Christopher Buckley couldn’t spin a better tale.

Today on Twitter, I joked with Joe Lance and Dan Lehr that I should write a novel based on the race or at least the screenplay for a telenovela. It’s that juicy.

Depending on who I talk to, a different person is in the lead. I’ve talked to people following the race in DC and people back in Chattanooga.

Robin Smith appears to be running a smart campaign. A little heavy on the attack releases, but not out of line for a tight race. I confess to loving the “Send Mrs. Smith to Washington” bumper stickers.

Were this election cycle normal, I believe she would be the clear front-runner. After all, she’s a former TNGOP chair, a conservative woman and has high name ID. Her campaign has done all the right things and gotten prominent endorsements from organizations that I respect.

But this is not a normal campaign year.

Van Irion captures the essence of a tea party candidate. I also like him. He capitalized brilliantly on his class-action lawsuit to sue Obamacare, and he has the favor of Ron Paul supporters. As I’ve said before, never underestimate Paul fans.

He leans a little too libertarian for me on several issues (i.e. Fair Tax), but I believe that either he or Smith would do a great job of representing the conservative values in district three.

Then there’s Chuck Fleischmann.

Granted, I’m a little bias against self-funding candidates. As a grassroots person, I naturally side with the underdog. I dislike it when candidates can flood the airwaves with TV commercials and essentially buy a seat in Congress (ahem, Corker). Since most people are apathetic until close to election day, they vote for the wealthy candidate since he or she is the only recognizable name on the ballot. This campaign trick has turned the Senate into a millionaires’ club.

I think that strategy captures everything that is wrong with American elections. Also applauding Bob Corker is one way to ensure that I won’t vote for you.

I’m also wary of any candidate who spends money on a TV ad in a congressional primary race in 2010, especially for a smaller district like TN-03 (small by comparison to many other districts in America). Again, I work in online politics, but the ROI on TV ads is just not worth it. I’ll be disappointed if the other candidates follow suit.

Interestingly, none of the three prominent candidates have used online ads or ad words. Coming off the heels of the Rick Perry victory in Texas, I find that extremely surprising. Perry only engaged in digital media and didn’t use traditional advertising. It’s troublesome that in 2010 they haven’t engaged online as thoroughly as they should. (Update: The Smith campaign informs that they do have online ads going, and it sounds like they’re going well.)

It is interesting that camp Fleischmann accuses Smith of having the support of “D.C. backers.” A former candidate for RNC chair is the campaign manager. Do you get anymore insider? Hello! Pot meet kettle. Also, would Huckabee have any clue who Chuck Fleischmann was without the Saltsman connection? That alone makes the endorsement ring false and come across as a personal favor.

However fishy that endorsement appears, I would warn Smith’s campaign from making too big of a deal out of it. They’re quick to flood inboxes with statements on endorsements. It comes across as whiny that she lost Huckabee when Smith has gotten numerous other ones.

Then there are questions about fundraising, but I haven’t had time to delve into FEC reports, so I can’t comment.

However, all of those issues are insider politics. The average voter is not following campaign drama.

Given the bloodbath between Smith and Fleischmann (read Chattanoogan’s opinion section for a taste), voters may be turned off by all of the negativity. Also, with the high animosity towards incumbents and “establishment” candidates, voters may turn out support for Irion. Never come between a ballot box and a Ron Paul supporter.

A primary like this will come down to who has the best get out the vote operation. Primaries typically  have low voter turnout, and this race is dominated by one political party, giving independents very little reason to cast a ballot. Since I’m not on the ground, and I’m far from being a campaign insider for any of the candidates, I can’t predict the answer.

Seeing the waste on the national level made me question what’s going on locally. Finding out exactly where are taxpayer dollars have gone is critical to ensure that nothing like this bill ever passes again. It’s not enough for the national media or top bloggers to pick out a few egregious examples of stimulus waste. Politicians need to hear from their constituents.

