Understatement of the Year Award and Acronym Contest

Katherine Mangu-Ward | October 4, 2006

The Office of Management and Budget, high off the fumes of the successful passage of the Coburn-Obama bill creating a searchable database of government spending, is considering how to get more help from bloggers on other accountability projects. But, as The Washington Post reports:

The blogosphere remains an unstable realm: At the height of the search for Stevens, a cry rose to abolish secret holds, which are often used for innocuous reasons, and at least one blogger demanded that the entire Senate be shut down until the holder was found.

OMB official Robert J. Shea seems to grasp that better than his bosses. Using bloggers as advocates, he mused, "could backfire."

More fun with acronyms: The Coburn-Obama bill is formally known as the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, or FFAT. Mid-press conference, OMB director Rob Portman realized the acronym needed work, and immediately put out a plea for a better option. I propose calling the pork-indexing task force the National Office for Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency, or NOFFAT. But surely you can do better.

Comments

|10.4.06 @ 11:37AM|#

National Office for the Specific Purpose of Ending Nonsensical Dolings

Restitution of Earned Funds and Unseemingly Nabbed Danegeld

lunchstealer|10.4.06 @ 11:41AM|#

Danegeld

Pro Lib wins just for that word.

|10.4.06 @ 11:48AM|#

WSPYMABALWSYHTFTLYS.

Were Still Pissing Your Money Away, But At Least Well Show You How To Follow The Little Yellow Streams.

I know, it's not a workable acronym. I propose they earmark $25 million to set up a task force to come up with a better acronym.

|10.4.06 @ 12:16PM|#

lunchstealer,

I had Danegeld on my mind due to a Viking/Saxon violence discussion with smacky in another thread, so I must share credit with her :)

|10.4.06 @ 12:23PM|#

Forbidding Larceny and Unseemliness in the Senate and the House.

|10.4.06 @ 12:32PM|#

Hey, Katherine, it's NOFFAT, not NOFATT. So we can do something with OFF. You know, like TAKEOFFHOSER. Or PISSOFF.

|10.4.06 @ 12:38PM|#

Federal Unified Committee for Konfiscating your Every Dollar.

Subcommittee for the Congressional Raping of Every Wallet and Every Dime.

|10.4.06 @ 12:45PM|#

Politicians Lottery for Underwhelming, Negative, Depressing and Erratic Results

|10.4.06 @ 12:53PM|#

Pro Libertate,

I'll gladly take partial credit for "danegeld". :)

I second lunchstealer -- excellent word choice.

|10.4.06 @ 12:57PM|#

h

|10.4.06 @ 1:05PM|#

Committee Aware of Spending Habits: a Bureau in the Office of Management and Budget

or

Committee Aware of Spending Habits: a Team in the Office of Management and Budget

|10.4.06 @ 1:05PM|#

It's a good word. I actually got to use antidisestablishmentarianism for real in an earlier thread, but no one was there to see it :(

Office for Federal Funding Accountability when Looting

|10.4.06 @ 1:10PM|#

Can't think of a name for the "act", but maybe this can be the name of the database

Searchable
On-line
Database
Of
Misappropriated
Earmarks and
Expeditures


Also:

Database
Of
Political
Earmarks


Searchable
Earmark and
Routine
Funding
System

|10.4.06 @ 2:00PM|#

Searchable
Expropriations of
Economic
Pornography