I’m a child of the ’60s. I had long hair and still have an album with Jimi Hendrix playing the Star Spangled Banner on electric guitar.

Boy, I love that music. But even so, I’m just not for taking taxpayer money to promote the Woodstock generation. That’s just not my bag, man. When it comes to earmarks, I just can’t make the scene.

But baby, New York Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer sure can. They think one million dollars should be taken from taxpayers and sent to a museum in upstate New York that commemorates Woodstock. They earmarked that cool million in a recent bill.

But, not so fast. Senator Tom Coburn offered an amendment to the bill to kill this earmark. And then a strange thing occurred: sanity broke out over much of the Senate. This million-dollar pet project was defeated, 52 to 42.

“I’m pleased my colleagues took a bold stand today in defense of common sense,” Coburn said in a statement. “Maybe this is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius for taxpayers.”

Tom Schatz of Citizens Against Government Waste quipped, “Taxpayers are dancing in the streets and saying ‘yippee’ over the defeat of this hippie earmark.”

And, as John Lennon probably meant to say, “When you talk about earmarks, don’t you know that you can count me out.”

It’s gonna be . . .  all right.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

• Episode Number: 1926
• Publication Date: 10/29/2007