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Eye-popping tales of federal pork Politicians spend $1.7 million on dung   WASHINGTON, DC -- Politicians in Washington, DC have budgeted more than $1.7 million this year for the study of manure -- yes, manure -- and that stinks to high heaven, the Libertarian Party said today.   "Talk about government waste," said Steve Dasbach, the party's national director. "Apparently nothing is safe from politicians' urge to spend our money -- even cow pies and chicken droppings."   According to a new study by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), at least three government programs are devoted to dung: A Mississippi research project on "manure handling and disposal" (cost: $500,000); a Maryland study "to determine the feasibility of using poultry litter to generate electric power" ($225,000); and a Missouri "outreach project associated with animal waste" ($1 million).   "The only thing not being subsidized is bull manure," noted Dasbach. "On the other hand, there's plenty of that to go around in Washington."   But manure research is just the tip of the "dung heap" when it comes to government waste: CAGW uncovered a whopping 2,838 pork-barrel projects in the 1999 fiscal budget. Total cost to taxpayers: $12 billion.   CAGW defines "pork-barrel" as any project that serves only a local or special interest, was not the subject of Congressional hearings, or was not competitively awarded, among other criteria.   In the 3,000-page Omnibus Appropriations Act, Congress doled out money on a mind-boggling array of special interest groups, ranging from a museum for Frank Sinatra, to Irish pony trekking centers, to the Toledo Mud Hens, to blueberry growers, to the World Alpine Ski Championships.   For example, profiting from pork-barrel money in 1999 were:   * Foreigners: $1.5 million to promote silk production in Laos; $19.6 million to "aid the peace process" in Northern Ireland by funding golf videos, Irish sweaters, and pony trekking centers; and $1.2 million to subsidize a park on the Galapagos Islands (owned by Ecuador).   * Bugs: $750,000 for grasshopper research (Alaska).   * Skiers: $600,000 for the World Alpine Ski Championships (Colorado).   * Fruits and vegetables: $220,000 for blueberry research (Maine); $100,000 for Vidalia onion research (Georgia); $250,000 for "small fruits" research (Hawaii); $750,000 for soybean and corn research (Mississippi); and $1.3 million for rice research (Arkansas).   *People who don't like snakes: $1 million for the "eradication of Brown Tree Snakes" (Hawaii).   * People who don't like grain elevators: $250,000 to demolish abandoned grain elevators (Tonawanda, New York).   * Museums and Institutes: $300,000 for a National Museum of American Music honoring Frank Sinatra; $750,000 for the shipwreck-themed Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum (North Carolina); $1 million for the Lewis and Clark Exhibit (Washington); $300,000 for the National First Ladies Library (Ohio); $6 million for the Robert J. Dole Institute for Public Service and Public Policy (Kansas); and $100,000 for the Black World History Wax Museum in St. Louis (Missouri).   * Eskimos: $1 million to "develop and train Alaska natives for employment in the petroleum industry."   * Fish: $3.3 million for shrimp aquaculture (Arizona, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and South Carolina); $750,000 for fish farmin (Arkansas); and $750,000 for "fisheries development" (Hawaii).   * Classical music lovers: $500,000 to restore the Boston Symphony Hall.   * Wacky energy ideas: $1 million to study how to turn rice into ethanol (California) and $300,000 to study "the economic feasibility of capturing and utilizing methane from agricultural waste products for heat and power production" (Vermont).   * The water taxi business: $500,000 for water taxis in Savannah (Georgia) and $250,000 for water taxis for King County (Washington).   * Big-business interests: $5.1 million for wood research (for the forest/limber industry); $1 million for wine-related research; $197,000 for "beef producers' improvements;" $200,000 for a transit center for the Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball team; and $200,000 to study Vermont retail shopping areas.   "You add up all the special-interest pork spending, and you discover that politicians have stolen $12 billion from taxpayers to dole out as payoffs to their political cronies and big-business buddies," said Dasbach.   "Everybody gets their share -- except for the beleaguered American taxpayers who pay the bill."