That’s where we come in. Bloggers and activists in every town and county throughout the country need to keep an eye on stimulus funding.  It’s up average taxpayers like you and me to make sure that no fraud is going on in our communities.

How do we start?

The Recovery Act promised transparency to the American people, yet how many Americans have taken time to sift through all of the grants, loans and awards? Do you know what’s going on in your backyard?

Recovery.gov is the official site that documents and tracks all stimulus funds. From the homepage, you can search by Zip code, or you can download detailed information about awarded grants in your community or state. These searches provide the most basic information about what’s going on in your area.

If you really want to dig into data, visit the Recovery.gov Download Center and look at spreadsheets that indentify organizations and contacts for all of the awarded grants.

A number of watchdog sites have emerged that track stimulus projects and are easier to use than Recovery.gov. At StimulusWatch.org, you can search by project, agency, state, city, zip code and keyword. I was able to pull up all of the projects in my hometown of Chattanooga, Tenn. Thankfully, all of the projects seem to be legitimate and fall within the parameters of the Recovery Act.

StimulusWatch.org is built as a wiki, so users can vote a project up or down and track the most wasteful project, such as “Explaining the African Vote” project at the University of California, San Diego. They received $233,823 to conduct exit polls in sub-Sarahan Africa.

ProPublica also created a Recovery Tracker. Unlike the other two sites, ProPublica also releases information on businesses that obtained loans through the stimulus. For example, the new Melting Pot in Chattanooga borrowed $684,000.

All of this information can get confusing. While some projects stand out, such as a $950,000 grant to colleges in Arizona to study ants, what is the difference between a grant, contract and loan? How do we know if it should be funded by the stimulus?

How the Recovery Act Works

According to Recovery.gov, the stimulus aims to

• Create new jobs as well as save existing ones
• Spur economic activity and invest in long-term economic growth
• Foster unprecedented levels of accountability and transparency in government spending

How does this work?

After the stimulus was passed, Congress allocated a set amount of funds to different federal agencies. These agencies then established requests for proposals or grant opportunities. These can be accessed through Grants.gov or Recovery.gov. Another pot of money was allocated for states, which turned it over to state agencies to either directly use or create sub-grants.

Often, this is where the waste starts.

Since the federal government allocated funds to various government agencies, the agencies are actually the ones making the grants and distributing funds. This means that the kids who got a free trip to the Climate Change were accountable to the National Science Foundation not the Obama Administration. Many of the questionable grants were awarded through government agencies like the National Science Foundation or the Institutes of Health. These are huge bureaucratic entities, and once they got control of the money there was no accountability.

Since many of the contracts and loans are also awarded by smaller agencies, it’s difficult to track where the money is going. Available contracts are listed on Recovery.gov and the site posts winning contractors. Loans are not as transparent, and ProPublica is the only site that I’ve seen include loans with community information.

What Can You Do?

Tracking stimulus funding in your community is the perfect activity for bloggers, local tea parties or concerned activities. Once you’ve researched the information, there are a number of ways that you can use it to raise awareness or hold your local, state and national elected officials accountable:

• Create a local Google Map of all the projects
• Write a blog post
• Write letters to the editor of your newspaper
• Write or call your local Congressman or Senator
• Create fliers about any questionable projects to hand out at local GOP meetings or Tea Party events
• Contact local media outlets about projects that need attention

The next Recovery.gov filing deadline is January 30, so get ready for another round of stories about government waste.

Today, we took some hats, gloves, coffee and oatmeal to the Community Kitchen and got an update on what they need. In addition to winter clothing, coffee, soup, oatmeal and sugar, they have a long list of current needs after the jump.

