Grapevine: Government Money Well Spent?

Oklahoma lawmaker outlines examples of waste

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Money Well Spent?

Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn has a new report out highlighting what he calls more than $6.5 billion in wasteful government spending.

Some examples included in the "Wastebook" are:

Almost $800,000 to subsidize "pancakes for yuppies." Coburn says an IHOP restaurant was built intending to help an under-served community; however, it was opened in a very popular Washington D.C. neighborhood.

$113,000 for video game preservation in New York.

$10 million in federal funds to the U.S. Agency for International Development to remake "Sesame Street" for Pakistanis, with a message about education.

And more than a $500,000 to a documentary project about how rock and roll contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Express Pass

Presumptive North Korean leader Kim Jong Un jumped the direct line of succession for an unusual reason.

His oldest brother Kim Jong Nam apparently fell from favor after he was arrested in Tokyo's airport a decade ago, trying to sneak into Japan on a fake passport.

At the time, he said he was trying to take his son to Disneyland.

Santa as the Grinch

And finally, Santa gets panned in a new ad released in Sweden by the United Nations Children's Fund.

The video shows Santa in his workshop opening a box that to his chagrin contains only medical supplies. Take a look...

(SHOW VIDEO CLIP)

Conservative site NewsBusters asked -- quote -- "Why on Earth would jolly old Saint Nicholas resent aid for the poor?

Is this just another way the U.N. bureaucracy asserts its own moral superiority?