RUSH: Holy cow, look at this, folks. A random act of journalism from The Politico. Is it my imagination or are more of these random acts of journalism by mainstream media firms beginning to happen? It seems like I’ve been pointing out more random acts of journalism lately the top. Get this. “The Energy Department’s inspector general has launched more than 100 criminal investigations related to 2009 [Porkulus] spending. In written testimony prepared for delivery to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today, Inspector General Gregory Friedman said the investigations have involved ‘various schemes, including the submission of false information [i.e., lying], claims for unallowable or unauthorized expenses [i.e., fraud], and other improper uses of Recovery Act funds,'” as in theft.

“So far, the investigations have led to five criminal prosecutions and brought in ‘over $2.3 million in monetary recoveries,’ Friedman said. ‘This includes a series of cases involving fictitious claims for travel per diem resulting in the recovery of $1 million alone in Recovery Act funds,’ he added. The activity is partially due to the fact that few ‘shovel ready’ projects existed in 2009, Friedman said. ‘The concept of “shovel ready” projects became a Recovery Act symbol of expeditiously stimulating the economy and creating jobs. In reality, few actual ‘shovel ready’ projects existed,’ he said. The stimulus funding DOE received — more than $35 billion — was greater than previous annual budgets for the entire agency…”

So the bottom line here is the Department of Energy only received $35 billion of the $787 billion in Obama’s first stimulus. A federal bureaucracy! Now, this stimulus was sold to us as “shovel-ready jobs;” roads, bridges, all kinds of new private sector jobs, right? And the DOE got $35 billion of the stimulus, and that is, it says here, “greater than their previous annual budget for the whole agency”? Anyway, the random act of journalism is that Politico is reporting that the Energy Department’s inspector general has launched a hundred criminal investigations. Now, launching criminal investigations doesn’t mean diddly-squat.

Convictions are what count, and we’ll have to wait and see on that. We might ask, “Where was Sheriff Joe on this?” And by Sheriff Joe I mean the vice president, Joe Bite Me. ‘Cause we were told, “Nobody messes with Joe.” Joe was gonna be overseeing the stimulus to make sure there wasn’t any fraud in there. “Vice President Biden, he’s gonna make sure that everything was on the up and up.” Rasmussen: “Only 22% support giving the states $35 billion to prevent teacher and first responder layoffs.” I know this is just a poll, but you put this on top of Colorado rejecting a tax increase (sales tax and income tax increase) for education, and now you do a poll that only 22% support giving states $35 billion to prevent teacher and firemen and cop layoffs? I mean, that’s been the magic way that they’ve gotten this money appropriated in the past.

Something really is happening out there.