February 2009 Archives

In 1993 Congressional Republican's did everything they could to keep the Clinton administration from passing their budget. In the end, Al Gore, as Vice President, had to cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate.

At the time, Republicans were full of predictions about how bad the economy would suffer.

Said Dick Armey, the House Minority Whip,

It is a recipe for disaster. This plan is not a recipe for more jobs.

New Gingrich, on much the same note, said, the package would lead to "a job killing recession".

There are a lot of similar quotes like that. I won't bore you by listing any more What happened? As has happened time and time again, exactly the opposite of what the tax cutters claim - the economy improved. Not just a little, a lot.

Because of their staunch resistance to the fiscal restraint of the Clinton administration, the Republicans could not accept any credit for the improved economy during those years (which is part of the reason why they changed course and went after Clinton on moral issues rather than economic issues).

Now, in 2009, they are in the same situation. The Republican's, especially those in the House, made a conscious decision to resist Obama's plan. Not due to any belief that stimulus wasn't needed; nope, merely because of their own partisan politics. I mean, heck, it's the largest tax cut ever! When did Republicans start voting against tax cuts?

They voted against the stimulus for purely political reasons. They know that agreeing with Obama will not gain them anything politically, and resisting him might result in political gains. Suspect anyone that gives any other reason for voting against the package.

Arlen Specter, a Republican that voted for the stimulus package, said that several other Republican's congratulated him on his courage voting for the stimulus package. They couldn't because they were worried about the political fall-out for doing the right thing.

That's sad. I hope, just like in 1993, the predictions of the Republicans are wrong. I'm worried, though, that they aren't. Too much is being lost to tax cuts. Too much spending was cut out of the final bill.

The Republicans are putting themselves back into the same spot they were in 1993, but this time, maybe, they may have done enough damage to the package that their hopes come true. I hope not, but the Obama administration, I think, is going to have to get busy and get some more spending packages passed. This package seems too small and too slow.

I was hoping that this book, like the Brother Cadfael books the premise so resembles, would be a good bedtime book. Enjoyable, engaging, but not so much that I would stay up all night reading it.

Sadly, no.

I could never find myself caring about any of the characters, and the action was too slow to keep me engaged.

The writing was fine, not earth shattering, but appropriate for the genre (historical fiction/mystery). The story just bored me, though, and, half way through, I stopped trying any more.

Today I learned about Sam Seder, a comedian/commentator. Here's a great clip of him talking about the inane idea that there is a "War on Christmas".

Anyway, while looking for more by him, I read this hilarious review on amazon

Sam's book illuminates why Air America is a failure and why the Left and Liberalism is dieng in America. Thank God! The only followers they have "left" are the mentally ill and drug addicted.

How foolish do you have to believe something like that? I'd feel the same way if someone said that about conservatives, too. Just because someone doesn't agree with you, doesn't mean they are mentally ill.

Wow. Just wow. Republican's have sunk so low these days. One Republican staffer said that one agency would spend it's share of the stimulus bill on wetlands, including protecting the habitat of a wetland mouse. That became,

When you look at some of the spending in this bill, it will do nothing about creating jobs in America. Tell me spending $50 million for a mouse in San Francisco is going to help a struggling auto worker in Ohio?

and

$30 billion for mice in San Francisco. Mickey Mouse is no longer the mouse with the greatest network. Now there is a San Francisco rat that has edged him out. The Democrats are spending $30 billion on rats.

See these and more quotes at Congress Matters

See the truth at Bay Area mouse spurs national debate over stimulus bill

Oslo to Run Buses On Biomethane - the biomethane is coming from their sewage treatment plants, and it's a great way to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.

That's cool, but, the really cool thing is the way they got to this.  Instead of starting with, "Let's use biodiesel in all our busses!" or "Electricity is the only way to go!", they started asking, "What resources do we have to work with?" and came up with this solution.

That's the way we are going to replace fossil fuels - each person and organization (and I include local, state, and federal governments when I say organization) is going to have to ask the question, "What is best for me?".

My boss recently put in solar cells to generate electricity for her house.  She put in enough cells to generate about 25% of the power she uses every month.  That's what works for her.

We shouldn't try to replace fossil fuels with X, no matter what X is - we need to look at multiple solutions so that we don't find ourselves in the same situation we are now, bound to one source of energy, live or die.

The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is a very, very important health package in this country.  The Bush administration didn't think so.  They didn't think that 11 million kids that are covered by the program really needed help.  Nope.  Their parents just needed to work harder so they could pay for their own health care.

Thank goodness we have an administration that knows better.  Today, President Obama signed kids' health insurance bill. 

Today the Obaman administration added a provision to giving bailout money to companies.  The provision caps the pay for senior executives in these companies to $500k. 

Who thinks this doesn't make sense?  If your company is failing so badly that you need to go begging to the government for a bailout, you need to clean up your house, including limiting bonuses and excessive pay.

The actual provision is a bit more nuanced than what I state above.  It includes exceptions, which makes sense in some cases.  For more details see Obama caps executive pay tied to bailout money.