Returning to posting on an Important Day

I last posted in March 2009 - so much has happened since then. There have been numerous starts, stops, and restarts - in the historic effort to reform Health Care and Health Care Insurance. It appears - about 1:00 pm EDST - that an important milestone will be reached today - the House will vote on the bill passed by the Senate last Christmas Eve. They will then vote on a fix-up bill which the Senate can then pass using Reconcilation (needing just 51 votes). All this extra action is due to the fact that the late Senator Teddy Kennedy's seat was NOT filled by a Democrat in a special election, but by a Republican backed by the Tea Party movement. With that, the Senate Democrats had just 59 seats, not enough to overcome a fillibuster - and the fillibuster is used on nearly every vote, these days, it seems.

So, one could find plenty of fault in the process and what seemed like dithering at times. But if the bills ultimately become law, they will help members of my family, if not me and T. And the sad epilogue is that perhaps there could have been more help for our daughter, and she would still be alive today.

Getting Nervous about Bonus Fall-out

The AIG bonuses total some tiny fraction of all the bailout billions that have gone to the huge insurance company. Yet, Washington D.C. politicians and 24-hour news cable show talkers seem to think that nothing is more important that hollering about the crime and inequity of those bonuses.

Never mind that the compensation structure of these employees is such that the "bonuses" often constitute the majority of their annual pay. Never mind that it isn't the business of Congress to set the pay levels in private sectors - even when "we" now "own" 80% of AIG. Never mind that the contracts were signed in the first part of 2008 - before the total crash of the financial world.

Never mind - oh, never mind. And leave Obama out of it - he took the blame as a strategy to try to cool things down and help out beleaguered Geithner. Maybe Geithner hasn't quite lived up to his financial superstar billing, but he's also been hit with a whole lot of disaster. So, I think the media should just lay off the both of them!

Getting Weary of Politics

I'm sure this won't happen to Fair, but I'm starting to feel burned out by politics. I still totally LOVE Barack Obama - don't get me wrong. But the expectations set for him were impossibly high and now I gather that his ratings are starting to drop and the criticism of this decision or policy or that is rising . . . I'm just weary of it all. I hope this condition doesn't last for long - I want to care about everything, I still keep up with national news online and on TV - but . . . I guess it is the post-campaign let-down, just a bit delayed . . .

Local news - of course the Economic Stimulus is story one. My involvement is tangential - but for various reasons, including the "federal-aid eligible" characteristic of the transportation component of the stimulus package, I did work with DIT to change "my" website at www.michigan.gov/mdot - look under maps & publications, maps, and then - no longer NFC and NHS - who knows what they stand for - now it's "Federal-Aid Highways." So maybe it will be easier for that small town mayor or whatever to look for the answer to the question - Is my road eligible for federal-aid? Could I get Stimulus money? (probably not if you have only now begun to look into it, but anyway . . . )

'Unpatriotic'

Today I am writing about Rush Limbaugh.

Rush Limbaugh is an IDIOT and self-serving pain in my side . This guy was on the radio saying how he hoped the Obama team's stimulus package would be a complete failure.

Then what, moron (Limbaugh), we all stumble into a deep Bush-era recession?

Back in 2001 and 2002, many in the country questioned then-President Bush's decision to go to war. Those withing the far reaches of the right wing were very happy to label those questioning our then-Commander In Chief as 'unpatriotic.' To me, wishing on live radio that a program, for the benefit of our nation, fails is unpatriotic and un-American.

Hey Limbaugh... I hear they don't like constructive stimulus packages in Nicaragua - how about you report live from Nicaragua. Rush Limbaugh is a self centered a$$ that cares only for himself.

The Long Game

Obama is so cool and strategic, and in that, so different from all predecessors, that reporters and political opponents just don't get it! Three weeks in - and his bipartisan efforts have failed! Idiots! It's the long game, stupid. You play out your invites here, your cocktail parties there, your phone calls and meetings on the hill - this looks good to the voters, idiots! So you don't move votes from the opposing side? That makes the opposition look bad, not Obama who is patiently making the overtures.

So weren't you in Austin today or yesterday or something? Bill Clinton was there with his Global Initiative stuff - did you see him? ;->

Go Green

Congratulations to Michigan State's basketball team on their raunching of UMich!

Transit made it through

Good news about the stimulus: the US House/Senate conference committee funded mass transit at $8.4 billion; national high-speed rail (according to who's definition?) will get $9.3 billion.

I read from the AP that President Obama and Sen. Harry Reid pushed for the high-speed rail funding 'behind the scenes.'

And the republicans... they rallied for more Dept. of Defense spending, did additional complaining, and then didn't bother to support the bill. We should include contributions from republican Sens. Collins, Snowe and Specter - screw the remainder of them. Really.

The tax cuts of the Bush year's did so well for our country...