Tom Steward of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota — who's always quick to alert us about tax spending he finds outrageous — reports finding some wacky numbers on the federal government website that tracks stimulus spending.

The basic Minnesota page seems to be working OK, but when you scroll down the page and click on the link View All Congressional Districts, some strange listings show up:

The site claims, for example, that in Minnesota’s 57th congressional district, 35 jobs have been saved or created as a result of $404,340 in stimulus spending.

Only 2.5 jobs, though, were created or saved in Minnesota ’s 27th congressional district, despite $3,159,657 of taxpayer dollars, the site says.

It also lists results in Minnesota's 11th, 12th, 13th and even the 00th congressional district. Talk about gerrymandering.

Of course, Minnesota only has eight congressional districts, so the website obviously has some glitches. Maybe a lot of glitches.

Steward raises the question, though, of whether it is more than a glitch, maybe something insidious.

In a statement he says:

"Many have raised questions about the creative calculations used to estimate the number of jobs created or saved thus far as a result of the $787 billion stimulus package. Stories have proliferated around the country of non-existent or over-hyped results, including in Minnesota.

The glitch in the government’s website only adds to the questions and concerns over the reliability of the stimulus spending jobs data and undermines the credibility of the tracking system."