On any note,there is government waste in many agencies and departments. The point of the post is in these economic times when we are facing a debt in the trillions and a record deficit we should be watching our spending. Its irresponsible spending taking place in Washington that has brought us here and it hasn’t happened overnight. That is the unfortunate reality our great Nation faces. Thank you for comments though, feel free to blow some more steam.

$1,000,000 is the equivalent of what you would have to pay teachers (not including costs like electricity, water, upkeep, etc, or even administration) each year in a public high school that serves between 400 and 500 students. And, for reference, (random local high school) Plantation High serves about 2,400 students.

It’s also one third of a penny for each American. Per household, that figure rises to just under a penny.

And this is how much the Federal Govt. spent on analyzing social media, in a time when social media has been officially blamed for overthrowing the Egyptian government, inciting violent riots in London, and giving Benjamin Netanyahu a bigger headache than the Palestinians have ever managed? In a time when the US’s covert attack on the biggest enemy target since Fidel Castro had nukes was reported to the public, as it was happening, via these very social networks?

Yes, it is very easy to look at social networks and say, “hey, they work!” But when they’re affecting politics on the national and international level, we need to know *how* they work. How quickly information spreads, to which individuals, in what locations. Can socially-encoded messages be sent over these networks that only a portion of the readers can understand? What’s the difference between a politically-oriented Facebook group that gets 10,000 members but has no real-world effects and a politically-oriented Facebook group that gets 5,000 members and manages to get laws changed?

It’s the difference between looking at a car and saying, “hey, that’s fast,” and paying someone who knows about cars to look at it and tell you its zero-to-60, its gas consumption, the size of the engine, the make of the engine, the exact trunk capacity, and whether or not the AM/FM radio actually works.

And in today’s world we need to know all those kinds of details about social networks, because that knowledge can influence how the federal government reacts to popular movements. And at a penny per household? That’s an absolute steal.

Everyone should go search their nearest couch, desk drawer, or floor, find a penny (you know you will), and mail it in an envelope to the Federal Gov. with a note saying “use this to research social media.” We’ll more than double the budget for researching the *largest social phenomena* of our times.

I think that’s kind of important.

This past year I headed up an effort to make the 2010 GOP nominees very visible in the overwhelmingly Democratic Gay community, Wilton Manors, where people from all over the South Florida Atlantic Coastal region come in to.

Generally, you never see one GOP sign up at “Five Points” or any other major artery in Wilton Manors. The precincts are normally over-flowing with yard signs from the other Party.

I made sure roughly 80 were put up and stayed up. Meaning, I made weekly trips there to re-post torn down signs or replace stolen signs.

One could not get gas, go to the bank, grovery, Walgreens, clubs, shops, etc without seeing GOP signs. Most were for Scott, West, LaMarca or Harrington with a sprinkling of Rubio, Atwater, and Bondi.

Granted we also ran weekly GOTV ads in the Gay paper during October, and published several op-eds in the Gay rags.

According to Gay News Services who did a study, the South Florida Gay vote went 48+% GOP and only 47+% Democrat. The South Florida Gay vote led the nation in GOP voting for that niche of voters. Dallas finished second in the US at 41% of Gay voters going GOP.

I attribute the South Florida Gay vote splitting uncharacteristically in half due to unusual and sustained visibility…in my humble opinion