re: Volcano monitoring
You can dance around it all you like, but most of the "stimulus" is about politicians being let loose in the spending candy shop, and piling all their favorite causes into something that was going to be shot through with nobody reading it.
This actually happens quite a bit in Washington, but never to this extent in a single bill. Congressmen never read the whole bill. They just make sure their little bit of pork or favorite program is still in it.
The actual line item is for "stream gages and seismic and volcano monitoring systems, national map activities and other critical deferred maintenance."
Very nice and all, but even you would have to admit that it has damn little to do with creating new jobs or saving the economy.