The feds have spent millions in stimulus cash on "silly" projects, including left-leaning puppet shows, a martini bar, and a study of Viking civic life, according to a devastating new report.One grant, for $25,000, went to The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis. The group puts on an annual May Day parade, and its current production is titled "The Puggles -- a Platypus Adventure."
Another $50,000 grant, to the Parks Department in Washington state, hosts Asian-style rod-puppet shows.
A $25,000 grant went to Philadelphia's Pig Iron Theatre, which calls itself a "dance-clown-theatre ensemble." The group is staging a production of "Welcome to Yuba City," billed as a "cowboy/clown odyssey presenting hilarious fragments of a mythic American desertscape."
The University of Massachusetts-Boston got a $95,000 grant to catalog Icelandic pollen to study "the role the arctic environment played in the evolution of civic life during the Viking Age."
The Foster Wine and Martini Bar in St. Joseph, Mo., got a $25,000 stimulus block grant for renovation, and a Brazilian steak house got $75,000.
Even the city's mayor says there are better uses for the money in the struggling downtown. "Any time you can get some money for an area that needs it, we're glad to receive it, but common sense says there's a lot of needs for stimulus money that go beyond another restaurant," Mayor Ken Shearin told The Post. "There's a lot of people needs and a lot of humanity needs that could use a shot in the arm that, in my opinion, would be more deserving than a Brazilian steakhouse and a Foster's bar."
And the Army Corps of Engineers spent $21,000 for mascot costumes, including Bobber the Water Safety Dog, which tells kids to be careful when they're swimming.
The dubious projects were unearthed by staff for Republican Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and John McCain of Arizona. Coburn said: "$217 billion of this money's out the door, and at least 15 percent of it's pure waste." He said that blame "ultimately rests with Vice President Joe Biden," whom President Obama tasked with oversight.
"In his words, he's the sheriff," said McCain. A Biden spokeswoman didn't respond to a request for comment.
A $2 million grant went to extend an antique tourist train line, the Virginia & Truckee Railway, built during Nevada's silver mining boom. The line currently ends near Mound House, home to several legal brothels, including the Kit Kat Guest Ranch and the Moonlight Bunny Ranch, but would go to Carson City.