Tag: stimulus package

Mar 09 2009

A Green Freeway from Canada to Mexico

There was an article in today’s local newspaper about a “Green Freeway” stretching from Canada to Mexico. It would pass through only three states, all led by progressive Governors and Legislatures (or at least two of the governors.) There are only a few places in America where you can drive from Canada to Mexico and cross only three states. (But how progressive is Utah?)

As the plan stands, motorists eventually would be able to pull off at I-5 rest stops for more than a cup of coffee and roadside relief: They also would be able to charge, or swap out, their electric-vehicle batteries or fill their tanks with biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen or compressed natural gas.

There are, of course, hurdles, challenges, and obstacles which must be confronted before any of this becomes a reality.

Hop in a barrel and follow me over the fa-a-a-a-alls.

Feb 14 2009

Deja vu: Republicans resurrect 1100 page lines decade+ later

Watch where you drop it … you could hurt your feet!

There must be something about the number, but Republicans truly don’t seem to like 1100 page bills.

At the White House meeting, Mr. Gingrich said, he told Mr. Clinton that any “attempt to ram through an 1,100 page bill, which is what I am told the Mitchell measure is, would so embitter the process that I don’t think anything else would pass. I think this is crazy.”

Perhaps if the page count had been different, Americans would have universal health care today.

Feb 12 2009

Seamus O’Bama

Crossposted from the Wild Wild Left

Filed under “No shit, Seamus”…

“If stuff hasn’t worked and people don’t feel like I’ve led the country in the right direction, then you’ll have a new president.”

Obama’s statement is refreshingly bold for a politician, who rarely take responsibility for anything. Anything that fails that is. I’m positive that statement made people on the brink of losing everything feel like Obama himself is risking everything in his personal life too. This week he repeatedly made sure the blame for the current situation lay directly on the previous administrations lap. These darn bad guys messed us up, and you and I have it all on the line, folks!

Brilliant framing all around, doncha think?

However, he reserves the right to say, in the future, “Well the Republican’s way brought us here, the Democrats tried to restructure the economy with a bill and the Republicans watered it down with more of the same, and that’s why it failed. Now lets try it our way.” I predict within a year we will be hearing THAT speech. Pass the buck one-oh-one. Always leave yourself an out.

Mandatory lyric:

(…set up like a bowling pin,

knocked down,

it gets to wearing thin…)

The truth of the matter to me? He has been hard selling a watered down bill, yes, but rather than push the one we asked for; he is setting up the Republicans for more fall-guy blame. He is Campaigning already.

A new president, indeed.

Feb 07 2009

Idiot Wind

An Idiot Wind has been blowing, it’s been blowing across America for a generation.  The Idiot Wind never stops blowing, it gusts every time the lips of a Republican start flapping, it blows harder every time the lips of corporate media hacks flap in praise of Republican lip flapping . . .

The Idiot Wind is everywhere, there’s no escape from it, there’s no escape from the damage it inflicts, there’s no escape from the Category Five propaganda it peddles, it’s unrelenting, it’s deafening, I haven’t known peace and quiet for so long I can’t remember what it’s like.  

Can anyone here remember what peace and quiet is like?  

Can anyone here remember what media integrity is like?  

Can anyone here remember what responsible journalism is like?

Can anyone here remember?  

Jan 31 2009

What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been

What a long strange trip it’s been for America.  And it keeps getting stranger by the minute.

Jon Perr at Crooks and Liars warns:

Last year, the Roadblock Republicans of the 110th Congress set the all-time filibuster record.  Forcing 104 cloture votes by October 2008, the Senate’s GOP minority easily eclipsed the old mark of 61 filibusters.  And now, fresh on the heels of “elated” and “celebrating” House Republicans’ refusal to provide a single vote in support of President Obama’s $825 economic recovery package, Senate Republicans are now suggesting they will filibuster the stimulus bill.

As NLinStPaul notes in her analysis of this filibuster threat, ThinkProgress has reported the latest in Republican obstructionism:

While Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions offered a none-too-thinly veiled threat of a GOP filibuster (“I think its going to take 60 votes to pass the bill”), Arizona’s John Kyl said he would explore “whatever parliamentary possibilities are in front of us.” Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) promised to join the effort, announcing, “I would be a part of it.” And on Thursday, Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told Robert Siegel on NPR that a filibuster of the Obama package passed by the House could be in the cards.

In what cards?  These cards?

Tarot Cards Pictures, Images and Photos

Rush Limbaugh and a deck of Tarot cards, that’s all the RePugs have left.

 

Jan 09 2009

Obama and the Two Santa Clauses

The Two Santa Claus Theory is a political theory and strategy developed by Jude Wanniski in 1976, which he promoted within the U.S. Republican Party. –snip

The theory states that, in democratic elections, if one party appeals to voters by proposing more spending, then a competing party cannot gain broader appeal by proposing less spending. The “Santa Claus” of the theory title refers to the political party that promises spending. Instead, “Two Santa Claus Theory” recommends that the competing party must assume the role of a second Santa Claus by offering other appealing options.

This theory is a response to the belief of monetarists, and especially Milton Friedman, that the government must be starved of revenue in order to control the growth of spending (since, in the view of the monetarists, spending cannot be reduced by elected bodies as the political pressure to spend is too great). Monetarism is a set of views concerning the determination of national income and monetary economics. … Milton Friedman (born July 31, 1912) is a U.S. economist, known primarily for his work on macroeconomics and for his advocacy of laissez-faire capitalism. …

“Two Santa Claus Theory” does not argue against this belief, but holds that such arguments cannot be espoused in an effort to win democratic elections. In Wanniski’s view, the Laffer curve and supply-side economics provide an attractive alternative rationale for revenue reduction: that the economy will grow, not merely that the government will be starved of revenue. Wanniski argued that Republicans must become the tax-cutting Santa Claus to the Democrats spending Santa Claus.

And the beat goes on….