Community Kitchen Hot Needs List-December 2009

Grits
Napkins
Laundry detergent
#10 canned vegetables-carrots, corn, sweet peas, pork & beans, baked beans, black eyed peas, great northern beans, pinto beans, canned potatos
#10 canned fruit
Vegetable oil
Butter
Dish detergent
Plastic wrap
Heavy duty aluminum foil
Aluminum pans
Pasta
Lysol
55 gallon trash bags
Lysol spray and disinfectant wipes
Latex gloves
Cornstarch
Instant dry milk (50 lbs or 100 lbs )
Noodles
Oatmeal
12 oz. styrofoam cups and bowls
Storage bags (2-5 gallons)
Coffee
Soup
Ramen noodles
Cheese (5lb bags)
Spaghetti sauce (#10 cans or 15 oz. red sauce)
Instant mash potatos
Men’s/Women’s clothing
Adult socks, shoes, underwear
Shaving cream
Deodorant
Razors
Feminine products
Pens/Pencils
Towels
Shampoo
Bug spray
5 gallon plastic food containers
Rolling cart
4 oz. portion scoops

If I’ve struggled 600 miles away, you can imagine what my parents have gone through. My family loves dogs. I don’t know if it’s possible to be more “dog people.” As they’ve grieved, Mom and Dad kept mentioning how lonely and quiet the house was. When my other two pets died, I was still around and Coco was the “young” dog. Not having a a furry creature has been tough for them.

Yesterday, they went to Petsmart to look at a Border Collie that was the pet of the week on Chattanoogan. The dog had just been adopted when they got there, but they were greeted by another “smiling” face and a wagging tail.They were taken in by a large, brindle-colored mutt with a sweet disposition. They left to think about adopting her and told me about her. After praying and thinking about it this morning, they went back to adopt her this afternoon. Meet Sunny.

Mom and Dad were heartbroken by her story. Her family was forced to surrender her to the Walker County (GA) Animal Shelter after their house was foreclosed. At the shelter she was neglected, starved and lost nearly all her hair.  The Humane Educational Society in Hamilton County rescued her when she was on the short list to be put to sleep and rehabilitated her. Because she’s a big dog at around 80 lbs and old with arthritis, she wasn’t ever adopted and was at the HES for about a year.

After telling me that story on the phone, I was crying. I can’t imagine what Mom and Dad were doing looking at this sweet dog. After dealing with Coco’s prolonged demise, my parents know exactly how to help an arthritic dog. The HES has no way to pay for special food for older dogs or glucosimine supplements. I think Sunny ended up in doggy paradise with my parents, and I’m glad they had an opportunity to help a dog that needed special care.

They’re already spoiling her and planning trips to Aunt Sue’s K-9 Bakery. I can’t wait to meet her next week over Thanksgiving.

In DC, we’re somewhat insulated from the animal overpopulation issues. It’s much worse in the South. Due to lack of education and backwards ideas regarding spaying/neutering and leash laws, there are far too many dogs. Animals that are sent to the Washingtion Animal Rescue League where Zeke came from, will be adopted. Animals that go to places like the Walker County Animal Shelter face a certain death. If you’re contemplating adopting a furry friend, please consider rescuing a dog first.

If you’re like me and a have a bleeding heart for dogs but can’t adopt one, you can sign up to help provide food to animal shelters by clicking on the Animal Rescue Site everyday. Each morning, I look forward to clicking on the reminder email and reading the rescue story of the day.

Retired hospital administrator Cynthia Nesson, 62, left behind a pricey suburb of Atlanta for a trendy loft with a private rooftop terrace offering up a view of Lookout Mountain in downtown Chattanooga, Tenn. “This would have cost four times as much in Atlanta as it did here,” she says. Since retiring four years ago, Nesson has formed a yarn co-op, and she sells the shawls and bags she creates. It helps that there’s no state income tax in Tennessee. Dividends from stocks and interest from bonds and notes are taxed, but residents over age 65 bringing in less than $16,200 annually from their portfolio ($27,000 for couples) are exempt.

Those scooters parked Downtown may soon be replaced by hoverounds. Not quite the vibe that the Main Street revitalization is pushing, but I guess Chattanooga will take any taxpayers. If retirees flock to the Scenic City, someone may finally buy condos at One Northshore.