Say what you will about Kansas City's Lamar Mickens-the 45 year-old honcho of a nonprofit listed as "Quality Day Campus Inc.," America's only corporation with a "Zodiac sign," Libra to be precise-but don't call him timid.Mickens has earned his 15-minutes of fame by asking his congressman and mine, Emanuel Cleaver, for an earmark to help jumpstart his dream -- an "Epicenter" to "bring about stability and self reliance" in Kansas City's urban core.  It wasn't the absurdity of the project that caught anyone's attention -- many of the 200 or so others proposed to Cleaver were just a silly -- but the price tag: $48 billion, as in "billion" with a B.  That is a lot to ask for, even if it just Obama money.  And the $48 billion, by the way, is only for the "first phase" of Mickens' proposed program.A House Appropriations Committee rule mandates that lawmakers post each earmark sought as well as an explanation of...(Read Full Post)