Wasted: Feds pay to collect human urine -- By Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times

The Pentagon spent more than $300 million on a battlefield blimp that didn't work, finally canceling the project earlier this year at a near-total loss of the taxpayer money invested in the project, according to Sen. Tom Coburn's latest report on government waste.

The 2013 installment of Mr. Coburn's Wastebook suggests that despite recent belt-tightening, the administration has still found new ways to squander money:

• $15,000 to collect thousands of gallons of human urine and test it as a hay field fertilizer.
• $5 million for new hand-blown crystal stemware, paid by the State Department, just days before the government shutdown.
• $65 million of Hurricane Sandy emergency relief money that New York and New Jersey spent on television ads promoting tourism.
• $124,955 to build a 3-D printer to make pizzas for NASA.
• $566,000 paid by the U.S. Postal Service to a "futurist," Faith Popcorn, to try to envision a viable future for the post office.
• $1.5 million spent by the FBI each year to review Hollywood producers and writers on how to portray the agency in movies.

The book is being released Tuesday morning, just hours before Mr. Coburn and fellow senators are expected to vote on a budget agreement that will actually boost spending in 2014, going back on a 2011 deal that was supposed to limit discretionary spending to less than $1 trillion.

"When it comes to spending your money, those in Washington tend to see no waste, speak no waste and cut no waste," Mr. Coburn said in presenting his report.

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