[EricH]

Your point is? I am not sure I get it.

The #1 reason that you don't go into politics around here is that it turns into a flame war. If you can keep it from becoming one, great. If not, I really don't want to be in your shoes.

You're right, you can't get a 100% saturation of FIRST. Why do you bring that up? It doesn't help you here (and you're forgetting that you need to raise the bar, not lower it. Furthermore, FTC and VEX (which isn't FIRST anymore) can do the same thing FRC does for cheaper and with a better chance of 100% saturation. So maybe you can get 100%...

Also, it helps to get your facts straight. NYC did NOT get the money from the government, Long Island did. They are separate events, with LI held (in this case) during the main 5 weeks and NYC held as it usually is, Friday-Sunday, in Week 6.

Big Dig is a pork project. It doesn't benefit anyone other than the people who use it, which would be people in Boston/using the Boston Airport. And the work was not exactly the best, but that's another story. You can't be selective about what you call "pork". It's either pork or not pork. If one thing that is $100,000 and benefits a limited number of people is pork, then how is a $4,000,000,000 per-mile thing that also benefits a limited number of people not pork?